virgil and the tempest

214 Pages·2006·10.5 MB·English

VIRGIL AND

THE TEMPEST

The Politics of Imitation

Donna B. Hamilton
Virgil and The Tempest offers a new assess­
ment of the art and politics of Shakespeare's
comic masterpiece by examining its relation­
ship to both the contemporary political con­
text and to Virgil's Aeneid. Challenging the
view that The Tempest supports the absolutist
theories and policies of King James I, Donna
Hamilton instead shows how the play pre­
sents an argument for a limited monarchy.
Virgil and James I each represent a set of
symbols and idioms that Shakespeare appro­
priates for his own use in The Tempest. In the
process, he pays homage to their respective
eminence and brings them into dialogic rela­
tion with each other, changing the language
to suit his purposes. This means rewriting the
Aeneid to suit a new time and situation, and it
means subtly altering the king's language to
present a strong argument for constitu­
tionalism.
Scholars who have emphasized the "trans­
cendent" Shakespeare have sometimes failed
to recognize the playwright's passion for
resistance, a passion nowhere more cunningly
present than in The Tempest. Sixteenth- and
seventeenth-century plays were character­
ized by an indirection that only a practiced
rhetorical skill could produce, a skill that pur­
chased not only safety, but respect, author­
ity, and power. This skill was equally useful
to writers engaged in oppositional politics and
to apologists for the established authority.
Shakespeare's work, therefore, cannot be
fully appreciated by today's readers without
being sufficiently historicized.

Virgil
and
The

Tempest

Virgil and

The Tempest

THE POLITICS

OF IMITATION

Donna B. Hamilton
Ohio State University Press
COLUMBUS
An earlier version of "Imitation and The Tempest" appeared in Style 23,
no. 3 (Fall 1989). Used by permission.
Copyright © 1990 by the Ohio State University Press.
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hamilton, Donna B.
Virgil and The Tempest: the politics of imitation / Donna B. Hamilton,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8142-0517-8 (alk. paper)
1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Tempest. 2. Shakespeare,
William, 1564- 1616—Political and social views. 3. English drama—
Roman influences. 4. Virgil—Influence—Shakespeare. 5. Imitation
(in literature) 6. Politics in literature. 7. Virgil. Aeneis. I. Title.
PR2833.H34 1990
822.3^—dc2O 89-77752
CIP
00 The paper in this book meets the guidelines

for permanence and durability of the Committee

on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity

of the Council on Library Resources.

Printed in the U.S.A.
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