Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1608?), hasty and incomplete revision by William Shakespeare of “Apollonius of Tyre,” a well-known medieval legend. In Shakespeare’s version, the name of Pericles was substituted for the original Apollonius. The play appealed to a revived taste for romantic drama and met with instant success. This success was due to both its adventure-laden plot, which included a shipwreck and the loss and recovery by the hero of his wife and daughter, and to Shakespeare's revision of the old play. In fact, Shakespeare’s hand is not evident until the beginning of the third act. In what follows there are a few effective scenes and some lovely poetry, but the play as a whole is distinctly an archaic example of Elizabethan drama. Pericles, Prince of Tyre was not included in the First Folio, the initial printed edition of Shakespeare’s works (1623), although it had already been published in 1609 with Shakespeare's name on the title page. Perhaps the editors thought the old-fashioned play did Shakespeare little credit. They may have been deterred by playwright Ben Jonson's contempt of this play; he once took occasion to name the 'mouldy tale' of Pericles as an example of the poor stuff the public preferred to the fine wheat offered them in his plays. Pericles was first included in Shakespeare's work in the Third Folio (1664).