ABSTRACT

THE TEMPEST was first published in the 1623 Folio, but according to an entry in the Revels Account there was played on 'Hallowmas nyght [1 Nov. 1611] att Whithall before the Kinges Majestie a play called the Tempest . . . By the Kings players5. Early in 1613 it was one of fourteen plays performed before the Princess Elizabeth after her marriage on 14 February to the Elector Palatine. The brevity of the piece, some anomalies, and the frequent use of music and song have elicited the suggestion that it was revised for that occasion, possibly abridged, and in particular that the masque in IV. 1 was inserted then.1 This is of course possible, but although the masque of Ceres and Juno affects the plot little, it fits admirably into the ethical pattern of the play, shows Prospero in gracious mood, and would please the King and Queen (who loved masques) in 1611 as in 1613. Dover Wilson argued that the long passages of narrative exposition may have replaced scenes in a longer play, 'possibly an earlier play of Shakespeare's own\ This is guesswork. The narrative exposition involved in setting the piece on the last day of the action may rather be the result of a deliberate attempt to keep the unities —as Shakespeare had done in The Comedy of Errors. As it stands the play is beautifully organized, and I cannot believe that 'at some stage of its evolution The Tempest was in all likelihood a loosely constructed drama like A Winter's Tale and Pericles'?