Critical Reception and Stage History

Abstract

The Winter’s Tale was well received, during Shakespeare’s lifetime and was performed at the court of Charles I in 1633. After that it fell into disrepute and was not performed for over a hundred years. The main reason was that during the period following the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, critics and audiences preferred to see plays that were tightly-structured, clearly definable as tragedy or comedy, and had a plausible story-line. The Winter’s Tale fell short in all these ways. John Dryden, writing in 1672, criticised the play for being ‘grounded in impossibilities’. Alexander Pope, editing the play in 1725, considered that much of it was not even written by Shakespeare. However, in the second half of the eighteenth century its reputation improved and it came to be admired for its freshness of sentiment and character. It was revived in London in 1741 and 1742, and praised by W. Warburton, in 1747, as a ‘homely and simply, though agreeable country tale’. The pastoral scenes were much admired and were sometimes performed on their own. In 1756 the great actor David Garrick rewrote the play, setting it entirely in Bohemia, renamed Bithynia. This adaptation, called ‘Florizel and Perdita’, was very popular and ousted the original play from the repertoire. Garrick himself played Leontes and the actress Mrs Pritchard received much acclaim as Hermione.