A Winter's Tale
King John (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A Winter's Tale: King John<br><br>Winter's Tale.] - This play, throughout, is written in the very spirit of its author. And in telling this homely and simple, though agreeable, country tale,<br><br>Our sweetest Shakespeare, fancy's child,<br>Warbles his native wood-notes wild.<br><br>This was necessary to observe, in mere justice to the play; as the meanness of the fable, and the extravagant conduct of it, had misled some of great name into a wrong judgement of its merit; which, as far as it regards sentiment and character, is scarce inferior to any in the whole collection.<br><br>Warburton.<br><br>At Stationers' Hall, May 22, 1594, Edward White entered "A booke entitled A Wynter Nyght's Pastime."<br><br>Steevens.<br><br>The story of this play is taken from The Pleasant His of Dorastus and Faunia, written by Robert Greene.<br><br>Johnson.<br><br>In this novel, the King of Sicilia, whom Shakespeare names<br><br>Leontes, is called... Egistus.<br>Polixenes, K. of Bohemia... Pandosto.<br>Mamillius P. of Sicilia... Garinter.<br>Florizel P. of Bohemia... Dorastus.<br>Camillo... Franion.<br>Old Shepherd... Porrus.<br>Hermione... Bellaria.<br>Perdita... Faunia.<br>Mopsa... Mopsa.<br><br>The parts of Antigonus, Paulina, and Autolycus, are of the poet's own invention; but many circumstances of the novel are omitted in the play.<br><br>Steevens.<br><br>Dr. Warburton, by "some of great name," means Dryden and Pope. See the Essays at the end of the Second Part of The Conquest of Granada: "Witness the lameness of their plots; [the plots of Shakespeare and Fletcher;] many of which, especially those which they wrote first, (for even that age refined itself in some measure,) were made up of some ridiculous incoherent story, which in one play many times took up the business of an age.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.