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III

If we focus on the pragmatic issue at the heart of governance, the central question of the monarch's apparent concern for and attention to the maintenance of the commonweal,³³ Pericles is surely lacking as a prince. Pericles is hardly the first representation in Shakespeare's work of a monarch who appears disengaged from the responsibilities of rule. Besides Lear, who wishes—like Richard II—to enjoy the ceremonial aspects of monarchy without the responsibility that goes with them, we might add a number of rulers from the seemingly non-political plays of the Jacobean period: Duke Vincentio, Cymbeline, Leontes, Prospero. Even in the most overtly political plays of Shakespeare, which clearly show the personal and political limitations of a Richard II or Lear, we tend to see only brief glimpses of the actual business of government, of the processes by which options are considered, decisions are reached, and authority is exercised. In Pericles...

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1. Introduction
2. I
3. Ii
4. Iii
5. Iv
6. Copyright