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SCENES 1-4 Gower relates an old story: how King Antiochus has had an incestuous affair with his daughter, and tries to keep her for himself by setting her many suitors an impossible riddle. When each one fails to solve it, he sentences them to death. Antiochus enters with Pericles, who intends to woo the princess, and sets him the riddle; when Pericles astutely works out the correct answer, Antiochus secretly orders him to be murdered. But before Thaliart can poison the Prince, Pericles arranges with Helicanus to escape to Tarsus. Thaliart arrives in Tyre, but misses Pericles, who has meanwhile arrived in Tarsus and delivered its citizens from famine by bringing corn.

SCENES 5-9 As news arrives about Thaliart's plot, Pericles leaves once more but is shipwrecked in a storm. He is washed up on the shore near Pentapolis, and is looked after by a group of kindly fishermen. When they drag his armour from the sea, Pericles decides to travel incognito to the court of King Simonides and take part in the tournament there, which is intended to test the prowess of his daughter's suitors. The mysterious knight wins the jousting, and also the princess's heart, but refuses to divulge his identity. Back in Tyre, Pericles's own knights complain about his absence and try to persuade Helicanus to take the crown in his place - but Helicanus nobly refuses. In Pentapolis, Simonides tests Pericles' feelings for his daughter by showing him a forged love letter to Thaisa; after hearing Pericles' protestations of virtue, the King grants the couple permission to marry. Their wedding is described by Gower with the aid of a dumb show.

SCENES 10-14 Pericles and his pregnant bride sail for Tyre, but during a terrible storm Thaisa seemingly dies in childbirth and the superstitious sailors insist that her body be thrown overboard. Horrified and grief-stricken, Pericles complies but resolves to transport their newborn daughter, Marina, to Tarsus, where her upbringing will be entrusted to the governor Cleon and his wife Dionyza. Thaisa's coffin, meanwhile, has washed ashore at Ephesus, where the physician Cerimon manages to revive her from a death-like sleep. Unable to remember the birth, Thaisa is taken to join the temple of Diana.

SCENES 15-19 Gower narrates Marina's development into a beautiful young woman, and how Dionyza grows jealous of her charge, arranging to have the girl murdered by Leonine. Before Leonine can succeed, however, Marina is kidnapped by pirates and sold into prostitution at Mytilene. There she stoutly refuses to co-operate with customers - to the Bawd's despair - and when the governor Lysimachus appears, she persuades him to help. Pericles has meanwhile returned to Tarsus and is told that Marina has died in his absence; he sadly vows to spend the rest of his life in mourning.

SCENES 20-23 Pericles's ship arrives at Mytilene, and - not knowing of their relationship - Lysimachus sends Marina to sing to the griefstricken Prince and ease his sorrow. Pericles does not recognize his daughter immediately, but after a heart-stopping pause they are reunited. Moments later, the goddess Diana appears to Pericles in a vision and persuades him to go to Ephesus, where he discovers Thaisa. All are joyfully brought back together, and Lysimachus is betrothed to Marina.

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