O Brave New World: Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' turns 400 tomorrow
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The shipwreck in Act I of "The Tempest" in a 1797 engraving based on a painting by George Romney.
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The four words first spoken on Nov. 1, 1611, by Miranda in "The Tempest" have resounded in countless American theaters and classrooms in the intervening 400 years. "O Brave New World": four single syllable words, 400 years ago, were unleashed as part of Shakespeare's new whirlwind of a play.
As Americans, we've had a tempestuous relationship with "The Tempest's" Brave New World. The Jamestown Colony in Virginia, named after England's King James I and his "virgin" predecessor, Queen Elizabeth, had been founded in 1607. Reports reached London in plenty of time for Shakespeare to make a play out of them.
So, while "The Tempest" is hardly Americans' alone, hearing the phrase "brave new world" these 400 years later, many of us still wonder breathlessly, like so many lovelorn Romeos and Juliets: Was Shakespeare writing about us?
Truthfully, "The Tempest's" history is our history regardless, and the simple fact that we ask the question -- anxiously, exuberantly, hopefully -- illustrates most of what's important.
Shakespeare, we say, is Old World. We are the New. His was the stifling Europe of irrational dynasties, strict class hierarchies and palace intrigue, ours the enchanted new world of possibility.
OK, the new film "Anonymous" suggests that Shakespeare couldn't have written "The Tempest" -- essentially on the grounds that he wasn't born rich. And some Americans believe it, too. What's remarkable, though, is that such are the themes of "The Tempest," in which a Milanese Duke named Prospero, forced into exile on a remote island with his daughter Miranda by his usurping brother, enjoys the lush abundance of the sparsely inhabited land. Freed of Old World dynastic fetters, Prospero and Miranda delight in an exceptional New World of liberty where the best things go to those who go looking for them, birthright be darned.
"The Tempest" makes Benjamin Wiker's list of the "10 Books Every Conservative Must Read." Andrew Carnegie was so devoted to the play that he chose his wife based on some of its lines. Steve Jobs, according to Maureen Dowd, was the "Prospero of Palo Alto." Americans recognize ourselves in "The Tempest" immediately.
First Published October 31, 2011 12:00 am
