Blow, blow, thou winter wind

Paul Woodroffe

Photomechanical reproduction of pen and ink drawing.

5½ x 4 inches

Songs from the Plays of Shakespeare , facing p. 52.

Woodroffe’s visualization of one of the songs in As You Like It. The artist skilfully evokes the atmosphere of the moment, here presenting the chilliest of scenes in a barren Arden Forest. The bare trees are a recurrent motif and the overall sense of bleakness is confirmed by the border of ragged twigs. The contrast between the plain whiteness of the snow and the dense hatched patterns of the branches is finely calculated, and avoids sentimentality.

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Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke.

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