268 SMYTH — PERICLES AND APOLLONIUS. [Oct. 7, 



blood-red Tyrian purple of tragic maternal jealousy which might 

 seem to array it in a worthy attire of its Tyrian name, the flower- 

 soft loveliness of maiden lamentation on the flower-strewn 

 seaside grave of Marina's old sea-tossed nurse." The romantic 

 character of the play, its blending of classical form and me- 

 diaeval tradition — Goth and Greek each by the other — places 

 Pericles in companionship with The Tempest, Cymbeline and The 

 Winter' s Tale. Without accepting or approving the methods of the 

 New Shakspere Society, we may agree that Pericles belongs to 

 Shakespeare's later years. 



\ The results of the researches of Dr. Boyle ( Transactions of 

 New Shak. Soc, 1880-1885, Pt. ii, pp. 323-340), P. Z. Round 

 (Intro, to Pericles, Qu. 2) and Delius {/ahrbuch, 186S,) seem 

 to indicate that George Wilkins wrote the first two acts and 

 most of the Gower choruses, and that Rowley (?) wrote the brothel 

 scenes. 



Shakespeare's part, I hold to be his unfinished work upon what 

 he meant to be the beginning and the end of a play of Marina. 

 As we have the text it is marred throughout by the incapacity of 

 the reporter and printer, pirates both. Shakespeare's unfinished 

 work in the last three acts was completed and extended to five acts 

 by a writer who added the Gower choruses. Delius was the first 

 to discover this writer to be George Wilkins {Shak. Jahrbuch, 1868, 

 pp. 175-204), but Delius erred in supposing that Wilkins' work 

 preceded Shakespeare's. 



Dr. Furnival, at a meeting of the New Shakspere Society, 

 quoted Tennyson as saying that Shakespeare ^' * wrote all the part 

 relating to the birth and recovery of Marina and the recovery of 

 Thaisa. I settled that long ago; come upstairs and I'll read it to 

 you.' Upstairs to the smoking-room in Seamore Place we went, and 

 then I had the rare treat of hearing the poet read in his deep voice — 

 with an occasional triumphant ' Isn't that Shakespeare ?' * What do 

 you think of that ?' and a few comments — the genuine part of 

 Pericles. I need not tell you how I enjoyed the reading, or 

 how quick and sincere my conviction of the genuineness of the 

 part read was. But I stupidly forgot to write down the numbers of 

 the scenes. However, when the proof of Mr. Fleay's print of 

 The Birth and Life of Marina came, its first words, * Thou God 

 of this great Vast,' brought the whole thing back to me, and I 

 recognized in its pages the same scenes that Mr. Tennyson had 



