Narration is sure to lead to interesting places with this catch-22 as the start of the intrigue. Unfortunately, the answer is the father’s confession to incest, so to reveal the answer would also mean death.Īs the father is a king, Pericles is hard-pressed to charge him with the riddle’s answer, but cannot keep silent, for giving no answer would accomplish only Pericles’s own demise.

If Pericles fails to answer, then he dies.įortunately, he immediately realizes the riddles solution. Tribute is paid to Gower throughout the play as the poet has been made into Chorus, the narrator.Īs the play begins, Gower explains that Pericles has attempted to win a bride by solving her father’s riddle. While it is debated as to exactly how much of this play can be accurately attributed to Shakespeare, it is generally agreed upon that he wrote at least half of it and that the play is based upon a then-300 year-old work by the poet John Gower.

Continuing this tradition, the rest of September and the first weekend of October have been dedicated to “Pericles, Prince of Tyre”. The New American Shakespeare Tavern has a history of more than twenty years of performances, most of which, as its name suggests, have been renditions of The Bard’s works.

Hand of fate the tavern