The Winter’s Tale: ‘What a Fool Honesty Is’.
Episode 236:
During the days when the theatres were closed due to the plague, we don’t know if Shakespeare accompanied the King’s Men of tour, holed up in London or returned to Stratford-Upon-Avon for an extended stay, but when he emerged from whatever the Jacobean version of lockdown was, he had a new play ready for the 1611 reopening of the theatres and it was one that carried on with his recent experimentations in theatre.
The dating of the play
The early printing of the play
The sources for the play
A synopsis of the plot
Leontes as a king with some recognisable characteristics
James 1st and Arabella Stuart
The trial of Hermionie
Paulina – the politically aware woman
The not quite happy ending
Forgiveness, redemption and the passage of time
‘He exits pursued by a bear’
The pastoral act of the play
Perdita, nature, art, and the meaning of flowers
Honesty and the character and role of Autolocus
The ‘reanimation’ of Hermionie
The critical and performance history of the play
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