SOURCE: Nathan, Norman. “Leontes' Provocation.” Shakespeare Quarterly 19, no. 1 (winter 1968): 19-24.

[In the following essay, Nathan finds that Leontes's jealousy of Polixenes in The Winter's Tale appears quite suddenly, but is nevertheless properly motivated by Shakespeare.]

Perhaps the major scholarly dispute surrounding The Winter's Tale concerns the motivation of Leontes' jealousy. One view holds that his jealousy is sudden and motivated only slightly or not at all.¹ Another view maintains that the jealousy existed when the play began. The best way to refute the assertion of a lack of motivation is to present evidence of its existence. The concept that Leontes was jealous when the play began, however, requires some consideration.

Roger J. Trienens says of the crucial second scene, “… Shakespeare … has written this scene on the premise that Leontes is jealous at its very beginning and even for some time antecedent to it.”² Nevill Coghill admits that the opening scene prepares us “to witness a kingly amity between Sicilia and Bohemia. …”³ Yet Coghill considers this scene as preparation for the shock when the audience discovers in the second scene that amity departed before the play began.

It is clear that Leontes, as in the source-story which Shakespeare was following, has long since been jealous and is angling now (as he admits later) with his sardonic amphibologies, to catch Polixenes in the trap of invitation to prolong his stay, before he can escape to Bohemia and be safe.

(P. 33)

The obvious objection to both Trienens and Coghill is that their theories involve an assumption as to what took place before Act One. If Shakespeare were really following his source in connection with the jealousy, why did he not tell us that Leontes had suspicions anterior to the beginning of the play? Can we assume anything before the beginning of a play when the author has not chosen to tell us about it? Is it not the better scholarship to assume that when an author omits an explicit detail from his source he is either consciously or unconsciously departing from that source?

Further objections to Coghill include the fact that no extra trap is provided by having Polixenes prolong his stay. Polixenes wanted to leave the next day; Leontes orders Camillo to murder Polixenes even at the next meal. Also, if Leontes were jealous before, why does tremor cordis strike him suddenly, and apparently for the first time, late in this scene?⁴

The best Coghill can do is to infer certain stage directions not explicit in the text. Then he shows that actors, by sufficient facial grimaces and by reading their lines with innuendoes that support his thesis, can indicate to the audience that the jealousy exists when the play begins. But there is no denotational evidence that the lines are to be spoken in Coghill's way. If Polixenes is more flowery and Leontes more direct in dialogue, surely this displays a difference in their characterization rather than a thinly veiled animosity. Other characters in the play sense no hostility, for all are amazed by the onset of Leontes' jealousy. No one apparently perceived it earlier because it did not exist.

The view of this paper is that the jealousy is sudden and well-motivated. That sudden jealousy is possible is so obvious that one wonders why scholars have ever questioned the validity of Leontes' outburst on this ground alone. Compare this play with Othello. While Othello becomes jealous much later during the course of the play, the onset is practically as sudden as Leontes'. Through line 92 of Act III, Scene iii, there is still no indication that Othello has a jealous nature or that he is in the least concerned about his wife's conduct. And little more than a hundred lines later, there can be no question as to the intensity of Othello's newborn emotion. He says that he must have proof, but who doubts that the “proof” will be easy for Othello to obtain, now that he is no longer the well-balanced man?

Apparently the lack of complaint against Othello's sudden jealousy is based not on the relative credibility of his emotion but on the fact that in Othello the audience has been carefully prepared to expect so sudden a demonstration—and that might be one of the significant differences generally present between tragedy and tragicomedy. The true tragedy ordinarily invests us with an aura of inevitability. Suspense is maintained, even if the conclusion seems indisputable, partly because of sympathy with the hero that makes us fight against the inevitable every step of the way. Tragi-comedy demands surprise, particularly in a play like the Winter's Tale which tries to give us a complete tragedy and a complete comedy within the normal five acts. If the tragedy here is to end happily, the onset of jealousy had better come early in the play. Since it is part of a tragicomedy, it can well come suddenly, and since it is jealousy, one might expect it to come suddenly anyway. The significant question here is whether or not this jealousy is motivated. The tragicomedy framework makes it desirable that little time be taken to prepare the audience for the turn of events. But the form cannot be an excuse for a total lack of motivation, even though the motivation may have to be more closely compacted and probably less convincing than in the usual tragedy. While it may be agreed that motivation in an initial scene is not so important as getting into the story, and it may also be agreed that there are actions in Shakespeare that seem to have little or no motivation, nevertheless in The Winter's Tale the bases for Leontes' jealousy do appear early in the play.

The situation is simple. When a guest is about to leave, we must urge him to stay, particularly if he is our best friend and lives far away. At the opening of the scene, therefore, Leontes and Polixenes are playing the parts demanded by ideal friendship. There is an initial difference in their dialogue indicative of character. Leontes is likely to be abrupt, to say what he means; he is not inclined to banter. Polixenes is relatively flowery, less precise, less literal, and given to exaggeration. He says to Leontes,

There is no tongue that moves, none, none i' th' world,
So soon as yours could win me. So it should now,
Were there necessity in your request, although
'Twere needful I deni'd it.(5)

The obligation of friendship is exceeded only by that to God or to one's sovereign. If Leontes can't convince Polixenes, no one can.

Leontes turns to Hermione, “Tongue-tied our Queen? Speak you.” Since Hermione has not yet spoken in the scene, this admonition does not indicate that Leontes expects her to be successful. Perhaps he is indicating a fear that she will seem ungracious. But there are two dramatic necessities that account for Hermione's silence. First, Polixenes had to be allowed to register an absolute “no” to Leontes' request. Second, Leontes' chiding sets the stage for Hermione to show from her very first speech that she possesses excellent wit, for she at once makes a virtue out of her failure to echo her husband's invitation.

I had thought, sir, to have held my peace until
You had drawn oaths from him not to stay.

Hermione's character has been generally glorified because, after all, she is a virtuous and much wronged woman. The nobility of her speech and action, during her adversity, is admirable. And yet, does Shakespeare ever create a totally perfect individual? Is it possible that she, innocent as she is, unconsciously helps Leontes to plunge into his sudden jealousy because of some slight unbalance in her nature?

The first speech of Hermione establishes her wit. And there is hardly a speech that she will make during this scene that will fail to show her skill at repartee as well as the ability to phrase ambiguities bordering on a type of forwardness more akin to Beatrice than to Shakespeare's other heroines.

Polixenes protests again that he cannot prolong his visit, saying, “I may not, verily.” Hermione replies with,

Verily!
You put me off with limber vows; but I,
Though you would seek to unsphere the stars with oaths,
Should yet say, “Sir, no going.” Verily,
You shall not go; a lady's “Verily” 's
As potent as a lord's.

It may be a limber vow, but a vow is not to be taken lightly, particularly when it is made by a sovereign. Hermione, by vowing herself, has made it impossible for Polixenes either to go or to stay without someone's being forsworn, unless, of course, Polixenes' original verily was a kind of game between them.

Then she jokingly offers Polixenes the choice of being her prisoner or her guest. When he gracefully chooses the latter alternative, she says, “Not your gaoler, then, / But your kind hostess.” The word “hostess” has two vastly different meanings in Shakespeare's plays, and the ambiguity of kind hostess would probably not be lost on the auditors of this bantering conversation. It almost seems as if the phrase suggests the topic to follow,

… Come, I'll question you
Of my lord's tricks and yours when you were boys.

Leontes takes no part in this banter, for it is certainly not in his vein. Besides, other things are troubling him. Hermione apparently is succeeding in persuading Polixenes to stay even though Polixenes had said no one but his friend could make him do so. And Polixenes had just indicated how lightly a vow may be taken. As if to cap Leontes' distress, Hermione utters another ambiguity when she says to Polixenes,

Th' offences we have made you do we'll answer,
If you first sinn'd with us, and that with us
You did continue fault, and that you slipp'd not
With any but with us.

The usual interpretation is that Hermione, pretending that Polixenes had adjudged all pleasures of the flesh as sinful, says that they will be forgiven as long as they are sanctified by wedlock. But there is another possible meaning, surely not hidden from an audience delighting in double entendres. The phrasing could mean that she and Polixenes are lovers and that she is demanding that he be faithful to that illicit relationship.⁶ The fact that Hermione uses the pronoun “us” need not disturb the interpretation since, as a queen, the ambiguity of the word would further display her wit.

Leontes breaks in with, “Is he won yet?” Many editors make the assumption that Leontes has not overheard the previous conversation, otherwise he would know that Polixenes has agreed to stay. Consequently, although Shakespeare put in no stage directions to indicate this, it is frequently assumed that Leontes had gone to another part of the stage and just returned. This view not only has the dubious distinction of adding what is not in the text, but raises the problem as to where in the conversation Leontes could have courteously left the others. Even to assume that Leontes turned aside to talk to other characters involves an improbability. Would a playwright deliberately prevent a soon-to-be-jealous husband from hearing his wife use ambiguities with a sexual implication?

There are, however, several interpretations of the phrase that make it possible to believe that Leontes has been present all the while. The phrase may well indicate Leontes' subconscious annoyance at the ambiguities expressed and his desire to change the drift of the conversation back to the original, more pleasing point. Or the phrase could mean, What else do you have to say before you'll get him to agree to remain? Or it could simply be Leontes' literal mind demanding to know whether or not Polixenes will stay, for his friend hasn't committed himself by a direct yes-or-no.

When Hermione says, “He'll stay, my lord”, Leontes succinctly shows what is disturbing him. “At my request he would not.” This seems to be the point at which Leontes' jealousy is ignited. For a moment he controls himself and, like a jealous husband in the presence of his wife's lover, stresses that he is the husband and master, for he continues,

Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok'st
To better purpose.

He says this so that he can bring out the nature of the marriage vows, for a few lines later he will quote Hermione as having said “I am yours for ever.” But Hermione turns his mock-lightheartedness into a battle of witticisms, in the course of which she uses an image of dubious propriety. She says a woman should be praised,

… you may ride's
With one soft kiss a thousand furlongs ere
With spur we heat an acre.

And a few lines later Leontes hears her speak another ambiguity,

                                                                                                                                  'Tis grace indeed.
Why, lo you now, I have spoke to th' purpose twice:
The one for ever earn'd a royal husband;
Th' other for some while a friend.

It is now that Leontes senses the flood of his intense jealousy. Friend could, of course, mean “lover”. He notices the paddling palms and pinching fingers. He recalls other trifling actions of the past several months and suddenly sees them in a new light—through the eyes of his aroused jealousy. Leontes may be exaggerating, but he is not totally inventing the nature of these actions. Later he lists specific accusations to Camillo, who says, “… be cur'd / Of this diseas'd opinion …”. Although Camillo is told that he has been a witness of Hermione's conduct, he does not deny that any of the events mentioned have occurred—the disease is of opinion. Perhaps paddling palms was really just holding hands, kissing with inside lip merely a normal kiss, etc. Nevertheless, the evidence is there for Leontes to distort. He cannot control his expression, and Hermione and Polixenes note that there is something wrong with him.

Leontes then tries to show he knows what is going on, and he apes Hermione's trick of ambiguity.

                                                                                                                                                      Hermione,
How thou lov'st us, show in our brother's welcome;
Let what is dear in Sicily be cheap.

Surely this is no mere admonition to “spare no expense”. Not after the months of costly festivities hinted at in the first scene. Hermione is dear to Sicily (Leontes), and she is cheapening herself with Polixenes.

The action is now well under way. Shakespeare has utilized the tragicomedy technique of fast movement and surprise without sacrificing motivation. He has shown us a Hermione not quite so dignified as some have contended and a Leontes not quite so irrational as frequently supposed. This of course does not justify Leontes' conduct. But jealousy is not supposed to be justified, though artistry suggests that the process be delineated.

One other facet of the play may help to explain Leontes' jealousy. How does the actor who portrays Hermione conduct himself? Without stage directions, this question cannot positively be answered as to specific details. But the actor, unlike the normal audience, knows the entire play, and a later speech can indicate to the scholar in a general way how a previous scene was enacted.

Hermione, unaccused by Leontes, cannot be precisely the same person that she is later in the play. It is natural that she should display more wit, more gaiety. Combined with this, however, is an attitude that Hermione has never shown towards anyone. At her trial she says,

                                                                      … For Polixenes,
With whom I am accus'd, I do confess
I lov'd him as in honour he requir'd,
With such a kind of love as might become
A lady like me, with a love even such,
So and no other, as yourself commanded;
Which not t'have done I think had been in me
Both disobedience and ingratitude
To you and toward your friend, whose love had spoke,
Even since it could speak, from an infant, freely
That it was yours.

(III. ii. 62-72)

Two things distinguished her attitude; Polixenes was a king and her husband's dearest friend. She could, and did, jest with Polixenes as with an equal in a way not previously possible with any other member of the court. Too, she treated Polixenes as her own friend, as she felt bound to do. This idealistic relationship, set against the background of situation and dialogue in the second scene of the play, proved too much for Leontes. Bassanio could approve of Portia's immediate attachment to Antonio even as a name. But Antonio was apparently a bachelor by choice and Bassanio was not a king.

To sum up, Hermione apparently treated Polixenes with less reserve and with greater personal regard than she had displayed before other men. This was at least subconsciously observed, and it left latent in the mind the possibility of infidelity. We need not conjecture as to what happened before the play began in order to perceive this much when the three major characters enact their parts in the second scene. The situation might never have developed into jealousy. Polixenes, however, thoughtlessly treats his friendship with Leontes and his vow, matters of prime importance to the Elizabethan-Jacobean mind, as having less weight than Hermione's urging him to prolong his visit. When this occurs at the same time that Hermione utters many bantering ambiguities, the combination is too much for the over-serious Leontes (who, apparently, can be ironic in his wit but never light-heartedly amusing). He then sees all past pleasantries, real or newly imagined, between Hermione and Polixenes as proof of an illicit relationship. Thus, the actual precipitation of the jealousy, while sudden, is nevertheless realistic and motivated by a variety of details. Its early inception in the play is appropriate to a tragicomedy. That Shakespeare was able to meet the requirement of the art form, to indicate how quickly jealousy may arise, to heavily motivate its inception, and yet to cast no shadow of doubt in the mind of the audience as to Hermione's character is another proof of his craftsmanship.

Notes

1. T. M. Parrot speaks of the “sudden unmotivated passion of Leontes”, Shakespearean Comedy (New York, 1949), p. 384. O. J. Campbell calls the jealousy “full grown in the king's mind”, The Living Shakespeare (New York, 1949), p. 1102. S. L. Bethell writes, “Then suddenly with no more hint of preparation—and no hint at all on the psychological plane—Leontes' jealousy comes full upon him.” The Winter's Tale (London, 1946), p. 78. Neilson and Hill consider the jealousy “in the nature of a postulate”, The Complete Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare (Cambridge, Mass.: 1942), p. 501.

2. “The Inception of Leontes' Jealousy in The Winter's Tale”, Shakespeare Quarterly [SQ], IV (1953), 321.

3. “Six Points of Stage-Craft in The Winter's Tale”, Shakespeare Survey 2 (1958), p. 32.

4. See Hallett Smith, “Leontes' Affectio”, SQ, XIV (1963), 163-166, for a consideration of the word Affection in I. ii. 138. Smith defines the word as “a sudden, violent perturbation of mind or body” (p. 164), and links the word with a sudden arousal of Leontes' jealousy.

5. All quotations from Shakespeare are from the Neilson and Hill edition cited above.

6. This ambiguity has been noted by A. Quiller-Couch and J. D. Wilson. “Is it not more than probable that Leontes is intended by Shakespeare to overhear these equivocal words as he comes forward from behind, unseen by the speakers but in such a way that the audience can watch the play of his features?” (The Winter's Tale, Cambridge, England, 1931, p. 133.) Apparently these editors, having managed to make Leontes walk away, want to get him back as dramatically as possible.