Shakespeare-Rec: "The Winter's Tale"
May. 21st, 2006 10:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capri0mniPreamble: One of the problems with Shakespeare today is that, for most of us, our experience with his work begins and ends in high school. First off, it means that the more complex plays and sonnets, which are harder to catagorize, will likely get left on the shelf. Second, principals (who decide on the curriculum), tend to choose the same pieces of literature they studied. Third, theater owners and movie makers are reluctant to risk money on unfamiliar plays. The end result is that some of Shakespeare's best stuff is really hard to find.
The Winter's Tale is one such play. Almost two years ago, I was squeeful about it, but said: "For a while now, I've been trying to figure out how to spred da luv, without either spoilering it too badly, or writing a full dissertation." I truly believe that Shakespeare, like a ripe peach, is pleasure best tasted fresh. But the very idea that knowing how a Shakespeare play ends will "spoil" it a silly one; knowing the plot ahead of time often helps.
So here is a clear and detailed prose retelling, by E. Nesbit, one of my favorite children's authors (and it has illustrations, too!).
To be fair to beleagered principals everywhere, reviews of The Winter's Tale are decidedly mixed. One of the biggest criticisms of the play is the breakneck speed with which the Leontes, the king of Sicily, goes from loving husband to jealous tyrant (all within Act 1, scene 2). This is not one of Shakespeare's fully realized and human villians.
But it is, I believe, a deliberate decision on his part, rather than sloppy writing (as the play's critics complain). Shakespeare pretty much tells us he's up to, right in his title. A 'winter's tale,' in Shakespeare's day, was what we would call a fairy tale; Leontes' jealousy is no more sudden or arbitrary than that of the queen in Snow White. Also, as in his other plays, Shakespeare borrowed much of the plot for The Winter's Tale from a popular novel -- Pandosto: The Triumph of Time*, by Robert Greene. However, the speed of Leontes' transformation is one of the things that Shakespeare changed. Greene spent a lot more time building up the circumstantial (if false) evidence for the king's jealousy. Shakespeare chose to make the reasons for the king's jealousy irrelevant, and to spend time, instead, on how his courtiers responded to that jealousy. The only person to stand up to the king, and fight for truth, is completely Shakespeare's creation, which underscores, for me, that this was a carefully made decision. And what really gives me goosebumps is that it's a woman -- Paulina (but more of her later).
A second diffeculty with the play for principals is (probably) the same problem I had in my original attempt to squee about it -- there's barely any of the lyricism we've come to expect from Shakespeare. All the best quotes are spoliers, because every word was carefully chosen for each character in each situation -- whether it's to show a noble king descending into madness in a single scene, a six year-old boy bantering with his caregivers, or revealing the climatic reunion near the end of the play bit by bit, through dialog between the servants. For me, this is mastery, and shows that Shakespeare was saving his best stuff for the end of his theatrical career. But if the overall goal for your "11th Grade Shakespeare Unit" is to show that 'true art' transcends time and culture, bouyed midway between Earth and Heaven by lofty metaphors, than The Winter's Tale won't work for you.
And, just as each line in The Winter's Tale draws much of its power from the overall context within the story, what fascinates me, every time I hear, or read, the play again is that Shakespeare gave his characters such daring things to say, considering what was going on, politically, in the world. Elizabeth I had died without an heir, and James 1 had been on the throne for only about six years when the play was first staged (around 1610). So the building tension, that began with the prophecy that "...the king shall live without an heir, if that/which is lost be not found," would have been fresh in the minds of his audience. Englishmen had, just three years prior, set up the first colony in the Americas, and were beginning to experiment with new forms of government, so when, in Act 5, Leontes' courtiers start pressuring him to ignore the oracle for the sake of an heir and Paulina says:
surely, this challenge to the value of monarchy-by-birthright was already going through a few people's minds, as they watched -- with the king himself in the audience for at least one performance (Shakespeare and his company were now, officially, "The King's Men," and courtiers themselves) -- and King James was a firm believer in absolute monarchy and the Divine Right of Kings.
James 1 also expanded and toughened "The Witchcraft Acts," which Elizabeth had started, and yet, in Act 2, Scene 3, Shakespeare has Leontes threaten to burn Paulina at the stake -- not for being a witch, but for refusing to obey him:
Everytime I think of those lines, being spoken aloud, on stage, during a time when witch executions were a real concern, the hairs on my arms stand up.
And, speaking of Paulina (I told you I'd get back to her) -- the strongest character in the play, the only voice of Reason, Justice, and Truth -- was a married woman, at a time when to be a married woman was to be, legally speaking, dead. And despite the old saw about how Shakespeare had no happy marriages in his plays, Paulina's marriage to Antigonus (who respected her intelligence, and admired her ability) was a happy one ... until an insane king and a hungry bear brought an end to it.
She is the primary reason I wish that more kids would learn this play in high school. I would much rather have young women of today practice speaking the lines:
than practice playing Juliet, and defining their lives by adolescent romance. I want to be Paulina, when I grow up.
I'd better stop here, or I'll end up quoting every other line....
*If you can stand to read 1595 English, where every v and u are switched and every j is replaced with an i, you can read Pandosto, in its entirety, here (the blessing is that it's the length of a short story, by modern standards).
If you want to read the whole play for yourself, it's here: The Winter's Tale, scene by scene.
The Winter's Tale is one such play. Almost two years ago, I was squeeful about it, but said: "For a while now, I've been trying to figure out how to spred da luv, without either spoilering it too badly, or writing a full dissertation." I truly believe that Shakespeare, like a ripe peach, is pleasure best tasted fresh. But the very idea that knowing how a Shakespeare play ends will "spoil" it a silly one; knowing the plot ahead of time often helps.
So here is a clear and detailed prose retelling, by E. Nesbit, one of my favorite children's authors (and it has illustrations, too!).
To be fair to beleagered principals everywhere, reviews of The Winter's Tale are decidedly mixed. One of the biggest criticisms of the play is the breakneck speed with which the Leontes, the king of Sicily, goes from loving husband to jealous tyrant (all within Act 1, scene 2). This is not one of Shakespeare's fully realized and human villians.
But it is, I believe, a deliberate decision on his part, rather than sloppy writing (as the play's critics complain). Shakespeare pretty much tells us he's up to, right in his title. A 'winter's tale,' in Shakespeare's day, was what we would call a fairy tale; Leontes' jealousy is no more sudden or arbitrary than that of the queen in Snow White. Also, as in his other plays, Shakespeare borrowed much of the plot for The Winter's Tale from a popular novel -- Pandosto: The Triumph of Time*, by Robert Greene. However, the speed of Leontes' transformation is one of the things that Shakespeare changed. Greene spent a lot more time building up the circumstantial (if false) evidence for the king's jealousy. Shakespeare chose to make the reasons for the king's jealousy irrelevant, and to spend time, instead, on how his courtiers responded to that jealousy. The only person to stand up to the king, and fight for truth, is completely Shakespeare's creation, which underscores, for me, that this was a carefully made decision. And what really gives me goosebumps is that it's a woman -- Paulina (but more of her later).
A second diffeculty with the play for principals is (probably) the same problem I had in my original attempt to squee about it -- there's barely any of the lyricism we've come to expect from Shakespeare. All the best quotes are spoliers, because every word was carefully chosen for each character in each situation -- whether it's to show a noble king descending into madness in a single scene, a six year-old boy bantering with his caregivers, or revealing the climatic reunion near the end of the play bit by bit, through dialog between the servants. For me, this is mastery, and shows that Shakespeare was saving his best stuff for the end of his theatrical career. But if the overall goal for your "11th Grade Shakespeare Unit" is to show that 'true art' transcends time and culture, bouyed midway between Earth and Heaven by lofty metaphors, than The Winter's Tale won't work for you.
And, just as each line in The Winter's Tale draws much of its power from the overall context within the story, what fascinates me, every time I hear, or read, the play again is that Shakespeare gave his characters such daring things to say, considering what was going on, politically, in the world. Elizabeth I had died without an heir, and James 1 had been on the throne for only about six years when the play was first staged (around 1610). So the building tension, that began with the prophecy that "...the king shall live without an heir, if that/which is lost be not found," would have been fresh in the minds of his audience. Englishmen had, just three years prior, set up the first colony in the Americas, and were beginning to experiment with new forms of government, so when, in Act 5, Leontes' courtiers start pressuring him to ignore the oracle for the sake of an heir and Paulina says:
Care not for issue;
The crown will find an heir: great Alexander
Left his to the worthiest; so his successor
Was like to be the best.
surely, this challenge to the value of monarchy-by-birthright was already going through a few people's minds, as they watched -- with the king himself in the audience for at least one performance (Shakespeare and his company were now, officially, "The King's Men," and courtiers themselves) -- and King James was a firm believer in absolute monarchy and the Divine Right of Kings.
James 1 also expanded and toughened "The Witchcraft Acts," which Elizabeth had started, and yet, in Act 2, Scene 3, Shakespeare has Leontes threaten to burn Paulina at the stake -- not for being a witch, but for refusing to obey him:
- LEONTES
I'll ha' thee burnt.
PAULINA
I care not:
It is an heretic that makes the fire,
Not she which burns in't. [...]
Everytime I think of those lines, being spoken aloud, on stage, during a time when witch executions were a real concern, the hairs on my arms stand up.
And, speaking of Paulina (I told you I'd get back to her) -- the strongest character in the play, the only voice of Reason, Justice, and Truth -- was a married woman, at a time when to be a married woman was to be, legally speaking, dead. And despite the old saw about how Shakespeare had no happy marriages in his plays, Paulina's marriage to Antigonus (who respected her intelligence, and admired her ability) was a happy one ... until an insane king and a hungry bear brought an end to it.
She is the primary reason I wish that more kids would learn this play in high school. I would much rather have young women of today practice speaking the lines:
- I'll use that tongue I have: if wit flow from't
As boldness from my bosom, let 't not be doubted
I shall do good.
than practice playing Juliet, and defining their lives by adolescent romance. I want to be Paulina, when I grow up.
I'd better stop here, or I'll end up quoting every other line....
*If you can stand to read 1595 English, where every v and u are switched and every j is replaced with an i, you can read Pandosto, in its entirety, here (the blessing is that it's the length of a short story, by modern standards).
If you want to read the whole play for yourself, it's here: The Winter's Tale, scene by scene.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-05-22 05:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-22 05:41 am (UTC):::Nods::: That's what I meant about Shakespeare being like a fresh peach (preferably, picked right off the tree): juicy and rich, and best experienced in the moment, with all your senses.
My high school English teacher put it best, I think. He said that reading a play is like looking at the blueprints of a house, but seeing a play performed is like walking through the rooms.
And though reading Shakespeare is but a poor shadow of seeing his work onstage, sometimes, that's where you have to start, if the plays are ever to get off the page and onto the stage.