Shakespeare: an overview -- Introduction -- The tempest -- The sources of The tempest -- Commentaries from The lectures of 1811-1812, Lecture IX / Samuel Taylor Coleridge -- The tragic pattern: The tempest / E.M.W. Tillyard -- The tempest and the ancient comic tradition / Bernard Knox -- The Miranda trap: sexism and racism in Shakespeare's Tempest / Lorie Jerrell Leininger -- The use of salutary anxiety in The tempest / Stephen Greenblatt -- The tempest on stage and screen / Sylvan Barnet

Prospero, wise Duke of Milan, has been deposed by Antonio, his wicked brother, and exiled with his daughter Miranda to a mysterious island. But Prospero possesses supernatural powers. This edition includes Shakespeare's sources for the play, dramatic criticism from past and present, and a comprehensive stage and screen history of notable actors, directors, and productions of the play