(2004) The Tempest 'Commentary and Notes' Cambridge University Press: New Edition) It is argued that this event inspired Shakespeare to create a similar tale of 'loss and rediscovery, of the benevolence of nature, and of mutinies against an island's leader'. However, in 1610 it was discovered that this ship had survived and eventually reached Virginia, after finding that Bermuda was plentiful and that they were able to survive there, but mutiny broke out and some survivors began to steal resources and it was after this that the group left for Virginia. In 1609 a fleet of nine ships left England carrying five hundred colonists with the goal of settling in Virginia but encountered trouble, and one ship - the Sea Venture - was driven onto the rocks of Bermuda the 'Devil's Islands' and London mourned this loss for a year. The title of the play The Tempest can be interpreted in two ways: firstly, in a literal sense, as a play about a group of people who are shipwrecked by a storm, and secondly, symbolically, as a representation of the emotional and psychological turmoil that almost all the characters suffer. The play is not one of Shakespeare's most famous, but it is still extremely respected and revered within literature and the theatre. It can be suggested that this play is a symbolic farewell of Shakespeare's to the theatre, and the themes of the play do support this idea.
The play was first performed in 1611 at the Court by the King's Men with very little scenery and theatrical effects, which meant that the audience had to use their imagination to a large extent. Its genre is that of a romantic comedy, although it does have many deeper themes and criticisms of Elizabethan society. The Tempest was written around 1610-1611, and is believed to be the last play William Shakespeare wrote before retiring from the theatre.
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