ABSTRACT
William Shakespeare's dramatic exploration of time reaches its most radical narrative emplotment in The Winter's Tale. Shakespeare, however, elects to downplay both the recognition scene of this reunion, and that which transpires between Leontes and Polixenes, by situating them both offstage and subsequently narrated in conversation between Autolycus and three nameless gentlemen. In humoral terms, Leontes expresses his illness in a culturally sanctioned manner in early modern England: against women. The concept of fear or rage without cause is one that serves as a particularly unfortunate aspect of the disease, according to Timothy Bright. Batman suggests that a subject's emotional health relies significantly on the heart's ability to maintain proper 'movement'. The work of Harold Goddard, Hallet Smith, John Erskine Hankins, Laurence Wright, and David Ward has ably traced Leontes' attempts at self-diagnosis here.
