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LIKE most of Shakespeare's late plays, The Winter's Tale foregrounds the themes of sin, repentance, and forgiveness.1 The initial conversation between Leontes and Camillo demonstrates that Shakespeare's theological vision in the play is rooted in a modified form of traditional penitential practices. Detailing Camillo's former position as trusted counselor, Leontes explains,
Satisfy?
Th' entreaties of your mistress? Satisfy?
Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo,
With all the nearest things to my heart, as well
My chamber-counsels, wherein, priest-like, thou
Hast cleansed my bosom; I from thee departed
Thy penitent reformed. But we have been
Deceived in thy integrity, deceived
In that which seems so. (1.2.231-39)
Leontes's speech recreates the relationship between penitent and confessor: Leontes makes a complete disclosure of his secrets ("all the nearest things to my heart"); Camillo offers a form of shriving ("priest-like . . . thou hast cleansed my bosom"); and Leontes in turn becomes a "penitent reformed." Further, Leontes's repetition of the term "satisfy" evokes the doctrine of penitential satisfaction. This theologically rich speech demonstrates the extent to which Camillo's "priest-like" counsel mirrors the general tripartite form of sacramental confession - contrition (contritio cordis), confession (confessio oris), and satisfaction (satisfactio operis). What is most interesting about Camillo's counsel, however, is not that it provides evidence of Shakespeare's biographical relationship to or personal belief in Catholic doctrine, but rather that it enacts a crucial part of the penitential process, namely, that it has a defined end. In their former exchanges, Camillo "[h]ast cleansed my bosom" and, in the process, Leontes was "reformed" because, as his opening lines intimate, his confession was sufficient and complete.
The transition from Camillo to Paulina as Leontes's "priest-like" counselor after the actual death of Mamillius and apparent deaths of Hermione and Perdita establishes an oppositional mode of penitence in The Winter's Tale. In contrast with Camillo's tripartite model of penitence, Paulina defines Leontes's crimes as unforgiveable and beyond his capacity for atonement:
But O thou tyrant,
Do not repent these things, for they are heavier
Than all thy woes can stir. Therefore betake thee
To nothing but despair. A thousand knees,
Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting,
Upon a barren mountain, and still winter
In storm perpetual, could not move the gods
To look...