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disc()Vi:hy 



perceptible to a careful reader that the old shepherd 

 is rather more subordinated in the play than in the 

 novel to the main characters and plot. Perdita 

 arrives in her new country with more ceremony. The 

 presence of Antigonus and a ship, even the noise and 

 hollooing of the chase — those " boiled-brains " of the 

 luintsnicn who explain the shepherd's entrance and 

 his grumblings — these things keep Perdita as the real 

 centre of interest, and take away from the promi- 

 nence of the shepherd, placing him and the world he 

 represents rather in the background of the picture. 

 Beyond this, however, there is no hint given of what 

 may follow ; and any suspicion awakened here will 

 certainly have no confirmation till we cross over to 

 the second part of the play. 



But from the very first scene, almost from the first 

 word of that second part, which we must now con- 

 sider, we do begin to imagine another end in view. 

 For while the novel still remains the basis of the play, 

 the divergence throughout this part is so complete 

 that no single scene can fairly be described as a mere 

 dramatisation of the original narrative. And the 

 explanation is that here at last Shakespeare is work- 

 ing, definitely and obviously, to eliminate the tragic 

 and unpleasant portions of the novel, with a view 

 to a denouement of reconciliation all round. In 

 Greene's story Bellaria drops dead in court on hear- 

 ing of the death of her son Garinter. Shakespeare, 

 keeping the matter secret till the end, puts Bellaria's 

 successor, Hermione, into hiding onlj', that he may 

 give her back to the repentant Leontes in a final 

 tableau. The widowed Paulina must also be re- 

 warded ; so Camillo at the very opening of this 

 second part, unlike his prototype Franion in the 

 novel, is discovered to be still, and very much, in the 

 business of the story. These intentions necessarily 

 affect the structure of the play ; and they explain 

 the much freer use of Greene henceforward. 



Note first Shakespeare's principal omissions. In 

 the novel, Prince Dorastus, disguised as a shepherd, 

 comes a-wooing of Fawnia, the supposed daughter 

 of old Porrus. Before their elopement, and indeed 

 to furnish something of a motive for elopement, 

 Greene tells of the negotiations begun by the prince's 

 father, Egistus, for the marriage of his son to a Danish 

 princess. All this is not so much as referred to in 

 the play. It was likely to be dropped by anyone 

 dramatising Greene's story ; for it is after all only 

 an episode in the plot. But an allusion might have 

 been made to it with ease had Shakespeare so wished. 

 That he did not so wish is probably due to the tone of 

 the episode in Greene. For Greene uses this part of 

 Dorastus' history to show him as the cynical despiser 

 of love and sentiment, on the eve of his first vision 

 of Fawnia. Shakespeare's lovers, his Florizel and 



Perdita, were conceived too ideally to need any such 

 conventional contrast to impress us with the depth 

 and beauty of their love. A " cynical " past for either 

 is unbelievable ; it would jar upon our sense of the 

 fitness of things. And with the suppression of this 

 episode, Shakespeare avoided also presenting Perdita, 

 like Fawnia, as once upon a time fickle in her love, 

 but persuading herself to constancy as " hoping in 

 time to be advanced from the daughter of a poor 

 farmer to be the wife of a rich king." 



Another omission worth noting must have been less 

 easy. In the novel the lovers — together with Porrus, 

 who is kidnapped and taken on board the ship — 

 propose to escape to Italy ; but being storm-driven 

 upon Pandosto's country, they conceal their names and 

 intentions, giving out that they are Trapolonians on 

 their waj' from Padua to Trapolonia. Pandosto, 

 however, suspects that Dorastus has stolen Fawnia 

 from her parents. He imprisons Dorastus ; and 

 then becoming himself enamoured of Fawnia. attempts 

 to win her love, not knowing of course that she is 

 really his long-lost daughter. This ugly situation is 

 relieved only when, after much delay, the whereabouts 

 of the lovers is revealed by chance to Dorastus 's 

 father, and emissaries reach Pandosto from Egistus 

 to explain these " Trapolonians." Here again the 

 happy ending which Shakespeare designed forbade 

 inclusion of an incident so unpleasant ; to have told 

 or even suggested it would have poisoned the sweet 

 air of The Winter's Tale. But how to omit it ? The 

 only way was to shorten the period between the flight 

 of the lovers and their pursuit. And indeed Shake- 

 speare's choice of this method for this purpose is fore- 

 shadowed at the very beginning of his second part. 

 We look for a short cut to the conclusion, instead of 

 Greene's more leisurely approaches, when we note 

 that Polixenes, unlike Egistus, knows how his son 

 frequents the shepherd's cottage ; and in order to 

 spy upon his conduct, proposes to go disguised there 

 with Camillo. 



But this speeding of the action to eliminate the 

 unpleasant is best seen by comparing in some detail 

 the methods employed by Greene and Shakespeare 

 respectively to get the lovers clear of the country. 

 In Greene it is the shepherd Porrus who first learns 

 the truth about the love-making and is troubled. He 

 decides to warn the king, and clear himself by revealing 

 all he knew of Fawnia's identity. So one morning, 

 having heard that " the king would go abroad to take 

 the air, (he) called to his wife to bring him his holiday 

 hose and his best jacket, that he might go, like an 

 honest substantial man, to tell his tale. His wife, 

 a good cleanly wench, brought him all things fit. and 

 sponged him up very handsomely, giving him the 

 chains and jewels in a little box, which Porrus, for 



