Editing Shakespeare's late romances (section)

==Defining characteristics==
The final plays share some common traits:
* Tragic or potentially tragic elements at the beginning of the play that are then resolved by the end, such as Leontes's jealousy in ''The Winter's Tale,'' or the shipwreck and drownings in ''The Tempest'';<ref name=bieman1>Bieman, p.&nbsp;1;</ref>
* Older men are more prominently featured;<ref>Bieman, p.&nbsp;4</ref>
* Young lovers are a part of each play, but are not central to the plot;<ref name=bieman1/>
* A redemptive plotline with a happy ending reuniting long-separated family members;<ref name=smith/>
* Magic and other fantastical elements;<ref>Rowse, Volume&nbsp;III, p.&nbsp;11</ref>
* The presence of pre-Christian, masque-like figures, like Jupiter in ''Cymbeline'' and the goddesses whom Prospero summons in ''The Tempest'';<ref>Rowse, Volume&nbsp;III, pp.&nbsp;784, 896–897</ref>
* A mixture of "courtly" and "[[pastoral]]" scenes (such as the gentry and the island residents in ''The Tempest'' and the pastoral and courtly contrasts of ''The Winter's Tale'').<ref>Schmidgall, p.&nbsp;180</ref>