The Winter's Tale to him in a dream and bade him name the girl Perdita. He leaves a fardel (a bundle) by the baby containing gold and other trinkets which suggest that the baby is of noble blood. A violent storm suddenly appears, wrecking the ship on which Antigonus arrived. He wishes to take pity on the child, but is chased away in one of Shakespeare's most famous stage directions: "Exit, pursued by a bear." (It is not known whether Shakespeare used a real bear from the London bear-pits, or an actor in bear costume.) Perdita is rescued by a shepherd and his
The Prophetess (play) chorus, dumbshow, and Marlovain bombast suggest a work of the previous generation of dramas. It is possible that "The Prophetess" is a reworking of the lost play "Diocletian" from 1594. The play contains spectacular elements; critics have wondered exactly how the entrance of Delphia and Drusilla in II,iii, "in a Throne drawn by Dragons," could have been staged. The Prophetess (play) The Prophetess is a late Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. It was initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. The play was licensed for performance by Sir