Background
This romance draws on the old tale of Apollonius of Tyre and survives with a complex textual history. Many scholars discuss collaboration, including a possible role for George Wilkins, so authorship should be presented as debated rather than certain.
Reading notes
- Use Gower’s appearances to orient yourself when the story jumps in time or place.
- Track the repeated motifs of travel, loss, and recognition.
- Notice how the play uses theater and music to make reunion feel like a recovery from hardship.
Version note
Text source: the Standard Ebooks EPUB edition identified on this page. This site extracted the English text and retained the source edition’s chapter order. Public-domain status must be checked for the territory where the text will be distributed.