The Winter's Tale Book

Series Introduction vii

Volume Introduction Harold Bloom ix

Biography of William Shakespeare 1

Summary of The Winter's Tale 5

Key Passages in The Winter's Tale 11

List of Characters in The Winters Tale 19

Criticism Through The Ages 23

The Winter's Tale in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 25

From “Defence of the Epilogue,” contained in The Conquest of Granada 1670 John Dryden 26

From the preface to The Works of Shakespeare 1725 Alexander Pope 26

From Shakespeare Illustrated 1753 Charlotte Lennox 27

From Florizel and Perdita. A Dramatic Pastoral in Three Acts, Altered from The Winter's Tale of Shakespeare 1756 David Garrick 29

The Winter's Tale in the Nineteenth Century 33

From Characters of Shakespear's Plays 1817 William Hazlitt 33

From Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature 1846 A.W. Schlegel 39

From Shakespeare-Characters, Chiefly Those Subordinate 1863 Charles Cowden Clarke 41

The Winter's Tale in the Twentieth Century 57

From William Shakespeare 1911 John Masefield 58

From Shakespeare's Workmanship 1918 Arthur Quiller-Couch 61

From The Crown of Life: Essays in Interpretation of Shakespeare's Final Plays 1947 George Wilson Knight 71

From Character and Motive in Shakespeare: Some Recent Appraisals Examined 1949 J.I.M. Stewart 119

From Disowning Knowledge in Six Plays of Shakespeare 1987 Stanley Cavell 126

“Autolycus in The Winter's Tale” 1998 Richard McCabe 150

The Winter's Tale in the Twenty-first Century 157

From “Virtual Audiences and Virtual Authors: The Winter's Tale The Tempest and Old Wives'Tales” 2009 Mary Ellen Lamb 157

Bibliography 165

Acknowledgments 169

Index 171