ABSTRACT
Wilkins's novel is largely founded on Twine's recently republished Patterne of Painefull Adventures (1607) and on a Pericles performed by the King's Company, the success of which doubtless encouraged him to write a catchpenny work. His method was to interweave passages from Twine and from the play, and since he lifted many passages almost word for word from Twine, it may be assumed that he did the same with the play so far as he could, since it had not been published. From Twine he took incidents not in our play, and in others followed Twine rather than the play-e.g. his first chapter is Twine's with some sentimental expansion; in his Chapter 2 he plagiarized Twine's account of Apollonius's doings in Tharsus, especially the selling of the wheat, the charitable restoration of the price, and the description of the monument erected in the market-place; in Chapter 4 the storm is largely from Twine, and the charity of the fisherman (only one in the novels, three in the play). In Chapter 6 the harp-playing, the wooing of Pericles by Thaisa and also the wedding festivities are from Twine, Chapters 5-7 (the last somewhat lopped of the long descriptions of bride and bridegroom). The whole of Chapter 8 follows closely Twine's Chapter 10, including the nurse's disclosure to Tharsia (Marina) of her parentage, which is not in the play. In Chapter I I Marina's Song is probably taken from Twine, although it may have been sung in the play (which omitted it when printed). In this chapter Wilkins omitted the riddles which came down to Twine (Chapter 17) from Gesta Romanorum, but included the striking of the girl by her father, which is only obscurely referred to in the playas we
On the other hand Wilkins obviously followed a play with many likenesses to Pericles both for some incidents given in Twine and for others not in The Patterne of Painefull Adventures. At times he seems to be describing what he has seen or heard at a performance. The names of the characters are as in Shakespeare's play, except that Wilkins does not name Boult, the 'leno'. There are references to 'cues' and actors' 'parts' when characters enter or speak, and the narrative is often interrupted by dialogue. Sometimes this dialogue is unnecessary but like a dramatic exposition, as when in Chapter 3 Cleon describes the famine at Tarsus to his wife Dyonysa. The account in Chapter 4 (inJ. 508) where the King and princess 'have placed themselves in a Gallery, to beholde the triumphes' of the Knights with their devices etc. is more clear and consistent than in the play's text (II.2). Similarly Helicanus' interview with Pericles is muddled in the play but clear and consecutive in Wilkins (Ch. 2).2 How far he invented material it is impossible to be sure, but his borrowings from Twine and from the play are usually so close that we may well doubt whether he troubled to insert anything of his own except some stylistic flourishes and a little sentiment.
