ABSTRACT
The making of the two statues would be known to Shakespeare and it is quite possible that, when he invented Hermione's 'statue' he had Queen Mary's in mind and meant it, as Professor Wickham suggests, as an 'emblem' for his audience of the King's piety towards his mother. Any closer identification of Hermione with the murdered Queen, or of the King with the 1 TLS, 18 Dec. 1969, 1456; Elizabethan Theatre HI, ed. D. Galloway, Toronto, 1973,
n8 performed at Court during the celebrations of the Princess Elizabeth's marriage to the Elector Palatine in February 1613.
