Friday, April 21, 2006
Reading
- The Winter’s Tale, Act 4
Notes
We’ll continue discussion of The Winter’s Tale, acts 1–3. Think about genre expectations, especially as this play incorporates (and subverts) tragedy in these first three acts. (Next week we’ll think about the play’s relationship to comedy.)
I also would like us to consider the way that the play frames itself. In previous plays, we’ve encountered more deliberate framing techniques than here — e.g., the play-within-the-play from A Midsummer Night’s Dream or (perhaps) Titus Andronicus. In The Winter’s Tale, we witness this exchange between Hermione and Mamillius, her son (2.1.22–30):
- Hermione
- Pray you sit by us,
- and tell’s a tale.
- Mamillius
- Merry or sad shall’t be?
- Hermione
- As merry as you will.
- Mamillius
- A sad tale’s best for winter. I have one
- Of sprites and goblins.
- Hermione
- Let’s have that, good sir.
- Come on, sit down, come on, and do your best
- To fright me with your sprites. You’re powerful at it.
We soon realize that we’re not privy to this tale. But we witness some very frightening things and some inexplicable magic or divine providence. Could we consider this exchange to be the framing of the play?
Think about these issues and consider the craft with which Shakespeare manipulates our expectations to create one of his richest plays.