SOURCE: “Poetry and Plot in The Winter's Tale,” in Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 3, Autumn, 1985, pp. 315-29.

In the following essay, McDonald focuses on the distinct linguistic form employed in The Winter's Tale, stating that its more complex style is connected with the intricate plot.

The Winter's Tale, it is generally agreed, is difficult to read. To move from Macbeth or Antony and Cleopatra into the world of Sicilia is to enter strange territory where a peculiar dialect is spoken. When Leontes steps apart from Hermione and Polixenes, turns to the audience, and utters his meditation beginning “Too hot, too hot,” listeners and readers alike are apt to be mystified. We ought to be disturbed, of course, by the king's logic and conclusions; but more to the point, we are immediately confused by his language, and the trouble encountered in these early speeches is characteristic of the play as...