Leontes

Definition and stakes

Portrait of Charles Lamb Charles Lamb,  Tales from Shakespeare

“ Leontes, King of Sicily, and his queen, the beautiful and virtuous Hermione, once lived in the greatest harmony together. So happy was Leontes in the love of this excellent lady that he had no wish ungratified, except that he some times desired to see again and to present to his queen his old companion and schoolfellow, Polixenes, King of Bohemia. ”
Source: Gutenberg

Portrait of E. Nesbit E. Nesbit,  Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare

“ He now proposed that the young people should go there and claim the protection of Leontes. So they went, and the shepherd went with them, taking Perdita's jewels, her baby clothes, and the paper he had found pinned to her cloak.
Leontes received them with great kindness. He was very polite to Prince Florizel, but all his looks were for Perdita. He saw how much she was like the Queen Hermione, and said again and again--
“Such a sweet creature my daughter might have been, if I had not cruelly sent her from me.”
”
Source: Gutenberg

William Hazlitt,  Characters of Shakespear's Plays (1817)

“ Here Leontes is confounded with his passion, and does not know which way to turn himself, to give words to the anguish, rage, and apprehension, which tug at his breast. It is only as he is worked up into a clearer conviction of his wrongs by insisting on the grounds of his unjust suspicions to Camillo, who irritates him by his opposition, that he bursts out into the following vehement strain of bitter indignation: yet even here his passion staggers, and is as it were oppressed with its own intensity.
⁠"Is whispering nothing?
Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses?
”
Source: Wikisource

Get perspective with Kwize: daily news enlightened by great literature