Why is the Shepherd so Afraid?

Shepard:

I cannot speak, nor think

Nor dare to know that which I know (Page 81, 450-451)

This line serves as a microcosm for the rest of the play, casting the acts of speaking, thinking, and knowing into their respective orders. Characters (most notably Hermione) speak before they act, and some even speak before they think. Thoughts become synonymous with reality when Camillo declares that “He thinks, nay, with all confidence he swears” (412) in reference to Leontes’ suspicions of infidelity. By likening thoughts to truth, Shakespeare sets up the audience to be duped. If the audience “dare[s] to know” that which it (seemingly) knows, then it will be fooled by the last scene of the play. By listening to the speech of the characters, the audience becomes trapped in the art of the play and fails to recognize reality.

By saying that he does not “dare to know” what he knows, the shepherd suggests that he does in fact have knowledge, but that he is afraid of what a realization may bring him. This line not only forces the audience to question what the shepherd knows, but to question what they themselves know, for what is accepted as fact, as “known,” is often later disproven. This links back to Camillo’s line in which “thinks” and “swears” become interchangeable and proves that knowledge may not be based so much in fact as it is in what the individual feels is “true” at that moment. If one thinks something is true, then who is to say it is not? Their consciousness is all they have. Perhaps this is why the shepherd does not dare to know that which he knows, for bringing knowledge to fruition would cause him to experience a frightening realization.