April 8, The Tempest

Shakespeare's last play for which he was the sole playwright was The Tempest, produced in 1611. More than in any other play, Shakespeare the person, perhaps only in shadowy outline, can be glimpsed -- in the character of Prospero. In three late plays, The Tempest, The Winter's Tale, and Pericles, as well as the earlier King Lear, Shakespeare creates an extraordinarily strong father-daughter bond. These scenarios, retrospectively, seem to foretell the author's decision to return to Stratford for his remaining years, not to the apparently estranged wife Anne, nor to unfortunately married younger daughter Judith, but to his beloved daughter Susanna and her family
It seems likely that Shakespeare expected to live past 1616. However joyous or melancholy those last five years, he gave to Prospero a fitting valedictory for himself.

Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint. Now, ’tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got
And pardoned the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell,
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands.
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardoned be,
Let your indulgence set me free.

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