Antigonus's dream description illuminates neither past nor future events of the play, then, but his present uncertainty about his sleeping or waking state when he saw the figure of Hermione.
Shakespeare returns to and expands upon Paulina's unwillingness to effect closure, which carries with it the undercurrent of the unregulated woman, through the depiction of her inability to overcome the loss of
Antigonus. In contrast to the happy reunions at the conclusion of the play, Paulina defines her future as one of endless sorrow:
How to represent the famous bear that pursues
Antigonus is always a challenging directorial decision, bur this production succeeded in making the bear integral to the theme of destructive male power.
Martin Hermione Linda Emond Camillo Byron Jennings
Antigonus Gerry Bamman Paulina Marianne Jean-Baptiste Shepherd Max Wright Clown Jesse Tyler Ferguson Autolycus Hamish Linklater Florizel Francois Battiste Perdita Heather Lind With: Alexander Maier, Shalita Grant, Liza J.
And
Antigonus eaten by that matter-of-fact bear after he
For example, when Leontes talks to
Antigonus about killing his daughter - I only found this a few days ago - he says 'thou, that has a heart so tender o'er it...' There's nothing before that where
Antigonus says I love this baby, so what did it mean?
Among the Peripatetics who continued this tradition, Jerome (De viris illustribus 2.821) names several, including Hermippus, Satyrus,
Antigonus, and Sotion, most, if not all, of whom seem to have written works of collective biography.
Fergal McElleron as
Antigonus - pursued by a bear - in the Globe Touring Theatre production of AWinter's Tale Picture: JAMES ERSKINE; Dominic Dromgoole