Modes, Moods, and Musical Puns in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale

SUMMARY

“What did the music in Act 5, Scene 3 of The Winter’s Tale sound like?” The question is, of course, unanswerable with any certainty. Yet using the early modern theory of musical modes and their affective nature on mood, critics of the play can make educated guesses about the sound of the music that resurrects the statue of Hermione. The mode of the music may then suggest that Paulina is using a musical pun at the end of the play to chide Leontes and the audience for their suspicions about her actions.