injustice done to the dead. The cry of Leontes remembering
the wronged dead woman's eyes--

"Stars, stars,
And all eyes else dead coals,"

is haunting and heart-breaking. All his longing of remorse gives to the
last great scene, before the supposed statue, an intensity of beauty
hardly endurable.

The passion of remorse is a romantic, not a tragic passion. It is the
mood which follows the tragic mood. Shakespeare's creative life is like
a Shakespearean play. It ends with an easing of the strain and a making
of peace.

It is said that an old horse near to death turns towards the pastures
where he was foaled. It is true of human beings. Man wanders home to the
fields which bred him. A part of the romance of this poem is the turning
back of the poet's mind to the Cotswold country, of which he sang so
magically, in his first play, sixteen or eighteen years before. There
are fine scenes of shepherds at home, among the sheep bells and clean
wind. There is a very lovely talk of flowers--

"daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes
Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses,
That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phoebus in his strength."

To Shakespeare, the magically happy man, the going back to them must
have been a time for thanksgiving. But to the supremely happy man all
times are times of thanksgiving, deep, tranquil and abundant, for the
delight, the majesty and the beauty of the fulness of the rolling world.

_The Tempest._

_Written._ 1610-11.

_Published_, in the folio, 1623.

_Source of the Plot._ It is likely that many sources contributed to
the making of this plot. If Shakespeare took the fable from a
single source, that source is not now known. He may have taken
suggestions for it from the following books:--

1st. From a little collection of novels by Antonio de Eslava, a
Spanish writer, whose book, _Noches de Invierno_, was published in
Barcelona in 1609. Three tales in this collection seem to have
given hints for the play. The fourth chapter, about "The Art Magic
of King Dardano," helped him more than the others. Whether the
title of the book suggested the title of _A Winter's Tale_ is not
known.

2nd. From a German play, _Die schoene Sidea_, by