Pericles

Dionyza appears with Leonine, the assassin she has hired. She gives Leonine his brief, entreating him not to let his cold conscience be thawed by pity for Marina. Leonine tells Dionyza that he is a professional who always finishes his job, but Marina is innocent. Dionyza responds that her innocence is the very reason Marina is spirited away from the corrupt world and sent to the gods. 

A grieving Marina appears, collecting flowers for Lychorida’s tribute. She says she will steal clothes (flowers) from Tellus (Mother Earth) to cover Lychorida’s green grave in the richest of hues. She laments her fate: Her mother was taken from her shortly after she was born, and now Marina has lost her motherly nurse as well.

Dionyza asks Marina not to grieve as she will be her nurse from now on. Asking Marina to hand over her basket of flowers, Dionyza suggests she go for a walk on the shore to lift her spirits. Leonine will accompany her. Marina is reluctant to go, but relents. 

As Marina and Leonine walk on the beach, Marina tells Leonine of the tumultuous storm that roiled the seas when she was born. She has been told that her father was unafraid as the ship shook, taking the ropes of the sails in his own hands even as the seamen quaked in fear. Leonine interrupts Marina, asking her to say her prayers as she is about to be killed.

Marina asks Leonine the reason he wishes to kill her, and he reveals Dionyza’s role in the scheme. Marina asks Leonine to spare her, appealing to his conscience. She recalls that he recently broke up a fight even though he got physically hurt in the process, suggesting to her he can be kind. Leonine hesitates for a moment, but then prepares to strike Marina. 

Just then, pirates appear on the shore and carry away Marina. Leonine remarks that the men who took Marina serve the great pirate Valdes. They are bound to kill her, or worse, assault her and then murder her, thus finishing his job.

The pirates plan to sell Marina to a brothel in Mytilene. The Pandar (go-between/pimp), the Bawd (the madame of the brothel), and Boult, a worker at the brothel, discuss the state of their trade. Though Mytilene is full of young men, the trade hasn’t made much money because of a paucity of sex workers. Only three remain, and they have venereal diseases. Boult goes off with a bag of gold to buy young women. Pandar tells Bawd that they can retire if they have a few good seasons. Their “trade,” which is hardly a noble profession, does not endear them to the gods as it is. Bawd disagrees, since other people commit as much evil as they do.

Boult returns with Marina and tells the others they need to pay a lot to the pirates for her. Not only is Marina beautiful and sophisticated, but she is also a virgin. Pandar and Boult exit to give the pirates their payment. A traumatized Marina wishes Leonine had killed her before the pirates got to her. Bawd says that had Marina died, she would never have gotten to sample the sexual pleasures in store for her. Covering her ears in disgust, Marina berates Bawd for not being a woman (since she is so harmful to another woman). Bawd thinks Marina is a sapling who needs to be bent and broken through instruction. 

Boult joins Bawd, telling her that he has spread rumors about Marina’s arrival in the market, generating much excitement. When a Spanish man heard Boult’s description of Marina, he began to salivate and went off to masturbate right then and there. Marina is bound to make them rich.

Bawd prepares Marina for the trade. Marina must pretend to be afraid of her customers even if she enjoys herself, as her fear will generate pity and prompt the clients to give more money to her. Marina cries to Diana for help, promising the goddess that she will stay a virgin. Meanwhile, the lecherous Boult tells Bawd he would love to “sample” Marina himself. Bawd assures him that he will, in good time, but meanwhile must advertise Marina in the market.

Back in Tarsus, Cleon has learned Marina’s fate, much to his horror. His lament for Marina makes Dionyza call him a child. Cleon says that Dionyza should have poisoned herself after her crime, much as she poisoned Leonine to death to silence him. 

Wishing he could do something to bring Marina back, Cleon asks Dionyza what reply they will give to Pericles when he returns for his daughter. Dionyza counters they will tell Pericles that Marina is dead, which is probably the truth. Pericles will believe them as life is fickle and death can come for anyone anytime. She just hopes Cleon won’t spoil matters by telling Pericles Marina’s death was a result of foul play.

Cleon agrees to Dionyza’s plan with a heavy heart, though he knows that by lying he is participating in the evil she committed. Dionyza tells Cleon she has already planned a monument and epitaph for Marina so Pericles will know they mourned his daughter. Repulsed by Dionyza’s callousness, Cleon says her angelic face hides the hideousness of her talons.

Gower returns so that the audience can again travel over vast distances in a short span of time, switching from country to country with the power of the imagination. Pericles braves “the wayward seas” (IV.4.10) once more, this time to visit his daughter in Tarsus. Helicanus and other courtiers accompany the king, leaving Escanes to manage Tyre in the interim. 

However, as the magnificent fleet arrives in Tarsus to meet Marina, Pericles and the others move like “motes and shadows” (IV.4.20) or in a ghostly, dejected fashion. The audience can watch them for a while until Gower provides an explanation. In the dumb show, Pericles enters the stage. Cleon shows him Marina’s monument. Pericles erupts in great sorrow, puts on sackcloth, and leaves, weeping.

Gower says that poor Pericles has taken for the truth the lies told to him by Cleon and Dionyza. The king of Tyre leaves heartbroken from Tarsus, vows never to wash his face or comb his hair, puts on garments of mourning, and takes to the high seas. Even as tempests rock his vessel, Pericles sails on, numb and uncaring. 

Gower walks over to Marina’s tombstone and reads aloud the epitaph, which says Marina was taken by death as Thetis—a sea-nymph and mother of the hero Achilles—was jealous of her powers. The earth, afraid that Marina would flood her, willingly returned “Thetis’ birth-child” (IV.4.45) to the heavens (Marina is described as Thetis’s daughter since both are associated with the sea). Gower marvels at the spin the epitaph has given to the dastardly disappearance of Marina. Marina’s destiny is now in the hands of fortune, as the next scene will show. Gower and the audience will now head to Mytilene.

Two gentlemen exit from Bawd’s brothel in Mytilene, commenting on the singing and preaching they have just heard from Marina. They’d not imagined hearing such virtuous parables in a house of sin. So sweet were the music and words that the gentlemen decide to give up on brothels altogether. They will now listen to vestals sung by the nuns and stop visiting sex workers.

Pandar, Bawd, and Boult enter the stage in anger, wishing they had not trafficked Marina. Marina has caused far more trouble than they had expected, since she seems to be “able to freeze the god Priapus” (IV.6.3-4), i.e., make even the god of male fertility turn cold. Bawd must either get rid of Marina or have her be raped to put an end to Marina’s good influence on the men of Mytilene. Boult says he will rape Marina so she is ushered into the trade. 

Just then a noblemen, Lord Lysimachus, arrives at the brothel, disguised since he doesn’t want people to know what he is up to, though Boult and the others clearly see through his disguise. Lysimachus asks for a virgin since the other sex workers have sexually transmitted diseases. Boult says he will bring Lysimachus a “flower” which has not been “plucked,” and fetches Marina. Bawd asks for a moment alone with Marina before sending her off with Lysimachus. She tells Marina that Lysimachus is the honorable governor of the country and must be treated well. Marina replies that Lysimachus’s honor is dubious if he visits brothels. Bawd tells Marina that if she behaves herself with Lysimachus, he will shower her with gold. Marina cryptically promises to receive whatever Lysimachus gives graciously.

Bawd leaves Marina alone with Lysimachus. Lysimachus asks Marina how long she has been in the trade. Marina purposely refuses to accept “trade” in the implied context of sex work, and answers Lysimachus’s questions as if the “trade” he refers to is being a princess. She tells him she has been in that trade since forever. When Lysimachus catches on that Marina is fooling him with her words, he grows angry and tells her that he is a powerful man of honor. Marina wonders what such a man is doing in a brothel. 

When Marina cries that she wishes she would turn into a bird so she could leave the hell of the brothel, Lysimachus has a change of heart. He tells Marina that had he a corrupt mind, her words would have transformed him. He gives her some gold and blesses her that she may never stray from the virtuous path. Lysimachus also reveals that he was never interested in the brothel, but only entered it to find out what is happening in his country.

As Lysimachus departs, Boult and Bawd turn upon Marina, berating her for ruining their profession. Bawd tells Boult to take her away and rape her. However, when they are alone, Marina uses her wise, witty words to make Boult change his views. Giving him a gold coin from what Lysimachus left her, Marina asks Boult to spread the word in the city that she can teach singing and sewing. Boult agrees to help, but warns Marina that she may have to give Bawd a cut from her earnings.