<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n4.1. Father Time appears and bridges the 16 year gap in the play<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4.2. Polixenes and Camillo talk \u2013 Camillo is homesick and wishes to return to Sicily; Polixenes, who has favored Camillo for saving his life, does not want him to. Instead, he asks him to join him in donning a disguise and going to investigate what his son, Florizell, is up to at the shepherd\u2019s home where he has been spending time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
4.3. We meet Autolycus, a thief and con artist, and also former servant to Florizell. He encounters the son of the shepherd, and steals him money. He then decides that he will attend the sheep shearing party that the son was buying things for, and engage in further thievery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4.4. [A huge scene<\/strong>] There is a sheep shearing feast. Polixenes and Camillo arrive, in disguise, and are welcomed as guests and presented with flowers by Perdita, the now-grown child of Leontes and Hermione. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Various conversations ensue:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- – Florizell declares his love for Perdita, while Perdita expresses her doubts due to their differences in status (which she can detect, even though he is in disguise as Doricles).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Polixenes and Perdita have a conversation about flowers [4.4.90-120], involving whether certain flower hybrids are bastards or natural. Perdita is suspicious of them, whereas Polixenes is accepting [I don\u2019t really understand this exchange \u2013 one would think that Polixenes would be suspicious of such mixing\u2026.*]<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- – Camillo appears to flirt with Perdita, who brushes off his compliments. \u2026Camillo is struck by her beauty and appears to recognize that she seems of higher birth. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- – Polixenes asks the shepherd who Perdita\u2019s suitor is, and the shepherd says his name is Doricles, and that they are very much in love. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- – Autolycus arrives, and offers various trinkets for sale. The lowborn women are interested and press their suitors to buy them; Perdita is uninterested. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- – Florizell and Perdita are about to handfast, but Camillo intervenes and presses Florizell to invite his father to the handfasting, but Florizell resists<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- – Polixene\u2019s reveals himself and forbids Florizell to marry Perdita, and threatens to disinherit him and have Perdita killed. The shepherd is shocked and frightened<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Camillo reveals himself to Florizell, and after discussion they decide Florizell and Perdita should flee to Sicily, where Camillo will provide for them, and hope for a reapproachement with Polixenes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Autolycus reappears. \u201cHa, ha, what a fool Honesty is. And Trust, his sworn brother, a very simple gentleman.<\/mark>\u201d He has stolen most of the purses of the guests, though not all. Camillo notices him, and orders him to exchange clothes with Florizell… now Autolycus has the clothes of someone of higher station, which will enable him to dupe the Shepherd and his son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n– The Shepherd and his son confer, and decide to go to the King and show the bundle of things that was with Perdita when they found her. The believe it will show that she is a changeling, or at least not their child, and that they will thus avoid punishment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Autolycus appears convinces the Shepherd and his son that he is a courtier, and says that the Shepherd and his relatives will all be killed because of this. They give him gold to present their case to the king, and Autolycus agrees, both for the gold and because if he turns them over to the king it may regain him favor in the court. \u201cIf I had a mind to be honest, I see Fortune would not suffer me. She drops booties in my mouth.<\/mark>\u201d Autolycus decides he will bring the Shepherd and son on board the ship that will bring the prince to Sicily. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Act 5 – Everything is resolved<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n5.1. Some courtiers urge Leontes to take a wife, but Paulina argues against it \u2013 and it is revealed that the oracle said he will not have an heir until his lost daughter is found \u2013 and he agrees with her. With more urging from others to marry, Leontes agrees that he will not marry until Paulina approves. News of Florizell\u2019s arrival reaches court; a servant reports that his princess is the fairest woman he has ever seen, and Paulina objects, citing the late Hermione. Leontes wonders about the visit, suspecting that it is forced rather than a visit of state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leontes receives Florizell and Perdita, and Florizell pretends that he has been sent by his father. But then, a Lord arrives, bearing a message from Polixenes, who asks him to arrest Florizell, who has fled with a shepherd\u2019s daughter. Leontes seems inclined to accede to Polixenes\u2019 request, but then is persuaded to speak to Polixene\u2019s on their behalf. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
5.2. This scene provides a lot of heretofore unknown details that ius useful in tying up lose ends. Autolycus, who is now in Sicily, interviews several courtiers. From the first gentlemanhe learns that the meeting between Polixenes and the Shepherd was momentous: \u201cThere was speech in their dumbness; language in their very gesture. They looked as if they had heard of a world ransomed, or of one destroyed.\u201d From the second gentleman he learns that the King\u2019s daughter has been found. Then Paulina\u2019s Steward arrives, and explain the bundle left with baby Perdita included Hermione\u2019s mantle, her jewel, and Antigonous\u2019 letters. Then he describes the reunion between Leontes and Polixenes and Perdita. Further talk reveals Antigonus\u2019 death and the founder of the ship that brought him. Further discussion reveals the existence of Hermione\u2019s statue, its being in the possession of Paulina, and that she has visited in thrice a day\u2026 Autolycus also reveals that he brought the Sherperd and his son on board the ship that came to Sicily\u2026. Then the Shepherd and his son arrive, now elevated to being gentlemen, and promise that they will recommend Autolycus to the Prince\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5.3. In the last act, Leontes, Polixenes, Perdita and Florizell, Paulina and Camillo visit the \u2018statue\u2019 of Hermione. She comes to life, after an increasingly broad hints reveal that she is not a stature. She embraces Leontes, and then she blesses her daughter. Paulina declares she will lament her dead husband, but Leontes declares that she will marry Camillo<\/p>\n\n\n\n