"The Tempest" was first printed in the folio edition of "Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies," bearing date in 1623, where it stands first, and occupies nineteen pages, viz. from p. 1, to p. 19 inclusive. It fills the same place in the folios of 1632, 1664, and 1685. INTRODUCTION. A MATERIAL fact, in reference to the date of the first production of "The Tempest," has only been recently ascertained we allude to the notice of the performance of it, before King James, on Nov. 1st, 1611,1 which is contained in the "Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court," edited by Mr. P. Cunningham for the Shakespeare Society, p. 211: the memorandum is in the following form: "Hallomas nyght was presented att Whithall before the Kinges Majestie a play called the Tempest." In the margin is inserted the additional circumstance, that the performance was "by the King's Players ;" and there can be no reasonable doubt that it was Shakespeare's drama, which had been written for that company. When it had been so written, is still a point of difficulty; but the probability, we think, is that it was selected by the Master of the Revels, for representation at Court in 1611, on account of its novelty and popularity on the public stage. Eleven other dramas, as appears by the same document, were exhibited between Oct. 31, 1611, and the same day in the next year; and it is remarkable that ten of these (as far as we possess any information respecting them) were comparatively new plays, and with regard to the eleventh, it was not more than three years old. We may, perhaps, be warranted in inferring, therefore, that "The Tempest" was also not then an old play. It seems to us, likewise, that the internal evidence, derived from style and language, clearly indicates that it was a late production, and that it belongs to about the same period of our great dramatist's literary history as his "Winter's Tale," which was also chosen for a Court-play, and represented at Whitehall only four days after "The Tempest" had been exhibited. In point of construction, it must be admitted at once 1 The earliest date hitherto discovered for the performance of "The Tempest" was the beginning of the year 1613," which Malone established from Vertue's MSS. it was then acted by "the King's Company, before Prince Charles, the Princess Elizabeth, and the Prince Palatine," but where is not stated. 2 See note 2 to the Introduction to "The Winter's Tale." The particular play to which we refer is entitled in the Revels' Account "Lucrecia," which may have been either T. Heywood's "Rape of Lucrece," first printed in 1608, or a different tragedy on the same incidents. that there is the most obvious dissimilarity, inasmuch as "The Winter's Tale" is a piece in which the unities are utterly disregarded, while in "The Tempest " they are strictly observed. It is only in the involved and parenthetical character of some of the speeches, and in psychological resemblances, that we would instituto a comparison between "The Tempest" and the "Winter's Tale," and would infer from thence that they belong to about the same period. Without here adverting to the real or supposed origin of the story, or to temporary incidents which may have suggested any part of the plot, we may remark that there is one piece of external evidence which strongly tends to confirm the opinion that "The Tempest" was composed not very long before Ben Jonson wrote one of his comedies: we allude to his "Bartholomew Fair," and to a passage in "the Induction," frequently mentioned, and which we concur in thinking was intended as a hit not only at "The Tempest," but at "The Winter's Tale." Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair," was acted in 1614, and written perhaps in the preceding year, during the popularity of Shakespeare's two plays; and there we find the following words, which we reprint, for the first time, exactly as they stand in the original edition, where Italic type seems to have been used to make the allusions more distinct and obvious:-"If there bee never a Servantmonster i' the Fayre, who can helpe it, he sayes; nor a nest of Antiques? Hee is loth to make Nature afraid in his Playes, like those that beget Tales, Tempests, and such like Drolleries." The words servant-monster," "antiques," "Tales," แ Tempests," and "drolleries," which last Shakespeare himself employs in "The Tempest," (Act iii. sc. 3.) seem so applicable, that they can hardly relate to any thing else. It may be urged, however, that what was represented at Court in 1611 was only a revival of an older play, acted before 1596, and such may have been the case: we do not, however, think it probable, for several reasons. One of these is an apparently trifling circumstance, pointed out by Farmer; viz. that in "The Merchant of Venice," written before 1598, the name of Stephano is invariably pronounced with the accent on the second syllable, while in The Tempest," the proper pronunciation is as constantly required by the verse. seems certain, therefore, that Shakespeare found his error in the interval, and he may have learnt it from Ben Jonson's "Every Man in his Humour," in which Shakespeare performed, and in the original list of characters to which, in the edition of 1601, the names not only of Stephano, but of Prospero occur. It Another circumstance shows, we think almost decisively, that "The Tempest" was not written until after 1603, when the translation of Montaigne's Essays, by Florio, made its first See "Alleyn Papers," printed by the Shakespeare Society, p. 67, where Daborne, under date of Nov. 13th, 1613, speaks of "Jonson's play "as then about to be performed. Possibly it was deferred for a short time, as the title-page states that it was acted in 1614. It may have been written in 1612, for performance in 1613. |
