* mutual flattery and self-deprecation

* exposition: Leontes and Polixenes were childhood friends, separated later; but have maintained love over time. King's son Mamillius "makes old hearts fresh"' he holds promise of future; reason for old to go on living

* Pol.'s departure scene: he's stayed nine months; needs to get back; excessively courteous battle over extending the stay further

* Leon. goads Queen into pressuring him more; she says L. isn't insistent enough

* L. falls into suspicion at that moment; recalls her marriage vows and compares them to P's newmade pledge to stay

* H. and P. notice his distraction; he covers it up with recollection of himself as Mamillius 23 years ago. [Leontes is now about 30]

* P. states how his affection for his son rejuvenates him

* L. sends son away and writhes with polluted jealous thoughts, which he confesses to Camillo, whom, despite remonstrances, he commands to poison. (53)

* C. relates this to P. and both decide to escape to Bohemia

* Interaction with Mamillius

* prisoner or guest theme from I,i

* women's communication emphasized; Paulina sees Emilia; will take babe to appeal to L.

* L. cant sleep; desires revenge--to put H. to fire for his rest

* Mamil. is sick

* Paulina enters with baby and stands up to L., though others wont. L. calls it bastard and brat; refuses it; she leaves it; he commands Antig. to burn it

* L. more isolated: "You're liars all" (75); Antig., heeding his wife's urging to be courageous, offers his own life for the child's

* Antig. agrees to expose child far away; prays for help

* preparation for trial

* evocation of the spiritual atmosphere of the oracle

* trial scene--a climax suggested

* Paulina assaults him with his faults; accuses him of killing queen as well as others; he accepts all blame; she forgives and asks forgiveness for tormenting him, but cant help continuing

* He asks to see bodies and have them buried, but this is never followed up and we don't know how Hermione is preserved or by whose command she remains in hiding

* Antigonus' dream; names Perdita; leaves her with bundle

* Storm and wild animal (Bear)--destructive forces of nature destroy him; "exit, pursued by a bear"

* Entrance of Shepherd; comic contrast; found when lost; searching for sheep

* Clown reports simultaneous tragedies of ship on sea and Antig on land

* things dying/things new born...gold; a made old man/ fairy gold; luck

* another transition: previous scene is spatial; this is temporal

* sixteen years pass; L. is shut up; Perdita grown; address to audience to like play

* Camillo wants to return; Pol. doesnt want him to depart; mourns Leontes loss of queen and children; worried about loss of his son, either to "ungraciousness" or other cause. (95) [Analogy to I,ii]

* Cam. distracted from plan to return by scheme of spying on shepherds in disguise

* Autolycus sings for spring; a former courtier come on bad times through dice and drabs; a petty thief, not a highwayman; Falstaffian spirit and wit

* Clown calculates fleece income; large flock; and grocery list for feast

* Great robbery scene: A. claims he's been robbed and his clothes stolen; helped up he picks pocket

* Perdita introduced by Florizel's praises, after multiple predictions

* Whole crowd enters

* The big blowup

* Pol. exits; Flor. remains true to her rather than succession;

* Aut. Cam. Flor. and Perd.--the romance plot

* Aut, Clown and Shepherd--the wrong ship trick

* Cleom. tries to get still guilty L. to forgive himself, but Paulina, perhaps unintentionally, torments him further, saying he killed H. [did he or not?]

* Debate between P. and Cl. on whether he should remarry

* Flor. and Perd. enter, painfully recalling the past for L.

* In midst of Flor.'s lies, announcement that Pol. arrived in town

* Indirect revelation of the King's daughter being found

* Aut: explains why revelation didn't come earlier (NB) (111)

* Clown has new clothes; claims to be gentleman born ready to fight...I was a gentleman born before my father; for the King's son took me by the hand and called me brother...(145); will put in the good word for Autolycus, his "friend."

* My comments: "we die in earnest, that's no jest": ideas of resurrection, rebirth, redemption

* King and Paulina reconciled--courtesy like that of I,i

* They've passed through gallery; the statue's kept alone; it mocks life as sleep mocks death; she draws curtain; gesture of revelation

* All are silent with wonder [cf. Miranda]; Leontes goes from stone to infancy and grace to wrinkled age in his description, noticing discrepancy [expecting no aging?]

* He was more stone than stone; daughter now stands like stone

* But then Perdita treats statue as if alive; kneels to it, imploring blessing (148)

* L. is both comforted and grieved (cf. Lear: Look there)

* Paul. presses the magic further; increasing suspense; good magic, not wicked powers; twice warns those who think its unlawful to leave

* Hermione's speech--which recapitulates I,i

* The details of the explanation are put off; no rational explanation offered

* Paulina and Camillo united--death not transcended by nature can be overcome with substitute; just the opposite of Leontes and Hermione

* Life Cycle

* Ripeness is all--time ripens all things; the whirligig of time brings in its revenges

* Time the Chorus

* Seasons

* Time and Eternity--cf. Chorus

* Time and narrative

* Time the destroyer:

* The the creator

* Departure is loss; Leontes doesnt want to lose Polix. now nor to lose his childhood friendship; Polix. wants to return home

* "condemned to loss" (77)

* "King shall live without an heir, if that which is lost be not found" (83)

* "Perdita I prithee call it" (89)

* Antigonus is lost and so is Mamillius

* Shepherd searching for lost sheep finds Perdita, as Antig. is lost; also finds fairy gold and good luck (92)

* Pol. doesnt want to lose Camillo (95) Camillo wants to return to Sicilia; P. mourns Leontes loss; worried about loss of his son. (95)

* Shep. has lost his wife; P. replaces her (103)

* "King L. shall not have an heir/ till his lost child be found" (133)

* return of Flor and Perd. recalls L's loss

* Wonder at finding of the daughter (141)

* "Turn good lady, Our Perdita is found" (151)

* Hide and Seek--Peek aboo theme

* "Something rare/Even then will rush to knowledge...And gracious be the issue" (79)

* let Time's news be known when tis brought forth (94)

* Herm: "...have preserved myself to see the issue"

* birth; procreation is second chance, like second chance of forgiveness and repentance; resurrection or rebirth;

* P. tells H. of the innocence of their boyhood--before temptation by women-- friendship, before they sinned with their wives; she defends wives: "of this make no conclusion lest you say/your queen and I are devils" (44)

* Hermione's innocence from guilt equated with babe's innocence of potential, inexperience (68)

* child's innocence asserted--in prison--over original sin

* Innocence shall make False Accusation blush

* good deeds of shepherd and clown (92)

* Temptation of women

* Autolycus is opposite of innocence

* Perdita as "Flora Peering in April's front." (101)

* Perdita's idealism--about class and about love

* Aut.: "What a fool Honesty is. Ands Trust, his sworn brother, a very simple gentleman.

* Perd: "I see the play so lies that I must bear a part." (126)

* Aut: "This is the time that the unjust man doth thrive... If I thought it were a piece of honesty to acquaint the King withal, I would not do it. I hold it the more knavery to conceal it" (127)

* Perd. not related to Shepherd; therefore "your flesh and blood has not offended the king."

* "the office becomes a woman best" (69)

* P. "audacious lady" won't take no; stands up to L. as her husband and others wont (71); wont be ruled by her husband; though L. mocks him as "woman-tired"

* Father refusing to acknowledge child (74)

* abuse of woman--removed from both children; proclaimed a strumpet;... the childbed privilege denied, which longs/to women of all fashion" (83)

* Leontes and Paulina have a real non-sexual and equal friendship

* "Your actions are my dreams" (L. p. 82)

* Antigonus' dream (88-9)

* Leontes' desire for it (71)--tyrannous passion

* H: "with eyes of pity/not revenge (83)

* Paulina says L's crimes are beyond repentance; he accepts all blame; she repents of not accepting his (87); asks his forgiveness

* Hermione as weeping and shrieking ghost to Antig.

* Forgive yourself (132) to L.

* Leontes calls Perdita "bastard" (73)--"forc'd baseness" (cf. Edmund)

* A. is ex-courtier

* Clown says virtues don't stay in court

* P: "to me the difference forges dread...so noble vilely bound up" (102)

* Flor: "all your acts are queens"; Polix: "Too noble for this place" (106-7)

* "I was about to speak and tell him plainly/the selfsame sun that shines upon his court/hides not his visage from our cottage, but looks on all alike."

* "From my succession wipe me, father, I am heir to my affection." (119)

* "she is as forward of her breeding as/she is the rear our birth" (123)

* Clown: "Are you a courtier..? Aut: "Reflect I not on thy baseness court-contempt?" (128) Shep: "A great man, I'll warrant; I know by the pick on's teeth." (129)

* Aut: "How blessed are we that are not simple men/Yet nature might have made me as these are/therefore I will not disdain." (129)

* Aut: "Draw our throne into a sheepcote! All deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy." (130)

* Clown: "though authority be a stubborn bear, yuet he is oft led by the nose with gold" (130)

* L. agrees to appeal for marriage between shepherdess and Flor.; sides with children and not father (140)

* Clown has new clothes; claims to be gentleman born ready to fight...I was a gentleman born before lmy father; for the King's son took me by the hand and called me brother...

* Perdita as shepherdess

* Polix. and Camillo as travellers

* Autolycus: his disguise is himself; he says his clothes have been traded by a robber, who is actually himself

* Perdita as mistress of feast--like Flora

* Florizel as Doricles

* Autolycus as peddlar

* Pol. tricks Flor. into confiding before him innocently--like Autolycus does with clown

* Camillo's plan to lie to Leontes about Florizel's father's consent and Perdita's identity

* Cam. makes Auto. exchange clothes with Flor. and Perd. wear Flor.'s hat

* Aut. takes off false beard of pedlar; appears in Prince's clothes like courtier to trick rustics; but actually is courtier

* V,iii--A chapel in Paulina's house [Everybody converges here]--Conspicuous symbolism

* emphasis on Paulina's false swearing (86)

* Autolycus mixes lies and truth

* Mopsa's sure ballads are true, since they're in print (111); ballads as tall stories--birth of 20 money bags to usurers' wife; two maids wooing a man sung with A. clown buys songs for both of them

* Camillo is also a con-artist: "Who have we here; we'll make an instrument of this, omit nothing may give us aid." (125)

* Aut. celebrates his good fortune and knavery in general; he wont tell the King

* Clown and Shepherd will tell the King that Perd.'s a changeling and not his daughter

* Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance"(128)

* Flor.'s elaborate lies about father and Perdita to L.(138)

* Mamillius' telling of a winter's tale in I,iii

* What happens to Hermione's body? Paulina's lies

* Seacoast of Bohemia

* Time and Space movements

* Time's address to audience and self reference

* ...No hearing, no feeling but my sir's song, and admiring the nothing of it. So that in this time of lethargy I picked and cut most of their festival purses..." 124

* Perd: "I see the play so lies that I must bear a part."

* "This news which is called true, is so like an old tale that the verity of it is in strong suspicion." (142)..."like an old tale still (143)

* "the dignity of this act was worth the audience of kings and princes, for by such was it acted" (143)

* "That she is living/were it but told you, should be hooted at/ Like an old tale" (151)

* explanations deferred till later, except that Hermione was waiting in keeping with oracle's hope that Perdita would be found

* importance of faith in bringing statue alive and in preserving them for one another

* III,i--description of Apollo's oracle; compare to V,iii

* If powers devine/behold our human actions--as they do--/Innocence shall make False Accusation blush and Tryranny /Tremble at Patience (80)

* oracle's truth; L. believes only after he's punished (84) Biblical pattern

* Heavens angry at abandoning of babe; their sacred wills be done (Antigonus) 88

* Antigonus' dream (88-9)

* it was told me I should be rich by the fairies (92)

* Perdita as goddess (101); Flor. as god wooing woman, but chastely (102); she prays to lady Fortune

* They throng... as if my trinkets had been hallowed and brought a benediction to the buyer (124)...No hearing, no feeling but my sir's song, and admiring the nothing of it. So that in this time of lethargy I picked and cut most of their festival purses..." 124

* Aut: "sure, the gods do this year connive at us, and we may do anything extempore."

* Clown and Shep: "We are blessed, in this man...He was provided to do us good." (131)

* Revelations, Miracles and Wonder

* Oracle's prediction and their faith that lost would be found--Hermione's and Leontes' supported by Paulina--made for outcome

* "Celebration of love, hope and faith; triumph over the sins of human nature through the grace of God"--Susie Boone

* need for faith as well as hope and love, to make marriage work--faith that people can change and that all will work out.

* good goddess Nature which hast made it /So like to him that got it (74)--passing on of traits through blood

* the childbed privilege denied, which longs/to women of all fashion" (83)

* Perd: Nature's bastards=streaked gillivors=created by art "which in their piedness shares/with great creating Nature." [she's a purist]

* Polixenes: advocates that "we marry a gentler scion to the wildest stock...this is an art which does mend Nature...; but the art itself is Nature [this is opposite to his attitude toward his son]

* "the dignity of this act was worth the audience of kings and princes, for by such was it acted" (143)

* "Who was marble there changed color" (144)

* "that rare Italian master, Julio Romano, who had he himself eternity and could put breath into his work, would beguile Nature of her custom, so perfectly he is her ape." (144)

* cf. "Patience on a monument, smiling at Grief"--Viola in TN

* V,iii--A chapel in Paulina's house [Everybody converges here]--Conspicuous symbolism; see sonnets on time, art, immortality and resurrection

* Tayler's coupling of the statue coming to life with the theme of great creating nature including the modifications of art in the gillyflower debate

* we, like others are supposed to assume H. is dead; then to experience confusion--does the statue appear alive because of art-magic--does the movement of the statue indicate real magic or the working out of a trick

* Hermione's patience and willingness to wait till time brings things around (II,i, 105)--ripeness is all; the prediction of the gods for which she hoped

* "Paulina protects the queen by faking her dath, so that Apollo will not kell her to prevent an heir to the throne" (Alan Vogan)

* Statue scene conceived after Perdita is found and oracle is fulfilled, as a way to bring Hermione back

* art as magic; religion as magic; awe and wonder

* this is the only way the will of Apollo could be realized

* Paulina needs to make everyone believe in miracles so that both Hermione and Leontes can change

* Hermione needs to see Leontes response in the statue scene before she can love him.

* "She must keep the image of H. fresh in Leontes' mind, because if his quilt became less, he might follow the wishes of subjects and remarry, which would ruin Paulina's plan and force H. to come out of hiding before she was ready...Hermione had no intention of returning to L. but that Paulina always knew there would be a reunion...Hermione thought that P. was just housing her until Perdita's return." (Kelli Goldman)