Shakespeare's romantic comedy The Winter's Tale was not popular during the first half of the eighteenth century. Audiences of that period affected to prefer plays that observed the Unities, and this play of Shakespeare's with its sixteen-year gap between the third and fourth acts appeared fatally flawed. Goodman's Fields Theatre revived it on 15 January 1741 and played it eight additional nights in 1740–41. The following season it was produced at Covent Garden on 11 November 1741 and played for a mere four performances. But by 1742 The Winter's Tale had been dropped from the repertoires of all London theatres.