Pericles: to taste the fruit of yon celestial tree;

sweetsilentsessions.blogspot.com
glennlouisfeole@gmail.com

Other blogs: readingthedictionaryztoa.blogspot.com (essays on reading the dictionary) artbyglennfeole.blogspot.com

Pericles

   This is one of Shakespeare’s later plays and, interestingly,  the first two acts were thought to not be written by Shakespeare.  I have read thirty-four of his thirty-seven plays at this juncture and, amazingly to me, I do seem to  have a feel for his mellifluous voice…and it is missing during these acts.  It is like a missing relationship, a substitute; things are just not quite right; they don't click or resonate.  On closer look, the poetry, the sensitivity, the insights and aphoristic thoughts are missing.  

     Although the plot is convoluted and fantastic, Harold Bloom mentions that the scenes in Act 4 about the brothel are among Shakespeare’s funniest and the reunion of Pericles with his daughter, Marina, is among his most “sublime” filling him with a sense of “awe.”  High praise. 

       As I gather my favorite quotes below, I am struck by how this process reveals the characters in more depth to me.  Pericles is a romantic as he speaks with passion about his love for his wife: “To taste the fruit of yon celestial tree or die in the adventure.”  “Her face was to mine eye beyond all wonder.”  “Who starves the ears she feeds, and makes them hungry,  the more she gives them speech.”  The most touching part of this play, speaking as a Father, is that special indelible bond between Father and daughter.  I love any work of art with this beautiful theme, i.e. the recent film Tony Erdmann: “To see his daughter, all his life’s delight.”   

    To end on a salacious note, this play is filled with  some of the bawdiest dialogue I have read in Shakespeare.  It occurs, of course, during the brothel scene.  I hesitate to mention these phrases…but... there is mention of the god and goddess Priapus and Hymen, with references to glass being broken, strings being plucked and jewels being stolen. 

    To end on an iconic note, there is mention of the “music of the spheres” and “golden slumber of repose.”  A journey worth taking.

 

  

Quotes:

“to seek her as a bed-fellow,

In marriage-pleasures play-fellow.”  Gower.  Act 1, Introduction.  33-34

 

“inflam’d desire in my breast

To taste the fruit of yon celestial tree

Or die in the adventure.”  Pericles.  1.1.20-22

 

“life’s but breath, to trust it error.”  Pericles.  1.1.46

 

“my unspotted fire of love for you.”  Pericles. 1.1.53

 

“Murder’s as near to lust as flame to smoke.”  Pericles.  1.1.138

“Thou speak’st like a physician, Helicanus,

That minister’st a potion unto me

That thou wouldst trembel to receive thyself.”  Pericles.  1.2.67-69

“Her face was to mine eye beyond all wonder.”  Pericles.  1.2.75

“I will see you wed; And then with what haste you can get you to bed.”  King Simonides. 2.5.92-93

 

“Hymen hath brought the bride to bed,

Where, by the loss of maidenhead,

A babe is moulded.”  Gower.  3.1.9-11

 

“the golden slumber of repose”  Gentleman.  3.2.23

“Her eyelids, cases to those heavenly jewels.”  Lord Cerimon.  3.2.99

 

“This world to me is a lasting storm.”  Marina.  4.1.19

 

“her beauty stir up the lewdly-inclined.”  Bawd.  4.2.159

“To see his daughter, all his life’s delight.”  Gower speaking of Pericles.  4.4.12

The brothel:

“she sent him away as cold as a snowball; saying his prayers too.”  Boult.  4.6.153-154

“we must get her ravished” Bawd.  4.6.5

“never plucked yet.” Bawd.  4.6.46

“crack the glass of her virginity” Bawd.  4.6.156

“To take from you the jewel you hold so dear.”  Boult.  4.6.168

 

“Who starves the ears she feeds, and makes them hungry,

The more she gives them speech.”  Pericles, about missing his wife Thaisa.  5.1.113-114

“The music of the spheres!”  Pericles.  5.1.231

 

 Moon references:

“in twice six moons.”  Dumb show.  Act 1. Intro, 31.

“But sea-room, and the brine and cloudy billow kiss the moon…”  Sailor 2.  3.1.45

Yet another indirect reference to “Earth, Wind and Fire”:

“As fire, air, water, earth, and heaven can make.”  Pericles.  3.1.33

This also occurred in another play:

Of note: the first act starts out in tetrameter rather than pentameter. 

 

Vocabulary:

Nestor

Hymen

Aesculapius

Vestal

Westerly

Paragon

Approbation

Thetis

Priapus

Argentine (silvery)