Shakespeare's Pericles

Characters: 

• Antiochus, King of Antioch
• Pericles, Prince of Tyre
• Helicanus, a lord of Tyre
• Escanes, a lord of Tyre
• Simonides, King of Pentapolis
• Cleon, Governor of Tarsus
• Lysismachus, Governor of Mytilene
• Cerimon, a lord of Ephesus
• Thaliard, a lord of Antioch
• Philemon, Cerimon's servant
• Leonine, Dionyza's servant
• A Pander
• Boult, the Pander's servant
• Marshal
• Daughter of Antiochus
• Dionyza, wife of Cleon
• Thaisa, daughter of Simonides
• Marina, daughter of Pericles
• Lychorida, Marina's nurse
• A Bawd
• Lords, Ladies, Knights, and Gentlemen
• Sailors, Pirates, Fishermen
• Messengers
• Diana
• Gower, as Chorus

Synopsis:

King Antiochus of, not surprisingly, Antioch, creates a rule that in order to marry his daughter a suitour must answer his riddle or die. Pericles works out the answer to the riddle which reveals that Antiochus and his daughter are having an incestious affair, so Pericles heads back to Tyre, as he figures that if Antiochus finds out that he knows he will kill him, having already giving him 40 days before his death sentence.

Antiochus sends an assassin after him, and Pericles decides to take Helicanus' advice and go travelling until it all blows over. He goes to Tarsus which is ruled over by Cleon ad Dionyza, where he saves them from the terrible famine that has been ravging their country by bringing them corn.

On his way back to Tyre he gets shipwrecked at Pentapolis where he hears that the winner of a jousting tournament will get Simonedes' daughter's hand so enters and wins, despite having the rustiest armour.  He marries Simonedes' daughter Thaisa, but hears that Antiochus and his daughter where smited by fire from heaven, so decides to return to Tyre with Thaisa and Lychorida, a nurse. Meanwhile in Tyre, the people want to crown Helicanus as King but he insists they wait for Pericles to return.

On board the ship they encounter a terrible storm and Thaisa dies in childbirth. To placate the storm the crew throw Thaisa overboard in a chest, but when she washes up in Ephesus a kindly doctor, Cerimon, discovers that she is, in fact, alive.

Pericles lands in Tarsus again, giving his daughter Marina over to Cleon and Dionyza's care because he thinks she will not survive the journey.

Time passes: Pericles becomes King of Tyre, Thaisa becomes a priestess of Diana, but because Marina takes all the attention away from Dionyza's daughter she tires to kill her but Marina is snatched by pirates and sold as a prostitute.

She is sold top Pander and Bawd's brothel, but manages to convince the many men who come to buy her virginity that her honour is sacred, and they leave wanting to change their ways. She eventually gets a job in a respectable house teaching girls.

Meanwhile Pericles goes to search for his daughter, but Cleon and Dionyza tell him that she is dead and show him the monument they built in her honour to hide their guiltiness. Pericles, distraught, sails to Myteline.

There Lysimachus brings Marina to him, as he thinks she can make Pericles talk after his three months of silence. Marina tells him that her own sufferings must match his, relating her story as Pericles listens in amazement, seeing the similarities in his daughter and Marina's tale. They are reunited at last, and when Pericles falls asleep exhausted he is told to visit the temple of Diana is Ephesus. When he wakes he promises Marina to Lysimachus and they all set off for Ephesus.

Pericles tells his story in the temple, Thaisa faints and the family is reunited.