Re-reading Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale! Things get intense in act 2 scene 3, where the king’s madness becomes murderousness.

We begin with Leontes alone on stage, for a short speech that shows where his head space is at. He hasn’t slept or rested because of everything that’s happened. He says that Polixenes might be out of reach, but his wife Hermoine can still receive his judgment, and then he might rest again. A servant reports that young Mamillus has become sick, and Leontes goes on another rant, blaming Hermoine and Leontes for this. Leontes further swears revenge.

This opening, and this entire scene, really, is all about Leontes getting more and more unhinged. It has me thinking back to his first scene in the play, and if there’s a way to hint at him being on the edge even when he was being all cordial to Polixenes. Something like having him being two-faced, where he might drop the friendly smile and replace it with a furious glare whenever Polixenes turns his back.

Then Paulina and Antigonus enter, with Hermoine’s baby. This is the first time they are depicted on stage as husband and wife, and let’s not forget that Antigonus is the one who will… exit, pursued by a bear!!! There’s a lot of business where Leontes’ servants won’t let Paulina have an audience with the king while she makes her case. This doesn’t get resolved, except for Leontes noticing them and asking, “What noise there?”

Then there’s more business as Leontes is offended that Paulina dares to ask for a moment of his attention. This is a sharp contrast to the previous scene, where Hermoine praised Paulina for being so good and honorable. Then Paulina says she’s come from the queen, and she shows Leontes the baby. Here’s where Leontes really loses. He accuses Paulina of being a witch and/or a spy. He also calls her “Dame Partlet.” This is a reference to the constantly annoying hen from Chauntecleer’s The Nun’s Priest’s Tale. Because of course it is.

Paulina gives a great speech to let Leontes have it, blaming him for everything that’s gone wrong, and saying his opinions are like rotten roots under the ground. But this only infuriates Leontes even more. He insists Polixenes is the baby’s father, and he demands that the baby be put to death with fire. (!) Paulina has yet another great speech describing the baby’s innocent face. All the drama gets broken up with a joke when Leontes says Antigonus should be hanged for being able to keep his wife quiet, and Antigonus says that if that were a crime, every husband would have to be hanged.

Leontes threatens to burn Paulina to death alongside the baby. She insults him again, calling him weak and a traitor. He has her sent away, and she gives one last plea on behalf of saving the baby. It’s also around here that we learn the baby is a daughter. Paulina calls the baby a princess, but Leontes only ever calls her “bastard.” Leontes accuses Anitgonus of setting his wife up to say these things. He says she acted on her own, and a bunch of the servants bear witness to this.

Then, a nameless lord gets on his knees and asks Leontes not to throw the baby in the fire. Somehow, it’s this character and not Paulina or Antigonus who convinces him. Antigonus says he’s willing to do anything it takes to save the baby’s life. Leontes pulls out his sword and makes Antigonus swear on it to take the baby into the wilderness and leave her there, which he describes as if that’s leaving her fate up to chance.

Flipping back through previous scenes, we can see this lord character has been around for a lot of the action, only contributing one small line here and there. There’s a lot of wiggle room here for an actor and/or director to make this a more well-rounded character, the only person who Leontes truly trusts. Also, swearing on the sword evokes Hamlet, where Hamlet has his buddies swear loyalty on his sword while the ghost of Hamlet’s father cries “Swear!” That was one of the most dynamic and exciting scenes in the Kenneth Branagh 1996 Hamlet movie, and I wonder if a director can make this moment just as big.

The scene ends with a short bit where Leontes learns that the men he sent to consult the Oracle of Delphi have returned. He says he hopes this will reveal the truth of Hermoine’s accusations, and that the burden he feels will finally be lifted. Of course, we don’t actually see these men return, but they can appear on stage at this moment. Or, in a filmed version, we can get a wordless scene showing them arrive at the city gates or whatever.

Is it worth it to ask how much time has passed in the story so far? It seems that Leontes was unaware that Hermoine was pregnant, so you’d think it’s been nine months. But this scene tells us that the journey to Delphi and back was twenty-three days. A lot of productions depict Hermoine being full-on pregnant during the opening scenes, but if that’s the case, surely he must know the baby’s his, right? Or is he just that far gone? The real answer is that Shakespeare didn’t care about continuity in the same way we do these days. The emotion of the story was more important than some timeline being assembled on a fan wiki somewhere.

Next: Oracle bros.

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