Sillages Critiques (Dec 2011)
The Hybridity of Popular Culture in The Winter’s Tale
Abstract
In his foreword to The Faithful Shepherdess (1609), John Fletcher blames the crass popular tastes of his theatre audiences for failing to respond properly to the new genre of tragicomedy. Shakespeare was careful to make no such mistake. In The Winter’s Tale, he makes Perdita “the queen of curds and cream” (4.4.161). Autolycus sells and sings ballads and is said to haunt “wakes, fairs and bear baitings” (4.3.99-100). On the other hand, while contemptuous of ‘the common blocks’ and ‘lower messes’ (1.2.222, 224), Leontes uses such popular names as ‘hobby horse’ (1.2.273) or ‘bed-swerver’ (2.1.93) to refer to queen Hermione. The sting of jealousy encourages the Sicilian king to resort to popular phrases and folk traditions, so that the “fabric of his folly” (1.2.424) comes close to the wild absurdities of Autolycus’ ballads. Popular and elite cultures thus appear to be combined and to echo each other in the two apparently antithetical halves of the play.
