This critical appraisal looks at Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale as a work of theatre and assesses the variety of critical responses it has provoked. The author traces the history of the play on stage especially in the 18th and 19th centuries and attention is given to the failure of 18th century theatre and critics to come to terms with the tragic half of the play, and also focuses on the obsession of Victorian productions with historical spectacle. The Critics Debate series is designed to help students delineate various critical approaches to specific literary texts. Divided into two parts, each book begins with a critical survey of some of the major ways the text had been appraised and the authors then provide appraisals from their own critical standpoint. These introductions to literary criticism encourage the student to participate as the critics debate.