A Scene from William Shakespeare's 'A Winter's Tale'

The Winter's Tale

William Shakespearec. 1610
ShakespeareGruelingRomanceEnglishShort · 100 pages
Influence17th pct
Popularity17th pct
Where it ranks
#133of 194Overall#21of 38Shakespeare

Read this if you…

  • are reading all of shakespeare

Skip this if you…

  • haven't already read the classic shakespeare plays
  • aren't willing to go slow, read notes, look up analyses of famous passages (only way to "get" shakespeare)
  • foolishly think shakespeare is overrated

Why It Matters

Shakespeare wrote a play that opens as tragedy, a king's crazy jealousy wrecking his family, and ends as something close to a miracle. It's his most radical experiment with time and genre, skipping sixteen years in the middle and mixing grief with joy. The final scene, where a statue comes to life, is one of the strangest and best things in all of theater.

The Groblé Take

High quality hidden identity Shakespeare. Very ending was a little insane but still fun.

Connections

Where to go next

Built Onwhat came beforeThe Winter's TaleMetamorphoses

  • Metamorphoses by Ovid. The Winter's Tale built on it. - The statue that comes to life at the end is Ovid's Pygmalion, lifted from Book 10 of the *Metamorphoses* - Leontes's wonder at the statue speaks Ovid's language of stone turning to flesh — "What fine chisel / Could ever yet cut breath?" - Read Ovid first and the play's logic opens up: Perdita-as-Proserpina, the dead made living, transformation as the engine of the whole final act
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Gallery

Depicted in Art

Hermione attended by her ladies, Mamillius at her knee, the moment before Leontes bursts in with the accusation of adultery.

William Hamilton, 1790

Pastoral grouping outside the shepherd's cottage at the sheep-shearing festival — Perdita as flower-decked country queen, Florizel beside her.

William Hamilton, 1793

A grouping of figures in flowing Regency-classical drapery — likely the trial of Hermione or the statue scene, in Stothard's characteristic soft-edged style.

Thomas Stothard, 1800

A young woman with long red-gold curls bound by ribbons, white jasmine blossoms at her temple, in a white muslin bodice — a tightly cropped portrait-as-character study.

Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys, 1866

The old Shepherd and his son discover the infant Perdita abandoned on the Bohemian shore beside the gold and tokens that mark her noble birth.

Henry Thomson, 1827

The sheep-shearing festival outside the shepherd's cottage: Perdita in finery in the foreground, Florizel gazing at her from the doorway, Autolycus hawking wares behind.

Augustus Leopold Egg, 1845

Leontes confronts Antigonus and his lords as the infant Perdita is brought before him; the king orders the child cast out.

John Opie, 1793

Editions

Recommended Editions

#1Top Pick

Folger Shakespeare Library

2005

Folger's the readable one. Text on one page, notes on the facing page, written in plain English instead of textbook-speak. Catches every word and reference you'd otherwise google, without breaking the scene to do it.

Buy on Bookshop
#2

SparkNotes (No Fear Shakespeare)

2007

$14.95$13.93Buy
#3

Arden Shakespeare

2010

$130.00Buy

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Deep Dive

What It's About

Spoiler warning

This summary gives away plot details.

Notable Quotes

“Exit, pursued by a bear.”

— Stage direction, The Winter's Tale

“A sad tale's best for winter.”

— Mamillius, The Winter's Tale

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