SOURCE: Bicks, Caroline. “Backsliding at Ephesus: Shakespeare's Diana and the Churching of Women.” In Pericles: Critical Essays, edited by David Skeele, pp. 205-27. New York: Garland Publishing, 2000.

In the following essay, Bicks detects references in Pericles to the tension surrounding the practice of traditional Catholic rituals as practiced in the reformed Church of England in the early 1600s. In particular, Bicks points out dramatic episodes that echo the controversy over church ceremonies involving women after childbirth.

Our lodgings, standing bleak upon the sea, Shook as the earth did quake; The very principals did seem to rend, And all to topple. Pure surprise and fear Made me to quit the house. 

(Pericles, 3.2.14-18)¹

Such an ordinarie service as yours is for every private woman … hath, in my opinion, neither legges nor foundation to stande on. 

(Certaine Questions … concerning Churching of Women, 1601)

When Shakespeare's Thaisa awakens from her burial at...