The Tempest
A great book. First published AD 1623, written in English
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a storm, the rest of the play is set on a remote island, where Prospero, a magician, lives with his daughter Miranda and his two servants: Caliban, a savage monster figure, and Ariel, an airy spirit. The play contains music and songs that evoke the spirit of enchantment on the island. It explores many themes, including magic, betrayal, revenge, forgiveness, and family. In Act IV, a wedding masque serves as a play-within-a-play and contributes spectacle, allegory, and elevated language.
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What it draws on
AeneidClassic
Virgil, 50 BC
The Tempest keeps looking back to the Aeneid: a shipwreck, a voyage from Tunis to Italy past the site of Carthage, and the courtiers' joke about 'widow Dido'. Some critics see the play less as borrowing from Virgil than as Shakespeare's answer to him.
Source: Wikipedia, The Tempest
“Scholars have debated the influence of Virgil's Aeneid, which Robert Wiltenburg described as "the main source of the play ... not the source of the plot ... but the work to which Shakespeare is responding".” Read it there
MetamorphosesClassic
Ovid, AD 8*
Prospero's farewell to his magic, 'Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves', closely follows the witch Medea's invocation in Book 7 of Ovid, which Shakespeare knew in Arthur Golding's translation.
Source: Wikipedia, The Tempest
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