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Exit, Pursued by a Bear

In a new series called "A Winter's Tale", our Collections team will be providing Winter-related posts about the items they care for. For this post, we're taking a look at a scene from "The Winter's Tale", wherein Antigonus is told to "exit, pursued by a bear".

John Massey Wright A Winter's Tale
John Massey Wright’s watercolour of a scene from ‘The Winter’s Tale’

"Farewell!
The day frowns more and more: thou'rt like to have
A lullaby too rough: I never saw
The heavens so dim by day. A savage clamour!
Well may I get aboard! This is the chase:
I am gone for ever.
[Exit, pursued by a bear]"
(The Winter’s Tale 3.3)

This is the first post in a new series by Finding Shakespeare called "A Winter's Tale". Over the next few months we are going to be exploring our collections and bringing you posts on the theme of winter and the festive season.

Here I am looking at a watercolour from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust collections, which was painted by John Massey Wright and inspired by a scene from The Winter’s Tale.