"Bearing Hence" Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale

Wordplay in The Winter's Tale involving forms of the word "bear" deepens our understanding for the play's design of a bear's onstage pursuit and reported devouring of Antigonus. Among other things, this wordplay suggests that Camillo's transporting Polixenes out of Leontes' court and Florizel's carrying Perdita away from her country home amount to redemptive "bearings hence" that contrast with the fatal "bearing hence" of Antigonus. Meanings generated in The Winter's Tale by wordplay on forms of the word "bear" strengthen playgoers' impressions of the finally benign nature of the god Apollo's providence.