Winter's Tale

About the Book:
Shakespeare follows most of Greene's narrative for the first three acts of The Winter's Tale, but he changes the names of all the characters whom he adapted from Greene. Two favorite characters, Autolycus and the shepherd's son, are Shakespeare's creations, as are his radical changes in Acts IV and V. In such rural settings as the sheep-shearing scene in Act IV, Shakespeare adds to Greene's less developed pastoral theme, and in Act V, Shakespeare restructures Greene's ending to achieve a more satisfactory romantic conclusion. As a play written at this late stage of Shakespeare's career. The Winter's Tale can be given two important classifications: it is more Jacobean than Elizabethan, and it is more Romance than Comedy, History, or Tragedy.