on' was George Wilkins, a writer of ill-developed dramatic power,
who, in 'The Miseries of Enforced Marriage' (1607), first treated the
story that afterwards served for the plot of 'The Yorkshire Tragedy.' At
any rate, Wilkins may safely be credited with portions of 'Pericles,' a
romantic play which can be referred to the same year as 'Timon.'
Shakespeare contributed only acts III. and V. and parts of IV., which
together form a self-contained whole, and do not combine satisfactorily
with the remaining scenes. The presence of a third hand, of inferior
merit to Wilkins, has been suspected, and to this collaborator (perhaps
William Rowley, a professional reviser of plays who could show capacity
on occasion) are best assigned the three scenes of purposeless coarseness
which take place in or before a brothel (IV. ii., v. and vi.) From so
distributed a responsibility the piece naturally suffers. It lacks
homogeneity, and the story is helped out by dumb shows and prologues.
But a matured felicity of expression characterises Shakespeare's own
contributions, narrating the romantic quest of Pericles for his daughter
Marina, who was born and abandoned in a shipwreck. At many points he
here anticipated his latest dramatic effects. The shipwreck is depicted
(IV. i.) as impressively as in the 'Tempest,' and Marina and her mother
Thaisa enjoy many experiences in common with Perdita and Hermione in the
'Winter's Tale.' The prologues, which were not by Shakespeare, were
spoken by an actor representing the mediaeval poet John Gower, who in the
fourteenth century had versified Pericles's story in his 'Confessio
Amantis' under the title of 'Apollonius of Tyre.' It is also found in a
prose translation (from the French), which was printed in Lawrence
Twyne's 'Patterne of Painfull Adventures' in 1576, and again in 1607.
After the play was produced, George Wilkins, one of the alleged
coadjutors, based on it a novel called 'The Painful Adventures of
Pericles, Prynce of Tyre, being the True History of the Play of Pericles
as it was lately presented by the worthy and ancient Poet, John Gower'
(1608). The play was issued as by William Shakespeare in a mangled form
in 1608, and again in 1611, 1619, 1630, and 1635. It was not included in
Shakespeare's collected works till 1664.

'Antony and Cleopatra.'

In May 1608 Edward Blount entered in the 'Stationers' Registers,' by the
authority of Sir George Buc, the licenser of plays, 'a book