play?


VI

CHARACTER STUDIES


1. PAULINA; LEONTES; HERMIONE

Note Paulina's likeness to Emilia in "Othello." Jealousy in
Shakespeare: Resemblances in Leontes to Posthumus ("Cymbeline") and to
Othello. "The jealousy of Leontes," says Dowden, "is not a detailed
dramatic study like the love and jealousy of Othello. It is a gross
madness, which mounts to the brain and turns his whole nature into
unreasoning passion." Is Hermione more highly developed than others of
Shakespeare's suspected wives,--Desdemona, Imogen? Likeness or
superiority to Alkestis, Compare with Queen Katharine in 'Henry VIII.'
Is she hard, having made her husband do penance for sixteen years?
"Deep and even quick feeling never renders Hermione incapable of an
admirable justice," writes Dowden, "nor deprives her of a true sense
of pity for him who so gravely wrongs both her and himself."

2. THE YOUNG LOVERS

Notice the high and pure character of their love as shown in the facts
that Florizel did not find it fitting to buy pedler's "knacks" for
Perdita,--a trait not in Greene. Her independent and uncringing nature
as shown in another little touch of Shakespeare (see IV. iv. 492-497).
Compare these two lovers with Ferdinand and Miranda in "The Tempest."