John Dryden, The Tempest

Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Dates

First circulation or publication Nov 1667

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play
Tragicomedy

Resources

First Performance and Publication

The Tempest, or the Enchanted Island premiered at the Duke of York’s Theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields on November 7, 1667, before a packed house. Charles II and “a great many great ones”, in Samuel Pepys’s words, attended the first performance of the tragicomedy. The Tempest was co-authored by Sir William Davenant (1606-1668), the innovative manager of the Duke’s Company and England’s venerable poet laureate, and John Dryden, the much-younger, intensely ambitious playwright who was already emerging as the most important dramatist of his generation. The Dryden-Davenant Tempest was a huge success in its first run and the play was frequently revived between 1667 …

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2739 words

Citation: Brady, Jennifer. "The Tempest". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 September 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7896, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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