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 Bear Dances the rich were powerful might be replaced by a régime where the powerful are rich." Despite approval of its subject-matter ("Any study of conditions in Soviet Russia is certain at the moment to command attention," noted "The Spectator") and praise for the directing, acting, and designs, the reviewers found "The Bear Dances" "overladen with pamphleteering argument, on both sides". "The play's weakness lies in its tendency to repeated pleading," observed Ivor Brown in "The Week-end Review". "Heavy blue pencilling would have given this play a chance of life," agreed John Pollock in "The Saturday Review". "The Stage" conceded that the