"You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely"…

 The Winter's Tale is Shakespeare's most fully realized tragicomedy.

Here we find all sides of Shakespeare's genius on display: the blank verse gorgeous and the characters well drawn.

It is laugh-out-loud funny at times; it's ribald; it's profoundly tragic; and in the end, it's an eye-opening look at the craft of theater, the craft of literature, and ultimately the craft of living.

The story is, of course, excellent: King Leontes goes into a jealous rage against his wife Hermione.  Leontes is utterly mistaken in his actions, and the result is tragic.

The first half is a penetrating and devastating, but the second half shows a facility for salvation from the depths of despair.

Shakespeare picks the story up sixteen years later with the children, and the story flows to a bittersweet redemption, the ending packing a surprise unparalleled in the rest of his plays.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616) was an English playwright poet, and actor, regarded as the world's pre-eminent dramatist, and the greatest writer in the English language. Author of such timeless works as Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet and King Lear, he is often called the “Bard of Avon,” England's national poet.