# The Winter’s Tale: every role by lines, words, and stage time

> William Shakespeare. 34 speaking roles, 24,533 words, about 175 minutes of speech.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/plays/the-winters-tale
- Last updated: 2026-10-08

**Leontes** has the most to say in The Winter’s Tale: about 681 lines and 4,860 words, 19.8% of the play. The Winter’s Tale follows King Leontes, whose sudden jealousy destroys his family, then jumps sixteen years to the shepherds of Bohemia. Leontes is the largest part, with about a fifth of the words, but he is absent for all of Act 4. Autolycus and Paulina come next, at about 10% each, and Autolycus’s whole part falls in Acts 4 and 5.

- Speaking roles: 34
- Scenes: 15
- Words: 24,533
- Speech time: 175 min

## Every role, largest first

| Role | Lines | Words | Share | Minutes | Scenes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Leontes | 681 | 4,860 | 19.8% | 34.7 | 6 |
| Autolycus | 276 | 2,389 | 9.7% | 17.1 | 3 |
| Paulina | 332 | 2,370 | 9.7% | 16.9 | 5 |
| Camillo | 295 | 2,088 | 8.5% | 14.9 | 5 |
| Polixenes | 269 | 1,962 | 8% | 14.0 | 4 |
| Clown | 191 | 1,591 | 6.5% | 11.4 | 4 |
| Hermione | 211 | 1,573 | 6.4% | 11.2 | 4 |
| Florizel | 205 | 1,391 | 5.7% | 9.9 | 2 |
| Shepherd | 132 | 1,048 | 4.3% | 7.5 | 3 |
| Perdita | 128 | 897 | 3.7% | 6.4 | 3 |
| Antigonus | 110 | 784 | 3.2% | 5.6 | 3 |
| Third Gentleman | 62 | 593 | 2.4% | 4.2 | 1 |
| Servant | 44 | 375 | 1.5% | 2.7 | 3 |
| Time | 32 | 266 | 1.1% | 1.9 | 1 |
| First Lord | 36 | 241 | 1% | 1.7 | 3 |
| First Gentleman | 25 | 221 | 0.9% | 1.6 | 1 |
| Officer | 23 | 192 | 0.8% | 1.4 | 1 |
| Dion | 27 | 184 | 0.8% | 1.3 | 2 |
| Archidamus | 20 | 176 | 0.7% | 1.3 | 1 |
| Lord | 24 | 171 | 0.7% | 1.2 | 1 |
| Mamillius | 22 | 150 | 0.6% | 1.1 | 2 |
| Mopsa | 21 | 142 | 0.6% | 1.0 | 1 |
| Emilia | 20 | 141 | 0.6% | 1.0 | 1 |
| Cleomenes | 23 | 136 | 0.6% | 1.0 | 2 |
| Second Gentleman | 15 | 125 | 0.5% | 0.9 | 1 |
| Gentleman | 18 | 119 | 0.5% | 0.9 | 1 |
| Mariner | 11 | 78 | 0.3% | 0.6 | 1 |
| Gaoler | 13 | 71 | 0.3% | 0.5 | 1 |
| Dorcas | 13 | 66 | 0.3% | 0.5 | 1 |
| First Lady | 9 | 49 | 0.2% | 0.4 | 1 |
| Second Lady | 4 | 22 | 0.1% | 0.2 | 1 |
| Shepard | 2 | 14 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 1 |
| First Servant | 3 | 13 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Second Servant | 2 | 12 | 0% | 0.1 | 1 |

## Who speaks in which scene

Words each role speaks in each scene (scene: words). Scenes: 1.1 = Act 1, Scene 1; 1.2 = Act 1, Scene 2; 2.1 = Act 2, Scene 1; 2.2 = Act 2, Scene 2; 2.3 = Act 2, Scene 3; 3.1 = Act 3, Scene 1; 3.2 = Act 3, Scene 2; 3.3 = Act 3, Scene 3; 4.1 = Act 4, Scene 1; 4.2 = Act 4, Scene 2; 4.3 = Act 4, Scene 3; 4.4 = Act 4, Scene 4; 5.1 = Act 5, Scene 1; 5.2 = Act 5, Scene 2; 5.3 = Act 5, Scene 3.

- **Leontes**: 1.2 (1,523), 2.1 (784), 2.3 (779), 3.2 (511), 5.1 (723), 5.3 (540)
- **Autolycus**: 4.3 (642), 4.4 (1,553), 5.2 (194)
- **Paulina**: 2.2 (299), 2.3 (615), 3.2 (465), 5.1 (455), 5.3 (536)
- **Camillo**: 1.1 (179), 1.2 (837), 4.2 (142), 4.4 (882), 5.3 (48)
- **Polixenes**: 1.2 (902), 4.2 (336), 4.4 (665), 5.3 (59)
- **Clown**: 3.3 (309), 4.3 (346), 4.4 (620), 5.2 (316)
- **Hermione**: 1.2 (503), 2.1 (332), 3.2 (681), 5.3 (57)
- **Florizel**: 4.4 (1,133), 5.1 (258)
- **Shepherd**: 3.3 (365), 4.4 (627), 5.2 (56)
- **Perdita**: 4.4 (837), 5.1 (16), 5.3 (44)
- **Antigonus**: 2.1 (217), 2.3 (181), 3.3 (386)
- **Third Gentleman**: 5.2 (593)

## The longest speeches

| Speech | Scene | Words | Lines |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Antigonus: “Come, poor babe:” | Act 3, Scene 3 | 346 | 44 |
| Time: “I, that please some, try all, both joy and terror” | Act 4, Scene 1 | 266 | 32 |
| Hermione: “Since what I am to say must be but that” | Act 3, Scene 2 | 263 | 33 |
| Leontes: “To your own bents dispose you: you’ll be found,” | Act 1, Scene 2 | 246 | 29 |
| Autolycus: “When daffodils begin to peer, With heigh! the doxy over the dale, Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the year; For the red blood reigns in the winter’s pale.” | Act 4, Scene 3 | 243 | 25 |
| Autolycus: “Ha, ha! what a fool Honesty is! and Trust, his sworn brother, a very simple gentleman! I have sold all my trumpery; not a counterfeit stone, not a ribbon, glass, pomander, brooch, table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tie, bracelet, horn-ring, to keep my pack from fasting: they throng who should buy first, as if my trinkets had been hallowed and brought a benediction to the buyer: by which means I saw whose purse was best in picture; and what I saw, to my good use I remembered. My clown, who wants but something to be a reasonable man, grew so in love with the wenches’ song, that he would not stir his pettitoes till he had both tune and words; which so drew the rest of the herd to me that all their other senses stuck in ears: you might have pinched a placket, it was senseless; ’twas nothing to geld a codpiece of a purse; I could have filed keys off that hung in chains: no hearing, no feeling, but my sir’s song, and admiring the nothing of it. So that in this time of lethargy I picked and cut most of their festival purses; and had not the old man come in with a whoo-bub against his daughter and the king’s son and scared my choughs from the chaff, I had not left a purse alive in the whole army.” | Act 4, Scene 4 | 232 | 24 |
| Paulina: “What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me?” | Act 3, Scene 2 | 218 | 28 |
| Hermione: “Sir, spare your threats:” | Act 3, Scene 2 | 203 | 26 |
| Polixenes: “As thou lovest me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of thy services by leaving me now: the need I have of thee thine own goodness hath made; better not to have had thee than thus to want thee: thou, having made me businesses which none without thee can sufficiently manage, must either stay to execute them thyself or take away with thee the very services thou hast done; which if I have not enough considered, as too much I cannot, to be more thankful to thee shall be my study, and my profit therein the heaping friendships. Of that fatal country, Sicilia, prithee speak no more; whose very naming punishes me with the remembrance of that penitent, as thou callest him, and reconciled king, my brother; whose loss of his most precious queen and children are even now to be afresh lamented. Say to me, when sawest thou the Prince Florizel, my son? Kings are no less unhappy, their issue not being gracious, than they are in losing them when they have approved their virtues.” | Act 4, Scene 2 | 176 | 18 |
| Shepherd: “I would there were no age between sixteen and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting—Hark you now! Would any but these boiled brains of nineteen and two-and-twenty hunt this weather? They have scared away two of my best sheep, which I fear the wolf will sooner find than the master: if any where I have them, ’tis by the sea-side, browsing of ivy. Good luck, an’t be thy will what have we here! Mercy on’s, a barne a very pretty barne! A boy or a child, I wonder? A pretty one; a very pretty one: sure, some ’scape: though I am not bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentlewoman in the ’scape. This has been some stair-work, some trunk-work, some behind-door-work: they were warmer that got this than the poor thing is here. I’ll take it up for pity: yet I’ll tarry till my son come; he hallooed but even now. Whoa, ho, hoa!” | Act 3, Scene 3 | 174 | 18 |

## Small roles that can be doubled

These pairs of small roles never speak in the same scene, so one actor could play both. Check entrances and silent appearances in your script before you cast it this way.

- Shepherd and Time
- Shepherd and First Lord
- Shepherd and Officer
- Shepherd and Dion
- Shepherd and Archidamus
- Shepherd and Lord
- Shepherd and Mamillius
- Shepherd and Emilia
- Shepherd and Cleomenes
- Shepherd and Gentleman
- Shepherd and Gaoler
- Shepherd and First Lady

## Questions actors ask

### Who has the most lines in The Winter’s Tale?

Leontes, with about 681 lines and 4,860 words, 19.8% of everything spoken in the play. Autolycus is next, with about 276 lines (9.7%).

### How long is The Winter’s Tale?

The full text has 24,533 spoken words, about 175 minutes at 140 words a minute before pauses, scene changes, and cuts. Most productions cut the text, so running times vary.

### How many speaking roles are in The Winter’s Tale?

34 named roles speak in this edition, across 15 scenes. 22 of them have less than 2% of the words, which is why small parts are often doubled.

## How we count

Counts are computed from the full text of the [Standard Ebooks edition](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-shakespeare/the-winters-tale) (public domain; retrieved 2026-10-08). Words are every spoken word, with stage directions removed. Lines are verse lines as printed, plus prose at 10 words a line, because prose has no fixed line breaks; editions differ, so other sources give slightly different line counts. Time is words at 140 words a minute, before pauses and stage business. A role is counted in a scene when it speaks there. To count a script that is not in the library, paste it into the [script line counter](https://www.offbook.com/tools/script-line-counter).