The Winter’s Tale Resources
Websites
The BBC does. Check out the BBC’s 60-Second Shakespeare for a look at how the play would translate to a newspaper story.
David Farr discusses his dramatic choices in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of the play.
In a pinch, you can read the play online. Just don’t expect any footnotes.
Movie and TV Productions
This tends to be a favorite among literary critics. We love the staging of the statue scene.
The BBC’s simple set design plays up the winter/summer dichotomy in The Winter’s Tale.
This 26 minute animated production of the play uses stop-motion puppets.
Historical Documents
Check out the first page of the play in the 1623 Folio.
You can read Robert Greene’s Pandosto (originally published in 1588) here. This is Shakespeare’s major literary source for The Winter’s Tale.
The story of Pygmalion (from Book 10 of Ovid’s Metamorphosis) partly inspired the stature scene in The Winter’s Tale. Read Arthur Golding’s 1567 translation of the story here.
Video
Check out Leontes as he tries to convince himself that Mamillius is his biological son in this Royal Shakespeare Company production.
Watch the animated version of The Winter’s Tale from “Shakespeare: The Animated Series.”
Watch little Mamillius deliver these famous lines in the BBC production of the play.
Audio
Images
This picture is taken from a 2008 production at the Globe Theater.
Artist Augustus Leopold Egg’s portrayal of the sheep-shearing feast (1845).