Pericles
So here’s the numerical breakdown…
- 2329 total lines; shorter than the average (play: 2768; romance: 2658)
- none of its scenes is the longest of its kind in the Canon
- Act Four, Scene Five is the shortest of its kind in the Canon (9 lines). NOTE: Pericles contains choric speeches for Acts Four and Five, which are shorter than those of Henry V.
- Act One: 485 lines; shorter than average (play: 582; romance: 572)
- Act Two: 532 lines; shorter than average (play: 567, romance: 493)
- Act Three: 310 lines; much shorter than average (play: 576; romance: 451)
- Act Four: 602 lines; slightly longer than the average play: 560, but slightly shorter than the average romance: 610
- Act Five: 445 lines; much shorter than average (play: 484, romance: 533)
- 443 lines of prose (25.56% of total lines, which is less than average play: 26.32%, but more than the average romance: 19.85%); compare with The Comedy of Errors: 13.31%, Titus Andronicus: 1.39%, The Taming of the Shrew: 20.82%, 1HenryVI: 0.37%, 2HenryVI: 16.64%, 3HenryVI: 0.14%, Richard III: 2.89%, Love’s Labor’s Lost: 35.08%, The Two Gentlemen of Verona: 26.81%, A Midsummer Night’s Dream: 19.75%, Romeo and Juliet: 14.18%, King John: 0.0%, The Merchant of Venice: 21.79%, Richard II: 0%, 1HenryIV: 44.7%, 2HenryIV: 50.36%, HenryV: 40.89%, Merry Wives: 88.20%, As You Like It: 56.12%, Much Ado: 77.78%, Caesar: 7.47%, Twelfth: 64.44%, Hamlet: 27.33%, Troilus: 32.30%, All’s Well: 48.20%, Measure: 41.40%, Othello: 19.96%, King Lear: 26.28%, Macbeth: 8.19%, Antony and Cleopatra: 10.92%, and Timon: 25.56%)
- 443 rhyming lines (19.02% of total lines, which is far more than the average [play: 8.35% and romance: 8.54%]; compare with Comedy: 20.10%, Titus: 2.42%, Taming: 3.93%, 1HenryVI: 9.79%, 2HenryVI: 3.16%, 3HenryVI: 5.37%, Richard III: 7.55%, LLL: 40.86%, 2Gents: 35.08%, Midsummer: 43.5%, Romeo: 16.61%, King John: 6.19%, Merchant: 5.16%, Richard II: 18.95%, 1HenryIV: 1.04%, 2HenryIV: 2.32%, HenryV: 1.80%, Merry Wives: 3.79%, As You Like It: 10.87%, Much Ado: 2.43%, Caesar: 0.41%, Twelfth: 6.09%, Hamlet: 4.91%, and Troilus: 5.40%, All’s Well: 9.05%, Measure: 3.16%, Othello: 3.09%, King Lear: 4.02%, Macbeth: 12.58%, Antony and Cleopatra: 0.99%, and Timon: 5.33%)
- 28 scenes; many more than average (plays: 21; romance: 20)
- 46 characters; many more than the average (plays: 36; romance: 35)
Check out our “by the numbers” breakdown as an infographic!
