《冬天的故事》是莎士比亚全集初版第一对开本的最后一出喜剧。本剧一般被视为“浪漫剧”(romance)。除爱情–故事外，并有热闹的节庆气氛，充满通俗的欢乐成分，往往有出乎意料之外的演出效果。 全剧可以依时空划分为两大段。前半段讲述国王雷提斯因嫉妒而酿成悲剧。雷提斯内心的复杂纠葛，几乎可与莎翁的悲剧角色相提并论。后半段的故事发生于十六年之后，雷提斯遗失的女儿初长成，在因缘际会下，最后回到雷提斯的宫廷，终将一场悲剧化成喜剧收场。 本剧触及了自然天性(nature)与人为教养(nurture)的主题。现代的批评焦点则常放在本剧的象征性上，甚至倾向于将此剧视为寓言。另外，剧中人犯下大错后获得宽恕的架构，也使得许多人认为本剧带有基督教的训示意味。
The Story of Winter is the last comedy in the First Folio of Shakespeare’s complete works. This drama is generally considered a ‘romance’. In addition to love stories, there is also a lively festive atmosphere filled with popular and joyful elements, often resulting in unexpected performance effects. The entire drama can be divided into two major sections based on time and space. The first half tells the story of King Retis’s tragedy caused by jealousy. The complex entanglement within Retis is almost comparable to Shakespeare’s tragic character. The second half of the story takes place sixteen years later, when the lost daughter of Retis, Chucheng, returns to Retis’ court through a chance encounter, ultimately turning a tragedy into a comedy ending. This drama touches on the themes of natural nature and artificial nurture. Modern criticism often focuses on the symbolism of this play, and even tends to view it as a fable. In addition, the structure in which the characters in the play are forgiven for making major mistakes also makes many people believe that the play carries Christian teachings.

历史上的今天 ( 77 )：