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king in an authoritative manner which resembles his own, her
tone of voice seemingly that of any prestigious physician. And
indeed, she does claim to be his physician:
Paul.
Good my liege, I come
—
And, I beseech you hear me, who professes
Myself your loyal servant,
your physician
,
Your most obedient counselor, yet that dares
Less appear so in comforting your evils
Than such as most seem yours
—
I say, I come
From your good queen. (
emphasis added
, 2.3. 52-58)
Paulina is a woman physician whose medicine is both her
words and her wit, and one with high moral standards who
sees the health of the court as being more important than her
own life
—
ever aware as she is that, as a woman healer, she
herself could be accused at any time. Shakespeare has created
Paulina as a strong and self-sufficient individual, for those early
modern women who became physicians and counselors found
“no real models in the social or political context, nor does such
a figure appear in the courtesy books,” implying as it does
“moral and intellectual superiority” (Asp, 1978: 145). Paulina,
then, proves herself as an exceptional woman healer, carefully
and wittily deploying various “medical” treatments that are
administered according to the degrees of the king’s illness.
Eventually she humbles Leontes, forcing the insane tyrant
to repent his sins. Throughout the play Paulina remains,
among all those in the court, the only suitable
physician-counselor for the king. This is because, unlike the
noblemen, she has fully refined the use of her healing woman’s
language, her woman’s tongue with its positive medical and
rhetorical failure of Paulina this way: “neither truthful words not the silent
form of innocence can move a mad king” (1969: 344). However, the
present study argues that Paulina’s speech not only
moves
the king but also
(metaphorically) cures him.