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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 14.1017  Friday, 23 May 2003

From:           Peter Hyland <phyland@uwo.ca>
Date:           Thursday, 22 May 2003 21:23:13 -0400
Subject: 14.1001 Re: 15 or 16 Years in Winter's Tale
Comment:        RE: SHK 14.1001 Re: 15 or 16 Years in Winter's Tale

Is it not possible, given the ways in which the dramatist rather
contemptuously plays with unities and conventions in WINTER'S TALE
(Sicily/Bohemia; creaky bears) that this inconsistency is intentional?.
Time himself (who ought to know but is something of an anachronistic
device) tells us that he's slid o'er sixteen years, but is immediately
belied by Camillo (who ought to know but is the character in the play
most associated with betrayal) who has been away from his country for
fifteen years. The entire central part of this play dislocates the
expectations about "reality" set up by its first three acts. The
audience is surely expected to see the joke.

Peter Hyland

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