Book contents
- Frontmatter
- The Power of Magic: From Endimion to The Tempest
- Reading The Tempest
- The Latter End of Prospero’s Commonwealth
- Henry VIII and the Deconstruction of History
- The Politics of Conscience in All is True (or Henry VIII)
- Shakespeare’s Romantic Innocents and the Misappropriation of the Romance Past: The Case of The Two Noble Kinsmen
- The Hand of John Fletcher in Double Falsehood
- ‘The Duke my Father’s Wrack’: The Innocence of the Restoration Tempest
- ‘Remember/First to Possess his Books’: The Appropriation of The Tempest 1700-1800
- The Tempest and After
- Poetry’s Sea-Changes: T. S. Eliot and The Tempest
- The New Function of Language in Shakespeare’s Pericles: Oath versus ‘Holy Word’
- The Discovery of The Rose Theatre: Some Implications
- The Origins of the Roxana and Messallina Illustrations
- Recycling the Early Histories: ‘The Wars of the Roses’ and ‘The Plantagenets’
- Shakespeare Production in England in 1989
- Professional Shakespeare Productions in the British Isles, January-December 1988
- The Year's Contributions to Shakespeare Studies: 1 Critical Studies
- 2 Shakespeare’s Life, Times, and Stage
- 3 Editions and Textual Studies
- Books Received
- Index
The Latter End of Prospero’s Commonwealth
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2007
- Frontmatter
- The Power of Magic: From Endimion to The Tempest
- Reading The Tempest
- The Latter End of Prospero’s Commonwealth
- Henry VIII and the Deconstruction of History
- The Politics of Conscience in All is True (or Henry VIII)
- Shakespeare’s Romantic Innocents and the Misappropriation of the Romance Past: The Case of The Two Noble Kinsmen
- The Hand of John Fletcher in Double Falsehood
- ‘The Duke my Father’s Wrack’: The Innocence of the Restoration Tempest
- ‘Remember/First to Possess his Books’: The Appropriation of The Tempest 1700-1800
- The Tempest and After
- Poetry’s Sea-Changes: T. S. Eliot and The Tempest
- The New Function of Language in Shakespeare’s Pericles: Oath versus ‘Holy Word’
- The Discovery of The Rose Theatre: Some Implications
- The Origins of the Roxana and Messallina Illustrations
- Recycling the Early Histories: ‘The Wars of the Roses’ and ‘The Plantagenets’
- Shakespeare Production in England in 1989
- Professional Shakespeare Productions in the British Isles, January-December 1988
- The Year's Contributions to Shakespeare Studies: 1 Critical Studies
- 2 Shakespeare’s Life, Times, and Stage
- 3 Editions and Textual Studies
- Books Received
- Index
Summary
In the first act of The Tempest, near the conclusion of Prospero's story of their past, Miranda asks an all-important question: 'I pray you, sir . . . your reason / For raising this sea-storm' (1.2.176-8). Prospero's reply is enigmatic:
Know thus far forth.
By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune,
Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies
Brought to this shore; and by my prescience
I find my zenith doth depend upon
A most auspicious star, whose influence
If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes
Will ever after droop. Here cease more questions.
(1.2.179-85)The answer to Miranda's question is left to be inferred from the play's ending, or filled in according to each reader's expectation of how Prospero might deal with his enemies through the power that has enabled him to raise the storm. It is partly this absence of clearly stated intention that often leads commentators to express dissatisfaction at his perceived failure to achieve what they understand him to have set out to do: achieve revenge, for instance, or assure himself of his enemies' full repentance before he forgives, or (in the terms of a recent psychoanalytic approach) complete himself by working through his oedipal past.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Shakespeare Survey , pp. 29 - 42Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991