“sleep yslaked hath the rout”
'Yslaked' means quenched or extinguished (here, sleep has put out the noise of the revel); the 'y-' prefix is a deliberate archaism — a Middle English past-participle marker Gower uses to mimic Chaucerian verse. 'Rout' means a noisy crowd or uproar.
historical John Gower and the Confessio Amantis“cat, with eyne of burning coal”
'Eyne' is the archaic plural of 'eye,' used regularly in Middle English and revived here by Gower as part of his pseudo-medieval style. Modern English replaced it with 'eyes.'
historical John Gower and the Confessio Amantis- TLN 1030classical allusion
“Hymen hath brought the bride to bed”
Hymen was the Roman god of marriage and of wedding ceremonies — his name was invoked at every Roman wedding in the ritual cry 'O Hymen, Hymenaeus!' Here Gower names him to say the wedding night of Pericles and Thaisa is over and a child has been conceived.
“your fine fancies quaintly eche”
'Eche' (also 'eke') means to stretch out or supplement — 'lengthen with your imaginations what the dumb-show only sketches.' 'Quaintly' means cleverly or ingeniously, not in its modern sense of old-fashioned charm.
historical John Gower and the Confessio Amantis“By many a dern and painful perch”
'Dern' means secret, hidden, or dire — a Middle English word meaning something conducted out of sight or in darkness. 'Perch' here is a measure of distance (about 5.5 yards), so 'many a dern and painful perch' means the search covered many a hard and hidden mile.
historical John Gower and the Confessio Amantis“Y-ravished the regions round”
'Y-ravished' means 'transported with delight' or 'enraptured' — not sexually violated. The 'y-' prefix is again Gower's Middle English past-participle marker. The news that Pericles is heir to Tyre filled ('ravished') the whole region with joy.
historical John Gower and the Confessio Amantis- TLN 1067classical allusion
“fortune's mood”
Fortune — the goddess Fortuna — was imagined as a fickle power who spun a great wheel, raising and casting down kings at random. Gower says 'fortune's mood / Varies again' as the fair voyage turns to storm: Fortune has abruptly changed her mind. The sea and Fortune are almost identical forces in this play.
classical Fortune and her wheel “I nill relate, action may”
'Nill' is the archaic negative of 'will' — it means 'will not.' Gower says he will not narrate what happens next; the stage action will convey it instead. The word is another marker of his deliberately antique voice.
historical John Gower and the Confessio Amantis- TLN 1082classical allusion
“Thou god of this great vast, rebuke these surges”
Pericles calls on Neptune — 'god of this great vast' (the vast sea) — to stop the storm. Neptune (Greek Poseidon) was the Roman god of the sea, storms, and earthquakes, the ruler of every wave Pericles is being thrown by.
classical Neptune, god of the sea - TLN 1091classical allusion
“Lucina, O Divinest patroness, and midwife gentle”
Lucina was the Roman goddess of childbirth — her name means 'she who brings to the light,' and she was invoked by women in labour as the divine midwife. Pericles cries out to her as his wife goes into labour in the storm, begging her to ease Thaisa's 'travails' (both 'travels' across the sea and 'travails' in labour — the word means both in Elizabethan English).
classical Lucina, goddess of childbirth - TLN 1107rhetorical device
“Why do you make us love your goodly gifts, And snatch them straight away”
Pericles challenges the gods directly — a rhetorical device called 'apostrophe,' in which a speaker addresses an absent or divine power. He argues that the gods are unjust: they give men beautiful gifts and then immediately take them back, while mortals ('we here below') by contrast do not revoke what they give ('Recall not what we give'), and can therefore claim to deal more honourably with the gods than the gods do with men.
- TLN 1114rhetorical device
“For a more blustrous birth had never babe”
Pericles's address to his newborn daughter is a blessing spoken in the form of an elegy — the four lines make a series of antitheses between the violence of her birth ('blustrous,' 'chiding,' 'the rudliest welcome') and the gentleness he wishes for her life ('mild,' 'quiet and gentle'). The rhetorical pattern is called 'antithesis,' and it names the child's defining contradiction: born of storm, she is wished into calm.
“your queen must overboard: the sea works high”
The sailors insist that a corpse aboard ship during a storm brings bad luck and that the sea will not lie still until the ship is 'cleared of the dead.' This was a widespread superstition among early modern European mariners: a body on deck was thought to anger the sea-god and prolong the storm.
“the unfriendly elements Forgot thee utterly”
Pericles laments that Thaisa cannot have a proper burial: no church, no candles, no grave, no ceremony — just a chest thrown into the sea. Elizabethans believed a Christian burial in consecrated ground was essential for the soul's dignity, and to be 'cast into the ooze' with no rite was a genuine deprivation, not merely a practical inconvenience.
“Bid Nestor bring me spices, ink and paper”
Pericles orders aromatic spices (to slow decomposition and honour the dead), writing materials, and a 'satin coffer' — a padded chest. These are the requirements for an emergency sea-burial that tries to preserve some dignity: spices embalm, the written note identifies the body, and the chest keeps it sealed. The combination also sets up the miracle of the next scene, where the caulked and sealed chest washes ashore.