The Winter’s Tale – “A sad tale's best for winter…”

 The Winter’s Tale – “A sad tale’s best for winter…"

Shakespeare seemed to be on the crest of a wave again around the end of 1609 and the beginning of 1610. His sonnets had been published, the Globe Theatre was doing well. His investments in property in Stratford-upon-Avon were paying dividends. But it seemed like the tide was starting to turn on the Thames and the London theatre scene. His plays were popular with the general public, but a new fashion seemed to be attracting the middle and the upper class.

Ben Jonson and his crowd were starting to collaborate with a designer and architect called Inigo Jones. Drawing on inspiration from new indoor theatres in Italy, they had started to put on plays in venues and in people’s houses with a arch in front of the scenery which framed it. This proscenium arch famed the action like a painting and was starting to develop a new presentational form of acting. Both the proscenium arch and this style of acting seemed directly against the more natural approach to playing that Shakespeare’s work and the Globe Theatre seemed to be encouraging. What’s more Inigo Jones had become a favourite of King James I and his wife Anne of Denmark and with Anne’s encouragement, masques were becoming all the rage and overtaking plays as the preferred court entertainment, entertainment in the upper classes’ houses and even become popular with the rich merchant class. Shakespeare probably thought that this would die out as a fad since it perhaps seemed odd fashioned and medieval to him. He had included many dumbshows or mimes in parts of his plays, but the elaborate masque balls at court, the popularity of plays with Inigo’s sets and costumes probably made Shakespeare rethink the issue of how to combine a good plot with what seemed to be becoming more than a fashionable fad.

For ‘The Winter’s Tale’ Shakespeare turned to Robert Greene’s 1588 pastoral romance ‘Pandosto’. Shakespeare enjoyed pastoral romances in his youth and early days as a playwright and as he grew older, these types of plays brought back a sense of nostagia. He realized he didn’t need to change Greene’s plot too much. He would keep the theme of fidelity and infidelity and change a few plot twists but would add a huge masque scene which would involve character transformation and plot revelation and end the play with a reconciliation between the main characters Hermione and Leontes to a coup de theatre.

The play starts in the kingdom of Sicilia, where King Leontes has had his childhood fiend King Polixenes of Bohemia staying for a while. Camillo, a Sicilian lord and  Archidamus, a Bohemian lord discuss the differences between the kingdoms of Sicilia and Bohemia and the longstanding friendship between their kings. As they exit, King Leontes enters with his wife Hermione (in the advanced stanges of pregnancy), Mamillius (Leontes and Hermione's son), and King Polixenes. Polixenes is about to finally leave for home after staying in Sicilia for nine months but Leontes is trying to plead with his friend to stay a little longer. Leontes then asks his wife to convince Polixenes to stay. Hermione succeeds in convincing Polixenes to stay and Leontes is taken back by this since Polixenes would not yield to his requests. However, Leontes thanks his wife for her persuasiveness. Leontes says that the only other time that Hermione spoke to such great purpose was when she agreed to marry him. Then Hermione and Polixenes walk off together in conversation and something stirs in Leontes.

Leontes is filled with jealousy and talks to the audience to tell them this as his child Mamillius innocently plays.   
“Gone already!
Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a fork'd one!
Go, play, boy, play: thy mother plays, and I
Play too, but so disgraced a part, whose issue
Will hiss me to my grave: contempt and clamour
Will be my knell. Go, play, boy, play.
There have been,
Or I am much deceived, cuckolds ere now;
And many a man there is, even at this present,
Now while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm,
That little thinks she has been sluiced in's absence
And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by
Sir Smile, his neighbour: nay, there's comfort in't
Whiles other men have gates and those gates open'd,
As mine, against their will. Should all despair
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves. Physic for't there is none;
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike
Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it,
From east, west, north and south: be it concluded,
No barricado for a belly; know't;
It will let in and out the enemy
With bag and baggage: many thousand on's
Have the disease, and feel't not. How now, boy!”

By the end of this sequence Leontes is convinced that Hermione and Polixenes are having an affair. Then he ushers his wife to walk with Polixenes in the garden. Leontes then calls his lord Camillo over and asks him whether he has noticed anything strange in Polixenes' behaviour.  When Camillo says that he has noticed nothing, Leontes reveals that he thinks Camillo is wrong and that Hermione and Polixenes are having a secret affair. Camillo, is shocked and says that the queen could never be disloyal. 

Leontes continues to voice his suspicions and gets Camillo to agree to act as a cupbearer to Polixenes and to poison Polixenes at the first chance but when Leontes leaves Camillo seems very disturbed by what he has been asked to do. When Polixenes re-enters and mentions how Leontes seemed very strange and distracted when he just passed him, Camillo reveals to Polixenes about Leontes suspicions of an affair between Hermione and Polixenes and of how Leontes wants Camillo to poison Polixenes.Camillo asks for Polixenes to protect him. Polixenes accepts and takes on Camillo as his servant. Camillo says he will help them escape Silicia safely and Polixenes says his ships are already and they should escape jealousy in Leontes will probably grow quickly and greatly.

“I do believe thee:

I saw his heart in 's face. Give me thy hand:

Be pilot to me and thy places shall

Still neighbour mine. My ships are ready and

My people did expect my hence departure

Two days ago. This jealousy

Is for a precious creature: as she's rare,

Must it be great, and as his person's mighty,

Must it be violent, and as he does conceive

He is dishonour'd by a man which ever

Profess'd to him, why, his revenges must

In that be made more bitter. Fear o'ershades me:

Good expedition be my friend, and comfort

The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing

Of his ill-ta'en suspicion! Come, Camillo;

I will respect thee as a father if

Thou bear'st my life off hence: let us avoid.”

The Winter’s Tale Act Two – “A sad tale’s best for winter…”

There is a sense of the seasons underpinning ‘The Winter’s Tale’ and if Act One gave us the lead into winter then Act Two starts to bring us into the depths of the winter of the play for as mentioned in Act Two of the play, “A sad tale’s best for winter.”

Act Two of ‘The Winter’s Tale’ starts with Hermione beckoning her son Mamillius, to sit with her and tell a story. Then Leontes enters in a rage at Polixenes having escaped and Camillo having helped him. He orders his men to take Mamillius away from Hermione and then turns on Hermione and accuses her of being an adulteress and claiming that the child in her womb is Polixenes’ child:

“You, my lords,

Look on her, mark her well; be but about

To say 'she is a goodly lady,' and

The justice of your bearts will thereto add

'Tis pity she's not honest, honourable:'

Praise her but for this her without-door form,

Which on my faith deserves high speech, and straight

The shrug, the hum or ha, these petty brands

That calumny doth use--O, I am out--

That mercy does, for calumny will sear

Virtue itself: these shrugs, these hums and ha's,

When you have said 'she's goodly,' come between

Ere you can say 'she's honest:' but be 't known,

From him that has most cause to grieve it should be,

She's an adulteress…

You have mistook, my lady,

Polixenes for Leontes: O thou thing!

Which I'll not call a creature of thy place,

Lest barbarism, making me the precedent,

Should a like language use to all degrees

And mannerly distinguishment leave out

Betwixt the prince and beggar: I have said

She's an adulteress; I have said with whom:

More, she's a traitor and Camillo is

A federary with her, and one that knows

What she should shame to know herself

But with her most vile principal, that she's

A bed-swerver, even as bad as those

That vulgars give bold'st titles, ay, and privy

To this their late escape.”

Hermione is shocked and denies all these accusations.

“Should a villain say so,

The most replenish'd villain in the world,

He were as much more villain: you, my lord,

Do but mistake….

No, by my life.

Privy to none of this. How will this grieve you,

When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that

You thus have publish'd me! Gentle my lord,

You scarce can right me throughly then to say

You did mistake…

There's some ill planet reigns:

I must be patient till the heavens look

With an aspect more favourable. Good my lords,

I am not prone to weeping, as our sex

Commonly are; the want of which vain dew

Perchance shall dry your pities: but I have

That honourable grief lodged here which burns

Worse than tears drown: beseech you all, my lords,

With thoughts so qualified as your charities

Shall best instruct you, measure me; and so

The king's will be perform'd!”

Hermione is taken away to gaol and Leontes’ lords and Hermione’s ladies in waiting plead with Leontes and claim that he he wrong about Hermione. Leontes disregards all their pleas. Antigonus staunchly defends Hermione but Leontes will not listen. As some concession, Leontes does say that he will ask Apollo’s oracle at Delphi to confirm all before he passes final judgment on Hermione.

Paulina, the wife of Antigonus tries to see Hermione in gaol but is instead only allowed to see Emilia, one of the queen’s ladies. Emilia brings the news that Hermione has given birth to a baby girl. Paulina decides to take the child from the cell and bring it to Leontes. She thinks that Leontes will change his mind when he sees his baby daughter.

At the beginning of the next scene, we hear that Mamillius, Hermione and Leontes' son has been taken ill since his mother Hermione was sent to prison by his father Leontes. Leontes thinks that Mamillius is merely ashamed of his mother. Leontes proceeds to rail against Polixene's escape. Paulina enters and tries to show Leontes his baby daugter but Leontes grows furious and asks Antigonus to control his wife. Paulina argues with Leontes defending Hermione, instead of falling silent, argues with Leontes, defending Hermione's honor and finally puts down the baby next to Leontes as she goes. Leontes then orders Antigonus to take the child away and to kill it by throwing it into a fire. The noble lords are horrified by this and they ask Leontes to seek confirmation of his wife's infidelity. Leontes then decides that Antigonus should  carry the baby child into the wilderness and abondon it there. Antigonus is devasted as he takes the child and then word arrives that his messengers to the Oracle of Delphi have returned, bringing with them the divine verdict on the matter.

“Twenty-three days

They have been absent: 'tis good speed; foretells

The great Apollo suddenly will have

The truth of this appear. Prepare you, lords;

Summon a session, that we may arraign

Our most disloyal lady, for, as she hath

Been publicly accused, so shall she have

A just and open trial. While she lives

My heart will be a burthen to me. Leave me,

And think upon my bidding.”

The Winter’s Tale Act Three – “I am gone forever [Exit, pursued by a bear].”

“[Exit, pursued by a bear]” is one of the most famous and strangest stage directions ever given. It indicates the spectacle that Shakespeare and play makers had to bring to theatre when competing against the new masque balls and the spectacle of painted scenery which indoor theatres were starting to bring to English theatre. An interesting thing to note is that Shakespeare's direction may have been even stranger than we may even think.

Most people think that Shakespeare probably got a bear from the bear baiting pits close to the Globe Theatre to act as the spectacle for this scene but the truth may have been even stranger. In 1595, the Dutch explorer William Barents reportedly lost two men in the Arctic to a polar bear attack. Shakespeare would have read of these attacks in de Veer's diary account of this expedition published in English in 1609. Then in 1609, Jonas Poole's expedition to find the North-west passage captured to polar bear cubs on Cherie island and these cubs were transported back to England. By the end of 1610, these two polar bears had  ended up in King james I's private zoo and early in 1611, these cubs had been leased out to Philip Henslow and Edward Alleyn. It is likely that these same two white polar bears appeared in plays like Ben Jonson's 'Oberon' and Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale'. By 1612, it is alleged that the two polar bears had died. So at least for some performances, Shakespeare's stage direction could have read "[Exit. Pursued by a a white bear.]"

Some say that plays like ‘The Winter’s Tale’ may have themselves been controversial in the underpinnings of their subject matter. Parallels could be drawn between Leontes and King Henry VIII and his accusations of infidelity against Anne Boleyn. History, or at least popular consciousness has labeled Anne Bolelyn to not be true but that Elizabeth I was in fact Henry’s child. It is a bit sad that today, a simple paternity test would solve an issue that plagued English political life and the winds of gossip for almost half a century. What is interesting to note in this act is that we as an audience instantly label Leontes guilty of false jealousy and see him as a tyrant. We also believe that Hermione is dead when we hear this dreadful news.

Act Three begins with Dion and Cleomenes arriving back from visiting the oracle at Delphi. They obviously were quite taken back by Delphi and hope the Oracle will clear Hermione’s name:

“The climate's delicate, the air most sweet,

Fertile the isle, the temple much surpassing

The common praise it bears…

Great Apollo

Turn all to the best! These proclamations,

So forcing faults upon Hermione,

I little like.”

Then we cross to Leontes who has appointed himself as court, judge and jury over the trial of Hermione who is brought from gaol. The indictment us read out aloud and Hermione stands and answers her accusations, eloquently denying all of the charges and reasserting her integrity:

“Since what I am to say must be but that

Which contradicts my accusation and

The testimony on my part no other

But what comes from myself, it shall scarce boot me

To say 'not guilty:' mine integrity

Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it,

Be so received. But thus: if powers divine

Behold our human actions, as they do,

I doubt not then but innocence shall make

False accusation blush and tyranny

Tremble at patience. You, my lord, best know,

Who least will seem to do so, my past life

Hath been as continent, as chaste, as true,

As I am now unhappy; which is more

Than history can pattern, though devised

And play'd to take spectators. For behold me

A fellow of the royal bed, which owe

A moiety of the throne a great king's daughter,

The mother to a hopeful prince, here standing

To prate and talk for life and honour 'fore

Who please to come and hear. For life, I prize it

As I weigh grief, which I would spare: for honour,

'Tis a derivative from me to mine,

And only that I stand for. I appeal

To your own conscience, sir, before Polixenes

Came to your court, how I was in your grace,

How merited to be so; since he came,

With what encounter so uncurrent I

Have strain'd to appear thus: if one jot beyond

The bound of honour, or in act or will

That way inclining, harden'd be the hearts

Of all that hear me, and my near'st of kin

Cry fie upon my grave!”

Leontes disregards her words and judges that she is guilty and pronounces sentence of death. Hermione laughs at this and declares that death would be a welcome relief.

Then Dion and Cleomenes arrive with the message from the Oracle at Delphi which is unsealed and revealed to state: "Hermione is chaste… Polixenes blameless, Camillo a true subject, Leontes a jealous tyrant, his innocent babe truly begotten, and the king shall live without an heir if that which is lost be not found.” For a moment, nearly all in the court are happy and relieved, but then the tide of contentment turns when leontes refuses to accept the Oracle’s judgment. Then a servant enters to announce the death of Hermione and Leontes’ son Mamillius. Leontes realizes his own wrongs and the injustice of his actions and sees the death of his son as Apollo’s punishment. Hermione swoons and leontes orders her to be seen to and taken out and he contemplates the wrongs of all his thoughts and actions:

“Apollo's angry; and the heavens themselves

Do strike at my injustice…

[HERMIONE swoons]

Take her hence:

Her heart is but o'ercharged; she will recover:

I have too much believed mine own suspicion:

Beseech you, tenderly apply to her

Some remedies for life. [Exeunt PAULINA and Ladies, with HERMIONE]

Apollo, pardon

My great profaneness 'gainst thine oracle!

I'll reconcile me to Polixenes,

New woo my queen, recall the good Camillo,

Whom I proclaim a man of truth, of mercy;

For, being transported by my jealousies

To bloody thoughts and to revenge, I chose

Camillo for the minister to poison

My friend Polixenes: which had been done,

But that the good mind of Camillo tardied

My swift command, though I with death and with

Reward did threaten and encourage him,

Not doing 't and being done: he, most humane

And fill'd with honour, to my kingly guest

Unclasp'd my practise, quit his fortunes here,

Which you knew great, and to the hazard

Of all encertainties himself commended,

No richer than his honour: how he glisters

Thorough my rust! and how his pity

Does my deeds make the blacker!”

Paulina re-enters and Leontes and the audience are told that Hermione too is dead and she throws angry accusation at Leontes who accepts blame for all. He orders Hermione and his son Mamillius  to be laid in the same grave and states that he will spend the rest of his life doing penance and asking for forgiveness.

“Thou canst not speak too much; I have deserved

All tongues to talk their bitterest…

Thou didst speak but well

When most the truth; which I receive much better

Than to be pitied of thee. Prithee, bring me

To the dead bodies of my queen and son:

One grave shall be for both: upon them shall

The causes of their death appear, unto

Our shame perpetual. Once a day I'll visit

The chapel where they lie, and tears shed there

Shall be my recreation: so long as nature

Will bear up with this exercise, so long

I daily vow to use it. Come and lead me

Unto these sorrows.”

Meanwhile, oblivious to what has just happened in Sicilia, Antigonus has arrived on the desert shores of Bohemia (which seems like somewhere in Northern Africa) with the baby girl and he reveals to the audience a dream he had where he was visited by Hermione who tells him to call the baby Perdita and tells him that he will never see his homeland or wife again. Antigonus places the baby Perdita down with a note with her name and puts gold and jewels next to her for whoever finds her. As Antigonus goes to leave, a storm starts to rise up, a bear appears and Antigonus is force to “[Exit, pursued by a bear].

A Shepherd then enters the stage and discovers the baby. The Shepherd’s son, a Clown joins him. The Clown describes how he just saw a man killed by a bear and a ship sunk by the storm. The Shepherd sees these acts as “Heavy matters” and tells his son about the baby he found and then they discover the riches left with the baby and decide that fortune has shone on them and they declare they will raise the child.

“Heavy matters! heavy matters! but look thee here,

boy. Now bless thyself: thou mettest with things

dying, I with things newborn. Here's a sight for

thee; look thee, a bearing-cloth for a squire's

child! look thee here; take up, take up, boy;

open't. So, let's see: it was told me I should be

rich by the fairies. This is some changeling:

open't.

… This is fairy gold, boy, and 'twill prove so: up

with't, keep it close: home, home, the next way.

We are lucky, boy; and to be so still requires

nothing but secrecy. Let my sheep go: come, good

boy, the next way home.

… 'Tis a lucky day, boy, and we'll do good deeds on't.”

The Winter’s Tale Act Four – “From my succession wipe me father, I am heir to my affection.”

Act Four of ‘The Winter’s Tale’ has the feel of some of the earlier plays of Shakespeare. We will see love and deception and twists appear in the plot but I am getting ahead of myself. So Shakespeare starts this act with a Chorus-like speech. An Actor appears on stage dressed as Time. Time tells us that time has moved on sixteen years:

“I, that please some, try all, both joy and terror

Of good and bad, that makes and unfolds error,

Now take upon me, in the name of Time,

To use my wings. Impute it not a crime

To me or my swift passage, that I slide

O'er sixteen years and leave the growth untried

Of that wide gap, since it is in my power

To o'erthrow law and in one self-born hour

To plant and o'erwhelm custom. Let me pass

The same I am, ere ancient'st order was

Or what is now received: I witness to

The times that brought them in; so shall I do

To the freshest things now reigning and make stale

The glistering of this present, as my tale

Now seems to it. Your patience this allowing,

I turn my glass and give my scene such growing

As you had slept between: Leontes leaving,

The effects of his fond jealousies so grieving

That he shuts up himself, imagine me,

Gentle spectators, that I now may be

In fair Bohemia, and remember well,

I mentioned a son o' the king's, which Florizel

I now name to you; and with speed so pace

To speak of Perdita, now grown in grace

Equal with wondering: what of her ensues

I list not prophecy; but let Time's news

Be known when 'tis brought forth.

A shepherd's daughter,

And what to her adheres, which follows after,

Is the argument of Time. Of this allow,

If ever you have spent time worse ere now;

If never, yet that Time himself doth say

He wishes earnestly you never may.” 

The action then moves on to inside the castle of Polixenes in Bohemia who is talking to Camillo. Camillo wants to go back to his homeland of Sicilia since he is homesick. He also wants to console Leontes who still grieves the loss of his wife and son. But Polixenes claims that he couldn’t manage the kingdom without Camillo. They then start to talk about Polixene’s son Florizel, who seems to be staying away from court and consistently visiting the house of a wealthy shepherd who reportedly has a beauteous daughter. Polixenes and Camillo decide to disguise themselves and visit the rich shepherd’s house.

We cross to a country road in Bohemia where the thief and vagabond Autolycus is singing when he comes across the Clown who is going to market with a princely sum of coins in his purse. Autolycus pretends that he has just been robbed and picks the pocket of the Clown when he helps him. After the Clown leaves, Autolycus decides that he will visit the shepherd’s residence to see why a Shepherd would have so much wealth.

It is now the day of sheep shearing at the Shepherd's house and Perdita and Florizel walk together. Perdita is indeed a beauty and she is covered in flowers and it is obvious that she and Florizel are deeply in love. Perdita thinks that Florizel’s father Polixenes will oppose their marriage. Florizel assures her all will be well.

Then the Shepherd enters with a crowd which includes Polixenes and Camillo in disguise. Perdita is instructed to act as hostess and she shows her charm and knowledge of flowers. Florizel declares his love for Perdita. Polixenes starts to question the Shepherd about the girl and her suitor.  

Autolycus enters disguised as a peddler selling ballads to all and sundry. Polixenes asks Florizel why he does not buy something for Perdita from the peddler and Florizel claims that Perdita does not like such trifles. Florizel wants to make a contract for marriage with Perdita and Polixenes in diguise asks why Florizel does not seek his father’s approval. Florizel says he cannot and just when he is about to seal his contract, Polixenes reveals himself and stops the betrothal and threatens Perdita with destroying her beauty, his son with being disowned and the Shepherd with death and then Polixenes storms out:

“I'll have thy beauty scratch'd with briers, and made

More homely than thy state. For thee, fond boy,

If I may ever know thou dost but sigh

That thou no more shalt see this knack, as never

I mean thou shalt, we'll bar thee from succession;

Not hold thee of our blood, no, not our kin,

Far than Deucalion off: mark thou my words:

Follow us to the court. Thou churl, for this time,

Though full of our displeasure, yet we free thee

From the dead blow of it. And you, enchantment.--

Worthy enough a herdsman: yea, him too,

That makes himself, but for our honour therein,

Unworthy thee,--if ever henceforth thou

These rural latches to his entrance open,

Or hoop his body more with thy embraces,

I will devise a death as cruel for thee

As thou art tender to't.”

All seem shocked. The Shepherd gets angry with Florizel and the Shepherd exits. Florizel declares his love for Perdita and declares that he will give up his kingdom and that they should leave Bohemia. Camillo initially condemns this decision but then suggests that they should leave for Sicilia, where the King Leontes will think that because they have come from Bohemia that they bring Polixenes’ blessings. What’s more, Camillo says that he will talk to Polixenes and warm him to their love. We also find out that Camillo wants Polixene to follow them to Sicilia and then finally Camillo will get to see his homeland of Sicilia once more. Florizel thinks this will work but he says that he does not have the riches and clothes to appear in Sicilia appearing like Polixenes’ son. Camillo says that he will help in this regard and give Florizel letters and through his riches in Sicilia "have him royally appointed".

Autolycus enters having made a killing and then Camillo asks Autolycus to change clothes with Florizel so that Florizel can escape in disguise on a ship. After this clothes swap, Florizel, Perdita, and Camillo exit. Autolycus is alone but by now he has worked out what is happening. He contemplates telling King Polixenes but sees that this could be construed as a good deed and he claims that doing good is against his nature. Then, the Clown and the Shepherd enter and Autolycus pretends to be a nobleman. The Clown tells the Shepherd to tell Polixenes the circumstances of how he found Perdita as a baby. Autolycus hears this and sends the Clown and the Shepherd to a ship that he claims Polixenes has boarded. In fact, it is the ship that Florizel and Perdita are boarding that is bound for the fair shores of Sicilia. They leave and Autolycus tells the audience how he thinks he can profit from the information he knows.

“If I had a mind to be honest, I see Fortune would

not suffer me: she drops booties in my mouth. I am

courted now with a double occasion, gold and a means

to do the prince my master good; which who knows how

that may turn back to my advancement? I will bring

these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him: if he

think it fit to shore them again and that the

complaint they have to the king concerns him

nothing, let him call me rogue for being so far

officious; for I am proof against that title and

what shame else belongs to't. To him will I present

them: there may be matter in it.”

The Winter’s Tale Act Five – “Stars, stars, and all eyes else dead coals!”

In the wonderfully circular fashion which works so well in Shakespeare’s comedies, Act Five crosses back to Sicilia, where Leontes is still in mourning for the death of Hermione (his wife) and Mamillius (his son). Some lords urge him to forget what he did in the past, grant himself forgiveness, and marry again so that the kingdom will have an heir. But Paulina (Hermione's first lady and now an ad hoc advisor to Leontes) tells Leontes that he needs to carry on asking for forgiveness for his past wrongs and she even gets Leontes to promise that he will never marry again unless she gives her consent.

“There is none worthy,

Respecting her that's gone. Besides, the gods

Will have fulfill'd their secret purposes;

For has not the divine Apollo said,

Is't not the tenor of his oracle,

That King Leontes shall not have an heir

Till his lost child be found? which that it shall,

Is all as monstrous to our human reason

As my Antigonus to break his grave

And come again to me; who, on my life,

Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your counsel

My lord should to the heavens be contrary,

Oppose against their wills.

Care not for issue;

The crown will find an heir: great Alexander

Left his to the worthiest; so his successor

Was like to be the best…Will you swear

Never to marry but by my free leave?

… Unless another,

As like Hermione as is her picture,

Affront his eye…

Yet, if my lord will marry,--if you will, sir,

No remedy, but you will,--give me the office

To choose you a queen: she shall not be so young

As was your former; but she shall be such

As, walk'd your first queen's ghost,

it should take joy

To see her in your arms.”

Then a message arrives that the son of the King of Bohemia (the former best friend of Leontes) has arrived in Sicilia with his new bride Perdita. When they arrive, everyone comments on the beauty and grace of Perdita. Florizel (with the help of Camillo's letters) makes out that he is in Sicilia on a dilpomatic mission with his father Polixenes' endoursement. Then news arrives that Polixenes himself has arrived in Sicilia with his advisor Camillo. They have arrived to find Florizel. Also, the Shepherd and the Clown, who came to Sicilia on the ship that Florizel and Perdita came on, are also now in the company of Polixenes. Florizel thinks that Camillo has betrayed him and is anxious about his father's arrival. Leontes although shocked decides that he will go immediately (taking Florizel and Perdita with him) to meet with his enstranged former best friend.

We then switch to another place outside of Leontes's palace where some of Leontes's lords retell Autolycus the story they have heard about the Shepherd finding the baby Perdita. Then it is revealed that the tokens left with Perdita reveal that she is Leontes's long lost daughter. Leontes asks forgiveness from Polixenes and the two kings and everyone are joyful over everything including ther marriage of Florizel to Perdita. Autolycus is then told by the lords that then Perdita said she wanted to visit the statue of her mother, Hermione which has recently been built and placed outside Paulina's house. The scene ends when the Clown and the Shepherd enter to proclaim they have both been made gentlemen. Autolycus says that he will redeem his old ways and become a servant to them both.

We then shift to a chapel in Paulina's house. Paulina reveal the statue of Hermione. Now we must remember that the original audience would have thought like Leontes, Perdita and other characters, that Hermione was dead so along with the characters, the audience must have thought how realistic and detailed the statue looked (even if they thought that the actress who had played Hermione earlier was pretending to be the statue). When Leontes remarks that the statue looks older than he remembers, Paulina remarks that it is "So much the more our carver's excellence, which let's go by some sixteen years and makes her as she lived now." Perdita wants to kiss the hand of the statue but Paulina says that the colour or paint on the staue is not dry yet. Leontes does not want Paulina to draw the curtain back and cover the statue and says that the statue seems so life like that he wants to kiss it. Paulina says that leontes cannot do this but she agrees to make the statue move and take Leontes's hand. Then, to the sound of music and to the amazement of everyone, the statue begins to move. Paulina says that the statue will approach Leontes like a suitor as he once approached Hermione. This moment is touching. A true moving sentiment which allows emotion, revelation and a strange but moving non-naturalism. Leontes is shocked that the statue's hand is warm. He accepts the zone between desire and reality. The dream zone. Then it is revealed that this is the real Hermione. Hermione is happy to see her daughter and blesses her and asks to hear the whole of her daughter's story.

“You gods, look down

And from your sacred vials pour your graces

Upon my daughter's head! Tell me, mine own.

Where hast thou been preserved? where lived? how found

Thy father's court? for thou shalt hear that I,

Knowing by Paulina that the oracle

Gave hope thou wast in being, have preserved

Myself to see the issue.”

Then Leontes, with a newfound happiness in his heart, joins Paulina to Camillo as husband and wife (since Paulina's husbands was eaten by a bear). Leontes then rejoices and asks Paulina to lead them out so that they can hear the true story that has united them all together.

“O, peace, Paulina!

Thou shouldst a husband take by my consent,

As I by thine a wife: this is a match,

And made between's by vows. Thou hast found mine;

But how, is to be question'd; for I saw her,

As I thought, dead, and have in vain said many

A prayer upon her grave. I'll not seek far--

For him, I partly know his mind--to find thee

An honourable husband. Come, Camillo,

And take her by the hand, whose worth and honesty

Is richly noted and here justified

By us, a pair of kings. Let's from this place.

What! look upon my brother: both your pardons,

That e'er I put between your holy looks

My ill suspicion. This is your son-in-law,

And son unto the king, who, heavens directing,

Is troth-plight to your daughter. Good Paulina,

Lead us from hence, where we may leisurely

Each one demand an answer to his part

Perform'd in this wide gap of time since first

We were dissever'd: hastily lead away.”