Pericles

King Antiochus has issued a challenge to any suitor proposing marriage to his daughter: answer a seemingly-impossible riddle correctly, or die. Pericles, the Prince of Tyre, discovers the answer to the puzzle, but in doing so, he unearths the incestuous relationship between the king and his daughter. Pericles decides not to reveal the truth, and King Antiochus gives him forty days before his execution. When Antiochus hears that the prince has fled back to Tyre, he sends an assassin after him.At the advice of his councilor, Helicanus, Pericles plans to travel until Antiochus no longer wants to kill him. On his journeys he encounters a brutal storm that leaves him shipwrecked in Pentapolis.This play draws from many sources: Confessio Amantis by John Gower (who appears in the play as the chorus), The Odyssey, Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, and Plutarch's Lives. The themes of separated families and mistaken death refer back to Shakespeare's earlier plays, like The Comedy of Errors.

William Shakespeare (c. 23 April 1564[b] - 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" or simply "the Bard". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.