Pericles

Question 1

Why has Pericles created much speculation about its place in the shakespearian cannon

Answer 1

it was not included in the folio works of 1623

Question 2

Example that Pericles was popular in Shakespeare’s day

Answer 2

Robert Taylors prologue to his The Hog Hath Lost His Pearl hopes that “ And if ( the play) prove so happy as to please/ we’ll say tis fortunate, like Pericles

Question 3

in 1816 what did William Hazlitt say of Pericles

Answer 3

’ it is not much to our taste… this is not like Shakespeare.
19th C taste was unlikely to accommodate the sexual elements of the plot such as incest, attempted rape and the brothel

Question 4

What has the play been condemned for

Answer 4

its subject matter as seen in its theatrical history
its loose structure
its poor versification.

Question 5

When was it written

Answer 5

between 1606 and 1608

Question 6

How did Dryden describe the play

Answer 6

made up of some ridiculous incoherent story

Question 7

Pericles does more what than any other Shakesperian hero

Answer 7

Journeys/ traveling

Question 8

What was the chief source for the play

Answer 8

John Gower Confessions Amantis which tells the story of Prince Apollonius of Tyre

Question 9

what happened in a In a 1994 production, staged by Phyllida Lloyd at the Olivier,

Answer 9

the players in different ports on Pericles’ long journey spoke different languages

Question 10

What is Pericles spiritual journey

Answer 10

love to loss
birth to death
loss to restoration and rebirth
final redemption

Question 11

What does Catherine Belsey say of family values

applicable to any place

Answer 11

Family values are both life-giving and deadly

Question 12

How is the ending of the play often read

Answer 12

as a celebration of the restored natural family that can replace Antiochus sterile and natural one

Question 13

Rather than a masque what does the play employ

Answer 13

a dumbshow - gestures used to tell a story without words

Question 14

Example of a dumbshow in the play

Answer 14

Pericles discovering the supposed tomb of his dead daughter and lamenting her death in act 4

Question 15

What do some scholars argue about the use of the dumbshow in the play

Answer 15

By having Gower lament the use of the dumbshows as a narrative device without language
‘ see how belief may suffer by foul show! 4.4
Shakespeare critiques the masque and reemphasises a theme found in most of his plays: true understanding comes only from the merging of action and language

Question 16

What is the significance of father -daughter relationships in the late plays

Answer 16

some shakesperain scholars believe that in his latter works the bard examined more closely the bond between fathers and daughters because of his developing relationship with his oldest daughter susanna

Question 17

What does Alexander Leggatt say of Marina chastity

Answer 17

However admirable it is , there is something ludicrous in the instant reformations that she produces