O lords,/ When I have said, cry ‘woe’
That’s Paulina in The Winter’s Tale, one of my three favorite Shakespeare plays (As You Like It and Othello being the other two). In the monologue from which that line comes, Paulina rips into Leonates, the king, after the tragic death of Hermione, Leonates’ queen and Paulina’s best friend.
That line has been popping into my head the last few days, as Sam’s move to Darwin quickly approached. The entire monologue is filled with ‘w’ and ‘o’ sounds, a trick used by Shakespeare to express (and especially to help an actor express) Paulina’s grief-wracked state. I nearly wrote an entry with this title last night in an attempt to quiet some of my own howls of sadness.
But, walking back tonight after dropping Sam at the airport, I started thinking about what a funny little play The Winter’s Tale is. At the very end, nearly twenty years after her public shaming of the king, Paulina reveals a statue of Hermione to the assembled court. Leonates and others remark on how lifelike the statue appears. The assembled crowd is then amazed as Paulina conjures the statue to life, reuniting Hermione with her adequately repentant husband.
And then Paulina gets married off and doesn’t get to speak again. Shakespeare’s kind of crap.
There are two readings of that last scene, though. The first is that Paulina and Hermione are separated for years due to tragic and unforeseen circumstances; essentially that Hermione actually comes back to life. The second, however, is that Hermione has been hiding at Paulina’s, with the two of them presumably drinking wine and talking shit about the king (and the rest of the court, while they were at it). When they decided Leonates was worthy, they worked out this scheme to amaze the court and keep Leo permanently in check.
I’ve never decided which reading I like better or which one Shakespeare intended. Sometimes it seems compelling to think that fate worked to bring the two women back together - aided by Paulina’s fierce love of her friend. And sometimes it’s more appealing to think about them eating pumpkin pie and laughing together for twenty years about how clever they are.
Maybe it doesn’t really matter. Maybe their friendship was strong enough to survive both an hour’s separation and that of twenty years.
Looks as though we’ve reached the end. And, as I’m playing Paulina in this semi-literate, barely poetical, all-too-public drama, I’ll be quiet. But let this serve as a warning to the NT - treat my girl well or I’ll come and take her back.
Quiet?! I must be getting married! Hurrah!
…
Oh. Hahroo.
Sphere: Related Content
July 13th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Oh, woe is me too….
July 15th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Just in case this ends up being my first and last field trip: much love xox
Talk soon - three days without communication is too long!
July 21st, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Ha, Una. I didn’t realize that was you at first and just thought the comment had gone through. I have your pie plate and we can drown our woes in coffees.