About the work
Shakespeare likely wrote "The Winter's Tale" around 1610/1611, near the end of his career. The astrologer and physician Simon Forman noted in his diary that he saw the play at the Globe Theatre on 15 May 1611 — the earliest documented performance. The play was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. Its source was Robert Greene's prose romance "Pandosto".
Plot
King Leontes of Sicily falls into baseless jealous delusion, casts out his pregnant wife Hermione and has the newborn child abandoned; it is rescued on the coast of Bohemia and raised by shepherds. Hermione appears to die of grief, while the abandoned daughter Perdita meets the king's son Florizel in Bohemia sixteen years later. After flight and complications, all involved return to Sicily, where Perdita's origins are revealed and a statue of the supposedly dead Hermione comes to life.
Cultural significance
The play blends tragedy, comedy and fairy-tale elements and is therefore counted among Shakespeare's late "romances"; the closing scene with the "statue coming to life" in particular is regarded as one of the most theatrically striking images in his work.