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13822

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2026-01-30T06:24:48.293Z

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The novel is far more carefully printed than the play, and corrects some of the manifold corruptions of the printed text of the latter. One or two phrases which have the Shakespearean ring are indeed found alone in the play. The novel may be credited with embodying some few lines from Shakespeare’s pen, which exist nowhere else.² But this point cannot be pressed very far. The discrepancies and resemblances between the two texts alike suggest that Wilkins followed a version of the play, which did not embody the whole of Shakespeare’s revision. There is much in Wilkins’ prose which appears to present passages ¹ Take, for example, Pericles’ account of himself in the novel and the play. The passage runs in the play thus (ii. 3. 81–5):— A Gentleman of Tyre, my name Pericles, My education beene in Artes and Armes: Who looking for adventures in the world, Was by the rough Seas reft of Ships and men, and after shipwracke, driuen vpon this shore. In the novel the passage runs (in the third person) as follows:—“A gentleman of Tyre, his name Pericles, his education been in arts and arms, who, looking for adventures in the world, was by the rough and unconstant seas, most unfortunately bereft both of ships and men, and, after shipwreck, thrown upon that shore.” ² When Pericles greets his new-born babe Marina on shipboard (iii. 1. 30 sqq.), he exclaims in the play:— Thou art the rudelyest welcome to this world, That euer was Prince’s Child. In the novel his speech opens thus:—“Poor Inch of nature, thou art as rudely welcome to the world as euer Princesse Babe was,” &amp;c. “Poor Inch of nature” is undoubtedly a Shakespearean touch which the transcriber of the play for the press overlooked. <!-- [Page 580](arke:01KG6QKD6RV1NE59N6VT9PHF15) --> PERICLES 17 from the play in a state anterior to Shakespeare's final revision. If we assume Wilkins to be author of the greater part of the play, we must conclude that in the novel he paraphrased his own share more thoroughly than the work of his revising coadjutor, or that he retained in the novel passages which his collaborator cut out or supplanted in the play.¹

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