The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics consider it to be one of Shakespeare's "problem plays" because the first three acts are filled with intense psychological drama, while the last two acts are comic and supply a happy ending.
The play has been intermittently popular, having been revived in productions and adaptations by some of the leading theatre practitioners in Shakespearean performance history. In the mid-18th century, after a long interval without major performances, David Garrick premiered his adaptation Florizel and Perdita. The Winter's Tale was revived again in the 19th century, when the fourth "pastoral" act was widely popular. In the second half of the 20th century, The Winter's Tale was often performed in its entirety, drawn largely from the First Folio text, with varying degrees of success.
Characters
Sicilia- Leontes – The King of Sicily, and the childhood friend of Polixenes, King of Bohemia.
- Hermione – The virtuous and beautiful Queen of Sicily.
- Camillo – An honest Sicilian nobleman.
- Paulina – A noblewoman of Sicily.
- Antigonus – Paulina's husband, and also a loyal friend of Hermione.
- Dion – A Lord of Sicily.
- Cleomenes – A Lord of Sicily.
- Mamillius – The young prince of Sicily, Leontes and Hermione's son.
- Emilia – One of Hermione's ladies-in-waiting.
- Gaoler – Charged with imprisoning Hermione.
- Mariner – His ship takes Antigonus to Bohemia.
- Polixenes – The King of Bohemia, and Leontes's childhood friend.
- Florizel – Polixenes's only son and heir.
- Perdita – The daughter of Leontes and Hermione, unaware of her royal lineage.
- Shepherd – An old and honourable sheep-tender.
- Clown – or Young Shepherd, the Old Shepherd's buffoonish son, and Perdita's adoptive brother.
- Autolycus – A roguish peddler, vagabond, and pickpocket.
- Mopsa – A shepherdess, in love with Young Shepherd.
- Dorcas – A shepherdess, in love with Young Shepherd.
- Archidamus – A lord of Bohemia, visiting Sicily with his king.
- Lords, servants, gentlemen, ladies in Sicilia
- Shepherds, shepherdesses, servants in Bohemia
Synopsis
Furious at their escape, Leontes publicly accuses his wife of infidelity and declares that the child she is bearing must be Polixenes' bastard. He throws her in prison, over the protests of his nobles, and sends two of his lords, Cleomenes and Dion, to the Oracle at Delphos for confirmation of his suspicions. Meanwhile, the queen gives birth to a girl, and her loyal friend Paulina takes the baby to the king, hoping that the sight of the child will soften his heart. He grows angrier, however, and orders Paulina's husband, Lord Antigonus, to take the child and abandon it in a desolate place. Cleomenes and Dion return from Delphos with word from the Oracle and find Hermione on trial, asserting her innocence. The Oracle states categorically that Hermione and Polixenes are innocent, that Camillo is an honest man, and that Leontes will have no heir until his lost daughter is found. Leontes refuses to believe the oracle, but soon learns that his son Mamillius has died of a wasting sickness brought on by the accusations against his mother. At this, Hermione falls in a swoon and is carried away by Paulina, who subsequently reports the queen's death to her heartbroken and repentant husband. Leontes vows to spend the rest of his days atoning for the loss of his son, his abandoned daughter, and his queen.
Antigonus, meanwhile, abandons the baby on the coast of Bohemia, reporting that Hermione appeared to him in a dream and bade him name the girl Perdita. He leaves a fardel by the baby containing gold and other trinkets to suggest that the baby is of noble blood. A violent storm suddenly appears, wrecking the ship on which Antigonus arrived. He wishes to take pity on the child, but he is chased away in one of Shakespeare's most famous stage directions: "Exit, pursued by a bear." Perdita is rescued by a shepherd and his son, also known as "Clown".
"Time" enters and announces the passage of sixteen years. Camillo, now in the service of Polixenes, begs the Bohemian king to allow him to return to Sicily. Polixenes refuses and reports to Camillo that his son, Prince Florizel, has fallen in love with a lowly shepherd girl, Perdita. He suggests to Camillo that they disguise themselves and attend the sheep-shearing feast where Florizel and Perdita will be betrothed. At the feast, hosted by the Old Shepherd, the pedlar Autolycus picks the pocket of the Young Shepherd and, in various guises, entertains the guests with bawdy songs and the trinkets he sells. Polixenes and Camillo watch, disguised, as Florizel and Perdita are betrothed. Polixenes tears off his disguise and intervenes, threatening the Old Shepherd and Perdita with torture and death and ordering his son never to see the shepherd's daughter again. Camillo, still longing for his native land, schemes to send Florizel and Perdita to Sicily, so that Polixenes will bring him along when he pursues them. The lovers take ship for Sicily, as do the two shepherds and Autolycus.
In Sicily, Leontes is still in mourning. Cleomenes and Dion plead with him to end his time of repentance because the kingdom needs an heir. Paulina, however, convinces the king to remain unmarried forever, since no woman can match the greatness of his lost Hermione. Florizel and Perdita arrive and are greeted effusively by Leontes. Florizel pretends to be on a diplomatic mission from his father, but his cover is blown when Polixenes and Camillo, too, arrive in Sicilia. The meeting and reconciliation of the kings and princes is reported by gentlemen of the Sicilian court: how the Old Shepherd raised Perdita, how Antigonus met his end, how Leontes was overjoyed at being reunited with his daughter, and how he begged Polixenes for forgiveness. The Old Shepherd and Young Shepherd, now made gentlemen by the kings, meet Autolycus, who asks them for their forgiveness for his roguery. Leontes, Polixenes, Camillo, Florizel and Perdita then go to Paulina's house in the country, where a statue of Hermione has been recently finished. The sight of his wife's form makes Leontes distraught, but then, to everyone's amazement, the statue shows signs of vitality: it is Hermione, miraculously restored to life—or simply having lived in seclusion with Paulina for the last sixteen years. As the play ends, Perdita and Florizel are engaged, and the whole company celebrates the miracle. Despite this happy ending typical of Shakespeare's comedies and romances, the impression of the unjust death of young prince Mamillius lingers to the end, which, combined with the years wasted in separation, brings an element of unredeemed tragedy to the play.
Date and text
The play was not published until the First Folio of 1623. In spite of tentative early datings, most critics believe the play is one of Shakespeare's later works, possibly written in 1610 or 1611. A 1611 date is suggested by an apparent connection with Ben Jonson's Masque of Oberon, performed at Court 1 January 1611, in which appears a dance of ten or twelve satyrs; The Winter's Tale includes a dance of twelve men costumed as satyrs, and the servant announcing their entry says "one three of them, by their own report, sir, hath danc'd before the King.". Arden Shakespeare editor J.H.P. Pafford found that "the language, style, and spirit of the play all point to a late date. The tangled speech, the packed sentences, speeches which begin and end in the middle of a line, and the high percentage of light and weak endings are all marks of Shakespeare's writing at the end of his career. But of more importance than a verse test is the similarity of the last plays in spirit and themes."In the late 18th century, Edmond Malone suggested that a "book" listed in the Stationers' Register on 22 May 1594, under the title "a Wynters nightes pastime", might have been Shakespeare's, though no copy of it is known. In 1933, Dr. Samuel A. Tannenbaum wrote that Malone subsequently "seems to have assigned it to 1604; later still, to 1613; and finally he settled on 1610–11. Hunter assigned it to about 1605."