ABSTRACT
English and Italian literary and performative sources informed Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. Shakespeare incorporated flower collecting, sheep shearing, flirting, dancing shepherds, and singing from Il Pastor Fido into The Winter's Tale. Shakespeare amplified comic roles in The Winter's Tale, which suggests a further link between his clowns and commedia dell'arte characters. Leontes recovers his wife, daughter, and friend. Hermione's mercy spares Leontes Pantalone's comeuppance at the end of a commedia dell'arte scenario. Hermione is an innamorata who loves her husband through his tormentone of jealousy. As a cantastorie, Autolycus recalls the sixteenth-century Venetian zanni Zuan Polo. Paulina was played as seconda donna and Emilia was played as La Ruffiana in Zadar production. Kazaliste Lutaka Zadar presented a scenario of The Winter's Tale in English in Zadar, Croatia on 27 June 2013. The Zadar Puppet Theatre is arguably Croatia's best puppet theatre. When Shakespeare wrote The Winter's Tale, the Dalmatian city of Zadar belonged to Hungary, a descendent of Bohemian empire.
