Tempest, The

The, a comedy by Shakesspeare, presented at court before King James I in 1611 and printed first in 1623. The subject of the play is thought to have been suggested by a pamphlet, A Discovery of the Bermudas, otherwise called the Isle of Devils. So far as is known, Shakespeare constructed the plot which is quite simple. The Tempest is one of the shortest of Shakespeare's plays, containing only 2,065 lines. The scene is laid on a small island and the entire action occupies only three or four hours of a single day. The principal characters in the play are Prospero, who represents the Power of Good; Caliban, representing the Power of Evil; Ariel, a sprite; Alonzo, the king; and the fair Miranda. See Ariel; Caliban

In some respects The Tempest is the most marvellous of all the great poet's dramas. Not that it is his greatest. To place it in the same category as Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, Othello, would be ridiculous. Yet in it we see "Shakespeare the myriad-minded" in his most varied moods. As Hazlitt says, he shows himself the most universal genius in the entire range of letters. He has not only the same absolute command over out laughter and tears, over all the resources of passion, wit, thought, observation, but he has the most unbounded range of fanciful invention, whether terrible or playful, the same insight into the world of imagination as into the world of reality. In The Tempest, he, as it were, summons for service the complete cohort of all his powers. Nowhere is he more absolutely prodigal in the range of his magic, and nowhere more omnipotent in the sway he exercises over our laughter, our passions, and our tears.--Smeaton.