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Summary
Pericles is back in Tyre, overwhelmed by melancholy. In a monologue, he reveals that his mind is occupied with worry about the dangers of Antioch; he is convinced that Antiochus will not be content to see that Pericles has remained silent and will probably move against him. He imagines Antiochus invading Tyre, threatening a war that Pericles is sure his people will lose. Several lords enter with Helicanus, one of Pericles’s counselors. Helicanus scolds Pericles for languishing in his gloom, and he offers his advice. Pericles sends the lords away and listens as Helicanus suggests that he bear his grief with patience.
Pericles tells Helicanus about his trip to Antioch, his discovery that Antiochus and his daughter are engaged in incest, his flight home, and his worry that Antiochus’s fear and tyrannical nature will lead him to invade Tyre. Pericles has been trying to think of ways to “stop this tempest ere it came” (1.2.106). Helicanus says he understands Pericles’s fear of either a public war or a private treason, and he urges Pericles to travel away from Tyre until Antiochus’s anger is past, temporarily leaving the throne to Helicanus himself. Pericles agrees and decides to depart for Tarsus, knowing that Helicanus is a trustworthy advisor.
Meanwhile, Thaliard enters Tyre intending to kill Pericles, though he’s aware that he will be hanged in Tyre if he gets caught. He reasons, by contrast, that if he doesn’t commit the crime, then he will be hanged at home. Helicanus and Escanes, Pericles’s other advisor, enter with some lords. Thaliard overhears them talking about how the king has departed. Thaliard introduces himself to the court, saying he has come with a message from Antiochus for Pericles, but he will have to take it back to Antioch since Pericles is gone. Thaliard determines to tell Antiochus that Pericles has perished at sea.
Cleon, the governor of Tarsus, enters with his wife, Dionyza. Cleon and Dionyza try to tell each other sad stories to distract themselves from their own sadness, but it doesn’t work. Instead, they relate their misfortune, that for several years famine has devastated Tarsus, diminishing the country’s former riches. While they complain about their bad luck, one of the lords of Tarsus enters and explains that a ship has been spotted off the coast. Cleon thinks it must mean a neighboring nation has come to conquer them, now that they are too weak to defend themselves. The lord says the ship has raised a white flag of peace, but Cleon has doubts. Pericles enters and dispels Cleon’s fears, saying that his ships are not the Trojan horse; rather, they are filled with corn to feed the hungry citizens of Tarsus. The people of Tarsus are grateful, and Pericles explains that he only wants safe harbor in return. Cleon welcomes them.
Analysis
As act 1 continues, the play begins to explore the question of what makes a strong leader. In contrast to the controlling and paranoid attitude of Antiochus, whom we met in scene 1, Helicanus advocates for a form of leadership that is consciously premised on avoiding tyranny. This is why he tells Pericles that flattery is dangerous for a leader, since it can easily go to his head. By contrast, he insists that “reproof, obedient and in order, / Fits kings as they are men, for they may err” (1.2.45–46). In recognizing that kings are ultimately just men, Helicanus’s perspective contrasts sharply with the view Pericles presented to Antiochus in scene 1, where he claimed, “Kings are earth’s gods” (1.1.108). Of course, these words were mainly meant to buy Pericles time to get away from Antiochus, whom he needed to flatter in order to save his own life. But now that he’s in a less stressful context, Pericles eagerly agrees with Helicanus’s point: “heaven forbid / That kings should let their ears hear their faults hid” (1.2.66–67).
Given this discussion about leadership, it may at first appear that the profound melancholy Pericles suffers at the beginning of scene 2 marks him as a weak ruler. But from another perspective, it demonstrates that he has a genuine concern for Tyre and its people. He is certainly worried about his own fate, but he’s arguably more concerned for the nation. His reluctance to leave Tyre further shows a desire to stay behind and secure the safety of his people against an invasion from Antioch. But Pericles does indeed leave, and as he goes, he places Tyre in Helicanus’s capable hands. Though many in his position might well take advantage of this newfound power, Helicanus is not the kind of ambitious schemer that Shakespeare has written about in many of his other plays. Like Pericles, he cares genuinely about Tyre and will ensure its safety and stability, as his upstanding conduct in scene 3 suggests. Similar figures of charity and loyalty appear throughout the play, always standing in contrast to figures of evil and cruelty.
As Pericles sets off and escapes the somewhat unenterprising Thaliard, the scene shifts from Tyre to Tarsus, where we meet a third set of leaders: Cleon and Dionyza. Like Pericles, the governor of Tarsus and his wife are distressed and shrouded in melancholy. Their citizens are suffering from prolonged food shortages, but they seem entirely unable to improve the situation. Instead of taking decisive action, they prefer to sit in their throne room telling sad stories and wallowing in their misfortune. Although they do show concern for the people of Tarsus, they seem to prefer passive withdrawal to active engagement in diplomacy, the latter of which might have brought relief to their suffering. Thus, Pericles’s arrival, though initially feared to be the first stage of a military invasion, is ultimately welcome. Demonstrating his strength as a leader, Pericles has come to this starving nation laden with grain to share—even as he himself is on the run and unable to preside directly over his own realm. Thus begins the prince of Tyre’s first adventure.
