Episode 72 - The Tempest

“Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.”

In almost every way this play is Shakespeare's swan song, and a heartfelt goodbye to his time spent crafting entertainment and poetry for the people of London. Consequently, the play is very concerned with legacies, family, time, supremacy, and - perhaps most interestingly of all - colonialism. Despite being one of Shakespeare's shortest and most easily accessible plays, it manages to jam pack a whole lot of thought into the topics it does weave its magic on, so join us for a discussion about all things The Tempest in this, our final episode devoted to Shakespeare's work.

Notes:

• Aidan incorrectly named the date the play was performed in front of King James - it was actually done on November 1, 1611.
  • He also incorrectly identified the date the play was put back into production - it was actually 1667, albeit under a different name with heavy adaptations.
• Both Aidan and Lindsay highly recommend Barbra A. Mowat's A Modern Perspective essay (a standby of this series) for an interesting look at how Shakespeare combines time, family, and the other themes of The Tempest into a nice little package.

Ancient Bickerings:

• If you were shipwrecked on an abandoned island and had to take 5 Shakespeare plays with you, does this one crack the list?