The Tempest: Romances & Late Plays
The plays written after the Great Tragedies[1]are referred to as either:
- the Late Plays: a chronological description of Shakespeare’s last seven plays written between 1608 and 1614:Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, Cardenio, The Tempest, Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen.
- Romances: a stylistic description of Pericles, The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline and The Tempestplus, usually, The Two Noble Kinsmen and, sometimes, Cardenio.
The Two Noble Kinsmen is a romance but many critics consider it primarily the work of John Fletcher, the co-author.
We don’t really know enough about the lost play, Cardenio, to categorize it.
Henry VIII is a historical pageant[2], not a romance.[3]
The romance plays werenot considered a group until the late 18th Century.
- in the First Folio Cymbeline was identified as a tragedy and The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest as comedies.
The romances were not as highly valued in the past as they are today.
- in the 18th Century respected critics like Johnson and Garrick used terms like ‘absurdity’, ‘confusion’, ‘imbecility’ and ‘a monstrous composition’ to refer to them!
The romance plays were Shakespeare’s 2nd series of experiments combining tragedy and comedy.
What is the difference between ‘problem plays’[4] and ‘romances’?
- the problem plays are Shakespeare’s (somewhat failed) experiments in satire.
- they are dominated by cynicism rather than[5] any attempt to please the audience.
- they offer no clear-cut[6] resolution and leave the audience painfully aware of[7] life’s difficulties.
By contrast, romances create a tragic context, and then resolve the problem.
In tragedy: suffering leads to understanding before death,
In romance:suffering leads to purification and redemption.
The typical romance sequence is ‘love, loss, restoration’.
So, both the Problem Plays and the Romances can be categorized as tragicomedies
- but their ambiences are radically different.
Romances
Shakespeare’s Romance Plays tend to be
- action-packedtales[8]
- in a fantasy world
- with tragic elements and
- a happy ending.
Soliloquy is rare in the romances (as in the comedies)
Characters make discoveries through actionrather than[9] reflection.
- they are less taken up with[10] questioning than they are with searching[11].
There is normally an element of deus ex machina –
- the appearance of Diana in Pericles,
- the statue coming to life in The Winter’s Tale,
- Posthumus’ vision of Jupiter in Cymbeline.
Magic, in other words, is a common feature[12].
The combination of
- magical occurrences[13],
- suspension of the laws of nature and
- happy endings
means that romance has much in common with fairy tales.
Certainly all the Romances have a dream quality.
The romances all speak to the need for patience in adversityand
the importance of providence[14] in human affairs
- humankind must learn to act with mercy in emulation of providence.
Two other common themes are:
chastity: Marina in the brothel in Pericles; the doubting of Hermione’s honour in The Winter’s Tale: Prospero’s obsession with his daughter’s virginity: the emphasis on Emilia’s chastity in The Two Noble Kinsmen.
art vs. nature: Hermione’s ‘statue’ in The Winter’s Tale.
The romances are consciously backward-looking, explicitly recognizing that they come from a mediaeval tradition
- The Two Noble Kinsmen opens with a prologue thanking Chaucer for the play’s story (it is The Knight’s Tale from The Canterbury Tales)
- The Chorus in Periclesis called ‘John Gower’, the author (and contemporary of Chaucer’s) from whom the story was taken.
- The Winter’s Tale even identifies the play as a tale8 in the title.
Storms at Sea
In the Romances sea voyages and shipwrecks are a type of symbolic baptism. Character’s old selves ‘die’ and emerge “sea-chang’d”, the better for their immersion, their symbolic drowning.
- Shakespeare had already experimented with this idea in Hamlet.
In tragedies such as Othello and King Learstorms cut characters off from places and people that are familiar, thus[15] making them re-examine their behaviour[16] and their relationships.
In The Tempest the situation is similar.
- Sea journeys,
- shipwrecks,
- forced separations and
- improbable reunions
are also themes of Twelfth Night and The Comedy of Errors.
Father-daughter relationships also come to the fore[17].
One or both of the motifs oflost daughters and storms at sea also appeared previously in
- The Merchant of Venice,
- As You Like It and
- even in King Lear).
At the same time romance plays are also characterized by music and dance.
They are: tragicomic, fantastical, melodramatic and sentimental.
That does not stop them from addressing themes such as
► incest► adultery
► rape► jealousy
► murder and ► evil for evil’s sake!
Because of the tragic elements, the romances end with
rejoicing in the face of grave losses overcome[18],
rather than[19] the revelry[20] and festivities that end comedies.
A common theme of the Romances is that the innocence and good faith of youth
is more powerful than the ambition and malevolence of age.
Some romances also include the death of a central figure (in contrast to comedies) such as
- the step-mother queen in Cymbeline or
- the hero Arcite in The Two Noble Kinsmen.
The Aristocrat Masque
The romances use complex staging, which is probably because the King’s Men started to use their indoor theatre at Blackfriars in 1608.
- the audience at Blackfriars was more aristocratic, so Shakespeare tailored[21] his plays for more ‘refined’ tastes.
Notably, the romances (and Henry VIII) were significantly influenced by court masques, an increasingly popular form in the early 17th Century.
Masques had already appeared in Romeo and Juliet, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It and Timon of Athens.
- The Winter’s Tale has a masque-like “Dance of Twelve Satyrs” at IV.iv.343.
- Henry VIII offers a betrothal masque (I.iv), as does The Tempest (IV.i).
- The Two Noble Kinsmen has a masque at III.v.
The Tempest’s spectacular presentation plainly reflects the influence of the courtly masque.
Striking tableaux figure[22] in almost[23] every act:
- the shipwreck in I.i.
- the supernatural banquet in III.iii.
- the formal betrothal masque in IV.i, and
- the sudden appearance of Ferdinand and Miranda in V.i.
Moreover, music is a strong component of the play, which incorporates many songs and several dance numbers.
In fact, The Tempest is more like a dance (or a masque) than a play.
- The poetics of dance are organized round the idea of harmony rather than[24] conflict and, tellingly[25], the characters move along prearranged paths[26] – led on[27] by music.
Shakespeare’s inclusion of the masque is undoubtedly a concession to fashion.
- James I’s Danish wife loved them.
Masques, danced by courtiers in honour of the prince, were home-grown examples of the political power of wonder[28], full of stage wizardry such as flying effects or sudden[29] magical transformations.
The Double Plot
Pericles, Cymbeline and The Winter’s Tale are characterized by a peculiar[30]kind[31] of double plot[32] which is found nowhere else in Shakespeare, and hardly anywhere[33] else in Renaissance drama.
-Two actions are intertwined, the protagonists of which are a king/duke and his daughter (or, in the case of Cymbeline, his daughter, adopted sons and son-in-law).
-In each the fortunes of the king take a sudden[34] happy turn near the end, as a result of some act of the children which brings about, though without their foreknowledge, their recognition and restoration to their father.
-Lover-action is not the main[35] theme (in contrast to the romantic comedies). Rather[36] the focus is on the family, daughters restored to fathers, and wives to husbands (in Pericles and The Winter’s Tale).
-The Romances are characterized by a 16-year jump from infancy to young adulthood. Pericles and The Winter’s Tale are called “plays of gaps” for this reason.
An Atypical Romance
The Tempest is an atypical romance in that
- Prospero does have[37] quite a lot of soliloquy
- there is only one location/there is not a lot of travelling about
- there is no deus ex machina
- there is no 16-year gap in the middle (this is overcome by Prospero’s long expositional monologue)
- there is no explicit reference back to an old source for the tale.
In The Tempest there is no divine providencebecause its function has been usurped by Prospero, who has completely taken over[38] the ordering of events on the island.
There are similarities with Edgar in King Lear who, seeing that the gods are not doing their job, takes charge himself of ensuring that there are providential outcomes[39].
- Of course, Prospero’s magic means that he is immensely better-equipped to do this than Gloucester’s son.
Jan Kott saw The Tempest as the most bitter of Shakespeare’s plays.
Shakespeare & Witchcraft
Shakespeare showed an interest in the theatrical aspects of witchcraft[40]throughout[41] his career[42].
- In 1Henry VI (c. 1589) Joan Pucelle (i.e. Joan of Arc) is resented as a witch.
- 2Henry VI (c. 1590) contains the witch Margery Jourdain.
- In Richard III (c. 1593) the paranoid king accuses his enemies of witchcraft
- In The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597) Falstaff dresses up as a witch
- Macbeth (1605) famously features[43] the Three Weird Sisters, who can conjure[44]storms like Prospero.
So, Sycorax is in good company.
There was a craze[45] for including witchcraft in English Renaissance theatre:
- Lyly’s Mother Bombie (c. 1590)
- Jonson’s Masque of Queens (1609)
and after Shakespeare’s carerr:
- Middleton’s The Witch (1615)
- Rowley, Dekker and Ford’s The Witch of Edmonton (1621)
- Heyward’s The Late Lancashire Witches (1634) and Wise Woman of Hogsden (1638)
Notice that both Shakespeare’s known sources on witchcraft
- Reginald Scott’s Discovery of Witchcraft (1584) and
- Samuel Harsnett’s Declaration of Egrarious Popish Impostures (1603)
were sceptical about the existence of witches and the London elite were highly sceptical about such rural beliefs.
So Shakespeare was interested in witchcraft and magic but primarily as
a metaphor forstagecraft[46].
[1]Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth
[2]historical pageant – espectáculo histórico
[3]both genres use spectacle but Henry VIII is far from being action-packed like a romance.
[4]All’s Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida
[5]rather than – instead of, as opposed to
[6]clear-cut – evident, definitive
[7] to be aware of – be conscious of
[8] tale – story, fable
[9]rather than – as opposed to, instead of
[10] to be taken up with – be focused on, be occupied in
[11]searching – trying to find sth.
[12]feature – aspect, characteristic
[13] occurrence – (false friend) incident
[14] providence – the benevolent direction of the cosmic order (under the guidance of God or Nature)
[15] thus – in thisway
[16] behaviour – conduct
[17] to come to the fore (come-came-come) – be prioritized, become preeminent
[18] overcome – (in ths case) that have been conquered
[19]rather than – as opposed to, instead of
[20]revelry – celebrations
[21] to tailor – adapt
[22] to figure – appearprominently
[23]almost – nearly, practically
[24]rather than – as opposed to, instead of
[25]tellingly – significantly
[26] path – route, trajectory
[27] to lead on (lead-led-led) – guide
[28] wonder – astonishment
[29]sudden – unexpected, abrupt
[30] peculiar – specific
[31] kind – type, sort
[32] plot – (in this case) storyline, story
[33]hardly anywhere – barely anywhere, practically nowhere
[34]sudden – unexpected, abrupt
[35] main – principal, primary
[36]rather – (in this case) by contrast
[37] does have – (emphatic) has
[38] to takeover (take-took-taken) – take control of
[39]outcomes – results
[40]witchcraft – blackmagic
[41] throughout – during all of
[42] career – professional trajectory
[43] to feature – includeprominently
[44] to conjure – magically generate
[45] craze – fashion
[46]stagecraft – theatre