Hermione

Play

The Winter's Tale

Summary

The queen of Sicilia — gracious, witty, and dignified — who is falsely accused of adultery by her deranged husband Leontes and forced to defend herself before a court while eight months pregnant. Her trial speech is a masterpiece of composed moral courage. She apparently dies of grief at the news of her son's death, but is preserved in secret by Paulina for sixteen years, finally revealed as a living statue that descends to forgive and embrace the penitent Leontes.

Notable Quotations

"I am not prone to weeping, as our sex / Commonly are; the want of which vain dew / Perchance shall dry your pities; but I have / That honourable grief lodged here which burns / Worse than tears drown." *(II.i)*

"Sir, spare your threats: / The bug which you would fright me with I seek." *(III.ii)*

Cross-references

• The Winter's Tale — the play
• Romances (Late Plays)
• character_leontes — her husband whose jealousy condemns her
• character_paulina — who preserves her and engineers her return
• character_perdita — her daughter, the abandoned child she is reunited with