The Winter's Tale (Folger Shakespeare Library)

Of course, the play is marvelous, and needs deep reading. I love that Folger editions have brief notes on the pages opposite the speeches. No searching for explanations!

“The Winter’s Tale” by William Shakespeare is a fascinating, tragic, psychological but little known play that Shakespeare wrote about five years before his death. It is about a pagan king with a loving lovely pregnant wife, and a son. He develops an unfounded jealousy and is convinced despite no one agreeing with him that his wife, the queen, was unfaithful to him with his friend and the child in her body is not his. Despite being assured by the Oracle that his wife committed no adultery and the child is his, he has her killed and banishes his just born daughter. His son dies out of anguish. He soon realizes that he was wrong. But it is too late. Now he suffers for what he did. Sixteen years pass. His daughter is raised in another kingdom. By chance, she comes to his land, he meets her, realizes she is his daughter, and embraces her. He is shown a statute of his late wife. The statute comes alive and his wife forgives him saying she still loves him. He is is now after sixteen years given a second chance, forgiven for what he thought was unforgivable – although his son is lost. The play is well-worth watching. Its moral is that problems, even the worst ones, can be resolved in a large measure, at least somewhat.

I feel like this Shakespearian play doesn't get enough face time. The first time I ever saw its title, I was in High School, looking at the names of all the plays Shakespeare ever wrote. We all know about his overly famous plays, like Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, but what about The Winter's Tale? I was intrigued by the title at the time, and the fact that I'd never heard of it before (and with a brother heavily into Shakespeare and acting, that was unusual). I've never seen this title on a playbill, though I'm sure it must be preformed somewhere, and my curiosity about this play was peaked--though in High School I didn't do anything about it. Recently, I had to teach Hamlet, and as I was looking on Amazon for a copy for my Kindle, I once again came across The Winter's Tale. As it was a free copy, I scooped it up and read it right away, just to assuage my curiosity. It was interesting. In my opinion, it's not really like Shakespeare's other plays. It's a bit intense in the beginning, and though there are comedic scenes, I wouldn't necessarily classify this as a comedy, nor a tragedy either. A romance, I suppose, but for me, it's a bit strange. Through a little research I found that Shakespeare actually modeled his play off Pandosto, by Robert Greene (which I've never read), but I, personally, see much of Oedipus Rex in this play. I know Shakespeare dealt a lot with Greek mythology in his works, and The Winter's Tale seems to really follow that of Oedipus Rex. I'm not going to give the entire synopsis away, or any spoilers, but, like Oedipus, King Leontes is a haughty man, paranoid. He refuses to listen to oracles and attempts to do away with his newborn child by sending her away to die. While there are many differences between The Winter's Tale and Oedipus, there are also many similarities and I found this rather interesting, especially because I really enjoy Oedipus. That being said, I'd like to see this play preformed someday, I always tend to like plays more when they're preformed, so I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for this one. (Please note: I use the star rating system of Goodreads, which is different from that of Amazon. My overall rating is that I liked it.)

Picking up tis play to read I knew absolutley nothing about it other than having heard it's name. I have to say I am glad I took a chance on the unknown because this play was truly a pleasure to read. Once I got used to the English used in it reading it became almost melodic in my head. There is no doubt Shakespeare knew how to make words dance. This play almost feels like it should be two separate plays since they are so very different in feel. The first half a tragedy and the sequel a romance. I feel like Shakespeare wrote this play as sort of an homage to the Greek classics. if that was his intent, then I have to say he succeeded very well indeed. I loved that even with all the flowery language (multiple times requiring me to look up words) he quickly managed to start the film projector in my head I was seeing the action happening in my head. Truly a classic and I am so thrilled that my first foray into Shakespeare unknown to me was such a resounding success!!

A tale of paranoia wherein a king loses his wife, son and daughter. It starts well, and shows how paranoia is like a religion. The affected individual can only see that which is hypothesis confirming. Everyone else has joined in conspiracy against him. The rest of the play is boring and full of the typical, disguises and coincidence.

In the Winter's Tale Shakespeare "rewrites" the tragedy of Anne Boleyn. In the play Sicilia's Queen Hermione is accused of adultry just as Queen Anne was in England a generation before. Like Boleyn, this queen too is imprisoned, tried in public and found guilty. Then the king's son by Hermione dies depriving the king of his male heir. (In Anne Boleyn's case the son was stillborn.) Hermione is now pregnant with a second child, a daughter that the king disavows is his and sends the child to her death. (In real life Anne Boleyn's daughter was Elizabeth who lived in the shadow of her younger half-brother Edward and in fear of her older half-sister Mary.) But there is a twist in Shakespeare's telling of this familiar-to-his-audience family tragedy. In the play, Hermione, the queen, is not executed but goes into hiding. 16 years later the Sicilian King repents his behavior. Their abandoned daughter, Perdita, is found to be alive after all, living in Bohemia and is reunited with her father. But that's not the best reunion.The play is worth it for the final scene, when Hermione, pretending to be her own statue, being admired by the King and daughter Perdita, suddenly "comes to life" and steps off the pedestal. In the end mother and daughter are reunited, a magical ending that death had denied to Queen Elizabeth and Anne Boleyn. The irony of history is that the legacy of Henry VIII was carried on not by his son by Jane Seymour, not by his catholic daughter Mary, but by the daughter of executed Anne Boleyn, the feisty Queen Elizabeth I. In the Winter's Tale, Shakespeare is giving Anne Boleyn and Queen Elizabeth the last laugh.

The Modern Library/RSC Shakespeare series IS a very valuable addition. Inexpensive edition of the plays, helpful scene-by-scene summaries of the action, etc. But by far the most valuable part of the half dozen volumes I have studied is the "In Performance" sections. This is what sets this series apart from most others. Here, are performance histories detailing a variety of historic interpretations, interviews with contemporary directors and actors, revealing how they interpreted the text, and turned it into a stage drama.

People have tended to react one of two ways about The Winter’s Tale. One is exemplified by the Oxford World Classics edition and has a near one hundred page introduction. Here the editor sees perennial Shakespearean themes, comments on its subtleties and generally provides a defense of the play as a great work of art. On the other hand The Winter’s Tale has also consistently been derided as written when Shakespeare’s imaginative powers were declining (it is one of his last works). This is the typical reaction of a first time reader. One notices the lack of pithy sayings, the seeming disorder of the plot and the deus ex machina sort of ending. I can’t say that I differed from any other first time reader in seeing the play as largely an exercise in banality. But I plan on returning to the play and seeing whether I can start to see the brilliance described by the editor. My only recommendation is for first time readers to buy an edition with an ample introduction so that one gets a hint of the ostensible depth of the play. I did enjoy reading the Winter’s Tale. Perhaps the editor is right and there is depth beyond the surface inanity. But I would recommend this work only to those, like me, who cannot get enough of Shakespeare.