Original: Great king,
Modern: Your Majesty,

Original: Few love to hear the sins they love to act;
Modern: People don’t like hearing about the bad things they themselves do;

Original: ‘Twould braid yourself too near for me to tell it.
Modern: It would hit too close to home for me to speak about it directly.

Original: Who has a book of all that monarchs do,
Modern: Whoever keeps a record of everything kings do,

Original: He’s more secure to keep it shut than shown:
Modern: He’s safer keeping that book closed rather than showing it to others:

Original: For vice repeated is like the wandering wind.
Modern: Because talking about wrongdoing over and over is like the wind that blows everywhere.

Original: Blows dust in other’s eyes, to spread itself;
Modern: It throws dust in people’s eyes just to spread itself around;

Original: And yet the end of all is bought thus dear,
Modern: And yet the final result costs everyone dearly,

Original: The breath is gone, and the sore eyes see clear:
Modern: The wind dies down, and the irritated eyes can finally see clearly:

Original: To stop the air would hurt them. The blind mole casts
Modern: Blocking the air would only hurt them more. The blind mole throws up

Original: Copp’d hills towards heaven, to tell the earth is throng’d
Modern: Piled-up mounds of dirt toward the sky, as if to show that the earth is crowded

Original: By man’s oppression; and the poor worm doth die for’t.
Modern: By man’s cruelty; and the poor creature dies because of it.

Original: Kings are earth’s gods; in vice their law’s their will;
Modern: Kings are like gods on earth; when they do wrong, their desires become the law;

Original: And if Jove stray, who dares say Jove doth ill?
Modern: And if the king of the gods does wrong, who dares to say he’s done something bad?

Original: It is enough you know; and it is fit,
Modern: It’s enough that you know this much; and it’s proper,

Original: What being more known grows worse, to smother it.
Modern: When something would only get worse by being more widely known, to keep it quiet.

Original: All love the womb that their first being bred,
Modern: Everyone loves the womb that first gave them life,

Original: Then give my tongue like leave to love my head.
Modern: So give my tongue the same permission to protect my own life.

In Act I, Scene 1 of “Pericles, Prince of Tyre,” Prince Pericles arrives at Antioch to attempt to win the hand of King Antiochus’s beautiful daughter in marriage. The king has set a deadly riddle as the test for suitors: solve it correctly and win the princess, but fail and face execution. The severed heads of previous unsuccessful suitors are displayed as a grim warning. When presented with the riddle, Pericles reads it and quickly realizes that it reveals the king’s incestuous relationship with his own daughter. Understanding the horrific truth, Pericles finds himself in an impossible position - he cannot give the correct answer without exposing the king’s crime and endangering his own life, nor can he give a wrong answer without facing immediate death.

Pericles attempts to diplomatically withdraw from the challenge, speaking in riddles himself to indicate his understanding without directly stating the terrible truth. King Antiochus grows suspicious of Pericles’s evasive responses and grants him forty days to provide a definitive answer, while secretly plotting the prince’s death. Realizing the mortal danger he faces, Pericles flees Antioch immediately. Meanwhile, Antiochus dispatches his lord Thaliard with orders to murder Pericles, offering a reward for the prince’s death. The scene establishes the central conflict that will drive Pericles into exile and set the entire tragic and redemptive journey of the play in motion.

Pericles, Prince of Tyre follows the wandering journey of Prince Pericles across the Mediterranean. The play opens with Pericles fleeing Antioch after discovering that King Antiochus is engaged in an incestuous relationship with his daughter. Fearing for his life, Pericles leaves his kingdom of Tyre in the care of his trusted advisor Helicanus and sets sail. He arrives in Tarsus during a famine, where he provides grain to the starving people, earning the gratitude of Governor Cleon and his wife Dionyza.

Continuing his travels, Pericles is shipwrecked near Pentapolis, where he washes ashore and participates in a tournament to win the hand of Thaisa, daughter of King Simonides. Pericles wins both the tournament and Thaisa’s love, and they marry. However, news arrives that Antiochus and his daughter have died, making it safe for Pericles to return to Tyre. During the sea voyage home, Thaisa gives birth to a daughter during a violent storm but appears to die in childbirth. The sailors insist her body must be cast overboard, so Pericles places her in a sealed coffin and commits it to the sea.

Thaisa’s coffin washes ashore in Ephesus, where the physician Cerimon revives her. Believing her husband and child are dead, she becomes a priestess in Diana’s temple. Meanwhile, Pericles leaves his infant daughter Marina with Cleon and Dionyza in Tarsus, asking them to raise her. Fourteen years pass, and Marina grows into a beautiful and virtuous young woman, causing Dionyza’s own daughter to pale in comparison. Jealous, Dionyza orders Marina’s murder, but pirates capture her before the deed is done and sell her to a brothel in Mytilene.

In the brothel, Marina’s purity and eloquence convert clients to virtue rather than vice, eventually leading to her release and employment as a teacher. When Pericles returns to Tarsus, Cleon and Dionyza show him a false tomb, claiming Marina died of natural causes. Grief-stricken, Pericles becomes a hermit aboard his ship. His vessel eventually arrives in Mytilene, where the governor Lysimachus brings Marina aboard to cure the melancholy stranger through music. Father and daughter recognize each other, leading to joyful reunion. The goddess Diana then appears to Pericles in a vision, directing him to her temple in Ephesus, where he is reunited with Thaisa. The play concludes with Marina’s betrothal to Lysimachus.