Pericles occupies a conspicuous position in the Shakespearian corpus. The play marks its author’s departure from the tragic genre in its plot, its characterization, and the sheer time span encompassed. More importantly, however, Pericles departs from the mode of tragedy in its re-examination of the power of language, for when facing the starkness of his misfortune, Pericles refuses to speak and, thus, suppresses a mode of language which has nourished a great number of the preceding plays. When the king finally speaks, his language is no longer that of the tragic character; it is a language of amazement, surprise and celebration. Thus, the play turns upon Pericles’ resumption of speech – an action which bears a significance beyond the immediacy of the plot. The king’s speech is an affirmation of language in a much wider context, a celebration of its ability to break through the tragic vision. The question which we ask ourselves here, therefore, is most pertinent: is there a new trust in language, or rather a new vision of language’s potential to be found in this first of the romances? We shall argue that Pericles not only employs a new pattern of interchange between its characters, but that it isolates a generative principle which lies at the heart of this newly found linguistic mode.