The Tempest; or, The Disenchanted Island

Abstract

This chapter focuses on William Shakespeare's The Tempest as political theater, a play that is not a particular favorite with eighteenth-century graphic satirists. In their 1667 adaptation The Tempest, or The Enchanted Island, John Dryden and William Davenant took up Shakespeare's drama as a performative laboratory for their post-interregnum exploration of patriarchal power, casting Prospero as a father-king and Caliban and company as parodic, stridently plebeian figurations of the 1640s parliamentarians. Ultimately, the political appeal of The Tempest resides largely in its dramatic elaboration of “islandness.” As Kathleen Wilson argues, the trope of the island—although long powerful in imaginary literature and material policies—began to serve not only as metaphor but also as explanation for English dominance and superiority in arts and arms.