Pericles' Pilgrimage.
- Author/Editor
- Dean, Paul.
- Title
- Pericles' Pilgrimage.
- Published
- Dean, Paul. "Pericles' Pilgrimage." Essays in Criticism 50.2 (Apr 2000): 125-44.
- Review
- Citing its "unforced yet profound symbolism" (128), Dean finds Gower's Tale of Apollonius (CA VIII) a treasury of prototypes for Shakespeare's "Pericles," which he sees as a play about "the storytelling process itself" (125) and the very meaning of "tales," which varies from an idle "old tale" to a revelation of secret truth (126-27). Imagery and symbolism skillfully deployed by Gower, and channeled in "Pericles," include the descent of Apollonius into the pitch-dark hold of the ship, suited to his despair, and his daughter's following him there. When her philosophical discussion fails to revive him, "in the derke forth sche goth / Til sche him toucheth" (VIII.1692), whereupon he begins to awaken. "Gower's episode concludes nobly," according to Dean, who quotes the evocative lines "This king hath founde newe grace / So that out of his derke place / He goth him up into the liht (1739-41, p. 129). Spiritually reborn, Apollonius learns that his life has a "destination" (130) despite the vagaries of fortune, much as Gower the character interprets the tumultuous series of events in Shakespeare's "Pericles." The music metaphor introduced by Gower, as Apollonius learns how to be "wel grounded" (l. 1992), is expanded by Shakespeare as the resurrected Pericles is divinely privileged to hear "the music of the spheres" (129). Dean speculates on possible common sources for both Gower and Shakespeare, including the story of Jonah, albeit modified by the sea journeys of the Apostle Paul as described in the Acts of the Apostles, especially the shipwreck and casting forth of Paul and his maritime companions. Like Paul, Apollonius and Pericles are anti-Jonah figures, who receive the divine command--in Gower, an "Avisioun" of the hero's future course (VIII.1801)--but unlike Jonah, they obey, and unlike Jonah, their presence on shipboard is protective to others (137). The extra-biblical sea journey described in the Golden Legend and the Digby Play of Mary Magdalene, which also features the casting overboard of a wife and child, the husband's patience, and their ultimate near-miraculous reunion (134-36) may also have been influential on both. [LBB. Copyright. The John Gower Society eJGN 40.1]
- Date
- 2000
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
Influence and Later Allusion
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Style, Rhetoric, and Versification