Since its first performance, about 400 years ago, much has been written about THE TEMPEST as a dramatic rendition where history, alterity, or otherness, empire and pervasive imagery create a poetic and suggestive allegory of power. The very idea of the island itself, the isolation of the magus Prospero, the enchantment which surrounds the small territory, have never been linked (as far as I know) to the narrations of the Irish IMRAMA, or tales of voyages, and in particular, to the Christian allegorical legend of the NAVIGATIO SANCTI BRENDANI (composed in the 9th cent., referring to events that date back to the 6th cent.). Both texts have also more in common than meets the eye: setting, classical sources, Medieval reverence for supernatural power, direct association with the discovery of America. It was, according to some commentators, the great Elizabethan cabbalist and occultist, John Dee, who, in 1580, defended the English claim to the American colonies by mentioning St. Brendan as its first discoverer. I'd like to compare both texts, within their respective Medieval and Renaissance historical contexts, their sources and the ideas of insularity, isolation, migration, safety, quest, power and the pursuit of happiness that they generate.
Lord of the Island. Comparing Allegories of Secular and Spiritual Government: Prospero and St. Brendan (A Note)
SEVERI, Rita
2016-01-01
Abstract
Since its first performance, about 400 years ago, much has been written about THE TEMPEST as a dramatic rendition where history, alterity, or otherness, empire and pervasive imagery create a poetic and suggestive allegory of power. The very idea of the island itself, the isolation of the magus Prospero, the enchantment which surrounds the small territory, have never been linked (as far as I know) to the narrations of the Irish IMRAMA, or tales of voyages, and in particular, to the Christian allegorical legend of the NAVIGATIO SANCTI BRENDANI (composed in the 9th cent., referring to events that date back to the 6th cent.). Both texts have also more in common than meets the eye: setting, classical sources, Medieval reverence for supernatural power, direct association with the discovery of America. It was, according to some commentators, the great Elizabethan cabbalist and occultist, John Dee, who, in 1580, defended the English claim to the American colonies by mentioning St. Brendan as its first discoverer. I'd like to compare both texts, within their respective Medieval and Renaissance historical contexts, their sources and the ideas of insularity, isolation, migration, safety, quest, power and the pursuit of happiness that they generate.
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