British Exploration and THE TEMPEST
William Shakespeare created his enchanted island during a time of exploration and discovery for Great Britain.
Originally produced during Lantern Theater Company’s 2017/18 season and streaming May 4–30, 2021, as part of our new Plays from the Lantern Archives series, The Tempest tells the tale of an island full of magic and supernatural creatures. Though the island is located somewhere in the Mediterranean, the story was born in part from the British longing for discovery and hunger for exploration of the globe at large — an urge that would one day build a massive, and often brutal, colonial empire.
In 1519, 45 years before Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Ferdinand Magellan and his crew set sail for an expedition that would culminate in the first circumnavigation of the globe in a single voyage. Over three years, members of this party explored the New World and the islands of the South Pacific. There were mutinies, attacks, and many deaths — including Magellan himself. When the expedition set off, there were five ships and 270 men. When it concluded in 1522, just one ship and 18 of the original crew returned. It was a dangerous, deadly, and ultimately sensational achievement — for Spain. Britain wouldn’t see such exploratory success for another 55 years.
As with many aspects of the Renaissance, Britain lagged behind its continental counterparts when it came to exploring — and colonizing — the world. Until 1577, the powerful ships of Spain and Portugal dominated the seas, exploring, conquering, and settling throughout North and South America. It wasn’t until 1577 that Britain truly asserted its own exploratory power, when Francis Drake set out to circumnavigate the globe nearly 60 years after Magellan’s crew. Like the earlier expedition, this one proved dangerous; of the five ships that departed, only one came safely home. Unlike Magellan, though, Drake survived the voyage. After three years of voyaging and sacking Spanish ships and towns, Drake sailed home and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth on the deck of his ship.
This success touched off a new thirst for discovery on the part of the British. The 1580s saw two attempts at colonizing the New World — neither of which brought the glory or success Britain hoped for. Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland for Britain in 1583, but only sporadic settlements were possible for another three decades. In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh established a British colony at Roanoke Island, in modern-day North Carolina. This colony met a worse end: within five years the colony failed and the colonists disappeared. Their fate is uncertain to this day.
In the face of these failures, the British were skeptical of their ability to find the success that Spain and Portugal enjoyed. They were fascinated by tales of this fantastical and strange new world, including the “giants” Magellan’s crew encountered in Patagonia, and the strange animals like “camels without humps” (probably llamas) or “black geese” (better known as penguins). But Britain was not a major player in this narrative. Not, at least, until 1589.
When Richard Hakluyt published The Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation in 1589, he revolutionized Britain’s sense of itself and its capabilities for exploration. Hakluyt was a staunch supporter of British exploration, and compiled interviews and stories taken directly from British sailors and adventurers. Sometimes called “the prose epic of the modern English nation,” the book convinced the British people that they could and should be as adventurous as other nations and explore the world, rather than leaving the discoveries to other European nations. Hakluyt and his book significantly increased the British thirst for exploration — and for expansion, regardless of the cost to native populations. He was a major proponent of colonizing Virginia, setting the stage for British settlement in North America and for the voyage that would inspire The Tempest.
The decade in which Shakespeare wrote The Tempest was eventful on both the world stage and on Shakespeare’s own. In 1600, Hakluyt published a greatly expanded version of Principal Navigations. The following year, Shakespeare wrote his own seminal work: Hamlet. In 1607, Hakluyt’s colonial ambitions were realized when the British colony at Jamestown was established in modern-day Virginia — an eventual success for the British, but a disaster for the indigenous Powhatan tribal nation. In 1610, Shakespeare wrote The Tempest, his final play as a solo playwright, inspired in part by the Sea Venture, a British ship that wrecked in Bermuda on its way to the brave new world of Virginia. The British thirst for exploration and expansion was now thriving a world away and at home onstage, as an audience who devoured tales of the discoveries of the high seas found themselves enthralled by a tale of an enchanted island with fantastical inhabitants.
The Tempest is part of Plays from the Lantern Archives, a new series celebrating some of the finest productions from recent Lantern seasons, brought vividly back to life on screen. This performance was professionally filmed with a live theater audience in April 2018, and is streaming May 4–30, 2021. Visit our website for tickets and information.
