There's some ill planet ....... more favourable. | The Winter's Tale By William Shakespeare | Eureka Study Aids

There's some ill planet reigns:
I must be patient till the heavens look
With an aspect more favourable.

There's some ill planet ......... more favourable.

REFERENCE

(i) Drama: The Winter's Tale

(ii) Dramatist: William Shakespeare

CONTEXT

(i) Occurrence: Act 2, Scene I

(ii) Content: Leontes, king of Sicilia, suspects that his wife Hermione has an affair with his friend Polixenes, king of Bohemia. Her orders Camillo to poison Polixenes. However, Camillo helps Polixenes to escape back to Bohemia. Hermione is thrown into jail and has a baby while imprisoned. The king orders Antigonus to abandon the child. Hermione dies in the jail. Antigonus takes the baby to Bohemia. The little girl is found by a Shepherd and is named Perdita. Camillo, after serving Polixenes sixteen years, longs to return to Sicilia. Polixenes also goes with him in disguise. At a festival, Florizell declares his love for Perdita in front of his disguised father. The king threatens to disown Florizell and execute Perdita. The lovers go to Leontes. Here Perdita's true parentage is revealed and the royal families are reunited

EXPLANATION

    In these lines Hermoine says that human destiny is determined by stars. She thinks that some malign star is in the ascendant so the tides of her fortune have changed. Her husband, Loentes has wrongly accused her of adultery and pilloried her for infidelity. Due to this evil star, her happiness has been poisoned by the frantic jealousy of her husband. She deems that she has little chance to avoid her predicament as far as this "ill planet" is governing her her destiny. However, what cannot be cured must be endured. So she determines to wait patiently until the heavens are more favourably aligned and gods "look" on her with kinder expressions. Hermoine had to wait a solid 16 years in that misfortune for the manifestation of said "more favourable aspect". In short, Hermoine's resolve to undergo the saint-like patience thrills us with admiration as well as pity. These lines also contradict Shakespeare's famous notion;

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

But in ourselves, that we are underlings, 

(Julius Caesar)

Notes Prepared By: Prof. Shahbaz Asghar