Abstract

Considering what social and economic historians have argued about the reinforcement of societal obligations in English festival culture, still functional in a Protestant context, this essay looks at how a specific Shakespearean character exemplifies the normative interpenetration of the self-interested and the communal. Festivals foster a religious sensibility intertwining, in complex ways, spiritual with economic gain. Through his part within the atmosphere of festivity, reconciliation, and salvation at the end of The Winter’s Tale, Autolycus proves the symbiosis of commerce and charity.