Gower 2
Gower's second appearance marks the difference between saying and showing, narrative and performance; the archaic language and the use of dumb-show are grotesque approximations, as is his recapitulation of the action so far: "Here have you seen a mighty king / His child to incest bring; / A better prince and benign lord / That will appear awful in both deed and word / Be quiet then, as men should be" (1-5). An implied impatience is forestalled, already the audience has seen two figures, Antiochus and Pericles, as if at Madame Tussaud's, and soon Gower "will show you those in troubles reign / Losing a mite, a mountain gain" (7-8). In the meantime, we learn that in Tharsus Pericles' very word is like holy writ, a statue of him has been built; in dumb show we see him receive the letter from the industrious Helicanus, warning him about Thaliard. Pericles puts to sea, only to be the sole survivor of shipwreck:
"And here he comes. What shall be next ,
Pardon old Gower,- here 'longs the text" (39-40)
Act 2.1
"Cease your ire", Pericles calls to the elements, but he is not defiant, acknowledging that man "is but a substance that must yield to you" (3). The dignity of "And having thrown him from your wat'ry grave / Here to have death in peace is all he'll crave" (10-11) is immediately dispelled with the entrance of the three fishermen. The tone changes completely, and for a moment Pericles and the audience find themselves in a different kind of play altogether, contemporary, colloquial, satirical. A similar collision of worlds occurs in the brothel scenes later in the play, but here the tone is lighter. "How from the finny subject of sea / These fishers tell the infirmities of men / And from their wat'ry empire recollect / All that may men approve or men detect!" (47-8) comments Pericles. As with fish, so with men: "the great ones eat up the little ones" (2.1.28), while great misers are compared to whales who swallow up the whole land, possibly a reference to the sixteenth century land enclosures that had deprived the people of common grazing land and made it part of noble estates. The image of ringing the bells in the swallowed steeple until the whale vomits back the land gives a Rabelaisian twist to the story of Jonah, who did not have such initiative. Pericles, as improbable as Jonah, is treated generously, although as if to demonstrate the foreignness of a romance hero on this shore, his words, such as "honest", "beg" and "crave" are deliberately misinterpreted. He learns that he is in Pentapolis and that king Simonedes is holding a tournament for his daughter. When his armour, left to him by his father, is fished out, stuck in the net "like a poor man's right in the law" (116), Pericles asks for it, in order to go and joust. The fishermen give it to him willingly, claiming: " 'twas we that made up this garment through the rough seams of the waters: there are certain condolements, certain vails. I hope, sir, if you thrive, you'll remember from whence you had them" (146- 151)
The fisherman's claim to have "made it up" is a claim to have made Pericles too. By the end of the play, the parts of Pericles' life have in fact been pieced together from the sea, just as it had threatened to tear him apart. Similarly, Prospero's island in The Tempest is an image of his mind, dry land miraculously maintained against the encroaching sea of time. The theme of the sea and earth swallowing one another occurs in both plays: the whale here, in Marina's epitaph (4.4.34-43) and in The Tempest (1.2.1-13). Read less figuratively and in keeping with the satirical aspects of the scene, the fishermen's claim on Pericles is the claim of the poor upon their rulers, the weak upon the strong - "the poor man's right in the law".
Act 2.2
Before the tournament begins the knights march past Simonedes' pavilion, He and his daughter Thaisa look on and read the knights as one might read an emblem book, the probable source of their mottoes. There is no equivalent of the scene in either Twine or Gower, but such spectacles certainly occurred at the Elizabethan court, for example the Accession Day Tilts, originated by Sir Henry Lee. Shakespeare has a march-past in Troilus and Cressida (1.2), while Philip Sidney both organised and wrote about these highly extravagant displays, and was parodied by Thomas Nashe in The Unfortunate Traveller. Emblems were an important aspect of Renaissance consciousness and understanding; in a society where there were few pictures images were swiftly invested with symbolic and didactic worth. Pericles, shieldless and in rusty armour, is a highly incongruous figure. Because he does not have a shield his emblem cannot be a picture but an object, "A wither'd branch, that's only green on top" (41-2), which he gives directly to Thaisa. His motto, which presumably he speaks, is In hac spe vivo (in this hope I live). There is a wry echo of Antiochus' hypocritical "Yet hope, succeeding from so fair a tree / As your fair self, doth tune us otherwise" (1.1. 115-6). The strange, shabby figure of Pericles reminds Simonedes that "Opinion's but a fool, that makes us scan / The outward habit by the inward man" (55-6), and the sentiment is so clichéd, and the outcome of the tournament so predictable, that one might not notice that the motto is garbled; it is the inward man that opinion has us judge by the outward habit. Because of the rhyme, editors cannot simply rearrange the sentence, and the use of a couplet at the expense of sense is evidence that this part of the text was recorded from memory.
Act 2.3
The tournament ends with a great banquet. Thaisa crowns the victor Pericles with a wreath. He is a picture of modesty, attributing his triumph to fortune and hesitating to take his place by the king, protesting, "Some other is more fit" (23). He so impresses Simonedes and Thaisa that they neglect their food, but does not notice their wonder, prompted by his situation to reflect of the past glory of his father's court, compared to whom he feels "like a glow-worm in the night / The which hath fire in darkness, none in light" (43-4), another rhyming garble: he feels like a glow-worm in the light. Simonedes, like Pericles' father, is truly regal, and his hospitality stands in direct contrast to Antiochus' grim welcome. Perhaps his hearty "double entrendres" denote a more healthy attitude to sex as well. The difference is clear: here the knights dance harmoniously, there "Hell only danceth at so harsh a chime" (1.1.86). The juxtaposition is reinforced in performance by doubling the two pairs of characters.
Pericles' silent reverie is misinterpreted by Simonedes who suspects him of being proud when in fact he feels inadequate. Disapproving of such churlishness, he drinks a toast to Pericles to bring him back into the party and orders Thaisa to strike up conversation, overcoming her modest reluctance much to her secret delight.
Act 2.4
Meanwhile in Tyre, Helicanus tells Escanes of what happened to Antiochus, struck down with his daughter by fire from heaven as they sat in their priceless chariot, their shrivelled bodies stinking so badly that no one would bury them. The moral is clear enough. In Pericles' absence the peers of the realm have become impatient. Now that the threat from Antioch is eliminated they want Pericles back, if he is alive. They suspect he is dead, however, and offer to make Helicanus their sovereign. He asks them to grant an extra year in which to look for Pericles, and reunites them in a common adventure, finding Pericles - "When peers thus knit, a kingdom ever stands" (58).
Act 2.5
Simonides enters reading a letter from his daughter, who has vowed herself to a year of chastity in service of Diana. Much dismayed by this news, the lords of the court retire. Alone, Simonedes reveals that the letter says more: Thaisa is determined to marry Pericles. He is piqued that his daughter has decided for herself, and although he approves of the match pretends not to, accusing Pericles of bewitchment and treason and declaring he will subdue his daughter's will. It all ends happily, however, with Simonedes more convinced than ever of Pericles' worth, sending them off first to be wed, and then to bed.