The Winters Tale

1
The Winters Tale

• Second lecture

2
Hermiones trial

• She points out that her testimony can scarcely be
  credited since she is accused of falsehood.
• Its simply he said/she said can it be a
  real trial?
• My life stands in the level of your dreams.
• And her faith is in powers divine that she
  insists view and judge human affairs. (ll. 27ff).
• And in the oracle of Apollo.
• Apollos judgment!
• And immediately another judgment.
• And another!
• Leontes vows his change of mind and repentance
  he makes it all very simple and confesses his
  plot with Camillo.
• But this is a tragedy and Paulina pronounces
  the effect I say shes dead Ill swear it.
• And Leontes cannot expect repentance
• Do not repent these things . . . Nothing but
  despair. A thousand knees/ Ten thousand years
  together, naked , fasting,/ Upon a barren
  mountain, and still winter/ In storm perpetual,
  could not move the gods/ To look that way thou
  wert.
• Some sins cannot be forgiven.
• But the play is only half over.

3
The hinge of the play Now bless thyself! Thou
metst with things dying, I with things new-born

• Act III, scene 3, seems strangely broken in two
  in terms of mood and tone.
• The first half, in a storm, has Antigonus
  describing his dream of the dead Hermione and his
  belief that the baby belongs in Bohemia.
• Though he pities the baby, he believes Leontes
  account of Hermiones adultery.
• He gives the baby the name the ghost of Hermione
  specified, Perdita, and abandons her.
• For which hes immediately punished Exit
  pursued by a bear.
• Then the tone immediately changes the old
  Shepherd grumbles about youth.
• I would there were no age between ten and
  three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out
  the rest.
• (The secret wish of all parents of teenagers?!)
• Whoa, ho, hoa! answered by Hilloa, loa!
  Serious stuff, right?
• And now the play gets positively giddy the
  Clowns description of the shipwreck, the bear
  dining on the gentleman.
• Tis a lucky day, boy . . . (Unless youre
  Antigonus)

4
Time, the Chorus

• Personifies the very principle of romance, which
  requires the passing of time.
• Remember well, I mentioned a son o th kings
  (Well no, but Polixenes mentioned him about 16
  years ago.)
• And of course something must happen between
  Florizel and Perdita.
• And the scene between Polixenes and Camillo gives
  us more backstory.
• And it turns out princes are just as rotten as
  ordinary youths, disappearing, paying no
  attention to princely exercises, probably
  chasing some girl.

5
Autolycus

• A singer, a shapeshifter, an actor, a thief, a
  pickpocket, a satirist, a small businessman.
• In short, a comic stand-in for the playwright?
• What title would we give the little play he
  engages the clown in?
• Hell later play a part in the larger play.
• Doing a good deed against his will.
• And kick-starting the plot we have to get
  everybody back to Sicily.

6
The pastoral world art and nature

• Shakespeare and pastoral
• Here the most fully realized version.
• Florizels over-the-top mythologizing of it at
  opening of the scene.
• The two have changed places shes queen of the
  feast and hes dressed as a shepherd.
• But shes on edge about the whole thing.
• Her welcome to the disguised Polixenes and
  Camillo rosemary and rue
• Flowers of winter?
• We dont have autumn flowers, natures
  bastards.
• Perdita I have heard it said/ There is an art
  which in their piedness shares/ With great
  creating nature.
• Countered by Polixenes nature makes the art
  This is an art/ Which does mend nature change
  it rather but/ The art itself is nature.
• But shell still not set one slip of them shell
  stay with a purer nature and analogizes it
  frankly to her own breeding with Florizel.
• Does this give us hope that Polixenes can accept
  her?
• Her wish for early spring flowers to strew
  Florizel.
• Not like a corse or if, not to be buried,/ But
  quick and in mine arms.
• And his poetry back to her.
• All interrupted by dancing, the entry of
  Autolycus, bawdy joking by Mopsa and Dorcas,
  discussion about ballads, more singing, another
  dance (of Satyrs),

7
The pastoral cut short

• Why exactly does Polixenes break up the two
  lovers?
• A conventional idea that young aristocrats
  shouldnt marry peasants?
• Wouldnt his argument about the gillyvors suggest
  otherwise?
• And though he says its time to part them, he
  seems to encourage Florizels wooing at ll.
  344ff.
• In response to Fs vows, his response Fairly
  offered.
• But Have you a father?
• Methinks a father/ Is at the nuptial of his son
  a guest/ That best becomes the table.
• And the fury between generations that
  characterizes comedy, but also fuels tragedy
  (think King Lear).