Thus the germs of all his latest works lie in this unjustly neglected and despised play, which has suffered under a double disadvantage: it is not entirely Shakespeare's work, and in such portions of it as are his own there exist, in the dark shadow cast by her hideous surroundings about Marina, traces of that gloomy mood from which he was but just emerging. But for all that, whether we look upon it as a contribution to Shakespeare's biography or as a poem, this beautiful and remarkable fragment, Pericles, is a work of the greatest interest.[3]
[1] The complete title runs thus:—"The late, and much admired Play, called Pericles, Prince of Tyre, with the true Relation of the whole History, adventures, and fortunes of the said Prince: As also, The no lesse strange and worthy accidents, in the Birth and Life of his Daughter MARIANA. As it hath been diuers and sundry times acted by his Maiesties Seruants, at the Globe on the Bancside. By William Shakespeare. Imprinted at London for Henry Gosson, and are to be sold at the Signe of the Sunne in Paternoster Row. 1609."
[2]The Triar Table determines their order thus:—
| Troilus and Cressida | 1606-7 |
| Antony and Cleopatra | 1606-7 |
| Coriolanus | 1607-8 |
| Timon of Athens. | 1607-8 |
[3] Delius: Ueber Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Jahrbuch der deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, iii. 175-205; F. G. Fleay: On the Play of Pericles. The New Shakspere Society's Transactions, 1874, 195-254; Swinburne: A Study of Shakespeare, p. 206; Gervinus: Shakespeare, vol. i. 187, and Elze: Shakespeare, p. 409, still believe Pericles to be a work of Shakespeare's youth.