The Tempest was almost certainly Shakespeare’s last solo-authored play. We do not know whether

he anticipated that this would be the case. It was also the first play to be printed in the First

Folio. Again, we do not know whether it was given pride of place because the editors of the Folio

regarded it as a showpiece – the summation of the master’s art – or for the more mundane reason

that they had a clean copy in the clear hand of the scribe Ralph Crane, which would have given

the compositors a relatively easy start as they set to work on the mammoth task of typesetting

nearly a million words of Shakespeare. Whether it found its position by chance or design, The

Tempest’s place at the end of Shakespeare’s career and the beginning of his collected works has

profoundly shaped responses to the play ever since the early nineteenth century. It has come to be

regarded as the touchstone of Shakespearean interpretation.

The Tempest is a romantic drama about a duke who is ousted from his throne and banished, with his daughter, to an enchanted island. He releases some spellbound spirits who help him to undo his usurper.

William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564—23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including some collaborations, consist of around 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, of which the authorship of some is uncertain. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.