A Year of Shakespeare

Pericles, Act IV: Scenes: 1-6

In which the fair and virtuous Marina, devout, of noble birth, classically trained and with gentle soul, is subjected to the following for the general delight and amusement of all:

• Scorn from her guardian “mother”
• Envy from her guardian “sister”
• Pity from the masses
• Attempted murder by her supposed guardian mother
• Actual murder (by poison) of her nurse since infancy
• Kidnap by pirates while being murdered
• Sale at highest cost to a whorehouse due to her virgin virtues
• Ridicule and spite for her attempt to preserve said virtues
• Abandonment by the governor who disguises himself like a highly paying customer (because virgins don’t come cheap), reveals his moral stance at the last second (it’s up in the air for awhile there), tosses her gold to… buy her way out? and conveniently disappears when he could actually, you know, rescue her
• Pimping by the whorehouse madam as a freebie to the bordello prick on condition that he rid her of that annoying naiveté
• Attempted rape by the rogue named “Shaft”

Keep it classy, Will.

The good news is, I think I finally found the genre: Elizabethan torture porn.

The bad news is, um, gimme outta here.

Try reading this one in the courtyards of Notre Dame!

This entry was posted on 2010/02/13 at 9:43 am and is filed under Pericles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.