The Winter's Tale

The Winter's Tale is a late romance in two halves: a tragedy of sudden, destructive jealousy in the court of Sicilia, followed sixteen years later by a pastoral comedy in Bohemia and a final scene of apparent resurrection.

Main characters

• Leontes, King of Sicilia
• Hermione, his queen
• Mamillius, their young son
• Perdita, their daughter
• Polixenes, King of Bohemia
• Florizel, his son
• Camillo, a lord
• Paulina, Hermione's defender
• Antigonus, Paulina's husband
• Autolycus, a rogue and pedlar

Plot summary

This summary gives away the ending.

Leontes is suddenly convinced that his pregnant wife Hermione is having an affair with his childhood friend Polixenes. He orders Camillo to poison Polixenes; instead Camillo warns him and they flee to Bohemia. Leontes imprisons Hermione, and when she gives birth he orders the baby abandoned. Hermione is put on trial. The oracle of Apollo declares her innocent, but Leontes defies it. At once news comes that Mamillius has died, and Hermione collapses and is reported dead. Antigonus leaves the baby on the coast of Bohemia and is killed by a bear.

Sixteen years pass, announced by the figure of Time. The baby, Perdita, has been raised by a shepherd, and Polixenes's son Florizel loves her. At a sheep-shearing festival full of songs and the thieving pedlar Autolycus, Polixenes forbids the match, and the lovers flee to Sicilia. There Perdita's identity is revealed and Leontes, still penitent, is reunited with his daughter. Paulina then shows him a lifelike statue of Hermione, which moves and steps down: Hermione has been alive, hidden, all this time.

Themes

• Jealousy and its destructive power
• Time, repentance and forgiveness
• Nature and art
• Loss and restoration

Famous lines

A sad tale's best for winter.

Mamillius, Act 2 Scene 1

Exit, pursued by a bear.

Stage direction, Act 3 Scene 3

It is required You do awake your faith.

Paulina, Act 5 Scene 3

More in our collection of famous Shakespeare quotes.

Sources

Robert Greene's prose romance Pandosto (1588). There is an irony here: Greene was the rival who mocked Shakespeare as an 'upstart Crow' in 1592. Shakespeare kept Greene's coast of Bohemia, a landlocked country, and gave his story a happier ending.

On stage and screen

Simon Forman recorded seeing it at the Globe on 15 May 1611. 'Exit, pursued by a bear' is the most famous stage direction in English drama; whether the bear was an actor in a costume or a real bear from the nearby bear-baiting arenas is still debated.

See where The Winter's Tale sits in Shakespeare's career on the timeline, or read about the playhouses it was written for.