The Oxford Companion to English Literature | The Winter's Tale
Winter's Tale, The, a play by
Shakespeare
written
1610
or
1611
, in which year it was performed at the Globe (recorded by
Forman
). It was one of the plays put on to celebrate the marriage of Princess Elizabeth and the elector palatine in
1612
–
13
and was first printed in the
folio
of
1623
where it is the last play in the section of comedies. Its main source is
Greene's
Pandosto
.
Leontes, king of Sicily, and Hermione, his virtuous wife, are visited by Leontes's childhood friend Polixenes, king of Bohemia. Leontes presently convinces himself that Hermione and Polixenes are lovers, attempts to procure the death of the latter by poison, and on his escape imprisons Hermione, who in prison gives birth to a daughter. Paulina, wife of Antigonus, a Sicilian lord, tries to move the king's compassion by bringing the baby to him, but in vain. He orders Antigonus to leave the child on a desert shore to perish. He...
[The entire page is 403 words long]
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