The Tempest (Bloom's Shakespeare Through the Ages)

291 Pages·2007·2.79 MB·English

by  Harold Bloom

Bloom’s Shakespeare Through the Ages
Antony and Cleopatra
As You Like It
Hamlet
Henry IV (Part I)
Julius Caesar
King Lear
Macbeth
The Merchant of Venice
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Othello
Romeo and Juliet
The Sonnets
The Taming of the Shrew
The Tempest
Twelfth Night

Bloom’s Shakespeare Through the Ages
T H E T EMP EST
Edited and with an introduction by
Harold Bloom
Sterling Professor of the Humanities
Yale University
Volume Editor
Neil Heims
Bloom’s Shakespeare Through the Ages: The Tempest
Copyright © 2008 by Infobase Publishing
Introduction © 2008 by Harold Bloom
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616.
The tempest / [William Shakespeare] ; edited and with an introduction by Harold
Bloom ; volume editor, Neil Heims .
p. cm. — (Bloom’s Shakespeare through the ages)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7910-9577-5 (alk. paper) 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616.
Tempest. 2. Fathers and daughter—Drama. 3. Political refugees—Drama. 4. Shipwreck
victims—Drama. 5. Magicians—Drama. 6. Islands—Drama. 7. Spirits—Drama.
8. Tragicomedy. I. Heims, Neil. II. Bloom, Harold. III. Shakespeare, William, 1564–
1616. Tempest. IV. Title.
PR2833.A2B55 2008
822.3’3—dc22 2007029605
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C
ONTENTS
q
Series Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix
Introduction by Harold Bloom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi
Biography of William Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Summary of Th e Tempest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Key Passages in Th e Tempest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
List of Characters in Th e Tempest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
CRITICISM THROUGH THE AGES
t
Th e Tempest in the Seventeenth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
1580—Michel de Montaigne. “Of Cannibals,” from Th e Essays of
Michel de Montainge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
1667–1668—Samuel Pepys. From Th e Diary
of Samuel Pepys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
1669—John Dryden. From the Preface
to Th e Tempest, or Th e Enchanted Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
1669—John Dryden. From the Prologue
to Th e Tempest, or Th e Enchanted Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
1669—John Dryden and William Davenant.
From Th e Tempest, or Th e Enchanted Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
1679—John Dryden. From the Preface to Troilus and Cressida . . . . . . 53
t
Th e Tempest in the Eighteenth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
1709—Nicolas Rowe. From Some Account of the Life
of Mr. William Shakespear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
1710—Charles Gildon. From “Remarks on the
Plays of Shakespear,” in Th e Works of Mr. William Shakespear . . . . . . . . . 58
vi Contents
1733—Lewis Th eobald. From Th e Works of Shakespeare,
Collated with the Oldest Copies, and Corrected, with Notes,
Exemplary and Critical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
1753–1754—Joseph Warton. “Observations on
Th e Tempest of Shakespeare” and “Observations on Th e Tempest
Concluded,” from Th e Adventurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
1765—Samuel Johnson. From Th e Works
of Mr. William Shakespear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
1780—Edward Capell. From Notes and
Various Readings to Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
t
Th e Tempest in the Nineteenth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71
1809—August Wilhelm Schlegel. From Lectures
on Dramatic Art and Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72
1811–1812—Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
“Lecture IX,” from Th e Lectures of 1811–1812 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74
1817—William Hazlitt. “Th e Tempest,”
from Characters of Shakespear’s Plays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83
1822—Charles Lamb. From “On the Tragedies
of Shakespeare; with Reference to Th eir Fitness
for Stage-Representation”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89
1832—Anna Brownell Jameson. “On Miranda,”
from Shakespeare’s Heroines: Characteristics of Women,
Moral, Poetical, and Historical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90
1857—[unsigned]. Review of Th e Tempest,
from Th e Athenaeum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94
1864—Robert Browning. From “Caliban
upon Setebos; or, Natural Th eology in the Island” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96
1872—John Ruskin. From Munera Pulveris:
Six Essays on the Elements of Political Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99
1875—Edward Dowden. From Shakspere:
A Critical Study of His Mind and Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
1880—A. C. Swinburne. From A Study of Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
1897—George Bernard Shaw. “Shakespear and
Mr. Barrie,” from Th e Saturday Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Contents vii
t
Th e Tempest in the Twentieth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
1907—Henry James. “Introduction to Th e Tempest” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
1938—E. M. W. Tillyard. “Th e Tragic Pattern: Th e Tempest,”
from Shakespeare’s Last Plays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
1939—Mark Van Doren. “Th e Tempest,” from Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . 138
1944—W. H. Auden. From “Th e Sea and the Mirror:
A Commentary on Shakespeare’s Th e Tempest.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
1947—G. Wilson Knight. “Th e Shakespearian Superman:
A Study of Th e Tempest,” from Th e Crown of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
1949—Derek Traversi. From “Th e Tempest,” in Scrutiny . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
1951—Harold C. Goddard. “Th e Tempest,”
from Th e Meaning of Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
1959—Northrop Frye. Introduction to Th e Tempest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
1964—William Empson. From “Hunt the Symbol,”
in Essays on Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
1972—Leslie A. Fiedler. “Th e New World Savage
as Stranger,” from Th e Stranger in Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
1987—Harold Bloom. “Introduction,”
from Th e Tempest (Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations) . . . . . . . 203
1989—Meredith Anne Skura. “Th e Case of Colonialism
in Th e Tempest,” from Shakespeare Quarterly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
1992—Harold Bloom. “Introduction,” from Caliban
(Bloom’s Major Literary Characters) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
t
Th e Tempest in the Twenty-fi rst Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
2001—Tom McAlindon. “Th e Discourse of Prayer
in Th e Tempest,” from Studies in English Literature,
1500–1900 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

S I
ERIES NTRODUCTION
q
Shakespeare Through the Ages presents not the most current of Shakespeare
criticism, but the best of Shakespeare criticism, from the seventeenth century
to today. In the process, each volume also charts the flow over time of critical
discussion of a particular play. Other useful and fascinating collections of his-
torical Shakespearean criticism exist, but no collection that we know of contains
such a range of commentary on each of Shakespeare’s greatest plays and at the
same time emphasizes the greatest critics in our literary tradition: from John
Dryden in the seventeenth century, to Samuel Johnson in the eighteenth cen-
tury, to William Hazlitt and Samuel Coleridge in the nineteenth century, to
A. C. Bradley and William Empson in the twentieth century, to the most per-
ceptive critics of our own day. This canon of Shakespearean criticism empha-
sizes aesthetic rather than political or social analysis.
Some of the pieces included here are full-length essays; others are excerpts
designed to present a key point. Much (but not all) of the earliest criticism
consists only of brief mentions of specifi c plays. In addition to the classics of
criticism, some pieces of mainly historical importance have been included, often
to provide background for important reactions from future critics.
Th ese volumes are intended for students, particularly those just beginning
their explorations of Shakespeare. We have therefore also included basic
materials designed to provide a solid grounding in each play: a biography of
Shakespeare, a synopsis of the play, a list of characters, and an explication of
key passages. In addition, each selection of the criticism of a particular century
begins with an introductory essay discussing the general nature of that century’s
commentary and the particular issues and controversies addressed by critics
presented in the volume.
Shakespeare was “not of an age, but for all time,” but much Shakespeare
criticism is decidedly for its own age, of lasting importance only to the scholar
who wrote it. Students today read the criticism most readily available to them,
which means essays printed in recent books and journals, especially those journals
made available on the Internet. Older criticism is too often buried in out-of-print
books on forgotten shelves of libraries or in defunct periodicals. Th erefore, many
ix