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The Winter's Tale
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The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems and an extensive introduction. The Winter's Tale is one of Shakespeare's most varied, theatrically self-conscious, and emotionally wide-ranging plays. Much of the play's copiousness inheres in its generic intermingling of tragedy, comedy, romance, pastoral, and the history play. In addition to dates and sources, the introduction attends to iterative patterns, the nature and cause of Leontes' jealousy, the staging and meaning of the bear episode, and the thematic and structural implications of the figure of Time. Special attention is paid to the ending and its tempered happiness. Performance history is integrated throughout the introduction and commentary. Appendices include the theatrical practice of doubling.
The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems and an extensive introduction. The Winter's Tale is one of Shakespeare's most varied, theatrically self-conscious, and emotionally wide-ranging plays. Much of the play's copiousness inheres in its generic intermingling of tragedy, comedy, romance, pastoral, and the history play. In addition to dates and sources, the introduction attends to iterative patterns, the nature and cause of Leontes' jealousy, the staging and meaning of the bear episode, and the thematic and structural implications of the figure of Time. Special attention is paid to the ending and its tempered happiness. Performance history is integrated throughout the introduction and commentary. Appendices include the theatrical practice of doubling.
306 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1623
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About the author
William Shakespeare
27.6k books46.9k followersWilliam Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".
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March 4, 2025
Going to start saying “Exit pursued by bear” every time I leave a room so if you never see me again you’ll always wonder…
This is a delightfully bonkers little tale of the late Shakespeare era and forgiveness becomes a large and lovely theme. Which like, this is quite the act of forgiveness as Leontes is so insecure it practically ends his entire bloodline. Don’t be like Leontes, friends.
But perhaps do be a whimsically weird fella like my guy Autolycus! Because apparently you can be a ‘roguish peddler’ and pickpocket as long as you are a cool and charismatic one. And sort of save the day? What a guy.
Read this as it is the favorite Shakespearean work by my favorite writer, Jeanette Winterson, and in preparation to read The Gap of Time (review HERE). Fun, quirky, and kind of all over the place, this is a charming play.
This is a delightfully bonkers little tale of the late Shakespeare era and forgiveness becomes a large and lovely theme. Which like, this is quite the act of forgiveness as Leontes is so insecure it practically ends his entire bloodline. Don’t be like Leontes, friends.
But perhaps do be a whimsically weird fella like my guy Autolycus! Because apparently you can be a ‘roguish peddler’ and pickpocket as long as you are a cool and charismatic one. And sort of save the day? What a guy.
Read this as it is the favorite Shakespearean work by my favorite writer, Jeanette Winterson, and in preparation to read The Gap of Time (review HERE). Fun, quirky, and kind of all over the place, this is a charming play.
May 29, 2019
Something for Shakespeare In The Park, maybe?
“Good my Lord, be cured of this diseased opinion, and betimes, for ‘tis most dangerous.”
That is the well-meant advice Camillo gives the delusional King Leontes, whose whims and flawed imagination are about to destroy his family and his kingdom. Needless to say, the all-powerful king does not listen. The drama unfolds with predictably disastrous effects, as the most powerful person is at the same time the most self-indulgent, paranoid and mentally underdeveloped. His entourage, knowing the danger of speaking truth to power, resigns itself to the doctrine:
“I dare not know, my Lord.”
The main plot is one of jealousy and impulsive decisions, but there is a deeper, sadder truth underneath the raging king’s machinations.
“A sad tale’s best for winter”, king Leontes’ young son tells his mother, before both become victims of the “tremor cordis” that deprives the king of his judgment.
What happened?
The king’s good friend Polixenes wants to leave after a stay at the court, and Leontes fails to convince him to prolong his visit. He therefore asks his wife, Hermione, to do her best to talk him into staying, and when she succeeds, he can’t believe it is due to her rhetorical skills. Instead, he believes that his friend and wife have an affair.
As absurd as it may sound, Leontes perseveres in this position, to the point of charging Hermione with treason, while claiming to support a “just and open trial”.
The justice and openness, however, turn into “fake news” and “alternative truths” when the oracle (the higher power of the law), does not confirm the king’s delusion, but frees his innocent wife of all accusations. Leontes overrides the law, acting according to his emotionally unstable mind, but with full executive power:
“Your actions are my dreams. You
Had a bastard by Polixenes
And I but dreamed it. As you
Were past all shame - Those
Of your fact are so - so past
All truth.”
Reading this during the sad winter’s tale that is unfolding in our world of 2017, I feel almost nauseous. It is painful to see the bizarre misogyny that leads men in most of Shakespeare’s plays to destroy women’s and children’s lives because they can, despite often being ethically and intellectually as well as psychologically weaker than the Shakespearean women.
They are however physically stronger and at the centre of executive power, and this is not something I can shrug off anymore, putting it under the heading “Something that people used to think over 400 years ago”.
This is still very much the status quo in (too) many parts of the world.
When Virginia Woolf imagined the career of a talented, fictional sister of Shakespeare’s, in her essay A Room of One's Own, she showed all the obstacles that the Shakespeare sister would have stumbled over to make her fail where her male counterpart succeeded, simply for being a woman. Had she shown the rhetorical skills of Hermione, men would have accused her of plagiarism, of adultery, or something else, maybe “unwomanly” behaviour.
Men, in Shakespeare’s world, take what they want, when they need it, and think later:
“I am a feather for each wind that blows”, King Leontes says.
Of course he is punished for overthrowing the higher law of the oracle. Sixteen years - that gap of time - he has to expiate his rash behaviour, before the tragedy turns into comedy, and he deserves a second chance, reunited with his daughter, and with his wife, magically come alive again in an Pygmalionesque act of turning art into life.
All’s Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare seems to say, and his cast walks off stage with the promise of filling in “the gap of time”, telling each other the stories of their lives during those miserable sixteen years of pain, until Leontes’ reason sets everything right again.
I can’t help disagreeing. I see the tragedy unfolding with perfect clarity. I admire the accuracy with which Shakespeare depicted the folly of the powerful, surrounded by friends, but besieged by his own poisoned mind. I can see the helplessness and despair of women, children and servants who are without protection against this abuse. And I can see some kind of reconciliation at the end of the tunnel, after “a gap of time”. BUT!
It is not all well that ends well. There is the sacrifice of the young son, who listened to his mother’s sad winter’s tale, not knowing that he had reached the premature winter of his own short life. And there is good-hearted Antigonus, who saves the baby girl Perdita, Leontes’ child, which he wants to see killed in the delusion that it is his friend’s bastard. Antigonus dies, earning long-lasting fame for his dramatic departure:
“Exit, pursued by a bear!”
Even if tyranny does not last, it is not acceptable to let mad, hormone-driven narcissistic old men exert power until time makes them more reasonable from within themselves.
Whenever an environment is created where people feel “they dare not know”, with all that implies of actual (secret) knowledge, it has already gone too far, and something must be done, without “a gap of time”. Collective amnesia or ignorance is not an option!
Unfortunately, Shakespeare’s first three acts, labelled tragedy, were more convincing and realistic than the last two, the comedy which needs a “deus ex machina” Pygmalion moment to force a happy end.
What can be done? We can’t rely on Shakespeare’s genius to write a better ending to the tragedy of madness and power, can we?
But he, as always, saw it clear and put it into unforgettable language!
Recommended to: THE WORLD! (For we have more madmen - and women - than we can bear!)
Exeo, pursued by a (night)mare!
“Good my Lord, be cured of this diseased opinion, and betimes, for ‘tis most dangerous.”
That is the well-meant advice Camillo gives the delusional King Leontes, whose whims and flawed imagination are about to destroy his family and his kingdom. Needless to say, the all-powerful king does not listen. The drama unfolds with predictably disastrous effects, as the most powerful person is at the same time the most self-indulgent, paranoid and mentally underdeveloped. His entourage, knowing the danger of speaking truth to power, resigns itself to the doctrine:
“I dare not know, my Lord.”
The main plot is one of jealousy and impulsive decisions, but there is a deeper, sadder truth underneath the raging king’s machinations.
“A sad tale’s best for winter”, king Leontes’ young son tells his mother, before both become victims of the “tremor cordis” that deprives the king of his judgment.
What happened?
The king’s good friend Polixenes wants to leave after a stay at the court, and Leontes fails to convince him to prolong his visit. He therefore asks his wife, Hermione, to do her best to talk him into staying, and when she succeeds, he can’t believe it is due to her rhetorical skills. Instead, he believes that his friend and wife have an affair.
As absurd as it may sound, Leontes perseveres in this position, to the point of charging Hermione with treason, while claiming to support a “just and open trial”.
The justice and openness, however, turn into “fake news” and “alternative truths” when the oracle (the higher power of the law), does not confirm the king’s delusion, but frees his innocent wife of all accusations. Leontes overrides the law, acting according to his emotionally unstable mind, but with full executive power:
“Your actions are my dreams. You
Had a bastard by Polixenes
And I but dreamed it. As you
Were past all shame - Those
Of your fact are so - so past
All truth.”
Reading this during the sad winter’s tale that is unfolding in our world of 2017, I feel almost nauseous. It is painful to see the bizarre misogyny that leads men in most of Shakespeare’s plays to destroy women’s and children’s lives because they can, despite often being ethically and intellectually as well as psychologically weaker than the Shakespearean women.
They are however physically stronger and at the centre of executive power, and this is not something I can shrug off anymore, putting it under the heading “Something that people used to think over 400 years ago”.
This is still very much the status quo in (too) many parts of the world.
When Virginia Woolf imagined the career of a talented, fictional sister of Shakespeare’s, in her essay A Room of One's Own, she showed all the obstacles that the Shakespeare sister would have stumbled over to make her fail where her male counterpart succeeded, simply for being a woman. Had she shown the rhetorical skills of Hermione, men would have accused her of plagiarism, of adultery, or something else, maybe “unwomanly” behaviour.
Men, in Shakespeare’s world, take what they want, when they need it, and think later:
“I am a feather for each wind that blows”, King Leontes says.
Of course he is punished for overthrowing the higher law of the oracle. Sixteen years - that gap of time - he has to expiate his rash behaviour, before the tragedy turns into comedy, and he deserves a second chance, reunited with his daughter, and with his wife, magically come alive again in an Pygmalionesque act of turning art into life.
All’s Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare seems to say, and his cast walks off stage with the promise of filling in “the gap of time”, telling each other the stories of their lives during those miserable sixteen years of pain, until Leontes’ reason sets everything right again.
I can’t help disagreeing. I see the tragedy unfolding with perfect clarity. I admire the accuracy with which Shakespeare depicted the folly of the powerful, surrounded by friends, but besieged by his own poisoned mind. I can see the helplessness and despair of women, children and servants who are without protection against this abuse. And I can see some kind of reconciliation at the end of the tunnel, after “a gap of time”. BUT!
It is not all well that ends well. There is the sacrifice of the young son, who listened to his mother’s sad winter’s tale, not knowing that he had reached the premature winter of his own short life. And there is good-hearted Antigonus, who saves the baby girl Perdita, Leontes’ child, which he wants to see killed in the delusion that it is his friend’s bastard. Antigonus dies, earning long-lasting fame for his dramatic departure:
“Exit, pursued by a bear!”
Even if tyranny does not last, it is not acceptable to let mad, hormone-driven narcissistic old men exert power until time makes them more reasonable from within themselves.
Whenever an environment is created where people feel “they dare not know”, with all that implies of actual (secret) knowledge, it has already gone too far, and something must be done, without “a gap of time”. Collective amnesia or ignorance is not an option!
Unfortunately, Shakespeare’s first three acts, labelled tragedy, were more convincing and realistic than the last two, the comedy which needs a “deus ex machina” Pygmalion moment to force a happy end.
What can be done? We can’t rely on Shakespeare’s genius to write a better ending to the tragedy of madness and power, can we?
But he, as always, saw it clear and put it into unforgettable language!
Recommended to: THE WORLD! (For we have more madmen - and women - than we can bear!)
Exeo, pursued by a (night)mare!
November 22, 2019
A masterpiece, demonstrating how grace redeems and love restores over time.
This play features one of Shakespeare's most interesting psychological studies (Leontes) and two of his most charming heroines (Hermione and Perdita). Shakespeare's art has deepened to the point where he can deliberately choose an outrageously improbable denouement and present it in a way that makes his play more moving and richer symbolically than it would have been with a more probable conclusion.
February 17, 2017
“A sad tale’s best for winter”
An incredible potpourri of comedy, tragedy and fantasy that once again defies categorization. Dramatic realism comes through in the form of an obsessively jealous king, reminiscent of well-known Othello, the complex relationships between parents and children, as in King Lear or Hamlet, mystical resonance in Greek legends that contemplate sculptures turning into human beings, recalling the Christian concept of resurrection, and a lush, floral poetry that evokes the romanticism of the classic pastorals. All these apparently discordant features, which would easily create a muddled hotchpotch nine out of ten times, converge into an exuberant tale in the hands of the Bard.
Hermione and Paulina have joined the list of my favorite female characters by Shakespeare, particularly the last one, who speaks her mind in front of the king and remains loyal to the queen, even when she is unjustly punished by chance in the form of an exotic bear that has a brief appearance in the middle of Act 3. Even Perdita, who like Miranda in "The Tempest" is presented as a nothing more than a beautiful maiden of a marriageable age, is surrounded by a sensuous aura that charms and bewitches the reader with the musical cadence of her soliloquies.
Leaving the supernatural elements aside and the not so cohesive presentation in terms of action, time or location, Shakespeare appeals to the redeeming power of virtue and repentance to have a second opportunity to mend past mistakes, elevating art and love to cathartic forces that can perform miracles, the lost can be found again and be given a warm embrace back home, even in the coldest of winters.
“What’s gone, and what’s past help,
Should be past grief.”
An incredible potpourri of comedy, tragedy and fantasy that once again defies categorization. Dramatic realism comes through in the form of an obsessively jealous king, reminiscent of well-known Othello, the complex relationships between parents and children, as in King Lear or Hamlet, mystical resonance in Greek legends that contemplate sculptures turning into human beings, recalling the Christian concept of resurrection, and a lush, floral poetry that evokes the romanticism of the classic pastorals. All these apparently discordant features, which would easily create a muddled hotchpotch nine out of ten times, converge into an exuberant tale in the hands of the Bard.
Hermione and Paulina have joined the list of my favorite female characters by Shakespeare, particularly the last one, who speaks her mind in front of the king and remains loyal to the queen, even when she is unjustly punished by chance in the form of an exotic bear that has a brief appearance in the middle of Act 3. Even Perdita, who like Miranda in "The Tempest" is presented as a nothing more than a beautiful maiden of a marriageable age, is surrounded by a sensuous aura that charms and bewitches the reader with the musical cadence of her soliloquies.
Leaving the supernatural elements aside and the not so cohesive presentation in terms of action, time or location, Shakespeare appeals to the redeeming power of virtue and repentance to have a second opportunity to mend past mistakes, elevating art and love to cathartic forces that can perform miracles, the lost can be found again and be given a warm embrace back home, even in the coldest of winters.
“What’s gone, and what’s past help,
Should be past grief.”
September 23, 2018
Image of Dench and Branagh, 2016: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/da...
Reviews of audio books count, so I guess watching a play should, too. Perhaps more so, as that was the author's intended medium.
I saw a stage production of The Winter's Tale a few days after finishing Jeanette Winterson's modern novelisation, The Gap of Time, which I reviewed HERE.
My mother tells me I saw the play in my late teens, but I have no memory of it. My knowledge of the plot was from Winterson's summary and then her adaptation.
I enjoyed the play, but it was odder than I expected (I see now that it's usually categorised as one of the "problem plays" because it is both tragedy and comedy). Many of the key events happen off-stage (e.g. deaths), though it does have the famous stage direction, “Exit, pursued by bear”.
Somehow, it worked, though.
1. Royal Tragedy
Act one establishes a happy family and a happy court, before things rapidly disintegrate through the tragic and alarming madness of the King Leontes, obsessed by the lie that his pregnant wife’s baby is that of his childhood friend.
The steadfastness of his wife is admirable and moving, though it perhaps stretches credulity. Or maybe I’m just not as hopeful, loving, or forgiving as Hermione. Nevertheless, those are entirely positive attributes.
More problematic, are the unpalatable, immoral, and illegal actions demanded of some, under the guise of loyalty to their king. Zimbardo’s infamous Stanford Prison experiment and Milgram’s obedience experiments came to mind.
Death comes to the court, and profound loss in addition to that.
2. Bucolic Comedy
The second act fast forwards sixteen years to a lively sheep-shearing festival, young love vetoed, and some comic routines from a pickpocket/peddler, amongst others.
The more subtle theme (emphasised far more strongly in Winterson’s version) is about the goodness that can be found in ordinary people – selfless love, whether of an adult for a foundling, or between young people, not thinking of wealth or social position (or their lack of).
3. Revelations, Resolution, Redemption?
It ends with revelations, resolution, and a transformation that might be magic, an hallucination, or a straightforward trick.
Forgiveness.
A happy ending that is another reason why this is no tragedy. But it is strange.
December 21, 2025
A winter of the heart descends upon a weak-minded king, setting in motion a sequence of potentially tragic events that unfold against a fantastical background. Such is the tableau that unfolds for the reader in William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.
The Winter's Tale was composed late in Shakespeare’s career - probably around 1610 or 1611, shortly before his retirement from the London stage; and it is a good example of the category of plays that are known as Shakespeare's “romances.” These later Shakespeare plays – The Tempest and Cymbeline, King of Britain and Pericles, Prince of Tyre are other good examples – do not fit neatly within categories such as comedy, tragedy, or history, the way so many of Shakespeare's earlier plays did. Rather, Shakespeare's romances take places within a dreamlike landscape, and seem designed to evoke a mystical, otherworldly feel.
And with Shakespeare’s theatre company enjoying by that time the official patronage of King James I, that company, now the “King’s Men,” would have had the resources to create elaborate stage sets that would have reinforced the audience’s sense of stepping into a fantasy world radically different from the harsh workaday world within which they lived.
The plot has a somewhat dreamlike and frankly illogical quality that is suitable to the fantasy genre. And it is a fairly grim plot; as the young prince Mamillius of Sicilia puts it, “A sad tale's best for winter.” Leontes, King of Sicilia, has received his boyhood friend Polixenes, King of Bohemia, on a state visit. When Leontes' wife Hermione successfully helps Leontes persuade Polixenes to extend his stay in Sicilia, Leontes suddenly, and unjustly, suspects that Hermione and Polixenes are having an affair.
As with Shakespeare’s earlier tragedy Othello, the invocation of jealousy brings with it the prospect of violence; Camillo, a lord of Sicilia, is ordered by Leontes to have Polixenes killed, but disobeys that unjust order and warns Polixenes. Knowing the danger he faces, Polixenes, who is often of a philosophical cast of mind - at one point, he states that "Nature is made better by no mean/But nature makes that mean" - leaves at once for Bohemia, and Camillo joins him, willingly going into a long exile.
The plot grows more complex from there. When Leontes says, “I am a feather for each wind that blows,” he speaks more truly than he knows; he is at the mercy of his turbulent emotions that create misery for many in his kingdom. It seems that nothing will turn Leontes from his irrational jealousy – until a sudden change of mind occurs in a dramatic courtroom scene.
By the time Leontes finally sees the error of his ways, it seems as though all must end unhappily; but this is a romance, where not all is as it appears, and things can change suddenly. There is a case of thwarted love in Bohemia – in this case, the love of the Bohemian prince Florizel for the Sicilian princess Perdita, a modest and blushing “queen of curds and cream” who has been brought up in exile as a humble shepherdess. The love-struck Florizel tells Perdita that "When you do dance, I wish you/A wave of the sea, that you might ever do/Nothing but that." Complications attendant upon this thwarted love make for a second flight-into-exile - this time, going the other way, west from Bohemia to Sicilia. And it is in Sicilia that (almost) all that went wrong will be made well.
This is how I would film The Winter's Tale, had I the chance and the production budget. The setting would have a Cold War look to it. For the first three acts, I would film in that grainy, color-desaturated look from the days of Walter Cronkite's late-1960's news broadcasts for CBS. For Acts IV and V, after sixteen years have passed, I would film using the same kind of video that one saw on CNN news broadcasts from the early 1980's – rich color saturation, really deep reds, slightly hazy outlines. Leontes' palace in Sicilia would have a definite White House look to it, with kings and courtiers going about in expensive suits and power ties. The seaport in Sicilia would become Dulles Airport, with Saarinen's immortal swept-wing design. The court of justice in Sicilia would look decidedly like the U.S. Supreme Court.
The palace of Polixenes in Bohemia, by contrast, would have a distinctly Kremlin-esque appearance. There would be Cyrillic lettering everywhere; Bohemia could become the Union of Bohemian Socialist Republics, or Союз Богемских Социалистических Республик. There would be red banners wherever one looks, “socialist realism” art at every turn, “The Internationale” constantly playing over loudspeakers. (It is in Bohemia, by the way, in Act III Scene III, that one sees what may be Shakespeare's most famous stage direction, as the actor playing the unfortunate Sicilian lord Antigonus is instructed to “Exit, pursued by a bear.”) It would be a fun way to emphasize the play's move from West to East and back again.
As always, Shakespeare had his eyes on all sectors of his audience; the well-to-do who could afford to pay for seats in the gallery would no doubt enjoy the intrigue of two royal courts, while the “groundlings” standing out in the open, in what passed for a mosh pit in the England of King James I, would enjoy the misdoings of the robbery-minded rogue Autolycus, who unapologetically describes himself as “a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles”.
The Winter's Tale is not among Shakespeare's greatest plays, but it is fun, energetic, and interesting. And then there is the poetry. There is always Shakespeare's incomparable poetic language.
The Winter's Tale was composed late in Shakespeare’s career - probably around 1610 or 1611, shortly before his retirement from the London stage; and it is a good example of the category of plays that are known as Shakespeare's “romances.” These later Shakespeare plays – The Tempest and Cymbeline, King of Britain and Pericles, Prince of Tyre are other good examples – do not fit neatly within categories such as comedy, tragedy, or history, the way so many of Shakespeare's earlier plays did. Rather, Shakespeare's romances take places within a dreamlike landscape, and seem designed to evoke a mystical, otherworldly feel.
And with Shakespeare’s theatre company enjoying by that time the official patronage of King James I, that company, now the “King’s Men,” would have had the resources to create elaborate stage sets that would have reinforced the audience’s sense of stepping into a fantasy world radically different from the harsh workaday world within which they lived.
The plot has a somewhat dreamlike and frankly illogical quality that is suitable to the fantasy genre. And it is a fairly grim plot; as the young prince Mamillius of Sicilia puts it, “A sad tale's best for winter.” Leontes, King of Sicilia, has received his boyhood friend Polixenes, King of Bohemia, on a state visit. When Leontes' wife Hermione successfully helps Leontes persuade Polixenes to extend his stay in Sicilia, Leontes suddenly, and unjustly, suspects that Hermione and Polixenes are having an affair.
As with Shakespeare’s earlier tragedy Othello, the invocation of jealousy brings with it the prospect of violence; Camillo, a lord of Sicilia, is ordered by Leontes to have Polixenes killed, but disobeys that unjust order and warns Polixenes. Knowing the danger he faces, Polixenes, who is often of a philosophical cast of mind - at one point, he states that "Nature is made better by no mean/But nature makes that mean" - leaves at once for Bohemia, and Camillo joins him, willingly going into a long exile.
The plot grows more complex from there. When Leontes says, “I am a feather for each wind that blows,” he speaks more truly than he knows; he is at the mercy of his turbulent emotions that create misery for many in his kingdom. It seems that nothing will turn Leontes from his irrational jealousy – until a sudden change of mind occurs in a dramatic courtroom scene.
By the time Leontes finally sees the error of his ways, it seems as though all must end unhappily; but this is a romance, where not all is as it appears, and things can change suddenly. There is a case of thwarted love in Bohemia – in this case, the love of the Bohemian prince Florizel for the Sicilian princess Perdita, a modest and blushing “queen of curds and cream” who has been brought up in exile as a humble shepherdess. The love-struck Florizel tells Perdita that "When you do dance, I wish you/A wave of the sea, that you might ever do/Nothing but that." Complications attendant upon this thwarted love make for a second flight-into-exile - this time, going the other way, west from Bohemia to Sicilia. And it is in Sicilia that (almost) all that went wrong will be made well.
This is how I would film The Winter's Tale, had I the chance and the production budget. The setting would have a Cold War look to it. For the first three acts, I would film in that grainy, color-desaturated look from the days of Walter Cronkite's late-1960's news broadcasts for CBS. For Acts IV and V, after sixteen years have passed, I would film using the same kind of video that one saw on CNN news broadcasts from the early 1980's – rich color saturation, really deep reds, slightly hazy outlines. Leontes' palace in Sicilia would have a definite White House look to it, with kings and courtiers going about in expensive suits and power ties. The seaport in Sicilia would become Dulles Airport, with Saarinen's immortal swept-wing design. The court of justice in Sicilia would look decidedly like the U.S. Supreme Court.
The palace of Polixenes in Bohemia, by contrast, would have a distinctly Kremlin-esque appearance. There would be Cyrillic lettering everywhere; Bohemia could become the Union of Bohemian Socialist Republics, or Союз Богемских Социалистических Республик. There would be red banners wherever one looks, “socialist realism” art at every turn, “The Internationale” constantly playing over loudspeakers. (It is in Bohemia, by the way, in Act III Scene III, that one sees what may be Shakespeare's most famous stage direction, as the actor playing the unfortunate Sicilian lord Antigonus is instructed to “Exit, pursued by a bear.”) It would be a fun way to emphasize the play's move from West to East and back again.
As always, Shakespeare had his eyes on all sectors of his audience; the well-to-do who could afford to pay for seats in the gallery would no doubt enjoy the intrigue of two royal courts, while the “groundlings” standing out in the open, in what passed for a mosh pit in the England of King James I, would enjoy the misdoings of the robbery-minded rogue Autolycus, who unapologetically describes himself as “a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles”.
The Winter's Tale is not among Shakespeare's greatest plays, but it is fun, energetic, and interesting. And then there is the poetry. There is always Shakespeare's incomparable poetic language.
August 28, 2017
*Read for class!
May 29, 2019
"Exit, pursued by a bear" is the most famous stage direction in literature. It comes here in Winter's Tale, at the end of Act III, and it's famous because it's funny.
And the really funny thing is it's been a hella dark play until this moment. What happened is King Leontes has become suddenly and irrationally convinced that his wife is cheating on him (like Othello, with some Lear), so he thinks his infant daughter isn't his, so he orders her exposed in the wilderness to die, and the guy who drops her off, Antigonus, immediately gets chased off screen by the bear. It's conceivable that Shakespeare used a real bear. Antigonus
That stage direction marks a shift: the bear chases tragedy off screen, and brings comedy in with him. Act IV moves forward 16 years and shifts radically into silliness - and porniness, too: the dialogue between Florizel and Perdita is some of Shakespeare's hornier work. A tinker shows up bearing "such delicate burdens of dildos and fadings," and fadings means orgasms and dildos means dildos, so if you're wondering where dildos pop up first in literature it's Aristophanes but here's this too.
Act IV is not really very good: it's confusing, full of characters and subplots that aren't remotely necessary. And that tonal shift is jarring. This is sometimes called one of Shakespeare's "problem plays": the bummer rug gets pulled out from under us when it ends happily, and we're left unsure what to make of it. Queen Hermione And after all, Prince Mamillius
It's a little unsatisfying. But it sticks with you; it leaves an impression. "I am a feather for each wind that blows," complains Leontes, and the play feels a little like that too. But it's an interesting wind.
And the really funny thing is it's been a hella dark play until this moment. What happened is King Leontes has become suddenly and irrationally convinced that his wife is cheating on him (like Othello, with some Lear), so he thinks his infant daughter isn't his, so he orders her exposed in the wilderness to die, and the guy who drops her off, Antigonus, immediately gets chased off screen by the bear. It's conceivable that Shakespeare used a real bear. Antigonus
That stage direction marks a shift: the bear chases tragedy off screen, and brings comedy in with him. Act IV moves forward 16 years and shifts radically into silliness - and porniness, too: the dialogue between Florizel and Perdita is some of Shakespeare's hornier work. A tinker shows up bearing "such delicate burdens of dildos and fadings," and fadings means orgasms and dildos means dildos, so if you're wondering where dildos pop up first in literature it's Aristophanes but here's this too.
Act IV is not really very good: it's confusing, full of characters and subplots that aren't remotely necessary. And that tonal shift is jarring. This is sometimes called one of Shakespeare's "problem plays": the bummer rug gets pulled out from under us when it ends happily, and we're left unsure what to make of it. Queen Hermione And after all, Prince Mamillius
It's a little unsatisfying. But it sticks with you; it leaves an impression. "I am a feather for each wind that blows," complains Leontes, and the play feels a little like that too. But it's an interesting wind.
July 26, 2019
This is a story of male friendship. We have the king of Sicily, Leontes, and the king of Bohemia, Polixenes indulging their fondness for each other. From the very outset, we see how these two friends socialize and enjoy the pleasures of being together. Even if they both have wives in tow (however, Prolixness is visiting Leontes without his queen), it is still a queer friendship. For instance, they both are kings, but Polixenes have the time to spend nine months with Leontes. Conventionally, this would have made more sense, had he actually been in love with the Leontes' queen, Hermione. But this is not the case, he is in the kingdom of Sicily only because of Leontes. Their bond is unique; it is based on loyalty, concern, and tenderness for each.
Clearly, in those times, it must have been difficult for men, especially for noblemen– more so for the Kings– to love other men the way they could keep any number of women. But there must be a way, there must have been spaces where homosexual-urges could find nourishment. This is not to suggest that the kings in the play are sexually involved, but to say that their friendship has a distinct flavor of same-sex love to it.
After spending nine months together, Polixenes wants to return to his kingdom. (Such a long stay in the case of a king was itself odd. One would have understood such a carefree, long sojourn if they were both poets, or at least one of them was). One wonders how could Polixenes stay such a long time with Leontes. Who looked after his kingdom, his queen?
Now when he wants to leave, Leontes does not want him to go. As if being a king, having a wonderful queen Hermione and all the pleasures that come with it are not enough for Leontes, as if his life would be less on his friend's departure. Even after having him for long, Leontes is not sated. He begs Polixenes to extend his stay. These pleadings are the pleadings of a lover. When his pleadings do not work, Leontes involves his wife and asks her to intervene and implore Prolixenes to prolong his stay. This works, but finally, this has severe consequences. Leontes turns suspicious and wonders how come Prolixenes agreed so readily to stay on the requests of the queen and ignored his pleas.
These freakish thoughts tinged with jealousy again tell us about the dynamics of his relationship with Prolixenes. He becomes furious less like a friend, more like a spurned lover– whose love interest has somehow ditched him by giving in to the beseechings of Hermione; something that is withheld from him. In reality, Polixenes might have been moved by the queen's request to stay; as if her asking him validates, in some fundamental way, his friendship with Leontes (Sadly, such a possibility never occurred to Leontes, in his passion and blinded involvement, he could not see it).
However, once the jealousy and doubt emerge, they cloud Leontes' mind entirely, and he commits atrocities of the most ignoble kind. But the play, at last, ends happily. The unmistakable hints of same-sex love (if not an outright homosexual relationship) that we see in the first few acts are finally subsumed in the final act. The Princess meets his Prince, The King his Queen, and somewhere in the background, 'a male friendship' is restored. In other words, the straight narrative exerts itself in the final act and takes center stage, whereas the unruly male friendship is pushed to the margins.
December 19, 2025
The Winter's Tale is a late romantic play by William Shakespeare. Even though the play is listed under the comedy genre, it blends elements of tragedy and comedy to make it a tragicomedy. Not only does the play defy genre, but it also blurs the line between reality and fantasy. Altogether, The Winter's Tale has received a different treatment compared to Shakespeare's other romantic plays.
The first three acts of the play generate a sense of tragedy. Leontes, the King of Sicilia, in his unwarranted jealousy, unleashes a chain of events that ends in grief for the King and the Kingdom. The final two acts work towards reconciliation, culminating in a happy ending, thus providing the play with elements of comedy. Thematically, the play is partly intense psychological drama, and partly magic and mystery combined with romance.
To begin with, I didn't much enjoy the reality-fantasy combination. They weren't in harmony with each other. One didn't complement the other. I didn’t feel that dream-like, ethereal quality that is so often produced by such a combination. Then, the unwarranted jealousy of the King of Sicilia was ridiculous. There was no proper cause to arouse such passionate jealousy in him. The tragic elements built on the absurd premise didn't quite capture me. But the turn of events in Act Three lifted my dampened spirit, and I was able to enjoy the rest.
Having said that, I honestly think my problem with this play is that I expected something different from what Shakespeare offered. I imagined a wintry atmosphere, but instead, received a wintry tone! If there is anyone to blame for it, I have only to look in the mirror. :)
More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/
The first three acts of the play generate a sense of tragedy. Leontes, the King of Sicilia, in his unwarranted jealousy, unleashes a chain of events that ends in grief for the King and the Kingdom. The final two acts work towards reconciliation, culminating in a happy ending, thus providing the play with elements of comedy. Thematically, the play is partly intense psychological drama, and partly magic and mystery combined with romance.
To begin with, I didn't much enjoy the reality-fantasy combination. They weren't in harmony with each other. One didn't complement the other. I didn’t feel that dream-like, ethereal quality that is so often produced by such a combination. Then, the unwarranted jealousy of the King of Sicilia was ridiculous. There was no proper cause to arouse such passionate jealousy in him. The tragic elements built on the absurd premise didn't quite capture me. But the turn of events in Act Three lifted my dampened spirit, and I was able to enjoy the rest.
Having said that, I honestly think my problem with this play is that I expected something different from what Shakespeare offered. I imagined a wintry atmosphere, but instead, received a wintry tone! If there is anyone to blame for it, I have only to look in the mirror. :)
More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/
June 11, 2018
The BBC does an amazing job with this audiobook. As for the story, I really wish the king had gotten far more of comeuppance for his bad behavior.
August 7, 2025
The green-eyed monster so said the incomparable Bard, William Shakespeare which definitely applies here, stating it mildly first in Otello now The Winter's Tale. The usual situation of a husband not trusting his wife causing great love turning into passionate hate, suspicion, phantoms seem real, whispers in the dark believed, gossips spread until the ear of the king, Leontes reached. Queen Hermione though innocent but how can she prove this? The consequences follow heavily, the beautiful straight road turns crooked, and the thick fog falls for an indeterminate time maybe forever. In the kingdom on Sicily, wise Leontes becomes paranoid, things quickly cascading, the unreal becomes too real, loyal friends questioned, are they that? Leontes hurts and revenge is his sole thought, Polixenes the king of Bohemia, suspected seducer of Hermione never minds the two monarchs are childhood friends. Pride wins out and explodes into sheer madness when his former friend King Polixenes with help from surprise, Sicilian lord Camillo flees just in the nick of time back home. A man with a conscious, he could not kill a guiltless supposed bastard baby girl not even for his ruler. Meeting on the road the charming rogue Autolycus, love or hate him, a likable villain for some, conman for others, the victims particularly, are not of that rather dubious opinion,
a thief for sure, no gentleman to be honest, will rob you without compulsion yet he dominates the proceedings. Giving needed laughs to an otherwise too serious plot is welcomed indeed. In Sicily Leontes jails pretty wife who just gave birth recently to his he thinks questionable daughter Perdita, as a result Prince Mamillius the heir to the throne becomes seriously ill not the last evil occurrence in court. Can you imagine a queen raised in luxury, with obedient maids all bowing to her, ending up imprisoned in filth. But things are unclear not quite solid in appearance the story could be a figment as Shakespeare manipulates the narrative and the clouds finally lifts, the sharp picture soon forms, and the reader understands. The play while it isn't the best or most famous from the master, however, still produces genuine entertainment and also examples of what not to do. Reiterating a work which has numerous unpleasant aspects nevertheless for many fans of the author is well worth looking at, as for a me a veteran who has consumed eighteen products of the playwright no big complaints.
a thief for sure, no gentleman to be honest, will rob you without compulsion yet he dominates the proceedings. Giving needed laughs to an otherwise too serious plot is welcomed indeed. In Sicily Leontes jails pretty wife who just gave birth recently to his he thinks questionable daughter Perdita, as a result Prince Mamillius the heir to the throne becomes seriously ill not the last evil occurrence in court. Can you imagine a queen raised in luxury, with obedient maids all bowing to her, ending up imprisoned in filth. But things are unclear not quite solid in appearance the story could be a figment as Shakespeare manipulates the narrative and the clouds finally lifts, the sharp picture soon forms, and the reader understands. The play while it isn't the best or most famous from the master, however, still produces genuine entertainment and also examples of what not to do. Reiterating a work which has numerous unpleasant aspects nevertheless for many fans of the author is well worth looking at, as for a me a veteran who has consumed eighteen products of the playwright no big complaints.
January 20, 2020
You can see Shakespeare getting darker and darker as he ages. I would despair if I didn't know two of his best plays are still to come.
One thing you do notice is that Shakespeare understands redemption. He offers it to even the worst tyrants. Not many writers are brave enough to that.
#20for2020reads A Shakespeare Play 1
One thing you do notice is that Shakespeare understands redemption. He offers it to even the worst tyrants. Not many writers are brave enough to that.
#20for2020reads A Shakespeare Play 1
February 24, 2011
Abridged version: (inspired by Madeline's great abridged versions)
Act I
LEONTES, KING OF SICILY: You are my bestest friend since childhood, Polixenes!
POLIXENES, KING OF BOHEMIA: You are my bestest friend too, Leontes! But it’s been 9 months and, y’know, I need to get home to my kingdom and son and all.
KING LEONTES: NOOOOOO. I need you in my life! Stay, stay!
QUEEN HERMIONE: I agree with my husband.
KING POLIXENES: Well, shucks, fine, I’ll stay a little longer.
KING LEONTES: MY WIFE IS A CHEATING WHORE.
CAMILLO: Wait, what?
KING LEONTES: Kill Polixenes! The only reason he’s staying is because of the queen! They’re totally doing it behind my back!
CAMILLO: Hey, Polixenes, you might want to skiddaddle. Leontes is in a killing mood.
KING POLIXENES: Yeah, I’m just going to bounce. Queen Hermione should totally be okay. Laters!
Act II
KING LEONTES: YOU ARE A DIRTY WHORE HERMIONE! AND THE BABY YOU’RE CARRYING IS DEFINITELY POLIXENES’ BASTARD!
QUEEN HERMIONE: What?
NOBLES: What?
KING LEONTES: TO THE JAIL WITH YOU, WOMAN!
*Queen Hermione goes to jail and gives birth*
KING LEONTES: BURN THE BASTARD BABY!
ANTIGONUS: Yeah, I’m going to have to say no to that one.
KING LEONTES: OKAY THEN ABANDON IT IN THE WOODS.
ANTIGONUS: That I can do.
Act III
QUEEN HERMIONE: I’m innocent!
KING LEONTES: LIES!
APOLLO'S ORACLE: The queen’s innocent. Polixenes is innocent. King Leontes is a tyrant.
KING LEONTES: LIES!
SERVANT: Your son died!
KING LEONTES: Apollo is totes angry I accused him of lying! My bad! My wife is totally innocent.
*Queen Hermione dies of grief*
KING LEONTES: D’oh!
ANTIGONUS: Baby-abandoning time! Well, my job’s done so I guess I’m going to be killed off.
*Exit, pursued by a bear* [actual stage direction!]
SHEPHERD: Ooh, a baby! And gold! Shiny!
Act IV
TIME: Sixteen years pass! Whee! King Leontes’ daughter, Perdita, is raised by the shepherd and grows up pretty. King Polixenes’ son, Florizel, grows up a romantic.
FLORIZEL: I love you!
PERDITA: I love you more!
FLORIZEL: Let’s get married!
KING POLIXENES *in disguise*: What would your father say about this?
Florizel: There’s a reason I’m not telling him.
KING POLIXENES: *takes off disguise* Darn straight there’s a reason! Death to the Shepherd! Mauling for Perdita! Disinheritance if you ever speak of the shepherd’s daughter again!
FLORIZEL: That is so unfair! I don’t want to be the stupid king of your stupid kingdom anyway! We’re going to elope!
*Perdita and Florizel run off to King Leontes’ court*
Act V
KING LEONTES: My dead wife was the most perfect, angelic, saint-like woman ever!
*Perdita and Florizel arrive*
FLORIZEL: I am totally not eloping with a shepherdess.
KING LEONTES: Aww, what a sweet couple.
LORD: Florizel’s father is here. And Florizel is totally eloping with a shepherdess.
KING LEONTES: Let’s go talk to your father, Florizel.
FLORIZEL: Aw man.
RANDOM EXTRAS: King Leontes’ finding out Perdita was his lost daughter and reuniting with her was so touching. Too bad the audience couldn’t see it! We’ll just talk about how the Shepherd showed up and revealed Perdita’s true heritage and King Leontes and King Polixenes became friends again and now Perdita and Florizel can get married and everyone cried from happiness.
PERDITA: Let's all go see my mother’s statue!
QUEEN HERMIONE'S STATUE: I came to life! Or maybe I was never dead and was just pretending to be a statue! Who knows! Happy endings all around!
Actual review: This is one of the more cracked-out Shakespeare plays I've read, what with the random bear-chasing (and devouring!) and the maybe-statue-coming-to-life/maybe-Hermione-just-pretending-to-be-a-statue thing. I didn't like King Leonte's random wife-accusing. At least Othello was convinced by the devious Iago that his wife was cheating. King Leontes came up with his insane troll logic by himself. I also tend to have a problem with Shakespeare's comedies in general. I think they can be hilarious when performed, but they really rely on good comedic timing/acting that just does not translate when you're reading it by yourself. I was intrigued by the unrepentant rogue Autolycus (cut from the abridged version) because he revels in his badness. I think a good actor could make him incredibly fun.
Act I
LEONTES, KING OF SICILY: You are my bestest friend since childhood, Polixenes!
POLIXENES, KING OF BOHEMIA: You are my bestest friend too, Leontes! But it’s been 9 months and, y’know, I need to get home to my kingdom and son and all.
KING LEONTES: NOOOOOO. I need you in my life! Stay, stay!
QUEEN HERMIONE: I agree with my husband.
KING POLIXENES: Well, shucks, fine, I’ll stay a little longer.
KING LEONTES: MY WIFE IS A CHEATING WHORE.
CAMILLO: Wait, what?
KING LEONTES: Kill Polixenes! The only reason he’s staying is because of the queen! They’re totally doing it behind my back!
CAMILLO: Hey, Polixenes, you might want to skiddaddle. Leontes is in a killing mood.
KING POLIXENES: Yeah, I’m just going to bounce. Queen Hermione should totally be okay. Laters!
Act II
KING LEONTES: YOU ARE A DIRTY WHORE HERMIONE! AND THE BABY YOU’RE CARRYING IS DEFINITELY POLIXENES’ BASTARD!
QUEEN HERMIONE: What?
NOBLES: What?
KING LEONTES: TO THE JAIL WITH YOU, WOMAN!
*Queen Hermione goes to jail and gives birth*
KING LEONTES: BURN THE BASTARD BABY!
ANTIGONUS: Yeah, I’m going to have to say no to that one.
KING LEONTES: OKAY THEN ABANDON IT IN THE WOODS.
ANTIGONUS: That I can do.
Act III
QUEEN HERMIONE: I’m innocent!
KING LEONTES: LIES!
APOLLO'S ORACLE: The queen’s innocent. Polixenes is innocent. King Leontes is a tyrant.
KING LEONTES: LIES!
SERVANT: Your son died!
KING LEONTES: Apollo is totes angry I accused him of lying! My bad! My wife is totally innocent.
*Queen Hermione dies of grief*
KING LEONTES: D’oh!
ANTIGONUS: Baby-abandoning time! Well, my job’s done so I guess I’m going to be killed off.
*Exit, pursued by a bear* [actual stage direction!]
SHEPHERD: Ooh, a baby! And gold! Shiny!
Act IV
TIME: Sixteen years pass! Whee! King Leontes’ daughter, Perdita, is raised by the shepherd and grows up pretty. King Polixenes’ son, Florizel, grows up a romantic.
FLORIZEL: I love you!
PERDITA: I love you more!
FLORIZEL: Let’s get married!
KING POLIXENES *in disguise*: What would your father say about this?
Florizel: There’s a reason I’m not telling him.
KING POLIXENES: *takes off disguise* Darn straight there’s a reason! Death to the Shepherd! Mauling for Perdita! Disinheritance if you ever speak of the shepherd’s daughter again!
FLORIZEL: That is so unfair! I don’t want to be the stupid king of your stupid kingdom anyway! We’re going to elope!
*Perdita and Florizel run off to King Leontes’ court*
Act V
KING LEONTES: My dead wife was the most perfect, angelic, saint-like woman ever!
*Perdita and Florizel arrive*
FLORIZEL: I am totally not eloping with a shepherdess.
KING LEONTES: Aww, what a sweet couple.
LORD: Florizel’s father is here. And Florizel is totally eloping with a shepherdess.
KING LEONTES: Let’s go talk to your father, Florizel.
FLORIZEL: Aw man.
RANDOM EXTRAS: King Leontes’ finding out Perdita was his lost daughter and reuniting with her was so touching. Too bad the audience couldn’t see it! We’ll just talk about how the Shepherd showed up and revealed Perdita’s true heritage and King Leontes and King Polixenes became friends again and now Perdita and Florizel can get married and everyone cried from happiness.
PERDITA: Let's all go see my mother’s statue!
QUEEN HERMIONE'S STATUE: I came to life! Or maybe I was never dead and was just pretending to be a statue! Who knows! Happy endings all around!
Actual review: This is one of the more cracked-out Shakespeare plays I've read, what with the random bear-chasing (and devouring!) and the maybe-statue-coming-to-life/maybe-Hermione-just-pretending-to-be-a-statue thing. I didn't like King Leonte's random wife-accusing. At least Othello was convinced by the devious Iago that his wife was cheating. King Leontes came up with his insane troll logic by himself. I also tend to have a problem with Shakespeare's comedies in general. I think they can be hilarious when performed, but they really rely on good comedic timing/acting that just does not translate when you're reading it by yourself. I was intrigued by the unrepentant rogue Autolycus (cut from the abridged version) because he revels in his badness. I think a good actor could make him incredibly fun.
August 22, 2023
Leontes, King of Sicily, is convinced that his queen, Hermione, is pregnant with King Polixenes of Bavaria's child. He is mistaken. His wild jealousy kills both his son and the defamed queen. He casts off what he thinks is his illegitimate daughter, but she survives. Some years later we find ourselves on the "shores" of Bohemia — modern Bohemia is landlocked. It’s the kingdom of Polyxenes, the queen's imaginary lover. Then the reader gets into the low Rabelaisen humor provided by Autolycus and the Clown. Ah, and then the love story. Soon we wind up back in Sicily with the repentant Leontes, his daughter grown and now betrothed to the crown prince of Bohemia. Then there's the strangely moving resurrection of Hermione. . . .
But this is just plot. And as we know, reading for plot alone is to almost entirely miss a literary work's richest pleasures. Read, too, for the dazzling music of the language. It's poetry.
But this is just plot. And as we know, reading for plot alone is to almost entirely miss a literary work's richest pleasures. Read, too, for the dazzling music of the language. It's poetry.
February 10, 2017
When I read this in High School last, I believed that I loved it more than all the other Shakespeare plays combined, and it still holds a ton of charm for me now, although not quite as much as before.
For one, the thief was slightly more annoying than as a charming plot device.
For another, it's hard to believe that even divorce could be so reconciled. :)
Granted, this is an almost magical divorce, so why not ramp up the reconciliation to wipe away the tragedy of a child's death, the loss of the newborn as well, the wrongful accusation and downfall of a true wife, and his betrayal of his loyal servant JUST BECAUSE he's been regretting all his actions for 20 years?
It's a very strong story if we're meant to feel pity for the old man. He regains everything except his eldest child because he was sincere in his remorse. It's damn beautiful, even, but in the end it's pure fantasy.
This was written at the end of Shakespeare's career and it was possibly meant to be his own expression of remorse. It fits the narrative, anyway, in the same way that Mozart wrote his own Requiem.
However, from an alternative reading of the text, I can't help but hate the blasé disregard for Hermione, the way she quietly retired away out of anyone's company for 20 years after the events (or she really did die and come back as a reanimated statue, which is slightly more palatable because at least she wouldn't have been so bored or lonely,) or the way that the rest of the world could even ALLOW THESE EVENTS TO HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE.
*groan*
Look. I'm just upset at the state of the world here. I suppose Shakespeare is upset about it as well. After all, he focuses the second act entirely upon letting young people choose who they want to love and paint all other choices as tyrannical, and Perdita herself certainly knows her own mind, so it's not all black-and-white in the play. Her mother also knew her own mind when she used her wits to do as her husband bade, too, but we all know how that turned out.
Double-standards and insane jealousy seems to be the name of the game for us all, no? *sigh*
Still, it's undeniably a brilliant play. :)
For one, the thief was slightly more annoying than as a charming plot device.
For another, it's hard to believe that even divorce could be so reconciled. :)
Granted, this is an almost magical divorce, so why not ramp up the reconciliation to wipe away the tragedy of a child's death, the loss of the newborn as well, the wrongful accusation and downfall of a true wife, and his betrayal of his loyal servant JUST BECAUSE he's been regretting all his actions for 20 years?
It's a very strong story if we're meant to feel pity for the old man. He regains everything except his eldest child because he was sincere in his remorse. It's damn beautiful, even, but in the end it's pure fantasy.
This was written at the end of Shakespeare's career and it was possibly meant to be his own expression of remorse. It fits the narrative, anyway, in the same way that Mozart wrote his own Requiem.
However, from an alternative reading of the text, I can't help but hate the blasé disregard for Hermione, the way she quietly retired away out of anyone's company for 20 years after the events (or she really did die and come back as a reanimated statue, which is slightly more palatable because at least she wouldn't have been so bored or lonely,) or the way that the rest of the world could even ALLOW THESE EVENTS TO HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE.
*groan*
Look. I'm just upset at the state of the world here. I suppose Shakespeare is upset about it as well. After all, he focuses the second act entirely upon letting young people choose who they want to love and paint all other choices as tyrannical, and Perdita herself certainly knows her own mind, so it's not all black-and-white in the play. Her mother also knew her own mind when she used her wits to do as her husband bade, too, but we all know how that turned out.
Double-standards and insane jealousy seems to be the name of the game for us all, no? *sigh*
Still, it's undeniably a brilliant play. :)
August 1, 2017
Book Review
I will begin this review of The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare by saying a few things to keep it in context:
1. I read this play back in my junior year of college as part of my Shakespeare course. The course was 15 weeks long and held on Saturday mornings at 9am. I had no option but to take it at this time. As a junior, even though I was quite studious, I also liked to have some fun... and Friday nights were a key period of fun... I may or may not (no confessions here) have not quite turned 21 yet... but did enjoy a few drinks (that's all I will say) on Friday evenings. And then I had to go to class the next morning.
2. In this Shakespeare course, we read 1 play each week, wrote a paper on it, and then discussed it from 9 to 12. This was a really difficult course mostly due to the advanced nature of the analysis, the ruthless professor (whom I actually was quite close with) and the time it was held. Towards the end, The Winter's Tale was one of those 15 plays... and by the grace of every single deity out there, this was not one I had to present or do a major paper on. We wrote 5 major papers, 5 small papers and 5 journal entries. I got lucky and this was a journal entry.
3. It did not capture my attention for all of the above reasons, but also because it was a little too "out there" for me. I love most of Shakespeare's work, but this was not one I could engage with. It was written towards the end of his career and probably one of his better masterpieces, given everything he learned over his prolific career. But the play had so many themes, sub-plots and topics, I was just a bit overwhelmed.
4. If this is the first review you're reading from me, you should have stopped earlier and read some different ones before this one. I rarely give a 5 out, only when my life has been changed as a result of reading it. I only give a 1 out of it should never have been published. So in the scale of 2 to 4... 4 is a strong recommendation to read it and a 3 is your generally good book. I haven't given many 2's out either, but this one is on the border of 2 or a 3, but my memory yells at me to give it a 2. I suppose I should re-read it... but why? There are definitely other great works of literature before I'd go back to read something I didn't much care for.
That said... I've given you very little in this review other than to re-count a tale of my college experience and a time when I couldn't connect with a book. I'm sorry Mr. Shakespeare. I'm sorry book review readers. This one just fell too flat for me to even put more energy into describing all the reasons why.
About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. Note: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators.
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I will begin this review of The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare by saying a few things to keep it in context:
1. I read this play back in my junior year of college as part of my Shakespeare course. The course was 15 weeks long and held on Saturday mornings at 9am. I had no option but to take it at this time. As a junior, even though I was quite studious, I also liked to have some fun... and Friday nights were a key period of fun... I may or may not (no confessions here) have not quite turned 21 yet... but did enjoy a few drinks (that's all I will say) on Friday evenings. And then I had to go to class the next morning.
2. In this Shakespeare course, we read 1 play each week, wrote a paper on it, and then discussed it from 9 to 12. This was a really difficult course mostly due to the advanced nature of the analysis, the ruthless professor (whom I actually was quite close with) and the time it was held. Towards the end, The Winter's Tale was one of those 15 plays... and by the grace of every single deity out there, this was not one I had to present or do a major paper on. We wrote 5 major papers, 5 small papers and 5 journal entries. I got lucky and this was a journal entry.
3. It did not capture my attention for all of the above reasons, but also because it was a little too "out there" for me. I love most of Shakespeare's work, but this was not one I could engage with. It was written towards the end of his career and probably one of his better masterpieces, given everything he learned over his prolific career. But the play had so many themes, sub-plots and topics, I was just a bit overwhelmed.
4. If this is the first review you're reading from me, you should have stopped earlier and read some different ones before this one. I rarely give a 5 out, only when my life has been changed as a result of reading it. I only give a 1 out of it should never have been published. So in the scale of 2 to 4... 4 is a strong recommendation to read it and a 3 is your generally good book. I haven't given many 2's out either, but this one is on the border of 2 or a 3, but my memory yells at me to give it a 2. I suppose I should re-read it... but why? There are definitely other great works of literature before I'd go back to read something I didn't much care for.
That said... I've given you very little in this review other than to re-count a tale of my college experience and a time when I couldn't connect with a book. I'm sorry Mr. Shakespeare. I'm sorry book review readers. This one just fell too flat for me to even put more energy into describing all the reasons why.
About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. Note: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators.
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October 31, 2022
I haven't delved into Shakespeare for such a long time, and although this was one of the last plays he wrote, it was mostly an enjoyable experience. I do need to state that I'm am in love with Shakespeare's style of writing. It really is wonderfully witty, and I don't get tired of reading it.
The characters and the themes within this play were carefully crafted, and I found myself very interested in the story, but the overall quality was slightly lacking, in comparison to some of the other plays I've read.
A couple of my favourite excerpts;
"Exit, pursued by a bear"
"Is this nothing?
Why then the world and all that’s in’t is nothing:
The covering sky is nothing, Bohemia nothing,
My wife is nothing, nor nothing have these nothings,
If this be nothing."
The characters and the themes within this play were carefully crafted, and I found myself very interested in the story, but the overall quality was slightly lacking, in comparison to some of the other plays I've read.
A couple of my favourite excerpts;
"Exit, pursued by a bear"
"Is this nothing?
Why then the world and all that’s in’t is nothing:
The covering sky is nothing, Bohemia nothing,
My wife is nothing, nor nothing have these nothings,
If this be nothing."
May 15, 2016
“Exit, pursued by a bear.”
Shakespeare’s most famous stage direction is perhaps the most famous, or infamous, stage direction in drama.
Beyond the odd line, this is a fun, meaningful play and one of The Bard’s more unusual dramatic comedies.
The story of a jealous husband falls far short of Othello, both in scale and in depth. This has moments, Hermione's soliloquy, Antigone's plea to Leontes, but also very disjointed and with a crazy ending! (and apparently geography was not an exact science back in the day).
“I do feel it gone,
But know not how it went”
Shakespeare’s most famous stage direction is perhaps the most famous, or infamous, stage direction in drama.
Beyond the odd line, this is a fun, meaningful play and one of The Bard’s more unusual dramatic comedies.
The story of a jealous husband falls far short of Othello, both in scale and in depth. This has moments, Hermione's soliloquy, Antigone's plea to Leontes, but also very disjointed and with a crazy ending! (and apparently geography was not an exact science back in the day).
“I do feel it gone,
But know not how it went”
June 23, 2020
CUENTO DE INVIERNO de William Shakespeare
"Y tu, diosa Naturaleza? Que la has hecho
tan parecida al padre, si puedes ordenarle
también la inteligencia, no le mezcles
el amarillo de los celos con los otros colores,
para que jamás sospeche, como el padre,
que sus hijos no son de su marido."
No pensé que esta obra me iba a gustar tanto, jaja, no conocía nada ni siquiera el nombre lo había oído. Pero como siempre Shakespeare tiene algo bueno para contar dije elegiré uno quizás uno desconocido: "Troilo y Crésida", "Cimbelino", "Cuento de invierno" ¿o quizás una de sus grandes tragedias? Como "Antonio y Cleopatra" me decepcionó un poco le di la oportunidad a esta obra no tan conocida y vaya que me gustó más que una que le gana en popularidad como "La tempestad".
La historia es larga y con diferentes tiempos. Al inicio conocemos a Leontes, rey de Sicilia que está casado con la reina Hermiona quien es muy bella y además aparenta ser una mujer muy dulce y respetuosa. Polixeno, el rey de Bohemia es un gran amigo de Leontes y lo quiere como un hermano pero la aproximación entre Polixeno y Hermiona hace sospechar a Leontes de que algo malo se traen entre ambos, para ello recurrirá a la ayuda de su servidor Camilo quien de corazón noble tendrá que, durante toda la historia, tomar muchas decisiones trascendentales. Por otro lado tenemos al buen Antígono cuya esposa así mismo, Paulina, es una gran amiga de la reina y buscará siempre su beneficio por encima incluso de la potestad del rey absolutista.
Le he puesto cinco estrellas por las emociones que tiene que no son pocas, tiene de tragedia y también de drama e incluso el viaje temporal aunque al inicio me disgustó y pensé que podría arruinar la obra salió bien ejecutado. Lamento algunas cosas como el hecho de que la reconciliación final no haya sido puesta a escena sino más que todo referida por terceros. El final mismo también es un poco desconcertante. A veces he reprochado cuando veo elementos mágicos en las obras de teatro que rompen un esquema real o viceversa pero habiendo leído tantas cosas como ésas ya no me sorprende mucho y puedo tolerarlas en el contexto.
Sentimientos como los celos, venganza, nobleza, amor, lealtad y muchos otros son tratados aquí en una muy buena construcción, difícil como siempre las veo en muchas obras de Shakespeare.
"Y tu, diosa Naturaleza? Que la has hecho
tan parecida al padre, si puedes ordenarle
también la inteligencia, no le mezcles
el amarillo de los celos con los otros colores,
para que jamás sospeche, como el padre,
que sus hijos no son de su marido."
No pensé que esta obra me iba a gustar tanto, jaja, no conocía nada ni siquiera el nombre lo había oído. Pero como siempre Shakespeare tiene algo bueno para contar dije elegiré uno quizás uno desconocido: "Troilo y Crésida", "Cimbelino", "Cuento de invierno" ¿o quizás una de sus grandes tragedias? Como "Antonio y Cleopatra" me decepcionó un poco le di la oportunidad a esta obra no tan conocida y vaya que me gustó más que una que le gana en popularidad como "La tempestad".
La historia es larga y con diferentes tiempos. Al inicio conocemos a Leontes, rey de Sicilia que está casado con la reina Hermiona quien es muy bella y además aparenta ser una mujer muy dulce y respetuosa. Polixeno, el rey de Bohemia es un gran amigo de Leontes y lo quiere como un hermano pero la aproximación entre Polixeno y Hermiona hace sospechar a Leontes de que algo malo se traen entre ambos, para ello recurrirá a la ayuda de su servidor Camilo quien de corazón noble tendrá que, durante toda la historia, tomar muchas decisiones trascendentales. Por otro lado tenemos al buen Antígono cuya esposa así mismo, Paulina, es una gran amiga de la reina y buscará siempre su beneficio por encima incluso de la potestad del rey absolutista.
Le he puesto cinco estrellas por las emociones que tiene que no son pocas, tiene de tragedia y también de drama e incluso el viaje temporal aunque al inicio me disgustó y pensé que podría arruinar la obra salió bien ejecutado. Lamento algunas cosas como el hecho de que la reconciliación final no haya sido puesta a escena sino más que todo referida por terceros. El final mismo también es un poco desconcertante. A veces he reprochado cuando veo elementos mágicos en las obras de teatro que rompen un esquema real o viceversa pero habiendo leído tantas cosas como ésas ya no me sorprende mucho y puedo tolerarlas en el contexto.
Sentimientos como los celos, venganza, nobleza, amor, lealtad y muchos otros son tratados aquí en una muy buena construcción, difícil como siempre las veo en muchas obras de Shakespeare.
November 26, 2017
“It is an heretic that makes the fire,
Not she which burns in't.”
- Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale
It starts out as a problem play and ends up a problematic, pastoral mess. First, I should disclose, and probably have before, that I'm not a fan of Shakespeare's plays with songs. I'd even complain about the songs in A Midsummer Nights Dream if it wasn't such a damn fine play. But my main issue with this play isn't the music, the play is just uneven. It starts off crazynuts (in a good way): a mad/jealous king striking out at everything (friends, wives, counselors) and it moves through: lost and found children, mistaken identities, and reconciliations/reincarnations. However, it all ties off a bit TOO easy. I'm sure the uneven melodrama might play well in front of an half-drunk audience, I just didn't buy it. It left me feeling a bit cheap and used. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to laugh, grumble, or clap at the end. Meh. I'd probably give the play two stars except for the use of dildos (‘Jump her and thump her’?) and bears in the play. I guess, if you are going to throw EVERYTHING into a play, you might as well toss in sex toys and Ursus Shakespearimus.
Favorite Quotes:
"Is this nothing?
Why then the world and all that’s in’t is nothing:
The covering sky is nothing, Bohemia nothing,
My wife is nothing, nor nothing have these nothings,
If this be nothing."
- Act 1, Scene 2
“I have drunk,
And seen the spider.”
- Act 2, Scene 1
"The silence often of pure innocence
Persuades when speaking fails."
- Act 2, Scene 2
"Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance"
- Act 4, Scene 4
“Age, thou hast lost thy labor.”
- Act 4, Scene 4
"I am ashamed. Does not the stone rebuke me
For being more stone than it?"
- Act 5, Scene 2
Exit, pursued by a bear.
Not she which burns in't.”
- Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale
It starts out as a problem play and ends up a problematic, pastoral mess. First, I should disclose, and probably have before, that I'm not a fan of Shakespeare's plays with songs. I'd even complain about the songs in A Midsummer Nights Dream if it wasn't such a damn fine play. But my main issue with this play isn't the music, the play is just uneven. It starts off crazynuts (in a good way): a mad/jealous king striking out at everything (friends, wives, counselors) and it moves through: lost and found children, mistaken identities, and reconciliations/reincarnations. However, it all ties off a bit TOO easy. I'm sure the uneven melodrama might play well in front of an half-drunk audience, I just didn't buy it. It left me feeling a bit cheap and used. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to laugh, grumble, or clap at the end. Meh. I'd probably give the play two stars except for the use of dildos (‘Jump her and thump her’?) and bears in the play. I guess, if you are going to throw EVERYTHING into a play, you might as well toss in sex toys and Ursus Shakespearimus.
Favorite Quotes:
"Is this nothing?
Why then the world and all that’s in’t is nothing:
The covering sky is nothing, Bohemia nothing,
My wife is nothing, nor nothing have these nothings,
If this be nothing."
- Act 1, Scene 2
“I have drunk,
And seen the spider.”
- Act 2, Scene 1
"The silence often of pure innocence
Persuades when speaking fails."
- Act 2, Scene 2
"Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance"
- Act 4, Scene 4
“Age, thou hast lost thy labor.”
- Act 4, Scene 4
"I am ashamed. Does not the stone rebuke me
For being more stone than it?"
- Act 5, Scene 2
Exit, pursued by a bear.
May 24, 2023
I hold this play close to my heart because I saw it performed at The Globe Theatre.
I also think this is one of the easier plays to read and understand. Without having to resort to copious footnotes, historical context and the Oxford English Dictionary.
It took me so long to read this because I only read it during my downtime at work. :)
I also think this is one of the easier plays to read and understand. Without having to resort to copious footnotes, historical context and the Oxford English Dictionary.
It took me so long to read this because I only read it during my downtime at work. :)
January 28, 2025
Reading as part of a Shakespeare project. This late period book of Shakespeare is one we don’t often see performed on stage,film and is lesser known. Shakespeare takes all he has learnt over his career and puts it into this play. A comic tragedy split into two halves. I had real problems getting through the first half. Akin to Othello in his jealousy King Leontes’ jealousy comes out of nowhere with no rationale after all his wife Queen Hermione is already pregnant and they have one son before King Polixenes arrives.
Time is even a character here and we move 16 years in Act IV and the play is much lighter.
I was advised to watch the play at the same time as read it- I watched two separate productions on TV and fell asleep during both. It’s an intelligent play in parts but it doesn’t hold my attention like Hamlet, Macbeth, or A Midsummer Night Dream do, even throwing in a bit of Greek mythology couldn’t help me. I don’t know how to end this review as I thought the ending was terrible but technically it is a good play. Where else would you get a stage direction ‘exit followed by a bear’?
Time is even a character here and we move 16 years in Act IV and the play is much lighter.
I was advised to watch the play at the same time as read it- I watched two separate productions on TV and fell asleep during both. It’s an intelligent play in parts but it doesn’t hold my attention like Hamlet, Macbeth, or A Midsummer Night Dream do, even throwing in a bit of Greek mythology couldn’t help me. I don’t know how to end this review as I thought the ending was terrible but technically it is a good play. Where else would you get a stage direction ‘exit followed by a bear’?
April 6, 2022
This is a beautiful Shakespearean play with naturalistic elements typical of his later period. The now-infamous name of Hermione from this play likely acted as an inspiration to Rowling from the heroine of this play who is reborn at the end. There are elements of comedy and tragedy here as well as an interesting personification of time. One of the better romances!
Fino's Reviews of Shakespeare and Shakespearean Criticism
Comedies
The Comedy of Errors (1592-1593
The Taming of the Shrew (1593-1594)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594-1595)
Love's Labour's Lost (1594-1595)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595-1596)
The Merchant of Venice (1596-1597)
Much Ado About Nothing (1598-1599)
As You Like It (1599-1600)
Twelfth Night (1599-1600)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (1600-1601)
All's Well That Ends Well (1602-1603)
Measure for Measure (1604-1605)
Cymbeline (1609-1610)
A Winter's Tale (1610-1611)
The Tempest (1611-1612)
Two Noble Kinsmen (1612-1613)
Histories
Henry VI Part I (1589-1590)
Henry VI Part II (1590-1591)
Henry VI Part III (1590-1591)
Richard III (1593-1594)
Richard II (1595-1596)
King John (1596-1597)
Edward III (1596-1597)
Henry IV Part I (1597-1598)
Henry IV Part II (1597-1598)
Henry V (1598-1599)
Henry VIII (1612-1612)
Tragedies
Titus Andronicus (1592-1593)
Romeo and Juliet (1594-1595)
Julius Caesar (1599-1600)
Hamlet (1600-1601)
Troilus and Cressida (1601-1602)
Othello (1604-1605)
King Lear (1605-1606)
Macbeth (1605-1606)
Anthony and Cleopatra (1606-1607)
Coriolanus (1607-1608)
Timon of Athens (1607-1608)
Pericles (1608-1609)
Shakespearean Criticism
The Wheel of Fire by Wilson Knight
A Natural Perspective by Northrop Frye
Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber
Shakespeare's Roman Plays and Their Background by M W MacCallum
Shakespearean Criticism 1919-1935 compiled by Anne Ridler
Shakespearean Tragedy by A.C. Bradley
Shakespeare's Sexual Comedy by Hugh M. Richmond
Shakespeare: The Comedies by R.P. Draper
Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics by Stephen Greenblatt
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro
Collections of Shakespeare
Venus and Adonis, the Rape of Lucrece and Other Poems
Shakespeare's Sonnets and a Lover's Complaint
The Complete Oxford Shakespeare
Fino's Reviews of Shakespeare and Shakespearean Criticism
Comedies
The Comedy of Errors (1592-1593
The Taming of the Shrew (1593-1594)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594-1595)
Love's Labour's Lost (1594-1595)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595-1596)
The Merchant of Venice (1596-1597)
Much Ado About Nothing (1598-1599)
As You Like It (1599-1600)
Twelfth Night (1599-1600)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (1600-1601)
All's Well That Ends Well (1602-1603)
Measure for Measure (1604-1605)
Cymbeline (1609-1610)
A Winter's Tale (1610-1611)
The Tempest (1611-1612)
Two Noble Kinsmen (1612-1613)
Histories
Henry VI Part I (1589-1590)
Henry VI Part II (1590-1591)
Henry VI Part III (1590-1591)
Richard III (1593-1594)
Richard II (1595-1596)
King John (1596-1597)
Edward III (1596-1597)
Henry IV Part I (1597-1598)
Henry IV Part II (1597-1598)
Henry V (1598-1599)
Henry VIII (1612-1612)
Tragedies
Titus Andronicus (1592-1593)
Romeo and Juliet (1594-1595)
Julius Caesar (1599-1600)
Hamlet (1600-1601)
Troilus and Cressida (1601-1602)
Othello (1604-1605)
King Lear (1605-1606)
Macbeth (1605-1606)
Anthony and Cleopatra (1606-1607)
Coriolanus (1607-1608)
Timon of Athens (1607-1608)
Pericles (1608-1609)
Shakespearean Criticism
The Wheel of Fire by Wilson Knight
A Natural Perspective by Northrop Frye
Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber
Shakespeare's Roman Plays and Their Background by M W MacCallum
Shakespearean Criticism 1919-1935 compiled by Anne Ridler
Shakespearean Tragedy by A.C. Bradley
Shakespeare's Sexual Comedy by Hugh M. Richmond
Shakespeare: The Comedies by R.P. Draper
Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics by Stephen Greenblatt
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro
Collections of Shakespeare
Venus and Adonis, the Rape of Lucrece and Other Poems
Shakespeare's Sonnets and a Lover's Complaint
The Complete Oxford Shakespeare
July 25, 2018
"The Winter's Tale" is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623, it was possibly written in 1610 or 1611. Labelling this play is not easy – it features elements of Shakespeare's comedies and tragedies alike, and shows traits of the Greek romance as well.
It is definitely one of the more complex plays, featuring a rich cast of characters, several jumps in location and time, and in general a lot of deep discussions about a variety of themes. Therefore, I wouldn't recommend this play to someone who is trying to get into Shakespeare, but if you have some experience with the Bard, feel free to check it out, because it is quite enjoyable and features the iconic stage direction "Exit, pursued by a bear".
The main plot of "The Winter's Tale" is taken from Robert Greene's pastoral romance "Pandosto" (1588), but let me tell you that Shakespeare actually made some sensible changes, like cutting out the sub-plot of a father lusting after his daughter. Probs to homeboy for that. ;)
"The Winter's Tale" is essentially a tale about the King of Sicilia, Leontes, and how his jealousy leads to the destruction of his own life and family. Leontes is accusing his wife Hermione of cheating on him with his childhood buddy, Polixenes. Moreover, he accuses Hermione of treason, believing that she has been plotting his murder. After fruitlessly defending herself at the trial, Hermione gives birth to a daughter, and dies. Leontes refusing to acknowledge the child, orders Antigonus to abandoned it. This results in Perdita growing up away from court and being raised by a shepherd.
While the title of the play might not stir any associations for readers today, Shakespeare's contemporary audience would have expected an old wives' tale or a "ghost story". The title would have emphasized the expectation that this play tells an incredible, not necessarily realistic story, which might display some things out of the ordinary – *coughs* like the resurrection of a character pronounced to be dead. ;)
However, the play is called "The Winter's Tale" and not "A Winter's Tale", so Shakespeare might have had a particular story in mind. (?) At the beginning of Act II, Hermione begs her son Mamillius to tell her a story, and he replies: "A sad tale tale's best for winter. I have one/ Of sprites and goblins." (II.1.25) The story that he then begins to recount actually mirrors parts of the overarching play – Leontes becomes the man who "dwelt by the churchyard", and even the "sprites" are present in the vision that Antigonus has of the dead Hermione.
Another interpretation, my favorite one to be quite honest, is that the title suggests that Leontes is creating winter within and around himself after losing his family. It definitely plays into the idea that this play is about the fragility of human happiness and how easily it can be snatched away. The first half of this play is predominantly destructive (Leontes accusing his wife, and her following death), whereas the second half is predominantly creative and restorative (his reunion with his family). The sudden and violent blows of fortune that struck Leontes, deepen and widen the play's image of life as a lasting storm – how suddenly winter may follow upon the joys of spring and summer.
The most interesting observation that I took away from this play is the shift in Shakespeare's narrative in his later plays, compared to his earlier ones. The most remarkable feature of "The Winter's Tale" is its jump in time, cutting the play into two halves that are seperated by a period of 16 years. This is very unusal, a huge portion of his plays cover a period of a couple of days or months at most, but not years. I was really surprised to learn that Shakespeare might have written the role of the Chorus, Time, for himself. It is the Chorus who announces this jump in time at the beginning of Act IV, proclaiming that "Your patience this allowing, I turn my glass, and give my scene such growing", letting scholars believe that Shakespeare referred to his scene in the literal sense. It is a nice little theory, and I like picturing the Bard getting in on the action onstage as well. ;)
Another narrative choice that sets "The Winter's Tale" apart from most of his earlier plays is that Shakespeare tried to rouse a feeling of wonder in his audience. Usually he lets his audience in on every secret, by passing on and showing them the vital pieces of knowledge to understand the plot at hand, plot twists really weren't his priority. In "The Winter's Tale" however, he does not merely decline to do so, he straight off tries to lead the audience utterly astray,
One interpretation of this play, that really blew my heads off, is that we may see in "The Winter's Tale" the whole scheme of Dante's Divine Comedy. Especially if we're focusing on Leontes' spiritual journey. In Acts I-III we are given the Inferno, the hell which Leontes builds in his own mind. This hell, this winter is created and sustained only by himself. Next, at the end of Act III and the beginning of Act V, we are given glimpses of the Purgatorio, Leontes sixteen year period of repentance and penance. And finally, in the remainder of Act V, we have the Paradiso in his reunion with daughter, wife and friend. I love this analysis because it shows what a universal story "The Winter's Tale" is, and I really love cross-textual studies.
Overall, I really enjoyed how rich the story was and how many different interpretations it opened up. It won't become a favorite of mine, because it lacks humour and brilliance, but it's definitely a vital read nonetheless.
It is definitely one of the more complex plays, featuring a rich cast of characters, several jumps in location and time, and in general a lot of deep discussions about a variety of themes. Therefore, I wouldn't recommend this play to someone who is trying to get into Shakespeare, but if you have some experience with the Bard, feel free to check it out, because it is quite enjoyable and features the iconic stage direction "Exit, pursued by a bear".
The main plot of "The Winter's Tale" is taken from Robert Greene's pastoral romance "Pandosto" (1588), but let me tell you that Shakespeare actually made some sensible changes, like cutting out the sub-plot of a father lusting after his daughter. Probs to homeboy for that. ;)
"The Winter's Tale" is essentially a tale about the King of Sicilia, Leontes, and how his jealousy leads to the destruction of his own life and family. Leontes is accusing his wife Hermione of cheating on him with his childhood buddy, Polixenes. Moreover, he accuses Hermione of treason, believing that she has been plotting his murder. After fruitlessly defending herself at the trial, Hermione gives birth to a daughter, and dies. Leontes refusing to acknowledge the child, orders Antigonus to abandoned it. This results in Perdita growing up away from court and being raised by a shepherd.
While the title of the play might not stir any associations for readers today, Shakespeare's contemporary audience would have expected an old wives' tale or a "ghost story". The title would have emphasized the expectation that this play tells an incredible, not necessarily realistic story, which might display some things out of the ordinary – *coughs* like the resurrection of a character pronounced to be dead. ;)
However, the play is called "The Winter's Tale" and not "A Winter's Tale", so Shakespeare might have had a particular story in mind. (?) At the beginning of Act II, Hermione begs her son Mamillius to tell her a story, and he replies: "A sad tale tale's best for winter. I have one/ Of sprites and goblins." (II.1.25) The story that he then begins to recount actually mirrors parts of the overarching play – Leontes becomes the man who "dwelt by the churchyard", and even the "sprites" are present in the vision that Antigonus has of the dead Hermione.
Another interpretation, my favorite one to be quite honest, is that the title suggests that Leontes is creating winter within and around himself after losing his family. It definitely plays into the idea that this play is about the fragility of human happiness and how easily it can be snatched away. The first half of this play is predominantly destructive (Leontes accusing his wife, and her following death), whereas the second half is predominantly creative and restorative (his reunion with his family). The sudden and violent blows of fortune that struck Leontes, deepen and widen the play's image of life as a lasting storm – how suddenly winter may follow upon the joys of spring and summer.
The most interesting observation that I took away from this play is the shift in Shakespeare's narrative in his later plays, compared to his earlier ones. The most remarkable feature of "The Winter's Tale" is its jump in time, cutting the play into two halves that are seperated by a period of 16 years. This is very unusal, a huge portion of his plays cover a period of a couple of days or months at most, but not years. I was really surprised to learn that Shakespeare might have written the role of the Chorus, Time, for himself. It is the Chorus who announces this jump in time at the beginning of Act IV, proclaiming that "Your patience this allowing, I turn my glass, and give my scene such growing", letting scholars believe that Shakespeare referred to his scene in the literal sense. It is a nice little theory, and I like picturing the Bard getting in on the action onstage as well. ;)
Another narrative choice that sets "The Winter's Tale" apart from most of his earlier plays is that Shakespeare tried to rouse a feeling of wonder in his audience. Usually he lets his audience in on every secret, by passing on and showing them the vital pieces of knowledge to understand the plot at hand, plot twists really weren't his priority. In "The Winter's Tale" however, he does not merely decline to do so, he straight off tries to lead the audience utterly astray,
One interpretation of this play, that really blew my heads off, is that we may see in "The Winter's Tale" the whole scheme of Dante's Divine Comedy. Especially if we're focusing on Leontes' spiritual journey. In Acts I-III we are given the Inferno, the hell which Leontes builds in his own mind. This hell, this winter is created and sustained only by himself. Next, at the end of Act III and the beginning of Act V, we are given glimpses of the Purgatorio, Leontes sixteen year period of repentance and penance. And finally, in the remainder of Act V, we have the Paradiso in his reunion with daughter, wife and friend. I love this analysis because it shows what a universal story "The Winter's Tale" is, and I really love cross-textual studies.
Overall, I really enjoyed how rich the story was and how many different interpretations it opened up. It won't become a favorite of mine, because it lacks humour and brilliance, but it's definitely a vital read nonetheless.
August 21, 2022
An astonishing work, late Shakespeare at his best, maybe just prior to the Tempest. Best children's role in the canon, Mamilius. Perhaps the most jealous of all the Bard's jealous lovers and spouses, Leontes. The most innocent accused, Hermione. The best stage direction, "Exit pursued by a Bear." The best friendship turned sour. The best speech on flowers, Perdita's "Now my fairest friend, / I would I had some flowers o' the spring that might/ Become your time of day, and yours and yours,/...daffodils, / That come before the swallow dares…lilies of all kinds,/ The fleur de luce being one…"(IV.4) This last, perhaps the worst line in all the canon, in a grand compendium speech.
Then there is the Chorus, unique in the canon: "I am Time. I have passed" (as Amherst's T Baird said). Sixteen years between the first half and…Enough time for Perdita to grow from baby to Babe. (By the way, "Babe" is difficult to render into the Romance languages, like Italian: No, not "bimbo, or Bambina, or Tesoro.")
Until the 18C, interest centered on Hermione, particularly the statue scene, but from the early 18C to the mid-19th, the play was performed "as a sheep-shearing festival"(176, Arden ed., 1986).
Autolycus sings the famous "When daffodils begin to peer" which includes my fave line, "For a quart of ale is a dish for a king"(86). And though a thief, Autolycus has great insight into the Humperty-Dumpty White House. He says, "I cannot tell, good sir, for which of his virtues it was, but he was certainly whipped out of the court [White House]"(IV.iii.85) Describes Sally Yates! And Comey?
There is the riotous thievery of Autolycus…recently played to perfection by (Director) Fred Sullivan, Jr., at the Gamm Theater, Pawtucket RI *(perhaps the best Shakespeare I have seen in 40 years, including many in England). The most famous historical Autolycus was in the 18C, Richard Yates, who later began the New Theatre in Birmingham (1773). And finally, there is the animation of art, the statue invigorated--a variation on the Renaissance topos.
AS in every play by the Bard, one finds acute analysis of character and satire of leaders, as in IV.iii above, but also here, Paulina says of the hypersuspicious Leontes, "These dangerous, unsafe lunes i' th' king, beshrew them!"(II.2.30). As a student of lunar mapping and influence in the seventeenth century, I love madness termed "lunes," and I apply the word to the US would-be King Humperty-Dumpstery.
*PS The Gamm Theater has moved from its excellent small venue to a huge theater, which I've never gone to. Serious reduction in level of excellence, though increase in level of tickets-- but not from me.
Then there is the Chorus, unique in the canon: "I am Time. I have passed" (as Amherst's T Baird said). Sixteen years between the first half and…Enough time for Perdita to grow from baby to Babe. (By the way, "Babe" is difficult to render into the Romance languages, like Italian: No, not "bimbo, or Bambina, or Tesoro.")
Until the 18C, interest centered on Hermione, particularly the statue scene, but from the early 18C to the mid-19th, the play was performed "as a sheep-shearing festival"(176, Arden ed., 1986).
Autolycus sings the famous "When daffodils begin to peer" which includes my fave line, "For a quart of ale is a dish for a king"(86). And though a thief, Autolycus has great insight into the Humperty-Dumpty White House. He says, "I cannot tell, good sir, for which of his virtues it was, but he was certainly whipped out of the court [White House]"(IV.iii.85) Describes Sally Yates! And Comey?
There is the riotous thievery of Autolycus…recently played to perfection by (Director) Fred Sullivan, Jr., at the Gamm Theater, Pawtucket RI *(perhaps the best Shakespeare I have seen in 40 years, including many in England). The most famous historical Autolycus was in the 18C, Richard Yates, who later began the New Theatre in Birmingham (1773). And finally, there is the animation of art, the statue invigorated--a variation on the Renaissance topos.
AS in every play by the Bard, one finds acute analysis of character and satire of leaders, as in IV.iii above, but also here, Paulina says of the hypersuspicious Leontes, "These dangerous, unsafe lunes i' th' king, beshrew them!"(II.2.30). As a student of lunar mapping and influence in the seventeenth century, I love madness termed "lunes," and I apply the word to the US would-be King Humperty-Dumpstery.
*PS The Gamm Theater has moved from its excellent small venue to a huge theater, which I've never gone to. Serious reduction in level of excellence, though increase in level of tickets-- but not from me.
October 22, 2011
You might be forgiven for thinking that the most ‘fairy-tale’ like of Shakespeare’s plays is A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream. I mean, there are fairies and sprites and crazy things like that running about in it. But in some ways this play is even more like a fairy-tale. The play also starts off a bit like Othello – where jealousy inspires acts of vengeance, even though the cause of the jealousy is baseless and the product of a mind fevered by suspicion. The first half of the play ends pretty much were Othello ends, with a man realising he has destroyed his entire life by his willingness to believe and has killed all those who love him by his irrational revenges caused by his jealous rage. And, of course, a guy gets eaten by a bear and there is a ship wreck.
The fairy-tale elements really come to the fore in part two of this play – because this really is a play in two parts. The driving force of the second part is that the daughter of the king who was left to be exposed and die is, in fact, brought up by a simple farmer. This is another of those stories where nature triumphs over nurture. The unknown princess catches the eye of a prince who falls helplessly in love with her. This causes some problems with the prince’s father and so prince and farmer’s daughter (really a princess – you know the score) elope.
The play ends with a curious retelling of Ovid’s Pygmalion story – with a statue literally coming back to life. This being a comedy everything works out in the end – you can generally tell the difference between one of Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies by what happens to the characters at the end, if they all die, it was a tragedy, if they all get married, it was a comedy. Although the king had clearly repented his jealousy and forgiveness is next to holiness and all that – I’m not sure I could have as willingly forgiven him as is done at the end of this play. He had still been the cause of the death of a son and had separated mother and daughter for decades. But this is theatre, not life, I guess.
This is a bizarre little play in many ways, but also a bit of a favourite – it does feel a little ‘bitsy’ at times and a bit like three quite different plays slammed together, and it is also a little hard to suspend disbelief right at the end, but there are parts of this play that are jaw-droppingly good.
The fairy-tale elements really come to the fore in part two of this play – because this really is a play in two parts. The driving force of the second part is that the daughter of the king who was left to be exposed and die is, in fact, brought up by a simple farmer. This is another of those stories where nature triumphs over nurture. The unknown princess catches the eye of a prince who falls helplessly in love with her. This causes some problems with the prince’s father and so prince and farmer’s daughter (really a princess – you know the score) elope.
The play ends with a curious retelling of Ovid’s Pygmalion story – with a statue literally coming back to life. This being a comedy everything works out in the end – you can generally tell the difference between one of Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies by what happens to the characters at the end, if they all die, it was a tragedy, if they all get married, it was a comedy. Although the king had clearly repented his jealousy and forgiveness is next to holiness and all that – I’m not sure I could have as willingly forgiven him as is done at the end of this play. He had still been the cause of the death of a son and had separated mother and daughter for decades. But this is theatre, not life, I guess.
This is a bizarre little play in many ways, but also a bit of a favourite – it does feel a little ‘bitsy’ at times and a bit like three quite different plays slammed together, and it is also a little hard to suspend disbelief right at the end, but there are parts of this play that are jaw-droppingly good.
November 27, 2019
When you do dance, I wish you
A wave o’ the sea, that you might ever do
Nothing but that, move still, still so,
And own no other function.
After slogging my way through the problem plays, the late tragedies, and the early romances, this play is a sweet relief. Shakespeare here returns to form with this delightful work. The play is easy to enjoy: winsome characters, pastoral romance, and a whimsical plot. I particularly liked Shakespeare’s depiction of sexual jealousy in the play’s beginning acts, as Leontes’ hysterical suspicion becomes a form of incurable madness. Here we can see how jealousy, once it has taken hold, can use the same warped logic as a conspiracy theory: the slightest supporting evidence is seized upon, and everything contrary is ignored or dismissed as a lie.
The enormous scene four of the fourth act is a particular jewel. Seldom has Shakespeare portrayed young love so convincingly. And, of course, the thief and song-peddlar Autolyclus is a comic delight. For my part, the seacoast of Bohemian and the living statue only add to the many charms of this work.
May 6, 2016
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b078wtnnDescription: Eve Best, Danny Sapani and Shaun Dooley star in the magical product of the Bard's later years. Treading new dramatic ground The Winter's Tale embraces tragedy, poetry, folklore, magic realism, music, comedy and the infamous stage direction "exit pursued by a bear".
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November 25, 2024در کمال تاسف باید عرض کنم : به مخیله جن و پری هم نمیرسید که شکسپیر فقید ، اثر ناپسند و مفتضحی داشته باشه.
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طرح داستانی صفر
شخصیت سازی صفر
فضا زیر صفر
دیالوگ ها ماقبل صفر
اکت های بی خاصیت
خلاصه که کار واقعا بد بود.
بیش تر از 40 صفحه نتونستم تحمل کنم.
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