Pericles, Prince of Tyre — Act 5, Scene 4: Epilogue

Gower returns to close the story by summing up its moral examples. He contrasts Antiochus’s incest and Pericles’s tested virtue, saying that Pericles, his queen, and his daughter were preserved by heaven despite severe trials. He praises Helicanus as a model of truth and loyalty, and Cerimon as an example of learned charity. He then explains that once the truth about Cleon and Dionyza’s crime became known, the people turned against them and burned their palace, treating even their intended murder as enough to deserve divine punishment. Gower ends by thanking the audience for their patience and dismissing the play with a final wish for joy.