The Winter’s Tale

The Winter’s Tale
William Shakespeare

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.Considered one of Shakespeare’s most haunting tragic-comedies, The Winter’s Tale is an in-depth analysis of the psychology of family and friendship, jealousy and love, art and nature, all illustrated in rich poetry.Based on Robert Greene’s story Pandosto, the play tells the story of Leontes, king of Sicilia, and his childhood friend, Polixenes, king of Bohemia. In a jealous rage, Leontes mistakenly accuses Polixenes and his own his wife, Hermione, of adultery and her newborn daughter as illegitimate, casting her into the wilderness, causing their son to die of grief and Hermione to seemingly follow suit. With his family dead or believed dead, Leontes must face the tragic consequences of his actions. With unbridled honesty and the pain of love, the final act is one of Shakespeare’s most moving reconciliation scenes.

THE ALEXANDER SHAKESPEARE

General Editor

R.B. Kennedy

Additional notes and editing

Mike Gould

THE WINTER’S TALE

William Shakespeare

CONTENTS

Title Page (#uc3e3ad69-4eeb-568f-aade-705222df0141)

Prefatory Note (#u275bf6c6-7948-5152-aef2-6ac84c221b18)

The Theatre in Shakespeare’s Day (#uba092b4b-0435-5498-bbb2-49643347656c)

Shakespeare: A Timeline (#u21ccfa60-68df-54ce-904f-2f762cc90956)

Life & Times (#u71aeedbc-297b-5154-b7ba-914d3b9420ce)

Money in Shakespeare’s Day (#u1799d7a2-39bd-5886-a7c2-a459118117e3)

Introduction (#uc98e47c4-108a-5a79-b3b3-deb4de78ac12)

List of Characters (#ubfeef680-2d4d-52f4-9bd3-dbd528abf165)

Act One (#uef2e8dd7-2249-5b8f-9017-20f72af41995)

Scene I

Scene II (#uf288e54c-2197-5d78-b0a4-abbb802b4450)

Act Two (#litres_trial_promo)

Scene I

Scene II (#litres_trial_promo)

Scene III (#litres_trial_promo)

Act Three (#litres_trial_promo)

Scene I

Scene II (#litres_trial_promo)

Scene III (#litres_trial_promo)

Act Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Scene I

Scene II (#litres_trial_promo)

Scene III (#litres_trial_promo)

Scene IV (#litres_trial_promo)

Act Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Scene I

Scene II (#litres_trial_promo)

Scene III (#litres_trial_promo)

Shakespeare: Words and Phrases (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Prefatory Note

This Shakespeare play uses the full Alexander text. By keeping in mind the fact that the language has changed considerably in four hundred years, as have customs, jokes, and stage conventions, the editors have aimed at helping the modern reader – whether English is their mother tongue or not – to grasp the full significance of the play. The Notes, intended primarily for examination candidates, are presented in a simple, direct style. The needs of those unfamiliar with British culture have been specially considered.

Since quiet study of the printed word is unlikely to bring fully to life plays that were written directly for the public theatre, attention has been drawn to dramatic effects which are important in performance. The editors see Shakespeare’s plays as living works of art which can be enjoyed today on stage, film and television in many parts of the world.

An Elizabethan playhouse. Note the apron stage protruding into the auditorium, the space below it, the inner room at the rear of the stage, the gallery above the inner stage, the canopy over the main stage, and the absence of a roof over the audience.

The Theatre in Shakespeare’s Day

On the face of it, the conditions in the Elizabethan theatre were not such as to encourage great writers. The public playhouse itself was not very different from an ordinary inn-yard; it was open to the weather; among the spectators were often louts, pickpockets and prostitutes; some of the actors played up to the rowdy elements in the audience by inserting their own jokes into the authors’ lines, while others spoke their words loudly but unfeelingly; the presentation was often rough and noisy, with fireworks to represent storms and battles, and a table and a few chairs to represent a tavern; there were no actresses, so boys took the parts of women, even such subtle and mature ones as Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth; there was rarely any scenery at all in the modern sense. In fact, a quick inspection of the English theatre in the reign of Elizabeth I by a time-traveller from the twentieth century might well produce only one positive reaction: the costumes were often elaborate and beautiful.

Shakespeare himself makes frequent comments in his plays about the limitations of the playhouse and the actors of his time, often apologizing for them. At the beginning of Henry V the Prologue refers to the stage as ‘this unworthy scaffold’ and to the theatre building (the Globe, probably) as ‘this wooden O’, and emphasizes the urgent need for imagination in making up for all the deficiencies of presentation. In introducing Act IV the Chorus goes so far as to say:

… we shall much disgrace

With four or five most vile and ragged foils,