THE WINTER'S TALE SOURCES-The earliest known reference to the shepherd Porrus and Mopsa his wife, and of Shakespeare as a dramatist-"an upstart crow, beau- her growth and beauty. Prince Dorastus, intended tified with our feathers, that with his tiger's heart by King Egistus for a Danish princess, fell in love wrapped in a player's hide, supposes he is as well with Fawnia, when in pursuit of a falcon. Much able to bumbast out a blank verse as the best of you; space is given to the courtship, and to Dorastus' and being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is in his proposal of flight. The Shepherd, fearing the beown conceit the only Shakescene in a country"-trayal of Fawnia, resolved to tell the king of the this outburst of the jealous artist came from the pen jewels found in the little boat with the child. In of Robert Greene, poet, dramatist, novelist, and lit- this he was fooled by Capnio, Dorastus' servant, who erary hack, in 1592. The exact occasion of Greene's led him instead aboard the ship in which Dorastus resentment is unknown; not until nearly twenty years planned to flee. The elopers sailed with the sheplater, when Greene had been long dead, is Shake- herd to Bohemia, where Pandosto fell in love with speare known to have borrowed from the work of his own daughter, and threw Dorastus (who called his angered rival. Greene's novel Pandosto, The himself Melea grus) into prison. The prince was Triumph of Time (1588), better known in its own freed at the request of ambassadors sent by Egistus; day by its subtitle The History of Dorastus and and Fawnia, Capnio, and the shepherd were conFawnia, furnished Shakespeare with the romantic plot demned to death. Upon this followed the disclosure of The Winter's Tale. Under still another title, The of the shepherd's treasure found with the child, and Fortunate Lovers, the novel was popular as a chap- Pandosto's recognition of his long-lost daughter. book until well on in the eighteenth century. The The old shepherd was made a knight; and festivities invention of the narrative is a pleasing one; and credit held in Bohemia, after which all returned to Sicilia. for the originality of the plot has been generally At the wedding there Pandosto, in remorse at the given to the novelist. So numerous are the changes unnatural passion he had before conceived for his made by Shakespeare in the plot of Greene's story, own daughter, slew himself. that a brief summary of Pandosto is necessary. In spite of the intricacy of this plot, the slender Pandosto, king of Bohemia, growing jealous of the pamphlet which holds its story is chiefly filled with innocent intimacy between his wife Bellaria and his soliloquies and colloquies, in the manner of Euphues guest Egistus, king of Sicilia, instigated his cup-bearer and the characters of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia. Franion to murder Egistus. Franion, however, dis- The episodes are no further developed than in a closed all, and fled with the intended victim. Pan- child's fairy-tale; and Shakespeare's title shows his dosto, fearing to war upon Egistus, who was the appreciation of this fact. At its best, the style of son-in-law of the Emperor of Russia, wreaked his Greene's story is smooth and graceful, and not withwrath upon Bellaria, sending his guards to deprive out interest. A favorable specimen of the manner her of her new-born babe and setting the infant is Bellaria's lament for her babe, given below; adrift in an open boat. At the trial of Bellaria it which should be compared with the queenly restraint was determined to seek a judgment of the oracle on and natural loftiness of temper of Shakespeare's the Isle of Delphos, which being obtained declared Hermione. that the queen was innocent, and that "the king "Alas, sweet, unfortunate babe, scarce born, beshall live without an heir, if that which is lost be fore envied by fortune, would the day of thy birth not found." The king instantly repented; but the had been the term of thy life: then shouldst thou sudden news of the death of his son Garinter caused have made an end to care and prevented thy father's Bellaria to die of sorrow, and Pandosto was left rigor. Thy faults cannot yet deserve such hateful stricken. The "tragical discourse" of the young in- revenge, thy days are too short for so sharp a doom, fant Fawnia next tells of her finding in Sicilia by but thy untimely death must pay thy mother's debts, OTHER PARALLELS-Recent investigation in and her guiltless crime must be thy ghastly curse. sent forth his daughter; and this retention of the And shalt thou, sweet babe, be committed to fortune, mythical sea-coast called down the wrath of Ben when thou art already spited by fortune? Shall the Jonson. But Shakespeare's selection of a title for seas be thy harbor, and the hard boat thy cradle? the play asserts his freedom of historical accuracy or Shall thy tender mouth instead of sweet kisses, be consistency; these are the lands and customs of nipped with bitter storm? Shalt thou have the whist- fairy-tale, not a real Bohemia or Sicily. ling winds for thy lullaby, and the salt sea foam instead of sweet milk? Alas, what destiny will assign the field of source-materials has failed to disclose such hard hap? What father would be so cruel? Or what gods will not revenge such rigor? Let me kiss thy lips, sweet infant, and wet thy tender cheeks with my tears, and put this chain about thy neck, and if fortune save thee, it may help to succor thee. Thus, since thou must go to surge in the gastful seas, with a sorrowful kiss I bid thee farewell, and I pray the gods thou mayst fare well." much that sheds light on the origin of Greene's Pandosto, or Shakespeare's use of it. A Polish tale, first published by J. Caro in 1878, gives a sixteenth-century narrative of a cruel prince, Ziemovit of Masovia, who killed his wife out of jealousy; and whose son, saved from his rage, was brought up secretly and restored to him in later years, after the innocence of his princess had been proved. It is not impossible that This ennobling of the queen's character, from the through some version of this story came Greene's shows and conventions of grief to the majesty of choice of Bohemia as his scene, and the main outtrue grief in an emperor's daughter, is Shakespeare's line of his novel. A trace of the same story in chief dramatic achievement in his treatment of his Dutch folk-lore goes to prove that Shakespeare disource. In the queenly serenity with which her spirit vined the nature of this winter's tale. Other elemeets injuries, she stands as a worthy companion ments in the play have no known parallels worthy of to the portrait of Katherine in Henry VIII, but the account. A play by Robert Wilson, The Three Lareconciliation which sweetens the bitterness of dies of London (1584), contains an entrance of Tom Greene's conclusion gives room for the superbly Beggar and his companions with a thieves' song; theatrical scene of her forgiveness. To her Shakes- but the prevalence along English roadsides of peare gives as father the Emperor of Russia, whom "feigned beggars and fawning fellows," as Dr. ForGreene had called Polixenes' (Egistus') father-in-law. man calls them, would seem to have given all Leontes (Pandosto) is changed from a fiction of needed material here. The name Autolycus, of mere jealousy to a man overpowered by an evil course, Shakespeare chose to match his semi-classical obsession so strong that he seems a victim among setting. Finally, the device with which the play is those he suspects. Polixenes (Egistus) is a sympathetic portrait, of which no trace exists in the original. His visit to the shepherd's feast, and the skilful means by which his resentment of Florizel's actions is justified, is only in the drama. Camillo's close of Shakespeare's Pericles; while the theme of (Franion's) part is greatly increased, for he plans the flight of the Prince and brings his master on. Out of Capnio, Dorastus' servant, comes Autolycus, who, though in times past he "had served the prince" and "worn three-pile," is now the most winning of rogues. Paulina, the spirited boy Mamillius (Garin- presents the impersonation of a statue by the sweetter), the clown (substituted for the shepherd's wife), Antigonus, Emilia,-all these are creations of the dramatist. brought to a fortunate conclusion in a general way resembles a number of similar scenes in earlier plays, without any direct evidence of borrowing. The reunion of husband, wife, and daughter marks the the animated statue had been seen in the old tale of Pygmalion, elaborated in Marston's Metamorphosis of Pygmalion's Image, in 1598, and in other works which borrowed the same device. Lope de Vega's El Marmol de Felisardo (Felisardo's Marble Image) heart of a young prince, who has obtained his father's consent to wed the marble lady; The Tryall by Chivalry (1605) gives the opposite situation of A striking alteration is that of interchanging Bo- a lover, as statue, hearing his lady's confession. hemia and Sicilia, for no particular reason except Apart from the mere device of the statue, the closest perhaps that an oracle of “Delphos" might seem more parallel to the closing scene of the drama is perhaps natural in the latter place, while an English coun- that of Euripides' Alcestis, in motivation and in the try dance and revel would better become the more treatment of character. We are reminded also of the northern country. The change did not affect the last scene in Much Ado about Nothing. geography of Bohemia, from which Pandosto had CRITICAL COMMENT-"None of our author's plays," says Malone, "has been more censured for the Frederick, in February, 1613. Two other early perbreach of dramatic rules than The Winter's Tale." formances are recorded, in 1624 and 1634. The WinDryden classed it as one of those "which were either ter's Tale was unsuited to Restoration taste, and grounded on impossibilities, or at least so meanly Genest's earliest records of it are in January, 1741, written, that the comedy neither caused you mirth, at the theatre in Goodman's Fields, and in 1742 and nor the serious part your concernment." Such in- 1754 at Covent Garden. Florizel and Perdita, or congruities as the "free navigation between Sicily and The Sheep Shearing, by Morgan, was acted in the Bohemia" and of Giulio Romano's living in the same latter year; but it was soon superseded by David age as the Delphic oracle, meet with more or less indulgent censure, according to the critic's belief in the Unities. It is natural, therefore, that The Winter's Tale should have been called a profound tragedy by Victor Hugo, the chief of the romantic critics. Garrick's dramatic pastoral, Florizel and Perdita (1756). In both of these performances the first three acts were lopped away; and in Garrick's text even the remainder was much altered, Garrick all the while protesting in his Prologue, ""Tis my chief Wish, my Joy, my only Plan, To lose no Drop of the immortal Man!" An interesting comment upon the play may be drawn from the fact that criticisms of this drama are chiefly studies of individual character, rather than of more generai themes. Florizel, Perdita, Paulina, and Autolycus have been the subject of sympathetic Like his other perversion of Shakespearean comedy sketches; but the more notable writers have been made at the same time, Katherine and Petruchio, Garchiefly concerned with Hermione and Leontes. What rick's Florizel and Perdita was highly praised, and Greene called the "infectious sore of jealousy," held the stage till the end of the century. A perexhibited in Leontes, was well analyzed by Coleridge; formance of it in New York in 1796 is recorded by and his remarks on "genuine jealousy of disposition," Seilhamer. Dr. Warburton, the famous editor, as contrasted with Othello's passion, are well worth praised Garrick at the time for having given "an noting. Its effects are “an excitability by the most elegant form to a monstrous composition." inadequate causes .; a grossness of conception . . .; a sense of shame of his own feelings exhibited in a solitary moodiness of temper; a dread of vulgar ridicule .; and . . . a spirit of selfish vindictiveness." Of Leontes' queen no critic has ever expressed himself in terms of less than superlative eulogy. One may cite as an example Hudson's "her proud submission, her dignified obedience; with her Roman firmness and integrity of soul, heroic in strength, heroic in gentleness, the queenliest of women, the womanliest of queens." Her gentleness and serenity give tone to the play, which a critic of our day has called the most gentle of all Shakespeare's dramas. Some of this quality lies, as Dowden points out, in the paternal leniency with which the young lovers are drawn by the dramatist. Shakespeare came to his own again in the splendid production by John Kemble and Mrs. Siddons, in 1802, at Drury Lane. The impressive rendering of Leontes by this great tragedian was eclipsed by the magnificent performance of his sister as Hermione. The part, especially in the final scene, seemed perfectly adapted to her classic and statuesque beauty. Samuel Phelps gave a successful production of the play in 1845-6; but this was surpassed by the classical revival in the spring of 1856 under Charles Kean, whose spectacular treatment endeavored to make the play truly antique. A Pyrrhic dance was introduced into Act I, and a Dionysia into Act IV. Bohemia was changed to Bithynia, following Hanmer's emendation; the Sicilian setting was localized at Syracuse; and Greek music, costume, and scenery, all advertised as careful studies from the ancient, were STAGE HISTORY-Dr. Simon Forman saw the everywhere lavished. As a specimen of the elaboration play at the Globe Theatre in May 15, 1611, and noted may be quoted the program account corresponding to its story in his Book of Plays, giving nearly as much Shakespeare's "Enter Time, the Chorus”; “A classical space to his impression of Autolycus, "the rogue allegory representing the course of Time. Luna in that came in all tottered like Coll Pixci," as to the her car, accompanied by the stars (personified) sinkstory of Perdita. A performance on November 5 ing before the approach of Phœbus. Cronos as Time of the same year is listed by Cunningham in his copy surmounting the globe describes the events of the of the much-debated Revels Accounts. The play was sixteen years supposed to have elapsed.” selected as one of those likely to please at the wed- Miss Helen Faucit (Lady Martin) made Hermione ding festivities of Princess Elizabeth and the Elector one of her most famous parts in 1847. It was reserved for an American actress, however, to make entered on August 19, 1623,-"For the King's Playthe most striking innovation of recent years, the act-ers. An old play called winter's tale, formerly aling of Hermione and Perdita by the same person. lowed of by Sir George Buc." This latter official In 1887, at the suggestion of Thomas Hall, and forti- in 1603 obtained a reversionary grant of the office fied by the approval of Lord Tennyson, Miss Mary of master of the Revels, and on occasion exercised Anderson essayed the double rôle, and the season its privileges. He did not, however, obtain the office proved a great success. Sir Johnston Forbes-Robert- till August, 1610, on the approaching demise of his son acted Leontes. The parts were later repeated in predecessor. The probabilities in favor of a date America; and Miss Anderson made her farewell ap- for The Winter's Tale after his incumbency are pearance as Hermione in 1889. The double rôle has therefore slightly greater than for the years 1603been adopted by other actresses, such as Miss Viola 1610. Allen. In 1899 a prosperous season took place at the The servant reports of the satyr masquers (IV. Queen's Theatre, Manchester. Tree's production in iv. 345) that "one three of them, by their own re1906, when Miss Ellen Terry acted Hermione, just port, sir, hath danced before the King." A dance half a century after her appearance as Mamillius in of satyrs occurs in Jonson's Masque of Oberon, perKean's revival, was a notable success. Miss Mat- formed at court on New Year's, 1611; and it is not thison's Hermione, at the New Theatre in New York improbable that a relation is indicated by the servCity in 1910, was one of the few triumphs of that ill-ant's remark. The tone and title of the play, it starred venture. Like the production in the same may be added, befit mid-winter. With these dates year at the Théâtre Shakespeare in Paris, an attempt (August, 1610-May, 1611) the tests of style agree. was made, not without profit, to reproduce, within The style is concise and heavily charged with thought; the limits of the picture stage, the acting conditions and the use of metrical license is remarkably free, of the Elizabethan theatre. A similar attempt was weak endings and run-on lines being numerous. made at the French revival at the Théâtre du Vieux Colombier, Paris, in 1920. DATE-Dr. Simon Forman, as has been said, noted the play in his Book of Plays under the date of May 15, 1611. The Winter's Tale comes last of the comedies in the First Folio, as The Tempest comes first. These, as the places of honor, would naturally be assigned to the comparatively new pieces. Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels to James I, TEXT-The sole authority is that of the First Folio, which is here happily free from most of the corruptions and printers' errors common in other plays. In this The Winter's Tale resembles The Tempest, and probably for a like reason, that the texts are comparatively new, still unpublished, and popular on the stage. A few of the more important emendations are indicated in the Notes. M. Cam. Beseech you, 10 [A Mariner. A Gaoler.] HERMIONE, queen to Leontes. PERDITA, daughter to Leontes and Hermione. PAULINA, wife to Antigonus. EMILIA, a lady [attending on Hermione]. [MOPSA, [DORCAS, } Shepherdesses.] Other Lords and Gentlemen, [Ladies, Officers,] and 17 unintelligent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot praise us, as little accuse us. Cam. You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely. Arch. Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me and as mine honesty puts it to utterance. 22 Cam. Sicilia cannot show himself over-kind to Bohemia. They were trained together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then such an affection, which cannot choose but branch now. Since their more mature dignities and royal necessities made separation of their society, their encounters, though not personal, have been royally attorneyed with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have seemed to be together, though absent, shook hands, as over a vast, and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their loves! Arch. Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge: we cannot with such magnificence -in so rare- -I know not what to say. We will give you sleepy drinks, that your senses, Arch. I think there is not in the world either 35 |