Perdita: The Princess Who Does Not Know She Is a Princess
First appears: Act 4, Scene 4
Perdita was abandoned as a baby on the coast of Bohemia in Act 3 Scene 3, left there by Antigonus on Leontes's orders. She was found by a shepherd. She has grown up believing she is a shepherd's daughter, and she is excellent at it, hosting the sheep-shearing festival in Act 4 Scene 4 with a naturalness that Polixenes, watching disguised, finds almost impossible to explain given her apparent background.
Her flower speech in Act 4 Scene 4 is one of the most beautiful passages in the play: 'daffodils, that come before the swallow dares, and take the winds of March with beauty.' She gives flowers to her guests matched to their ages: rosemary and rue for the older men, hot lavender and mints for the middle-aged. She knows exactly what she is doing.
She refuses to wear the flowers Florizel wants her to wear at the festival, saying she would rather not play a part. The irony is that she is already playing a part (a shepherd's daughter) without knowing it. Her naturalness, which everyone remarks on, is a kind of authenticity that has persisted despite being based on a false identity from birth.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“Daffodils, that come before the swallow dares, and take the winds of March with beauty.”
Perdita — Act 4, Scene 4
“I was not much afeard; for once or twice I was about to speak and tell him plainly, the selfsame sun that shines upon his court hides not his visage from our cottage.”
Perdita — Act 4, Scene 4