Professional Documents
Culture Documents
general editor
Brian Gibbons
From the publication of the first volumes in 1984 the General Editor of the New Cambridge
Shakespeare was Philip Brockbank and the Associate General Editors were Brian Gibbons
and Robin Hood. From 1990 to 1994 the General Editor was Brian Gibbons and the Associate
General Editors were A. R. Braunmuller and Robin Hood.
Over the last two decades there has been a resurgence of theatrical interest in Shakespeares
Pericles, which has been rescued from comparative neglect and is now frequently performed.
This development is charted in the Introduction to this edition, which differs radically from any
other currently available. Doreen DelVecchio and Antony Hammond reject the current ortho-
doxies: that the text is seriously corrupt and that the play is of divided authorship. They show
how the 1609 quarto has features in common with the first quarto of King Lear, now widely
regarded as being based on Shakespeares manuscript. Likewise they regard the arguments
concerning divided authorship as unproven and misleading. Instead they show the play to be a
unified aesthetic experience. The result is a view of Pericles far more enthusiastic than that of
other editors.
Edited by
DOREEN DELVECCHIO
ANTONY HAMMOND
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521297103
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
CONTENTS
ILLUSTRATIONS
1 Map of the eastern Mediterranean facing page 1
2 Genius and Amans, from Gowers Confessio Amantis, BL MS.
Egerton 1991 fol. 7v (by permission of the British Library) page 4
3 Marinas tomb (Act 4, Scene 4), in Nugent Moncks 1947 production
at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (Shakespeare Centre Library) 19
4 Gower as calypso singer (Edric Connor) in Tony Richardsons 1958
production at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (Shakespeare Centre
Library) 21
5 Pericles and Thaisa (Ian Richardson and Susan Fleetwood) begin their
dance (Act 2, Scene 3) in Terry Handss 1969 production at the Royal
Shakespeare Theatre (Shakespeare Centre Library) 22
6 Gower (Emrys James) as a Welsh bard in Terry Handss 1969
production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (by permission of
Reg Wilson) 23
7 Simultaneous staging in Act 3 in Phyllida Lloyds production,
Royal National Theatre, 1994 (by permission of Ivan Kyncl) 26
8 The theophany in Act 5, Scene 1, in Phyllida Lloyds production,
Royal National Theatre, 1994 (by permission of Ivan Kyncl) 26
9 Gowers tomb and monument in Southwark Cathedral 28
10 As yon grim looks do testify (Prologue 40); a conjectural
reconstruction of Act 1, Scene 1, by C. Walter Hodges 39
11 A conjectural reconstruction of the original staging of the theophany
by C. Walter Hodges 40
12 Rachel Kempson as Dioniza, showing what a Wicked Queen should
look like, in Tony Richardsons 1958 production at the Shakespeare
Memorial Theatre (Shakespeare Centre Library) 41
13 The impresa scene (Act 2, Scene 2): Thaisa (Sally Edwards) on the
stairs between upper and lower stage, Simonides (Russell Dixon)
enthroned aloft, in David Thackers 1989 production at the Swan
(Shakespeare Centre Library) 43
14 The resuscitation of Thaisa (Act 3, Scene 2) in Ron Danielss 1979
production at The Other Place: Clyde Pollitt as Cerimon, Emily
Richard as Thaisa (Shakespeare Centre Library) 58
15 Antiochus (Morgan Sheppard) orates over the enigmatical mask of the
Daughter: Act 1, Scene 1, in Terry Handss 1969 production at
the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (by permission of Reg Wilson) 66
16 Griffith Jones as Gower in Ron Danielss 1979 production at
The Other Place (Shakespeare Centre Library) 74
vi
When we first proposed editing Pericles for the New Cambridge Shakespeare, our
enthusiasm for it had been fired by a flawed but generally remarkably successful
production at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. Though both of us had been teaching
Shakespeare at McMaster University, in neither of our courses had Pericles played a
large role. It was something of an overwhelming experience for us, then, to find it as
stunningly successful a play for the stage as the Stratford production proved. This led
us to propose to break a lance for it in our edition, and so we began our work from a
radically different point of view from that of many editors of the play, whose first
reaction to the task seems to have been Oh, dear. Because our mind-set was enthu-
siastic, we found ourselves questioning the received view of the 1609 quarto as
essentially corrupt, and far less convinced than most of our colleagues about the theory
that the play was a work of collaboration. We feel pleased that our several years work
on the play has dulled neither our conviction of its dramatic and literary merits, nor
our suspicion of the hostile and disintegrative views of its text.
Our edition, we feel, should therefore begin with a mandatory Government
Health Warning: This edition of P ericles may be harmful to your
prejudices. We have done what no other editor has done: we have tried to trust the
text and to respect the integrity of the play. As a consequence, our edition differs in
hundreds of readings from other editions on the market, and we hope it will prove a
refreshing change.
We have incurred some pleasant debts in the course of our work. First and greatest,
we owe much to the wit and wisdom of Professor A. R. Braunmuller, the most
generous, conscientious, and helpful of General Editors. Brian Gibbons, General
Editor of the series has likewise been most helpful, and we would also like to record
our appreciation of the care and support of Sarah Stanton and the CUP publishing
team. We express gratitude to that most civilised research library, the Shakespeare
Centre in Stratford-upon-Avon, and especially to Sylvia Morris there. We are grate-
ful to the Royal National Theatre for help with the photographs of their production,
and to the Archive of the Stratford Festival in Ontario for permitting us to see the
videotapes of their productions. Professor Ann Savage of the English Department
at McMaster University was enormously helpful to us on the thorny matter of
the archaisms in Gowers language. We also are most obliged to Verena Buhler of the
Englisches Seminar, Universitat Zurich for assisting us to obtain a microfilm of the
unique Zurich copy of Wilkinss Painfull Aduentures. Antony Hammond records his
gratitude to Trevor Howard-Hill for inviting him to read a paper to the Society for
Textual Scholarship on The perils of Pericles, and to the Arts Research Board of
McMaster University for their partial funding of his visit to New York.
vii
Shakespeares plays, when cited in this edition, are abbreviated in a style modified slightly from
that used in the Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare. Other editions of Shakespeare are abbre-
viated under the editors surname (Malone, Hoeniger) unless they are the work of more than one
editor; in such cases an abbreviated series name is used (Cam., Oxford). When more than one
edition by the same editor is cited, the later editions are identified by a superscript numeral
(Rowe2 ). All quotations from Shakespeare, except those from Pericles, use the text and lineation
of The Riverside Shakespeare, text ed. G. Blakemore Evans, 1974.
1. Shakespeares plays
Ado Much Ado About Nothing
Ant. Antony and Cleopatra
AWW Alls Well That Ends Well
AYLI As You Like It
Cor. Coriolanus
Cym. Cymbeline
Err. The Comedy of Errors
Ham. Hamlet
1H4 The First Part of King Henry the Fourth
2H4 The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth
H5 King Henry the Fifth
1H6 The First Part of King Henry the Sixth
2H6 The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth
3H6 The Third Part of King Henry the Sixth
H8 King Henry the Eighth
JC Julius Caesar
John King John
LLL Loves Labours Lost
Lear King Lear
Mac. Macbeth
MM Measure for Measure
MND Midsummer Nights Dream
MV The Merchant of Venice
Oth. Othello
Per. Pericles
R2 King Richard the Second
R3 King Richard the Third
Rom. Romeo and Juliet
Shr. The Taming of the Shrew
STM Sir Thomas More
Temp. The Tempest
TGV The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Tim. Timon of Athens
ix
Pericles x
Pericles xii
q3 The Late, and much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1611
(STC 22336) (third quarto)
q4 The Late, and much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1619
(STC 26101) (fourth quarto)
q5 The Late, and much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1630
(STC 22337) (fifth quarto)
q6 The Late, and much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1635
(STC 22339) (sixth quarto)
r recto (the right-hand page when a book is opened)
Ridley Pericles, ed. M. R. Ridley, 1935 (New Temple Shakespeare)
Riverside The Riverside Shakespeare, text ed. G. Blakemore Evans, 1974
Round Pericles, ed. P. Z. Round, 1890
Rowe The Works of Mr. William Shakespear, ed. Nicholas Rowe, 6 vols.,
1709
Rowe2 The Works of Mr. William Shakespear, ed. Nicholas Rowe, 6 vols.,
1709
Rowe3 The Works of Mr. William Shakespear, ed. Nicholas Rowe, 9 vols.,
1714
RSC 1947 Royal Shakespeare Company production of 1947
RSC 1958 Royal Shakespeare Company production of 1958
RSC 1969 Royal Shakespeare Company production of 1969
RSC 1979 Royal Shakespeare Company production of 1979
RSC 1989 Royal Shakespeare Company production of 1989
RES Review of English Studies
Scott-Giles C. W. Scott-Giles, Shakespeares Heraldry, 1950
Schanzer Pericles, ed. Ernest Schanzer, 1965 (Signet Shakespeare)
Schmidt Alexander Schmidt, Shakespeare Lexicon: A Complete Dictionary,
4th edn, 2 vols., 1923
sd stage direction
Sewell The Works of Shakespear, ed. George Sewell, 9 vols., 1728 (revised
from Popes edn)
sh speech heading
sig. signature(s) (printers indications of the ordering of pages in early
modern books, used here where page-numbers do not exist, or occa-
sionally for bibliographical reasons)
Singer Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare, ed. Samuel W. Singer, 1826
Sisson William Shakespeare: The Complete Works, ed. Charles J. Sisson,
1954
Son. William Shakespeare, Sonnets (in Riverside)
SQ Shakespeare Quarterly
S.Sur. Shakespeare Survey
Staunton The Plays of Shakespeare, ed. Howard Staunton, 3 vols., 185860
STC A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, &
Ireland and of the English Books Printed Abroad 14751640. First
compiled by A. W. Pollard and G. R. Redgrave. Second edition,
revised and enlarged, begun by W. A. Jackson and F. S. Ferguson,
completed by Katherine F. Pantzer, 3 vols., 1986, 1976, 1991
Steevens The Plays of William Shakspeare, ed. Samuel Johnson, George
Steevens, and Isaac Reed, 10 vols., 1785
subst. substantively
sv sub verbum (Latin for under the word used in dictionary citations)
Theobald MS Unpublished marginalia by L. Theobald, in copies of q4 (Folger
Shakespeare Library) and q6 (University of Pennsylvania)
Stratford 1973 The Stratford (Shakespeare) Festival, Ontario, Canada production
of 1973
Stratford 1986 The Stratford (Shakespeare) Festival, Ontario, Canada production
of 1986
Tilley Morris Palmer Tilley, A Dictionary of Proverbs in England in the
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, 1950 (references are to num-
bered proverbs)
Tonson Pericles Prince of Tyre, pub. J. Tonson, 1734
Tyrwhitt Thomas Tyrwhitt, Observations and Conjectures upon some Passages of
Shakespeare, 1766
uncorr. uncorrected
v verso (the left-hand page when a book is opened)
Ven. William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis (in Riverside)
Walker W. S. Walker, A Critical Examination of the Text of Shakespeare, 3
vols., 1860
Williams Gordon Williams, A Dictionary of Sexual Language and Imagery in
Shakespearean and Stuart Literature, 3 vols., 1994
Yale Pericles, ed. A. R. Bellinger, 1925 (Yale Shakespeare)
Young Alan R. Young, A note on the tournament impresas in Pericles, SQ
4 (1985), 4536