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Lecture on Shakespeare's The Tempest (Patreon)

Published:
2022-12-30 20:00:04
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

"Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air..."

This is our post-play analysis for Shakespeare’s farewell masterpiece, his bidding adieu to the world of theatre: The Tempest.

You may wish to listen after your first reading of the play, using the lecture as an opportunity to reread. Or you may wish to listen as you make your way through the play in real time.

We have timestamps indicating the topics, with acts and scenes referenced throughout the video, so feel free to digest our discussion in the way that best serves you.

Timestamps:

  • 0:00 Shakespeare’s farewell to theatre
  • 2:00 the end of Shakespeare’s life
  • 7:08 the story of ‘The Tempest’
  • 10:08 the beginning of the play
  • 11:10 Prospero as playwright
  • 13:30 Shakespeare’s characters
  • 16:00 prized desert island books
  • 17:00 ‘thou art inclined to sleep’
  • 19:20 Prospero, Ariel & Caliban
  • 24:00 ‘Full fathom five’
  • 28:00 Ferdinand & Miranda
  • 30:53 meeting the colonists
  • 35:00 Shakespeare & Montaigne
  • 40:00 echoes of a sleepy language
  • 43:38 Trinculo, Stephano & Caliban
  • 45:00 man cut off from nature
  • 49:40 the love of Ferdinand & Miranda
  • 54:00 the aural vs the visual
  • 57:32 ‘our revels now are ended’
  • 1:00:00 Prospero is released

Questions to Consider:

1) Why do you think Shakespeare stopped writing?

2) What are your desert island books?

3) Which character was your favourite? And why?

As always, please do share with us your favourite passages, lines, and ideas from The Tempest, and let us know what you made of the play.

Happy reading, everybody!

Files

Previews only

Lecture on Shakespeare's The Tempest

0:00 Shakespeare’s farewell to theatre 2:00 the end of Shakespeare’s life 7:08 the story of ‘The Tempest’ 10:08 the beginning of the play 11:10 Prospero as playwright 13:30 Shakespeare’s characters 16:00 prized desert island books 17:00 ‘thou art inclined to sleep’ 19:20 Prospero, Ariel & Caliban 24:00 ‘Full fathom five’ 28:00 Ferdinand & Miranda 30:53 meeting the colonists 35:00 Shakespeare & Montaigne 40:00 echoes of a sleepy language 43:38 Trinculo, Stephano & Caliban 45:00 man cut off from nature 49:40 the love of Ferdinand & Miranda 54:00 the aural vs the visual 57:32 ‘our revels now are ended’ 1:00:00 Prospero is released

Comments

Daphna Kedmi

I have read The Tempest many times before, and just wanted to say what an edifying lecture this was. I am of course now going to go back and read the play once more, and not for the last time. Isn't it wonderful how every reading of a Shakespeare play opens up a door that you never knew existed, and you leave the play knowing that when you return, there will still be new doors to open. Thank you, Ben!

Emma S.

I also meant to share this poem, as you touched on the topic in the lecture. It's written by Carol Ann Duffy, and I think it's just lovely. It's called Anne Hathaway. Item I gyve unto my wief my second best bed…’ (from Shakespeare’s will) The bed we loved in was a spinning world of forests, castles, torchlight, cliff-tops, seas where he would dive for pearls. My lover’s words were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme to his, now echo, assonance; his touch a verb dancing in the centre of a noun. Some nights I dreamed he’d written me, the bed a page beneath his writer’s hands. Romance and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste. In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on, dribbling their prose. My living laughing love – I hold him in the casket of my widow’s head as he held me upon that next best bed.