Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tem¬pest have more features in common than any other group of Shakespeare’s plays. They were written in succession to¬wards the end of his life, and there is a persistent belief that The Tempest was intended to be the author’s farewell to the theatre (although he spoilt this neat symmetry between-art and life by going on to write Henry VIII). The first attempt to examine these plays as a group was probably made in the 19th century, though an awareness that they have some ‘ features in common can be traced back to Ben Jonson, who criticized the ‘mouldy tale’ of Pericles and the drolleries of ‘tales and tempests’ for their violation of the unities and verisimili¬tude. The recurrence of similar plot situations and thematic concerns, coupled with an awareness of their contiguity in time, provided an irresistible temptation to see these plays as repositories of hidden wis¬dom and as expressions of Shakespeare’s serenity of mind as he approached the end of his life.
Jan-Feb 1982, volume 6, No 4