SOURCE: "The Tempest: 'Something Rich and Strange'," in Shakespeare: The Jacobean Plays, St. Martin's Press, 1994, pp. 175-97.

In the following essay, McGuire emphasizes the essentially theatrical nature of The Tempest, and suggests possible interpretations of the text—especially of Antonio's silence at the end—that can be represented on stage but might not be apprehended by readers. He also points out unique or distinctive qualities of the work which include the unconventional deception of the audience, concern with the New World, observance of Neoclassical unities of time and place, and a heterogeneous mixture of sources.

No Shakespearean play uses music more extensively than The Tempest, widely regarded for more than one hundred and fifty years now as the final play Shakespeare wrote singlehandedly even though, as Stephen Orgel notes, there is no way to determine 'chronological priority' between it and The Winter's Tale (1987, p. 63). The second of nine...