Tuesday, 15 July 2014

Corfu - Prospero's Island? Bermuda's Claim



"Another, not less speculative, line of mad reasoning has suggested that Corfu is the site which (perhaps by mere hearsay) Shakespeare chose for his last play The Tempest. You may groan as you read this. Is it not enough to have one's brain criss-crossed and fuddled with the attributes of Greece's great ace-personality? Must the British shove their alchemical Prospero into the island?"

Lawrence Durrell, The Greek Islands, 1978.

Groan on! Bermuda has the better claim to having a connection to The Tempest.

See Shakespeare's Tempest and Bermuda

Strachey's 'A true reportory of the wreck' in Bermuda, British Library

"Purchas his Pilgrimes (1625) is a vast four-volume collection of travel narratives compiled by the cleric, Samuel Purchas. It includes ‘A true reportory of the wracke’ by William Strachey (1572–1621). This is the dramatic survivor’s account of a ‘most dreadfull Tempest’ and shipwreck on the Bermudas, and a probable source for Shakespeare’s play. Although it was not printed until 1625, a manuscript version of Strachey’s account was first circulated in England in 1610, when Shakespeare is thought to have seen it before writing The Tempest".





But see also this viewpoint - Dr. Michael Delahoyde

And this discussion on  the "still-vex'd Bermoothes"

Ariel

Safely in harbour
Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid...



John William Waterhouse, Miranda, The Tempest

The Tempest in Greek (tranlated by Polylas)

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