The Shakespeare Book

310

P

olixenes, King of Bohemia,

has been staying with his

boyhood friend Leontes,

King of Sicily. When his pregnant

wife, Hermione, persuades

Polixenes to stay longer, Leontes

becomes jealous, convinced of an

attraction between Polixenes and

his wife. Leontes orders his adviser

Camillo to kill Polixenes. Camillo,

sure of Hermione’s innocence,

warns Polixenes, and he and

Polixenes escape from Sicily.

Leontes’s son Mamillius starts

to tell his mother a story when

Leontes, taking Polixenes’s flight as

THE WINTER’S TALE

proof of Hermione’s guilt, orders

Mamillius to be kept from his

mother. He asserts that the baby on

the way is Polixenes’s and sends

Hermione to prison. Messengers

are sent to the oracle at Delphi to

confirm her guilt. Hermione gives

birth in prison, and her friend

Paulina takes the baby girl to

Leontes hoping to soften his

attitude. Instead, he turns on her.

Paulina defies him, but he accuses

her husband Antigonus of egging

her on, and tells Antigonus to take

the baby far away and abandon it.

Messengers return from Delphi.

DRAMATIS

PERSONAE

Leontes King of Sicily and

boyhood friend of Polixenes.

Hermione Wife of Leontes,

wrongly accused of adultery.

Mamillius Young son of

Leontes and Hermione.

Perdita Daughter of Leontes

and Hermione, abandoned as

a baby and brought up by the

Old Shepherd. Her name

means “the lost one.”

Camillo Adviser to Leontes,

who flees with Polixenes

to Bohemia.

Antigonus Sicilian lord,

married to Paulina.

Cleomenes and Dion

Sicilian lords, sent to the

oracle at Delphi.

Paulina Wife to Antigonus,

outspoken friend of Hermione.

Emilia Attendant to Hermione.

Polixenes King of Bohemia

and boyhood friend of Leontes.

Florizel Son of Polixenes. He

is in love with Perdita in the

guise of Doricles, a peasant.

Archidamus Bohemian lord.

Autolycus Charming rogue,

once in Florizel’s service.

Old Shepherd He finds and

raises Perdita.

Clown Old Shepherd’s son.

Mopsa and Dorcas

Shepherdesses who sing at

the sheep-shearing fair.

Time A chorus.

2.1

2.2

1.2

1.2

2.3

Leontes separates

his son from

Hermione and insists

that the father of her

baby-to-be is

Polixenes.

King Leontes accuses

his wife, Hermione, of

having an affair with his

best friend, Polixenes.

Ordered to kill

Polixenes,

Camillo instead

warns him, and

the two escape

from Sicily.

Leontes orders

Antigonus to abandon

the baby in “some

remote and desert place.”

Hermione is sent to

prison where she gives

birth to a daughter.

Act 1 Act 2