A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare'sThe Tempest (36 page)

“Carry this island”: 2.1.91-92,
ARD
, 190. Virginia ship arrived during week previous to November 5 (i.e., a few days before or after November 1):
GEN
, 1:523- 24, 527. Ship was
Prosperous
:
GEN
, 1:497; Brown,
Republic
, 161. Strachey lodging in Blackfriars, “during the time”:
For the Colony
(1612) [v]-[viii] (1969 edition, 3-7).
For the Colony
registered for publication December 13, 1611, Tien lawsuit: Culliford,
Strachey
, 126, 128, 132-33. Donne’s new patron, death of Countess of Bedford’s infant: Lawson,
Shadows
, 110-13. Strachey carries hawks from Virginia:
HIS
, 125 (
NAR
, 682).

Documentary evidence of Whitehall debut of
Tempest
: Cunningham,
Extracts
, 210;
ARD
, 1, 6; Bullough,
Sources
, 8:237; Demaray,
Spectacles
, 4. Nineteenth-century charge that the record of the debut is a forgery is false: Bender, “Day,” 254; Law, “Produced,” 151-52. Cunningham,
Extracts
, 225-26; Law, “Produced,” 153-54; Marshall, “Imperium,” 376, argue that
Tempest
would have appeared before the public in advance of a royal performance, but no documentary evidence supports this view, which runs counter to theatrical tradition that places great value on debuts. Demaray,
Spectacles
, 76-79, 81-83, 88-91, argues convincingly that the stage directions in
Tempest
were written for the Masquing House rather than the Blackfriars Theater—evidence that Shakespeare expected a Masquing House debut.

History and layout of Masquing House: Thurley,
Whitehall
, 68-82; Law, “Produced,” 150, 152-53, 159, 162-63; Demaray,
Spectacles
, 8-9, 75-77, 95, 153. Likely composition of
Tempest
cast: Sturgess,
Jacobean
, 76;
ARD
, 8. “The imagination,” “had in her hair”: Law, “Produced,” 163. “Waves capering,” “a tempest so artificial”: Demaray,
Spectacles
, 92-93. Strachey visited Blackfriars Theater up to three times a week as a shareholder: Culliford,
Strachey
, 54-55.

Shakespeare’s life during the time when he wrote
Tempest
: Greenblatt,
Will
, 361, 366, 370, 373, 377. Closures of London theaters during plague epidemics: Chute,
Shakespeare
, 290; Holland in Shakespeare,
Tempest
(Pelican), viii-ix; Bradbrook,
Shakespeare
, 207, 250. Popularity of the London theater: Gurr,
Playgoing
, 64-69; Holland in Shakespeare,
Tempest
(Pelican), vii-viii, xiii. Document that places Shakespeare in Stratford in June 1609, stage directions in
Tempest
suggest Shakespeare was away from London and did not expect to attend rehearsals: Ackroyd,
Shakespeare
, 471-72, 477-78.

Similarity of names in Thomas’s
Historie of Italie
and
Tempest
: Nosworthy, “Narrative,” 282-83; Chambers,
Study
, 1:494; Orgel in Shakespeare,
Tempest
(Oxford), 42-43. England’s Mediterranean trade may have inspired
Tempest
setting: Cawley,
Unpathed
, 237. Shakespeare’s fondness for Mediterranean settings: Bullough,
Sources
, 8:245. Shakespeare’s overlay of New World story on Old World setting in
Tempest
: Hulme,
Encounters
, 107-9, and “Hurricanes,” 71-72.

Complexity is mark of Shakespeare’s work: Bullough,
Sources
, 8:247, 271-72. Shakespeare often drew material from books and contemporary events: Wood,
Search
, 354-78. Literacy of Shakespeare’s audience: Gurr,
Playgoing
, 64-65. Shakespeare’s use in
Tempest
of Virgil, Ovid, Montaigne: Holland in Shakespeare,
Tempest
(Pelican), xxix-xxx; Dymkowski, “Production,” 3. Montaigne’s Golden Age theme in
Tempest
: Bullough,
Sources
, 8:243, 255;
ARD
, 193, 196; Fitzmaurice, “Every,” 32-35, 41; Ebner, “Ideal,” 161, 165, 167, 173. Shakespeare’s use of Montaigne shows New World focus: Hart,
Columbus
, 137. Shakespeare characters frequently debate topical issues: Ackroyd,
Shakespeare
, 468-69, 472-74; Hamlin, “Inde,” 34-35; Willis, “Shakespeare’s,” 258, 265; McDonald, “Reading,” 15.

Shakespeare’s use of travel narratives in earlier plays: Bullough,
Sources
, 8:240, 242, 249, 255; Hamlin, “Inde,” 16, 38. Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo (“Gonzalus Ferdinandus Oviedus”): Willes,
Travayle
, 185. Shakespeare’s possible use of Oviedo’s name: Gayley,
Shakespeare
, 62; Cawley, “Use,” 715; Brockbank, “Conventions,” 193. Patagonian deity Setebos: Pigafetta in Willes,
Travayle
, 434 (verso), 435 (verso). Shakespeare’s use of Pigafetta’s narrative:
ARD
, 40-41, 176. Caliban’s references to Setebos: 1.2.374, 5.1.261,
ARD
, 176, 280.

Bermuda sea monster: Hartop in Hakluyt,
Navigations
, 3:493. Hartop biography: Mancall,
Hakluyt’s
, 232-33. Shakespeare’s possible use of Hartop’s account: Bristol,
Shakespeare
, 83; Mathew,
Image
, 53; Payne,
By Me
, 370. Other uses of Hakluyt’s
Navigations
in
Tempest
:
ARD
, 49. Bremo in
Mucedorus
as model for Caliban: Vaughan,
Caliban
, 69;
ARD
, 60; Hamlin, “Inde,” 28-29, 31-33, 37, 42; Demaray,
Spectacles
, 21. Thirty-five New World people displayed in England during Shakespeare’s lifetime: Vaughan, “Trinculo’s,” 50, 51, 58, 59. Dates of Namontack’s visits to England, Jonson’s allusion to Namontack in
Epicoene
: Vaughan,
Transatlantic
, 46-48. “Shrewd, subtle”:
SMI
, 1:216. Namontack’s positive report about England:
NAR
, 450-51.

Public enthusiasm for the Virginia enterprise: Marx,
Machine
, 34, 68; Rowse,
Southampton
, 238; Bullough,
Sources
, 8:240; Bradbrook,
Shakespeare
, 228-29. Shakespeare’s connection to men affiliated with the Virginia Company: Gayley,
Shakespeare
, 18, 20-22, 24, 27-30, 37; Ebner, “Ideal,” 166; Bullough,
Sources
, 8:239; Fitzmaurice,
Humanism
, 62. Earl of Southampton’s connections to Shakespeare and the Virginia Company: Rowse,
Southampton
, 234-62; Ebner, “Ideal,” 166; Bailey, “Founders,” 10. Earl’s name first on list in second charter:
NEW
, 207. King James’s skeptical interest in Jamestown:
FIR
, 1:119. James’s interest important for the success of any London play: Brown, “Darkness,” 48. Number of King’s Men royal performances: Demaray,
Spectacles
, 10, 74-75. King’s Men perform for king during plague epidemic: Ackroyd,
Shakespeare
, 465. Vetting of plays by court officials, “rehearsed, perfected”: Demaray,
Spectacles
, 7-8, 50, 75.

“Nothing that is good”: Crashaw,
Sermon
[61]. Earlier references to Virginia in London plays: Demaray,
Spectacles
, 5-7; Gayley,
Shakespeare
, 76-80.
Tempest
audience would have recognized New World elements: Demaray,
Spectacles
, 14-16, 57-58, 101-9, 142; Gillies, “Masque,” 676. Shakespeare may have had Princess Elizabeth’s engagement in mind when he wrote
Tempest
: Srigley,
Images
, 116-22; Demaray,
Spectacles
, 10-11, 13, 20, 145. “Tragical comedy”:
EST
, 26 (
NEW
, 253). Shakespeare’s experiment with tragicomedy late in his career: Demaray,
Spectacles
, 18-19, 46-47, 64-65.

Vaughan,
Caliban
, 118, and Chalmers,
Account
, 20, note that in 1797 modern scholars first proposed parallels between
The Tempest
and the Virginia chronicles. The question of whether the correlations are legitimate has been debated ever since, most actively in the early twentieth century. Cawley was an ardent proponent from 1926 to 1940, and contends in
Elizabethan
, 339, that “nobody in his right mind” can deny the parallels. Stoll in “Fallacies,” 487, takes the opposite point of view, arguing “this proof rests upon a few slight verbal parallels, most precariously.” While a few scholars still dispute the point (Bergeron,
Romances
, 178, for example, admits only “an occasional parallel”), the prevailing opinion today is that the play is indeed based on the narratives. To Ebner, “Ideal,” 166, it is “universally agreed”; to Bullough,
Sources
, 8:271, “the adventures of the Virginian voyagers suggested both his title and setting”; to Marx,
Machine
, 34-35, there are “unmistakable echoes”; to Vaughan and Vaughan in
ARD
, 1, 40-42, 54, 73, 100-101, 287, scholars are “almost unanimous” in agreeing that the parallels exist, though their importance remains open to question. The most recent treatments are Stritmatter and Kositsky, “Revisited” (dispute connection), and Vaughan, “Evidence” (favors connection).

Phrases from four Virginia narratives echo unmistakably in
Tempest
—Strachey’s “True Reportory” in
PIL
; Jourdain’s
DIS
; Virginia Company’s
TRU
and
EST
: Bullough,
Sources
, 8:238-39; Gayley,
Shakespeare
, 45-46, 49; Gillies, “Masque,” 681, 703; editor Haile in
NAR
, 381-82; Culliford,
Strachey
, 151-52. Shakespeare may also have used Rich’s
Newes
and John Smith’s
True Relation
(
SMI
, 1:23-117): editors Vaughan and Vaughan in
ARD
, 42-43. Shakespeare may also have used Crashaw’s
Sermon
: Gillies, “Masque,” 704. Beyond specific language parallels, Shakespeare drew the general theme of colonial expansion from the travel narratives: Marx,
Machine
, 68; Brown, “Darkness,” 48; Bullough,
Sources
, 8:240; Holland in Shakespeare,
Tempest
(Pelican), xxix; editors Vaughan and Vaughan in
ARD
, 47; Salingar, “World,” 209, 212.

Shakespeare’s most important source, Strachey’s “True Reportory,” was not published until 1625 in
PIL
(no manuscript is extant). The 1625 published work carries a date of July 15, 1610, and was evidently circulating in England at the time Shakespeare was writing
The Tempest
(a common practice of the day). Schmidgall, “
Primaleon
,” 433-35, proposes Welby as Shakespeare’s source for Strachey’s manuscript. Welby in Jourdain,
Plaine
, 8, says “more full.” Hotson,
I, William
, 217-26, proposes that Shakespeare’s associate Dudley Digges was the source. Sanders, “Colony,” 119, reports a tradition among Strachey’s descendants that his accounts were a
Tempest
source.

Capacity of the Blackfriars and similar theaters: Greenblatt,
Will
, 368; Holland in Shakespeare,
Tempest
(Pelican), xi. Onstage seating: Ackroyd,
Shakespeare
, 466. Estimate of weekly theater attendance, capacity of circular playhouses: Holland in Shakespeare,
Tempest
(Pelican), viii. Parallel history of open-air and enclosed theaters: Gurr,
Playgoing
, 14. Globe and Blackfriars ticket price comparison: Gurr, “
Tempest
’s,” 101. All classes mixed in both theaters: Chute,
Shakespeare
, 291. “A man shall not be”: Gurr,
Playgoing
, 45. History of the Blackfriars: Greenblatt,
Will
, 367; Ackroyd,
Shakespeare
, 465-66; Seltzer, “Last,” 127; Chute,
Shakespeare
, 290. Blackfriars religious exemptions persisted: Bradbrook,
Shakespeare
, 205; Gurr,
Playgoing
, 27. Changes in playwriting caused by rise of enclosed venues: Seltzer, “Last,” 127, 130, 152, 158; Dymkowski, “Production,” 5; Ackroyd,
Shakespeare
, 466-467; Holland in Shakespeare,
Tempest
(Pelican), xi.
Tempest
elements suggest it was written for the Blackfriars: Seltzer, “Last,” 128-29; Ackroyd,
Shakespeare
, 487; Dymkowski, “Production,” 4; Gurr, “
Tempest
’s,” 92-94; Demaray,
Spectacles
, 74.

A 1669 publication states
Tempest
previously played at the Blackfriars: Dymkowski, “Production,” 5; Demaray,
Spectacles
, 11-12, 144. Early
Tempest
performances in Blackfriars and Globe may be presumed: Demaray,
Spectacles
, 75; Nagler,
Stage
, 102. No document places Strachey at a performance of
Tempest
; I have presumed he would have attended based on his interests in theater and the New World. Blackfriars description, standard 2:00 p.m. start time: Fraser,
Shakespeare
, 207-10; R. Frye,
Life
, plates 58, 96; Gurr,
Playgoing
, 30-34, 39. Blackfriars description: Nagler,
Stage
, 93-97; Demaray,
Spectacles
, 4-5, 12, 96; Stephenson,
London
, 307. Blackfriars description, site of Henry VIII’s divorce trial: Bradbrook,
Shakespeare
, 206, 250-51.

“Into something”: 1.2.402,
ARD
, 178. “First, the
Tempest
”:
TRU
, 17 (
NAR
, 367, modernized). Parallel “tempest” passages: Cawley, “Use,” 690; Bristol,
Shakespeare
, 67. Word “Tempest” also in John Smith’s
True Relation
:
SMI
, 1:27, 83, 85. Imagery evoked by “tempest”: Cummings, “Alchemical,” 131-40. “A tempestuous noise”: stage direction before 1.1.1,
ARD
, 143. Stage directions are by Shakespeare or later editor:
ARD
, 127, 141-43. “Gape at widest”: 1.1.59,
ARD
, 148. “Glut of water”:
PIL
, 4:1735 (
NAR
, 385). Parallel “glut” passages: Cawley, “Use,” 692, 699; Gayley,
Shakespeare
, 55;
ARD
, 148 (Shakespeare also uses “glut” in 3.2,
Henry IV, Part 1
). “Mercy on us!”: 1.1.60,
ARD
, 148. “There was not,” muffled cries of passengers:
PIL
, 4:1735 (
NAR
, 385-86). “A plague upon”: 1.1.35-36,
ARD
, 146. Parallel muffled cries passages: Cawley, “Use,” 692-93; Gayley,
Shakespeare
, 54-55; Bullough,
Sources
, 8:240. “As leaky as”: 1.1.46-47,
ARD
, 147. Parallel leaky ship passages: Gayley,
Shakespeare
, 54.