Table Three: The Island

Key to columns:

1) Kathman's “parallels.”

2) Shakespeare's previous usage.

3) Eden 's 1555 Decades of the Newe Worlde, with some reference to its update of 1577

4) “Other” is a mixture of sources, some of them from Virginian narratives. The parallels we demonstrate here and in other tables are by no means exhaustive.

 

1 ) Kathman

2) Shakespeare

3) Eden

4) Other

Jourdain tells how they "had time and leasure to save some good part of our goods and provision, which the water had not spoyled" (7-8);

Gonzalo mentions how "our garments, being (as they were) drench'd in the sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness and glosses, being rather new dy'd than stain'd with salt water" (2.1.62-65).

Not a match, as in Jourdain they are saving materials that had remained dry, whereas in The Tempest the drenched and spoiled clothing was magically made new again. Also not a match with Strachey, who said almost everything was thrown overboard.

(Similar language):

Which would be worn now in their newest gloss (Macbeth 1.7)

In Strachey the shipwrecked party is split up into two groups; in The Tempest they are split up into two main groups, plus Ferdinand.

Twelfth Night: Sebastian and Viola split by shipwreck.

Comedy of Errors: Family split by shipwreck.

By this occasion therefore, beinge dryven to seeke further, they had intelligence that the weste syde of the goulfe of Uraba, was more frutefull and better to inhabite. Wherefore, they sent the one halfe of theyr men thither with the brigantine, and lefte the other nere to the sea syde on the easte part (56-56v).

Strachey writes about how it had been thought that the Bermudas were "given over to Devils and wicked Spirits" (14); Jourdain calls it "the Ile of Divels" (title page) and "a most prodigious and enchanted place" (8); A True Declaration says that "these Islands of the Bermudos, have ever beene accounted as an enchaunted pile of rockes, and a desert inhabitation for Divels; but all the Fairies of the rocks were but flocks of birds, and all the Divels that haunted the woods, were but heards of swine" (10-11).

Note that Ariel at 1.2.214-15 quotes Ferdinand as saying, "Hell is empty, / And all the devils are here," and that "devils" are mentioned a dozen times altogether in the play.

The word devil or devils occurs 281 times in the canon.

Although not applied directly to Bermuda, the word "devils" occurs too many times to count, including this example, which is almost certainly Shakespeare's proximate source for Ferdinand's words:

A man would thinke them to bee devylles incarnate newly broke owte of hell (33v)

Also contains the following passage on Bermuda :

At that vyage I say led above the Iland Bermuda otherwyse called Garza, beynge the furthesete of all the Ilandes that are founde at thys daye in the worlde...[ off Bermuda] I sawe a stryfe and combatte betwene these flying fyshes and the fyshes named gylte heades, and the soules cauled seamewes and cormorauntes...(203v). (qv seamewe below).

From at least 1554 onward, the idea of the Bermudas as an "Isle of devils" was a commonplace: The label “Ya de demonios," the Islands of Devils, occurs as early as 1554 on Sebastian Cabot's Mappa Mundi.

Strachey writes of the "great strokes of thunder, lightning and raine in the extremity of violence" (15). Trinculo says of Caliban, "I took him to be kill'd with a thunder-stroke" (2.2.108); and earlier Antonio says, "They dropp'd, as by a thunder-stroke" (2.1.204). (These are Shakespeare's only two uses of the word "thunder-stroke"; he usually--seven times--used "thunderbolt.")

"Strokes of thunder"(Strachey) is not the same as "thunder-stroke" (Shakespeare). In Strachey, the adjective "strokes" modifies all three nouns in the line: strokes of thunder, strokes of lightning, and strokes of rain. While the constructions may well be historically related, they are distinct.

At the same time, Shakespeare's association of the words "stroke" and "thunder" in these following passages strongly suggests that the phrase "thunderstroke," although not attested before The Tempest, was known to him earlier:

Thou wast a soldier Even to Cato's wish, not fierce and terrible Only in strokes; but, with thy grim looks and
The thunder-like percussion of thy sounds
Coriolanus (1.4.74)

To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?
In the most terrible and nimble stroke Of quick cross lightning ?
Lear (4.7.40)

Arv.
Fear no more the frown o' the great; Thou art past the tyrant's stroke; Care no more to clothe and eat; To thee the reed is as the oak: The sceptre, learning, physic, must All follow this, and come to dust.

Gui.
Fear no more the lightning flash…

Arv.
Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;
Cymbeline (4.2).

The phrase "thunder, lightning, and rain" from Strachey is a commonplace.

Here it is in Macbeth:

First Witch. When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain ? (1.1)

And that in so doinge, they shulde not be hurte with thunder, lyghtnynge or tempestes (224V).

Proximate sources for Strachey:

The sea about the Bermudas a hellish sea for thunder, lightning, and storms …
( Raleigh , 1595, published 1596)

[ Bermuda ] is subject to foule weather, as thunder-ing, lightning, and raine (May, 1593, published 1600)

and possibly

And we passed this meridian [of Bermuda ] in great storms and tempests, and horrible thunders and lightnings, which give clear tokens that one is passing the longitude of the island. (Abram Kendall, 1595, published 1646)

Strachey also writes of the "many scattering showers of Raine (which would passe swiftly over, and yet fall with such force and darknesse for the time as if it would never bee cleere again)" (16). In the course of Trinculo's monologue at 2.2.18-41, a storm with "black cloud[s]" (20) passes over quickly.

K. Edward. I spy a black, suspicious, threatening cloud...

A little gale will soon disperse that cloud And blow it to the source from whence it came: The very beams will dry those vapours up, For every cloud engenders not a storm III Henry VI (5.3.4, 10-14).

Anon permit the basest clouds to ride With ugly rack on his celestial face , And from the forlorn world his visage hide, Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace: Even so my sun one early morn did shine…But out, alack! he was but one hour mine; The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now. (Sonnet 33)

Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day, And make me travel forth without my cloak, To let base clouds o'ertake me in my way, Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke? 'Tis not enough that through the c loud thou break, To dry the rain on my storm -beaten face…(Sonnet 34)

The darkeness which the clowdes cawse in the heaven (228 V).

Strachey mentions palm trees of which "so broad are the leaves, as an Italian Umbrello, a man may well defend his whole body under one of them, from the greatest storm raine that falls" (19). This suggests Trinculo hiding under Caliban's "gaberdine" (2.2.38) to escape the above rainstorm.

They defende them selves ageynste rayne and heate with certeyne great leaves of trees in the steade of clokes ( 108).

Sumtymes also when it rayneth, they cast these [leaves] over theyr heades to defende them from the water… (198).

Note that Eden is here Strachey's probable source.

A True Declaration calls the Bermudas "a place hardly accessable" (10) and "an uninhabited desart" (11), but Jourdain says, "yet did we finde there the ayre so temperate and the Country so aboundantly fruitful of all fit necessaries" (9). In the play, Adrian says, "Though this island seem to be desert . . . Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible . . . Yet . . . It must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate temperance" (2.1.35-43).

Orl.
But whate'er you are
That in this desert inaccessible,
Under the shade of melancholy boughs
As You Like It (2.7).

Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps , Or any other ground inhabitable... Richard II (I.1.67)

We offer unto yowe the Equinoctiall line hitherto unknowen and burnte by the furious heate of the soonne and uninhabitable after the opinion of the owlde writers a few excepted: but nowe founde to bee most replenisshed with people, faire, frutefulle and most fortunate, with a thousand Ilandes crowned with golde and bewtifull perles…come therefore and embrase this new worlde ...(D4v).

Unhabitable and desert by reason of the fervent heate of the soonne (Arbor 177)

Aboute three score miles distante from the chiefe citie of Saincte Dominicke, there are certeyne hyghe montaynes vppon the toppes wherof is a lake or standynge poole inaccessible (Arbor, 169)

For these men, affirme it to bee habitable, and marvelously replenished with people: and they , that it is uninhabitable by reasone of the soone beames dependinge perpendicularly or directly over the same, yet were there many of the oulde wryters, whiche attempted to prove it habitable (40v).

And therefore not without cause the auncient autours were of opinion that the burnte lyne of Torrida zona where passeth the lyne of the equinoctiall, shulde be unhabitable by reason the soonne hath greater dominion in that place (183v).

The soyle is very fruitful , there are all delicate thinges to be found that may encrease the pleasures of this lyfe. (Arbor 15)

Sum of them [the islands] were verye frutefull and full of herbes and trees. Other sum, verye drye, barren, and rouch with high rockye mountaynes of stone (7).

Strachey says that "There are no Rivers nor running Springs of fresh water to bee found upon any of [the islands]"; their "Wels and Pits" were "either halfe full, or absolutely exhausted and dry," though eventually the men found "some low bottoms" which "we found to continue as fishing Ponds, or standing Pooles . . . full of fresh water" (20).

Caliban reminds Prospero how "I lov'd thee / And show'd thee all the qualities o' th' Isle, / The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile" (1.2.336-38); later he offers to show Trinculo "the best springs" (2.2.160), and still later he threatens, "I'll not show him where the quick freshes are" (3.2.66-67).

Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain… Venus and Adonis (line 801)

Ay, kennel, puddle, sink ; whose filth and dirt Troubles the silver spring where England drinks…II Henry VI (IV.1.76-77)

This appears to be the source for Caliban's speech:

As he drewe neere towarde owre men, be semmed frendly to admonysshe theym to take none of the water of that ryver, affirming it to bee unholsome for men: And shewed theym that not farre from thense, there was a ryver of good water (60v).

Also:

When they had sayled abowte xl leaques, they chaunced into a sea of suche fresshe water, that they fylled theyr barrelles and hogges heades therewith (41v-42).

Whyther the Admirall resorted to store his shyppes with fresshe water and fuel. Heare amonge certeyne wooddes of date trees, and pyneable trees of excedying height he fownd two native sprynges of fresshe water (15v).

But enteringe into the goulfe, at the lengthe he fownde the water therof very fresshe and good to drynke ...the further he proceaded, especially towarde the west, he affirmeth the water, to bee the fresher (30).

Their drinke was none other then water, such as they fownde, sumtyme sweete, and sumtyme muddy saveringe of the marysshes (35 v).

Numerous references to springs occur in Eden (as above and in 84 etc); to pools (standing pools, 79v. etc), and salt water (certeyne springs whose water is more sharpe and salt then the water of the sea (39-39v, etc).

Strachey tells of the "high and sweet smelling Woods" (19), yet also mentions "Fennes, Marishes, Ditches, muddy Pooles" and "places where much filth is daily cast forth" (21); A True Declaration similarly tells of the "temperat aire," but also the "fennes" and the "salt water, the owze of which sendeth forth an unwholsome & contagious vapour" (14).

In the play Adrian says, "The air breathes upon us here most sweetly," to which Sebastian retorts, "As if it had lungs, and rotten ones," and Antonio adds, "Or, as 'twere perfumed by a fen" (2.1.47-9). Fens are mentioned twice more in The Tempest -- "from unwholesome fen" (1.2.322); "bogs, fens, flats" (2.2.2) -- but only twice more in the rest of the canon.

The climate's delicate, the air most sweet,
Fertile the isle
Winter's Tale (3.1.)

The air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses. Macbeth (I.6. 1-3)

You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
As reek o' the rotten fens
Coriolanus (3.3.152)

Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen Makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen…Coriolanus IV. 1.33

You fen-suck'd fogs , drawn by the powerful sun… King Lear, II.4.162.

They aspied divers Ilandes replenysshed with sundrye kyndes of trees, from the whiche came fragrant savours of spyces and sweete gummes (5).

frome the trees and herbes whereof, when the mornynge dewes beganne to ryse, there proceaded manye sweete savoures (29).

 being one day allured by the pleasuntnes of the place and sweete savours which breathed from the land to the shippes, they went alande (30v).

out of the which, the fennes  or marishes of the riuer Nilus haue their spring and originall (Arbor 42)

In the maryffhes alfo and fennes  of the Regions of Dariena, are founde greate plentie of Phesauntes and peacockes... Also innumerable popingayes of sundry kindes are found chattering in the groues of those fenny places (Arbor 132)

they go owte of the way towarde the mountaynes, and eschewe the regions neare vnto those perelous fennes  or maryshes. (Arbor 156)

Their habitation therefore in Dariena, is pernicious and unholseome …The place is also contagious by the nature of the soyle, by reason it is coompassed aboute with muddy and stynkynge marsshes, theinfection wherof is not a lyttle encreased by the heate. (122v-123)

Strachey tells how the ship they built on Bermuda was made of "Cedar" and "Oke" (40); Prospero, in his speech at 5.33-57, mentions "oak" and "cedar" within four lines of each other.

Cedar: 14 other occurrences in the canon

Oak: 31 other occurrences in the canon

whiche growe there of them selues, as do with vs beeches, holly, and okes (Arbor 168)

I haue feene great wooddes of chessnutte trees, beeches alfo aud okes . (Arbor 358)

Ceders also, and Lemondes (Arbor 238)

I suppose them to bee of that kynde whereof I eate in the citie of Alexandria in Egypt in the month of April: The trees whereof, the Jewes that dwel there...affirme to be the Ceders of Libane, which bear owlde fruites and newe all the yeare as dothe the orange tree (56). [and several other mentions of Ceders ].

It is interesting to note in Strachey:

Peter Martin saith that at Alexandria in Egypt there is a kind of cedar which the Jews dwelling there affirm to be the cedars of Libanus , which bear old fruit and new all the year, being a kind of apple which taste like prunes (24).

A commonplace of many narratives, including Virginia :

Okes, there are as faire, straight, tall, and as good timber as any can be, and also great store, and in some places very great (Hariot 32).

Cedar, a sweet wood good for seelings, Chests, Boxes, Bedsteedes, Lutes, Virginals, and many things els, as I have also said before... (Hariot 34).

Oaks , ashes, beech, walnut, witch-hazle, sassafras, and cedars ( Archer , from 1602)

In addition , Ariosto mentions both cedars and oaks several times.  

Strachey mentions the "Berries, whereof our men seething, straining, and letting stand some three or four daies, made a kind of pleasant drinke" (18); Caliban says that Prospero "wouldst give me / Water with berries in't" (1.2.333-34).

We cannot live on grass, on berries, water, As beasts and birds and fishes. ( Timon , 4.3)

Eden mentions berries several times, but not berries in water.

From Harriot, 1588:

A kinde of berries almost like unto capres…being boiled eight or nine hours according to their kind are very good meate and holesome… (28).

There is a kind of berrie or acorne, of which there are five sorts that grow on severall kinds of trees… they first water them until they be soft & then being sod they make a good victuall... (29).

An other sort [of berry] is called Sapúmmener which being boiled or parched doth eate and taste like unto chestnuts... (29).

The fifth sort [of berry] is called Mangúmmenauk, and is the acorne of their kind of oake, the which beeing dried after the maner of the first sortes, and afterward watered they boile them... (29).

In addition Ariosto speaks of the hermit who lives on berries and water.

Strachey mentions, among other animals, "Toade" (17), "Beetell" (18), and "Battes" (22); Caliban curses Prospero with "toads, beetles, bats" (1.2.340).

Toads, beetles, and bats are all to be found in Macbeth .

In addition, one can find in the canon

Toad: 25 occurrences apart from Tempest

Beetle: 10 occurences apart from Tempest

Bat: 6 occurrences apart from Tempest

Toads 87v and many other occurrences)

Bats (206v) and many other occurrences).

Beetle— but not an insect! (Arbor 231)

Strachey also mentions "Sparrowes" and "Owles" (22), both of which are mentioned in passing in the play (4.1.100, 5.1.90). In fact, the relevant passage of Strachey mentions owls and bats consecutively: "Owles, and Battes in great store"; and Ariel's song in Act 5 mentions them in consecutive lines: "There I couch when owls do cry. / On the bat's back I do fly" (5.1.90-91).

Sparrow occurs 14 other times in the canon.

Owl occurs 32 other times in the canon.

Owles (190), and many more examples .

Sparrowes (92), and many more examples.

Strachey has a lengthy passage about a bird called the "Sea-Meawe" which the men caught "standing on the Rockes" (22); Caliban tells Stephano that "I'll get thee / Young scamels from the rock" (2.2.171-72). Scamels" is usually taken to be a misprint for "Sea-mells," a variant of "Sea-mews."

Kathman is incorrect. There is no "lengthy passage about a bird called the 'Sea-Meawe" in Strachey. The birds in question are not seamews, but rather "A kind of web footed fowl... of the bigness of an English green plover or sea mew... (Wright 30, our emphasis). The exact species is, however, mentioned by name twice by Oviedus in Eden, who saw the birds off the coast of Bermuda:

and the foules cauled seamewes and cormorauntes, whych surelye seemd unto me a thynge of as great pleasure as could be devysed....Agayne on the other syde, the seamewes and cormoraunates...( Eden 203v).

Also :

There are likewise found certeyne foules or byrdes which the Indians call Alcatraz . … the greatest parte of theyr fethers are of russet coloure and in sume partes yelowe…the number of these…is such, that the Chrystian menne are accustomed to send to certeyne Ilaneds and rockes …to take these Alcatrazzi whyle they are yet younge… and kyll as many of them with staves as they wyll … (191-191v).

Birds called “ mews ” can also be found in Archer 1602.

Strachey has a paragraph about the "Tortoyse," which he says "is such a kind of meat, as a man can neither absolutely call Fish nor Flesh, keeping most what in the water, and feeding upon Sea-grasse like a Heifer" (24). Prospero calls Caliban "thou tortoise" (1.2.316), while Trinculo wonders whether he is "a man or a fish" (2.2.25), and Stephano repeatedly calls him "moon-calf" (e.g., 2.2.106, 2.2.135-6).

And in his needy shop a tortoise hung, An alligator stuff'd, and other skins Of ill-shaped fishes.

( Romeo and Juliet , 5.1)

The following description of an encounter with a Manatee from Eden seems a much more probable source for Shakespeare's conception of the "mooncalf" Caliban. It has all the pertinent elements identified by Kathman and much more:

Into his neates chanced a younge fyshe of the kynde of those huge monsters of the sea whiche the Thinhabitours caule Manati …This fyshe is foure footed, and in shape lyke unto a tortoyse…and her heade utterly lyke the heade of an oxe. She lyeth both in the water and on the lande: she is slowe of movynge: of condition meeke, gentell, assocyable and loving to mankind and of a marvelous sence or memorie as are the elephant and the delphyn… A monster of the sea fed with man's hand (130v-131).

Also consider Stephano's response to Caliban and Trinculo under the gaberdine, compared to the above passage:

Ste. This is some monster of the isle with four legs, who hath got, as I take it, an ague. Where the devil should he learn our language? I will give him some relief, if it be but for that: if I can recover him and keep him tame and get to Naples with him, he's a present for any emperor that ever trod on neat's-leather….. Four legs and two voices; a most delicate monster!

Ironically, the passage Kathman cites from Strachey to make the alleged connection to Shakespeare appears to be inspired directly by Eden, for after the passage on tortoises that Kathman posts from Strachey, there is a comparison to manatees:

The tortoises are "like the manatee at Santo Domingo, which made the Spanish friars (at their first arrival) make some scruple to eat them on a Friday, because in color and taste the flesh is like to morsels of veal" (Wright 34).]

Immediately afterwards follows a long passage, acknowledged by Strachey to be copied from Peter Martyr, on the laying of eggs by tortoises. Strachey identifies the passage by saying "Peter Martire writeth thus in his Decades of the Ocean...." Wright adds in a footnote that the "quotation is from Eden or Willes, with some variation in phraseology" ( 34).

Brewers' Dictionary :

Moon-calf is an inanimate, shapeless mass ( Pliny ; Natural History, x. 64). This abortion was supposed to be produced by the influence of the moon. The primary meaning of calf is not the young of a cow, but the issue arising from throwing out, as a push, a protuberance; hence the calves of the legs.

Table Four:

Kathman's general remarks in the left hand column with regard to the conspiracies, with our comments in the right hand column.

 

Kathman

Kositsky and Stritmatter

In both Strachey's account and The Tempest, much of the action once the parties safely reach shore involves conspiracies.

A True Declaration says that "the broken remainder of those supplies made a greater shipwrack in the continent of Virginia, by the tempest of dissention: every man overvaluing his own worth, would be a Commander: every man underprising an others value, denied to be commanded" (14-15), making the connection between the tempest at sea and the tempest of conspiracies which must have inspired Shakespeare. Elsewhere (8) the same tract speaks of "this tragicall Comaedie."

Many elements of the conspiracies in The Tempest are directly suggested by Strachey.

Shakespeare hardly needed Strachey for this theme. His earlier plays are full of conspiracies. So are narratives in earlier sources such as Eden, Hakluyt, etc. Strachey's account is wanting as a source in that the conspiracies in True Reportory involve only the English, while the conspiracies in Eden, which are many and varied, involve the Spanish and the natural inhabitants of a “brave New World,” as in The Tempest.

If True Declaration's reference to a “tragicall comaedie” is in any way connected to The Tempest, we would submit and have demonstrated in another context that A True Declaration drew on The Tempest rather than inspiring it.

No element of the conspiracies in The Tempest can be shown to be directly drawn from Strachey. This is mere assertion on Dr. Kathman's part.

Table Five: Conspiracies, Other incidents, and miscellaneous verbal parallels.

The columns are:

1) Kathman's “parallels.”

2) Shakespeare's previous work on the subject.

3) Eden 's 1555 Decades of the Newe Worlde, with some reference to its update of 1577.

4) “Other” is a mixture of possible sources.

 

Kathman

Shakespeare

Eden

Other

However, Strachey also tells how the conspiracies never got very far because someone always gave them away: "Humphrey Reede (who presently discovered it [a plot] to the Governour" (30); "some of the association . . . brake from the plot it selfe, and (before the time was ripe for the execution thereof) discovered the whole order" (33). Similarly, Ariel foils both of the plots in The Tempest : the first by singing a warning in Gonzalo's ear, the other by flying off and telling Prospero ("This will I tell my master" (3.2.115)).

Similar elements can be found in Henry V and Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, etc.. Hamlet discovers a plot against his own life before it is enacted.

To this woman her owne brother often tymes resorted, who was also dryven owte of his countrey with king Cemacchus, with whome he was very familiar....amonve other communication which he had with his syster whom he loved entirely, he uttered these woordes: My deare and welbeloved syster, gyve eare to my sayinges, and keepe moste secreatelye that which I will declare unto yowe... The insolencie and crueltie of these menne whiche havce dryven us owte of owre possessions, is soo intollerable, that the princes of the lande are determyned noo longer to systeyne theyre oppressions... Shee opened all the matter unto [her Spanish lover] and conceled none of those thinges whiche her undiscrete broother had declared to her (70v).

The conspirators in Strachey question the governor's authority and threaten his life: "one Stephen Hopkins" said "that it was no breach of honesty . . . to decline from the obedience of the Governour" (30-31); and we are told that "the life of our Governour, along with many others were threatened" (32). Similarly in The Tempest, the two sets of conspirators question the authority of, and threaten the lives of, both Alonso and Prospero.

Similar elements can be found in many earlier Shakespeare plays, including Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Richard III. We note that the conspirators in The Tempest plan to kill while their victims are asleep, as in Macbeth .

When thinhabitauntes of the Ilande of Hispaniola had oftentymes attempted to shake of the yoke of servytude, and coulde never brynge the same to passe, neyther by open warre nore yet to by privie conspiracies, they were determyned in the nyght season to have kylled owre men in their sleepe with the smoke of this woode (123).

Then the Spanyardes whiche were accompanied with hym, beganne fyrste to murmure secretely among them selves: and shortly after with wordes of reproche spake evyll of Colonus theyr governoure, and consulted with them selves, eyther to rydde hym out of the way, or elles to cast hym into the sea… (2)

There are several other such conspiracies in Eden.

Strachey tells how "so willing were the major part of the common sort (especially when they found such a plenty of victuals) to settle a foundation of ever inhabiting there," and notes that "some dangerous and secret discontents nourished amongst us, had like to have bin the parents of bloudy issues and mischiefs" (28).

This parallels the plot of Stephano and Trinculo ("the common sort" among the shipwrecked party) to stay and rule the island: Stephano says, "we will inherit here" (2.2.175), and Caliban later urges them to "Do that good mischief which may make this island / Thine own for ever" (4.1.217-18), to which Stephano responds, "I do begin to have bloody thoughts" (4.1.220-21).

A plaguing mischief light on Charles and thee! And may ye both be suddenly surprised by bloody hands, in sleeping on your beds! I Henry VI (5.3)

Many characters have “bloody thoughts ” in Shakespeare, not least Gloucester in Richard III, Leontes, Hamlet, and Othello

For similar plot elements see also Macbeth, Richard II, Hamlet, etc.

He comaunded them to strangle Vaschus, and fyve other which were chief capitaynes under hym: Alleaginge that they and their confetherates conspired to rebel in the South sea...[and alleged that Vaschus had addressed his men]: My frendes and felowes of my long paynes and travayles: How longe shall we be subject to the commaundement of other, sythe we have bydden the brunt and overcumme thenterprise for the whiche this new governour was sent with so great a multitude : Who can any longer abyde his pryde and insolence... amonge so many pleasaunt and fruteful provinces of this large lande, let us chose one in the whiche we may with libertie spende that portion of our lyves which yet remayneth (165).

Strachey tells how some of the rebels "by a mutuall consent forsooke their labour . . . and like Out-lawes betooke them to the wild Woods" because of "meere rage, and greedinesse after some little Pearle"....

In the play, after Stephano and Trinculo have convinced Caliban to abandon his labors for Prospero, Ariel leads them through "Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss, and thorns" into "th' filthy-mantled pool" (4.1.180-82) (Strachey on page 21 mentions "muddy Pooles"...

I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round, Through bog , through bush, through brake, through brier: A Midsummer Night's Dream ( 3 .1.53)

Or Daphne roaming through a thorny wood, Scratching her legs... The Taming of the Shrew (Induction, 244-45)

Many beinge wounded, they passed over the ryver, which thynge when the enemies sawe, they fledde: whome our men persuinge, slewe some in the chase: but not many, by reason of theyr swyftenes of foote. For they being accustomed to the wooddes and named without any lette, passed throwgh the busshes and shrubbes as it had byn wylde bores…..( 33v-34).

At suche tyme as they are cauled together of theyr kynges to woorke…many of them stele away to the mountaynes and wooddes, where they lye lurkynge… (50).

he made answere that the Spanyardes whiche he tooke with him in these regions, were gyven rather to slepe, pley, and ydlenesse, then to laboure: And were more studious of sedition and newes, then desyrous of peace and quietnesse: Also that beynge gyven to lycenciousnes, they rebelled & forsooke hym, fyndyng matter of false accusations agaynst hym, bycause he went aboute to represse theyr owtragiousenes (20).

He wandered throughe many deserte wooddes, craggye mountaynes, & muddy maryshes full of...quagmyres... (99v).

...after which they demanded that the Governor give them each "two Sutes of Apparell" (35).

....after which they try to steal the "glistering apparel" (4.1.193) that Prospero has set out for them.

47 previous examples of “apparel,” some in this exact context:

Abor . Every true man's apparel fits your thief.

Pom . If it be too little for your thief, your true man thinks it big enough; if it be too big for your thief , your thief thinks it little enough: so, every true man's apparel fits your thief . Measure For Measure (IV.2. 17-19)

They receave for theyr laboure, one a jerken, or a dublet, an other a sherte, and another a coke or a cappe. For they nowe take pleasure in these thynges… (49v).

Owre men tooke summe of theym: whereof clothynge the moste parte in faire apparel, they sente them ageyne to their owne company; But leavyng the residue to the shyppes to shewe them the poure (sic) and magnyfycence of the Christians that they myght declare the same to their coompanions, therby to wynne their favour, they appareled them lykewyse and sent them after their fellowes (117).

“Glistering apparel” worn to celebrate wedding:

The noble men onely when they celebrate solemne marriages or set forth any triumphes, weare cheynes of gold byset with precious stones, and use fayre apparel of sylke embrothered with golde intermixt with pearles and precious stones (112v).

Strachey describes how one Henry Paine, "his watch night comming about, and being called by the Captaine of the same, to be upon the guard," violently refused to do so, going on to say "that the Governour had no authoritie of that qualitie" (34-35). Later Strachey describes how some of the men, "watching the advantage of the Centinels sleeping" (38), freed one of their fellows who was bound to a tree after being accused of murder.

This is suggestive of how Antonio, after telling Alonso that "We two, my lord, / Will guard your person while you take your rest, / And watch your safety" (2.1.196-98), goes on to plot with Sebastian against the sleeping king's life; it also suggests Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo's plotting to murder Prospero while he sleeps.

Similar events occur in Macbeth, Richard III, etc .

When thinhabitauntes of the Ilande of Hispaniola had oftentymes attempted to shake of the yoke of servytude, and coulde never brynge the same to passe, neyther by open warre nore yet to by privie conspiracies, they were determyned in the nyght season to have kylled owre men in their sleepe with the smoke of this woodde (123).

In Strachey, a plot against the Governor is discovered "before the time was ripe for the execution thereof" after which "every man [was] thenceforth commanded to weare his weapon . . . and every man advised to stand upon his guard" (33).

In the play, the plot of Sebastian and Antonio against the King is foiled before they can execute it, after which Gonzalo says, "'Tis best we stand upon our guard, / Or that we quit this place. Let's draw our weapons" (2.1.321-22).

Lord Angelo is precise; Stands at a guard with envy… Measure for Measure (1,3)

My hate to Marcius: where I find him, were it At home, upon my brother's guard, even there, Against the hospitable canon, would I Wash my fierce hand in's heart. Coriolanus (1.10)

The phrase, "stand upon our guard" is a cliché: en garde - ("on guard") was a French term first used in the 1400's to refer to a ready posture of both attack and defense with any sword or weapon. Its appearance in both texts hardly seems to qualify as significant evidence for influence.

The resolution of the council was that, let things be how they would, it behoved the Pantagruelists to stand upon their guard . Rabelais (4.37)

He advised me to stand upon as good guard as I could. (Lane to Raleigh 1586)

Percy: There the Captaine landed all his men being well fitted with Muskets and other convenient armes; marched a mile into the Woods; being commanded to stand upon their guard…(Tyler 7)

Strachey describes how one of the conspirators "was brought forth in manacles" (31); Prospero threatens Ferdinand, "I'll manacle thy neck and feet together" (1.2.462).

Could fetch your brother from the manacles.
Measure for Measure (2.4. 104)

Like one that means his proper harm, in manacles. Coriolanus (1.9. 65)

With manacles through our streets. Coriolanus (5.3.128)

It is a manacle of love ; Cymbeline (1.1.142)

Knock off his manacles; bring your prisoner… Cymbeline (5.4.1 62)

And manacle the bear-ward in their chains II Henry VI (5.1. 156)

sometymes they manacle suche as are stuborne... (Arber 315)

Much of Strachey's narrative describes the building of a new ship to reach Virginia , a project which involved much cutting and carrying of wood. In the play, both Caliban (in 2.2) and Ferdinand (in 3.1) are made by Prospero to carry wood:

The men in Strachey "were . . . hardly drawn to it [chopping and carrying wood], as the Tortoise to the inchantment, as the Proverbe is" (28); Caliban is similarly reluctant ("I needs must curse" (2.2.4)), but has no choice because of Prospero's magic.

On the other hand, Strachey describes how "the Governour dispensed with no travaile of his body, nor forbare . . . to fell, carry, and sawe Cedar . . . (for what was so meane, whereto he would not himselfe set his hand) . . . his owne presence and hand being set to every meane labour, and imployed so readily to every office, made our people at length more diligent" (28).

Ferdinand is similarly enthusiastic:
There be some sports are painful, and their labor Delight in them sets off; some kinds of baseness
Are nobly undergone; and most poor matters Point to rich ends. This my mean task Would be as heavy to me, as odious, but
The mistress which I serve, quickens what's dead, And makes my labors pleasures. (3.1.1-7)

And Tom bears logs into the hall… Love's Labour's Lost (V.2. 879)

Dispark'd my parks, and felled my forest woods, Richard II ( 3.1.24)

They espied an other excedinge hygh mountayne, whyther the Admirall resorted to store his shyppes with fresshe water and fuel. Heare amonge certeyne wooddes of date trees and pyneable trees of excedyng height he fownd two native springes of fresshe water. In the meane tyme while the woode was cuttynge and the barrelles fyllyng…(15v).

They fownde the woodes, entered into them, and felled the high and precious trees, whiche were to that day, untouched (23).

This was a commonplace in narratives of the time as the voyagers needed wood for fires and to build boats. Both May (1600) and Archer (1602) speak of it, for example, May to build a pinnace to escape Bermuda, as Strachey did more than 15 years later.

Strachey tells how in Virginia , the Indians killed one of the Englishmen whose canoe ran aground near their village. This murder troubled Gates, "who since his first landing in the Countrey (how justly soever provoked) would not by any meanes be wrought to a violent proceeding against them, for all the practices of villany, with which they daily endangered our men, thinking it possible, by a more tractable course, to winne them to a better condition: but now being startled by this, he well perceived, how little a faire and noble intreatie workes upon a barbarous disposition, and therefore in some measure purposed to be avenged" (62-63).

This is paralleled in the play by Prospero's initial kindness toward Caliban, turning to anger and revenge after Caliban's attempted rape of Miranda.

I pitied thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other . . . But thy vild race (Though though didst learn) had that in't which good natures
Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou
Deservedly confin'd into this rock, Who hadst deserved more than a prison.
(1.2.353-62)

As unhappye Solysius descended with as many of his coompanie as coulde enter into the boate of the byggest shippe, soodenly a great multytude of thinhabitantes bruste foorth uppon them, and slew them every man with clubbes, even in the syght of theyr fellowes. They carried away the boate, and in a moment broke it all to fytters. Not one man escaped (143v).

When Roldanus had spoken these words & suche other, the Lieuetenaunte wolde have layde handes on hym: but he escaped his fingers, and fledde...(27v). For Roldanus…refused to obey ( Columbus ') brother… and not onely behaved hym selfe proudely ageynste the Admiralles brother and Lieuetenaunt sumetyme his maister, but also sente letters to his reproche to the king of Spayne (32v). [ Columbus then attempts to take revenge on him].

Regarding Caliban's attempted rape of Miranda:

Vaschus writethe that he never sawe a more monstrous and deformed creature : And that nature hath onely given hym humane shape, and otherwyse to bee worse then a brute beaste, with maners accordynge to the linyamentes of his bodye. He abused with moste abhominable lechery the doughters of foure kynges… whom hee had had taken them by violence (97-97v).

Strachey says that "It pleased God to give us opportunitie, to performe all the other Offices, and Rites of our Christian Profession in this Iland: as Marriage" (37-38), and goes on to describe a wedding between Thomas Powell (a cook) and Elizabeth Persons (a maid servant).

This may have suggested the love story between Miranda and Ferdinand, culminating in marriage; cf. especially Prospero's warning not to "break her virgin-knot before / All sanctimonious ceremonies may / With full and holy rite be minist'red" (4.1.15-17).

Shakespeare's plays involve numerous examples of marriage, many of them royal/dynastic. It is hardly likely that such a marriage in The Tempest was suggested by the wedding of two servants.

A much more plausible source of inspiration is the discussion of the dynastic union of Ferdinand, King of Aragon and later Naples , to Isabella:

Castile was at that time governed by that great Queene Helisabeth with her husbande: For the roialme of Castile was her dowerye (80).

The royal families of Naples ( Aragons ) and Milan (Sforzas) intermarried twice around the turn of the sixteenth century. This fact, together with many mentions of both families in Eden and Ariosto, was more probably Shakespeare's inspiration.

The debate among Gonzalo, Antonio and Sebastian in act 2, scene 1 about the nature of paradise parallels the public debate in England in the wake of the attempted colonization of Virginia beginning in 1607, three years after Oxford's death.

It is well known that Shakespeare got the wording for Gonzalo's speeches from Florio's English translation of Montaigne's De Cannibales, published in 1603, but the references cited in note 3, particularly Cawley and Gayley, show in detail how the debate in the play parallels the public debate in England c. 1610, and how it was explicitly recognized that "Plaiers" were involved in the discussion.

Surely if they had receaved owre religion, I wold thinke their life moste happye of all men, if they might therwith enioye their aunciente libertie. A fewe things contente them, having no delite in such superfluities, for the which in other places men take infinite paynes and commit manie unlawfull actes, and yet are never satisfied, wheras many have to muche, and none inowgh. But amonge these simple sowles, a fewe clothes serve the naked: weights and measures are not needefull to such as can not skull of crafte and deceyte and have not the use of pestiferous money, the seede of innumerable myschefes. So that if we shall not be ashamed to confesse the truthe, they seeme to lyve in that golden worlde of the which owlde writers speake so much: wherin men lyved simplye and innocentlye without inforcement of lawes, without quarelling Judges and libelles, content onlely to satisifie nature, without further vexation for knowledge of things to come. Yet these naked people also are tormented with ambition for the desire they have to enlarge their dominions: by reason whereof they kepe warre & destroy one an other: from the which plage I suppose the golden world was not free (8).

For it is certeyne, that amonge them, the lande is as common as the sonne and water: And that Myne and Thyne (the seedes of all myscheefe) have no place with them. They are contente with soo lyttle, that in soo large a countrey, they have rather superfluitie then scarsenes. So that (as wee have sayde before) they seeme to lyve in the goulden worlde, without toyle, lyvinge in open gardens, not intrenched with dykes, dyvyded with hedges, or defended with waules. They deale trewly one with another, without lawes, without bookes, and without judges (17v).

Montaigne was influenced by Eden, both by earlier sources such as Ovid.

Despite what Kathman says, the attempted colonization of Virginia began long before 1607, in the mid 1580's. Eastward Ho! discusses Virginia in a similar though ironic vein as early as 1605:

Sea. Why, man, all their dripping-pans and their chamber pots are pure gold ; and all their chains with which they chain up their streets are massy gold ; all the prisoners they take are fetter'd in gold ; and, for rubies and diamonds, they go forth on holidays and gather 'em by the seashore, to hang on their children's coats, and stick in their caps, as commonly as our children wear saffron gilt brooches and groats with holes in 'em.

Scape. And is it a pleasant country withal?
Sea. As ever the sun shin'd on; temperate, and full of all sorts of excellent viands: wild boar is as common there as our tamest bacon is here; venison, as mutton. And then you shall live freely there , without sergeants, or courtiers, or lawyers, or intelligencers …Then, for your means to advancement there, it is simple, and not preposterously mix'd. You may be an alderman there, and never be scavenger; you may be a nobleman, and never be a slave. You may come to preferment enough, and never be a pander; to riches and fortune enough, and have never the more villainy nor the less wit. Eastward Ho! (3.2)

Strachey has a digression (55) in which he mentions Aeneas, followed closely (56) by a digression in which he mentions Dido; the discussion among Antonio, Sebastian, etc. in act 2, scene 1 has a puzzling digression on Dido and Aeneas (77-86).

There are 7 other occurrences of Dido in the canon, several of them coupled with Aeneas, who is referenced almost 30 other times.

It is interesting to note that Strachey's “digression” about Aeneas is an almost verbatim copy of Eden , 124v: As Vergil writeth Aeneas did, arriving in the region of Italy called Latium , upon the banks of the River Tiber . (Wright, 78)

[the Island ] hath many kinges, as when Eneas arrived in Italy, he founde Latium divided into many kyngedomes and provinces (2v).

The lyke wee reade how the Tirians and Sidonians arryved with their navye in Libya by the fabulous conduction of Dido. These Matininans in like maner beying banysshed from their owne countrey, planted their fyrst habytacion in that part of the Iland of Hisplaniola whiche they caule Cahonao, upon the bank of the ryver named Bahoboni: As is redde in the begynnynge of the Romaynes that Eneas of Troye aryved in the region of Italy called Latium, uppon the bankes of the ryver of Tyber. (124v).

Strachey at one point cites "Gonzalus (Ferdinandus) Oviedus" the Spaniard who had written the first description of the Bermudas ninety years earlier (14); this suggests the names of Gonzalo and Ferdinand.

Strachey is in fact referencing Eden, who includes the first English translation of Gonzalus Ferdinandus Oviedus' influential Hystorie of the Weste Indies (folios 174-214).

Martyr's Decades in Eden are dedicated to Ferdinand II of Aragon and III of Naples, a much more likely source of Ferdinand of Naples' name for Shakespeare.

Strachey repeatedly uses the word "amazement":
"taken up with amazement" (6), "with much fright and amazement" (8), "strucken amazement" (12);
as does Shakespeare "No more amazement" (1.2.14),
"I flam'd amazement" (1.2.198),
"All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement / Inhabits here" (5.104-05).

" amazement" occurs 10 other times in the canon. Moreover, Shakespeare uses words which have the root amaze forty-four times.

And had further delited his mynd with the harmony of there musycall instrumentes...they dysmyssed hym halfe amased with to muche admiration (122 v).

greatly amazed (219)

greatly amazed (223v)

amased by reason of this greate miracle (74V)

Harington's original translation of Ariosto (1591):

Uses “ amazement ” three times.

Uses “ amazed ” nineteen times.

Strachey mentions "the sharpe windes blowing Northerly" (16); Prospero mentions "the sharp wind of the north" (1.2.254).

Uses the figure “sharp” to mean cold, sometimes in conjunction with “wind,” without reproducing the exact phrase in question:

The sun doth scorn you, and the wind doth hiss you: But when Adonis liv'd, sun and sharp air Lurk'd like two thieves… Venus and Adonis (l.1084-6)

Blow, blow, thou winter wind …Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, That dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot: Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remember'd not . As You Like It ( 2.7).

and the sharp blastes of the north wynde when it riseth by...greate showers of raine... (Arber 312.)

A commonplace, then and now:

Ne suffred she the Middayes scorching powre, Ne the sharp northerne winde thereon to showre (Spenser, Faerie Queene, 1599)

Strachey uses the phrase "bear up" twice: "bearing somewhat up" (10), "our Governour commanded the Helme-man to beare up" (13); and so does Shakespeare: "to bear up / Against what should ensue" (1.2.157-58), "therefore bear up and board 'em" (3.2.2-3). Shakespeare's only other use of "bear up" is in The Winter's Tale: "bear up with this exercise" (3.2.241).

" bear up with this exercise" The Winter's Tale (3.2.241).

A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus . Othello (I.3.10.)

A commonplace of Voyager literature:

Whilest he was thus perswading, he caused the lead to be cast, and having craftily brought the shippe in three fadome and a halfe water, he suddenly began to sweare, and teare God in pieces, dissembling great danger, crying to him at the helme, beare up hard, beare up hard: so we went off, and were disappointed of our salt, by his meanes (Archer 1602).

Beyond these two inlets we might perceive the main to bear up south-west (White 1587).

Strachey describes the newly rebuilt ship "when her Masts, Sayles, and all her Trimme should be about her" (39); in the play the boatswain, in exactly the same context (Ariel has just magically rebuilt the ship), tells how "we, in all our trim, freshly beheld / Our royal, good, and gallant ship" (5.236-37).

The ship is in her trim; the merry wind blows fair from land
Comedy of Errors (4.1.90)

From you have I been absent in the spring
When proud-pied April, dress'd in all his trim...
(Sonnet 98).

A commonplace:

The six-and-twentieth, we trimmed and fitted up our shallop. (Archer, 1602)

By this time our ships had unladen the goods and victuals of the planters, and began to take in wood, and fresh water, and to new calke and trimme them for England . (The fourth Voyage made to Virginia with three ships, in the yere 1587)

Strachey mentions "Fluxes and Agues" (58); Stephano in act 2, scene 2 repeatedly mentions Caliban's "ague" (66, 93, 136).

11 previous occurrences, including

Would blow me to an ague ... Merchant of Venice (I.1.25)

As dim and meagre as an ague 's fit... King John ( III .4. 89)

Presuming on an ague 's privilege... Richard II (II.1.119)

And that of noo lesse goodnes then that which the phisitians minister to such as bee diseased with the ague. (Arbor 98)

he fhall haue the coulde ague. (Arbor 298)

A common place.

6 occurrences of the word ague in Harington's translation of Ariosto (1591)

Strachey, in the description of the storm, mentions a "glut of water" (7); Gonzalo, in the same context, says "He'll be hang'd yet, / Though every drop of water swear against it, / And gape at wid'st to glut him" (1.1.58-60), the only appearance of the word "glut" in Shakespeare.

Being with his presence glutted, gorg'd, and full.
I Henry IV (3.2.85).

in the whiche the earth opened itselfe and unglutted all those valiant and warlike men... (Arbor)

Strachey also mentions "hoodwinked men" (12), and Shakespeare's use of the word "hoodwink" at 4.1.206 ("hoodwink this mischance") is one of three in the canon.

The time you may so hoodwink ... Macbeth (IV.3.83)

We will bind and hoodwink him... All's Well that Ends Well ( III .6.10)

And, hoodwink'd as thou art, will lead thee on... All's Well that Ends Well (IV.1.47)

We'll have no Cupid hood-wink'd with a scarf... Romeo and Juliet (I.4.5)

As war were hoodwink'd ... Cymbeline (V.2.20)

Strachey mentions "Boske running along the ground" (48); in the masque in The Tempest, Ceres mentions "my bosky acres" (4.1.81), Shakespeare's only use of this word.

How bloodily the sun begins to peer Above yon busky hill!
I Henry IV (5.1.1-2).

OED:

Bosky [(f. bosk not recorded between 14th and 19th
c., but preserved in dial.) + y: or alteration of busky, after It. boscoso] Consisting of or covered with bushes or underwood; full of thickets, bushy.

Busky a. [f. busk, var. of bush, sb. 1+y cf. bushy, bosky.]
Bosky, bushy.