The Pattern of Painful Adventures

For the 2008 play, see The Pattern of Painful Adventures (radio play).

The Pattern of Painful Adventures (1576) is a prose novel.^[1] A later edition, printed in 1607 by Valentine Simmes and published by Nathaniel Butter, was a source for William Shakespeare's play Pericles, Prince of Tyre.^[2] There was at least one intermediate edition, around 1595.^[3]

It was a translation by Lawrence Twine of the tale of Apollonius of Tyre from John Gower's Confessio Amantis (in Middle English verse). It is also said to be translated from a French version.^[4] William Henry Schofield stated that Shakespeare used both sources.^[5]