Hospitality as a Virtue in The Winter's Tale 1

In sixteenth-century England, hospitality was both a Christian virtue and a complex social practice. ² In the way people thought about hospitality and actually lived it, virtue took second place to established custom, social hierarchy, and prestige. Given this discrepancy between affirmation and action, it is not surprising that nearly all the critical commentary about hospitality in Shakespeare’s writing is about the social practice: hospitality was thought of primarily as an obligation of the nobility; hospitality was a form of social exchange, like gift-giving; hospitality was a manifestation of social privilege; hospitality was ultimately self-interested. ³ Criticism based on these assumptions is voluminous, insightful, and illuminating, because Shakespeare was a product in part of his culture’s social practices, which shaped his thinking in innumerable ways, both conscious and unconscious. I want to suggest, however, that Shakespeare was also responsive to his culture’s religious and moral thinking, and that hospitality as a Christian virtue has a place in his plays that deserves to be recognized. ⁴