Winter's Tale]. 1
______
Although the reader of the following play may have read it frequently, he will dwell
upon many of its beauties with a new delight; and, if the work is wholly unknown to
him, or its fable, incidents, and poetry, have been but slightly impressed upon his
memory, he will sometimes be surprised into a degree of enthusiastic admiration!
The "Winter's Tale" was very successful at Drury Lane Theatre a few years ago; and yet,
it seems to class among those dramas that charm more in perusal than in
representation. The long absence from the scene of the two most important characters,
Leontes and his wife,2 and the introduction of various other persons to
fill their places, divert, in some measure, the attention of an audience; and they
do
not so feelingly unite all they see and all they hear into a single story, as he who,
with the book in his hand, and neither his eye nor ear distracted, combines, and
enjoys the whole grand variety.
Besides the improbability of exciting equal interest by the plot of this drama, in performance as in the closet; some of the poetry is
less calculated for b 2[Page 4]that energetic delivery which the stage requires, than for the quiet contemplation
of one who reads. The conversations of Florizel and Perdita3
have more of the tenderness, than the fervour, of love; and consequently their
passion has not the force of expression to animate a multitude, though it is properly
adapted to steal upon the heart of an individual.
Shakspeare has said in his tragedy
of Othello, that a man is
"Jealous, because he is jealous."4 This conceit of the poet seems to be the only reason that can possibly
be alleged, for the jealousy of the hero of the present work; for the unfounded
suspicion of Leontes in respect to the fidelity of Hermione, is a much greater fault,
and one with which imagination can less accord, than with the hasty strides of time,
so much censured by critics, between the third and fourth acts of the play. It is
easier for fancy to over leap whole ages, than to overlook one powerful demonstration
of insanity in that mind which is reputed sane.
The mad conduct of Leontes is however the occasion of such noble, yet such humble
and
forbearing demeanour on the part of his wife, that his phrenzy is rendered
interesting by the sufferings which it draws upon her: and the extravagance of the
first is soon forgotten, through the deep impression made by the last.
High as this injured queen ranks in virtue and every endearing quality, she has a
faithful attendant, who in that lowly capacity, reaches even the summit of her
majesty's perfection. Paulina,5 in nature, and [Page 5]the best of all nature,
tenderness united with spirit, has such power over the scenes in which she is engaged
for the protection of the new-born child, that, like the queen, she confers honour
and interest upon Leontes, merely by keeping such excellent company.
In the barbarous transaction of this jealous King of Sicilia, and in the patient
dignity of his queen, it has generally been supposed that the author meant to gratify
the reigning Queen of
England (Elizabeth), by an allusion, which her majesty was certain to observe in this
conjugal mistrust, to the wronged innocence of her mother, the accused and condemned
Anne Boleyn.
One commentator on "The Winter's Tale," even traces the language of
the Queen of Sicilia upon her trial—the words used also in the recommendation
of her infant daughter to the love of her cruel father—and other sentences
pronounced on the same pitiable subject, to similar expressions made use of by the
mother of Queen Elizabeth,
in her similar state.
If Shakspeare really meant, in the
characters of Leontes and Hermione, to give a portrait of Henry the Eighth and his second
unfortunate wife—and to produce such pictures as the queen on the throne should
admire, it was perfect good policy, rather than want of skill, to make the king
jealous without one apparent motive. But still, even more of a courtier than in this
point, did the great bard prove
himself, in his forming the person of the king's discarded daughter! Perdita, the
representative of Elizabeth,
is here given b 3[Page 6]by
poetry, more beauty than painting could bestow: and thus the renowned Queen of Great Britain is
assailed on the only feeble part of her understanding—that vanity, which
proclaimed her sex.
There are two occurrences in this drama, quite as improbable as the unprovoked
jealousy of the Sicilian king—the one, that the gentle, the amiable, the tender
Perdita, should be an unconcerned spectator of the doom which menaced her foster,
and
supposed real, father; and carelessly forsake him in the midst of his calamities.
The
other disgraceful improbability is—that the young prince Florizel should
introduce himself to the court of Sicilia, by speaking arrant falsehoods.
There is a scene in this play which is an exception to the rest, in being far more
grand in exhibition than the reader will possibly behold in idea. This is the scene
of the Statue, when Mrs. Siddons stands
for Hermione.6