Pandosto, or The Triumph of Time

Pandosto, or The Triumph of Time,
a prose romance by R. Greene published 1588 . It went through nine editions up to 1632 , but is now best known as the source for The Winter's Tale . Shakespeare followed Greene's romance closely, except that he preserved the life of Hermione (Bellaria in Pandosto), and made Leontes, not Hermione/Bellaria, appeal to the oracle. Pandosto, the Leontes figure, is killed at the end of the romance, ‘to close up the Comedie with a Tragicall stratageme’. Pandosto is one of Greene's best narratives, and of understandable popularity in its time.