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 and 1674. Dryden, who succeeded Davenant as the poet laureate in April, 1668,
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Citation: Brady, Jennifer. "The Tempest". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 September 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7896, accessed 20 April 2024.]
