Utopian Thought in William Shakespeare :: Biography Biographies Essays

Although Columbus had discovered the New World in 1492, it is raise to note how relatively uninterested Shakespeare was in the Americas or the western hold up that was sweeping Europe. While some Englanders focused their attention and dreams on the waste land in the west, Shakespeare dreamed and wrote of the old world, of battles long ago, of an ancient story-land already splendid in its braveries and devotions (Thorndike 110). He has left no evidence that ability suggest any interest in the voyagers or the dangers faced on the uncharted oceans of the west, but he knew of the colonization endeavors through leaders such as Southampton, his early patron (110). The disinterest changed, though, when he read of the ocean Adventure crash. In the year 1609, a year before the estimated write of The Tempest, nine ships set out from England to strengthen John Smiths Virginian colonies. En route, though, unrivalled of the ships was carried away from the other during a storm. The lost ship, the Sea-Adventure, had on board the routine commanders, and all of the passengers were presumed to be lost at sea. However, a year later, parole reached England that the crew and passengers of the Sea-Adventure had been blown to the coast of a Bermudan island, but they survived and rejoined the ships company the following year. Stunned English journalists reported many accounts of the shipwreck, and it is from these stories that some historians assign Shakespeares initial inspiration for the setting and foundation of The Tempest (Wain 202-203). After the shipwreck and news of the amazing survival, there were numerous