A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare'sThe Tempest

by Hobson Woodward

  Musical instruments used during Shakespeare’s plays: Lindley, Music, 235- 39. “Strange and solemn,” “several strange,” “gentle actions”: stage directions before 3.3.18, ARD, 235; harpy scene: 3.3.53-82, 238-40. Levitation machines and trick tables, “a bucket into”: Demaray, Spectacles, 66, 76-91, 97-98, 155, 160-61. Tempest goddesses section: 4.1.60-138, ARD, 246-53; Jonson on “sitting in a throne”: 68; “Juno descends”: stage direction before 4.1.73, 248; “sunburned sicklemen”: 4.1.134, 252; “reapers properly,” “to a strange hollow”: stage directions after 4.1.138, 253; “glistering apparel”: stage direction after 4.1.193, 257. Spangled costumes likely used: Demaray, Spectacles, 78. “Two suits of apparel”: PIL, 4:1745 (NAR, 410). Parallel two suits passages: Gayley, Shakespeare, 61-62; Kathman, “Dating.” “The murmuring”: PIL, 4:1746 (NAR, 411). “A noise of hunters”: stage direction before 4.1.255, ARD, 261; “you sty me”: 1.2.343, 174. Parallel hogs/“sty” passages: Bristol, Shakespeare, 88. Tempest chess scene: 5.1.172-77, ARD, 274-75.

  Parallel Gates/Prospero passages: Marx, Machine, 34-36; Bullough, Sources, 8:242, 272, 273; Cheyfitz, Poetics, 67; Fulton, “Pamphlets,” 5-7; Brockbank, “Conventions,” 186-87. Gates’s reaction to Blunt killing: PIL, 4:1755 (NAR, 434-35). Parallel between Gates’s reaction to Blunt and Prospero interaction with Caliban: Mowat in Shakespeare, Tempest (New Folger Library), 193-94; Kathman, “Dating”; Berger, “Miraculous,” 261-62. “Thou most lying”: 1.2.345-49, ARD, 174. Parallel between Shakespeare’s biography and Prospero’s speech: McGinn, Philosophy , 143-46, 150; Greenblatt, Will, 372-73. “The solemn temples”: 4.1.153-56, ARD, 254. “I have both in”: Strachey, For the Colony (1612), v (1969 edition, 3).

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Our revels”: 4.1.148, ARD, 253. Strachey’s attempts to find a patron: Barbour, Three, 302. Strachey’s literary debt to John Smith: Barbour in SMI, 1:124-25. Strachey biography, “this last dismal,” “my hour is come”: Culliford, Strachey, 128, 130, 133, 140-41. Additional Strachey biography: Wright in VOY, xvii; Haile in NAR, 62-63. Performance of Tempest at Princess Elizabeth’s wedding: Law, “Produced,” 164; Bullough, Sources, 8:237; Demaray, Spectacles, 80. “The malicious”: Johnson, Life, 4. Analysis of Johnson’s statement: Salingar, “World,” 210- 11; Nuzum, “Company,” 17. Contemporary audiences would have recognized New World theme of Tempest: Lee, “Visits,” 342; Lindley in Shakespeare, Tempest (New Cambridge) [43].

  Shakespeare’s life during Tempest period: Greenblatt, Will, 373, 378-79; Chute, Shakespeare, 298-99; Gurr, “Tempest’s,” 93-94. “Gentlemanlike”: Chute, Shakespeare, 298. Shakespeare’s purchase of Blackfriars gatehouse: Greenblatt, Will, 379; Chute, Shakespeare, 306; Bradbrook, Shakespeare, 226; Fraser, Shakespeare , 250. Globe fire description, “some of the paper,” marriages of Shakespeare’s daughters: Greenblatt, Will, 379-80; Bradbrook, Shakespeare, 222-23, 225. Parallels between Shakespeare and daughters and Prospero and Miranda: McGinn, Philosophy , 145, 147; Bradbrook, Shakespeare, 224-25. Shakespeare’s will and death, “Shakespeare, [poet Michael] Drayton”: Greenblatt, Will, 384-88. Importance of the First Folio: Demaray, Spectacles, 1-3. “He was not of”: Jonson in Shakespeare, Mr. William Shakespeares (First Folio) [vi].

  Chapman’s Virginia play: Gillies, “Masque,” 673-74; Demaray, Spectacles, 94, 112-16. “If there be never,” “he is loth to”: Jonson in ARD, 7-8. “O, I, moon-calves!”: Jonson in Demaray, Spectacles, 119-20. Fletcher’s Sea Voyage, Taylor the Water Poet: McMullan, Unease, 197-99, 240-43; Kennedy, “Significance,” 28-32, 35. Analysis of Taylor’s poetry, “Epitaph in the Barmooda,” “Epitaph in the Utopian,” “Caleb Quishquash”: Malcolm, Origins, 19, 140-41.

  Matthew Somers’s return to England with body of uncle: SMI, 1:277-78, 2:350-52; Burrage, Lost, 5; Craven, “Hughes,” 76. Parish register says Somers’s body buried June 4, 1611 (suggesting his nephew reached port in late May): Malone, Account, 20. George Somers stopped on the coast north of Jamestown before crossing to Bermuda: SMI, 1:277, 2:350; Oldmixon, Empire, 441. Ring purported to bear Somers coat of arms found on Connecticut beach in 1924: Kennedy, Isle, 57. Two men previously left on Bermuda join Somers on arrival: BER, 15. Somers’s death by food poisoning: Stow, Annales (1615), 944, and (1632), 1018; SMI, 1:277. Pig-bel probably killed Somers: Puntis, “Pig-bel.” Symptoms of pig-bel: Merck & Co., “Clostridial.” Somers died November 9, 1611: Sainsbury, State Papers: Colonial, 1:10; Green, State Papers: Domestic, 2:268. Notice of Somers’s death: SMI, 2:350-51; Burrage, Lost, 5; REL, 252; Craven, “Hughes,” 76; BER, 15. “A surfeit”: Stow, Annales (1632), 1018.

  Somers’s body buried England and heart buried Bermuda: SMI, 2:351, 378. Heart burial mentioned on 1620, 1876, 1959 memorials: Darrell, Links, 8, 9, 13. Heart burial site in or near the modern Somers Garden in St. George’s: editor Lefroy in BER, 305-8. Alternatively, heart burial site near campsite of castaways: Zuill, “Cast Away,” 66. Embalming methods, hearts routinely buried separately: Guibert, Physitian, 143-47. History of ceremonial heart burial, salt common preservative when bodies sent home: Bradford, Heart, 38, 40-42, 45, 47, 51-52, 54-58, 169-72, 177-78. Dual practical and ceremonial purposes for removing heart: Chamberlain and Pearson, Earthly, 26-28. Somers’s body transported in cedar chest, “his heart and bowels” (Butler’s claim that sailors were unaware body was on board is not credible): BER, 15-16.

  Somers’s men defied his wishes, sailed for England, left three men on Bermuda: Burrage, Lost, 5; Craven, “Hughes,” 76; BER, 16; SMI, 2:351. “His body by”: SMI, 1:277-78, 2:351. Parish register says Somers buried June 4, 1611: Malone, Account , 20. Somers’s burial lost during church restoration: editor Lefroy in BER, 307-8. New monument dedicated 1980: Ware, “Journey,” 22. Settlement of Somers’s estate July 26, 1611: Sainsbury, State Papers: Colonial, 1:10; Green, State Papers: Domestic, 2:268. Somers’s will details: Broadley, “Will.” “Sir George Somers”: NAR, 709. Renaming of Bermuda as the Somers Islands: Neill, History, 64-65; Stow, Annales (1615), 945. “In the year 1611”: SMI, 2:378. Bermuda monuments to Somers: BER, 15-16, 305-6; Darrell, Links, 8-10; Jones, Bermuda, 28-29. “Riotous and disorderly”: Pope, “Somers,” 31.

  Return of Starr: HIS, 130 (NAR, 686); Brown, Republic, 157, 162-63; Barbour in SMI, 1:130. “He hath sent his”: Neill, History, 52. Gates’s biography: NAR, 46- 47; Sheehan, “Gates”; GEN, 2:894-96. Gates’s use of Bermuda limestone in Jamestown house: Kelso, Buried, 23, 107, 109; Lounsbury, Church, 2; D’Alto, “Hurricane,” 62. Gates’s death: Sainsbury, “Death”; Morey, Gates, 15. Pierce biographies: Dorman, Purse, 1:30, 31, 2:797-800, 3:24; Bernhard, “Men,” 616-17. “Mistress Pierce”: SMI, 3:218. Clark biography: REL, 260, 274; SMI, 2:254-55; NAR, 44-45, 49-50; Wright, “Spanish,” 455-57. Hopkins biography: Johnson, “Origin,” 165-69; Dorman, Purse, 2:355-56. Clark’s and Hopkins’s Mayflower history: Philbrick, Mayflower , 24-26, 38-39, 70; Anderson, Pilgrim, 111, 271-75.

  Epilogue

  Uranus’s moons: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “Planetary.” Early essays on parallels between Jamestown chronicles and Tempest: Vaughan, Caliban, 118-20; Marshall, “Imperium,” 381-82; Culliford, Strachey, 1-2. Shakespeare’s late plays: Lytton Strachey, Books, 51-69. Lytton Strachey’s descent from William Strachey: Sanders, Family, 53, 65, 108-9.

  Recent essays on Tempest as colonial-themed play: Vaughan, Caliban, 118- 71; Hulme and Sherman, Travels, 171-78; McDonald, “Reading,” 15-17; Fiedler, Stranger, 208-9; Gillies, Geography, 153-55; Griffiths, “Colonialism”; Brotton, “Contesting,” 25-31. Recent essays that downplay the colonial interpretation of Tempest: Bate, “Humanist,” 6; Bloom in Shakespeare, Tempest (Riverhead), 3-4; N. Frye, “Tempest,” 49; Hadfield, Literature, 242-45. “A prologue”: Marx, Machine , 72. “A kaleidoscope”: H. Smith, Interpretations, 1. “A complex Rorschach blot”: Hamlin, Image, 118. Shakespeare authorship question: Looney, Identified; Baron, De Vere; Farina, De Vere; Michell, Who Wrote; McCrea, Case; Stritmatter and Kositsky, “Revisited.”

  “Magnificent—it has some,” “notably good”: Jon
es and Walcutt, Literature, 58, 65. Strachey’s documentation of the Powhatans: Porter, Inconstant, 325-38. “One of the finest”: Quinn in NEW, 288. “The large Strachey vocabulary”: Barbour, Three, 299. “Could trace,” “Sea Vulture,” “bitter feud,” “a complete schism” “the three kings”: Irving, Wolfert’s, 62-71, 315. Kipling on Sea Venture and Tempest: Kipling, How Shakespeare, and “Tempest”; Stamers-Smith, “Kipling”; Franssen, “Bard.” “Seven months among mermaids”: Kipling, Limits, 169-70. “The Sea Venture”: Joyce, Ulysses, 1:439. Background on Joyce allusion: Thornton, Allusions , 197. Strachey in Dark Lady: O’Neal, Dark, 5, 9, 11, 21-22, 34-35, 80-81, 186, 211, 219, 222-25, 228, 242-43, 252-53, 257, 294-303, 306-13. Césaire’s Une Tempête analyzed, “unmasking the brutality,” “In Une Tempête”: Sarnecki, “Mastering,” 276, 280. Durham’s Caliban masks, “one time Prospero”: Hulme and Sherman: Travels, 175-79.

  Hogs became scarce on Bermuda: Hughes, Letter [7]. Early regulations to protect cahow: BER, 4; SMI, 2:342-43. Colonists’ uses of Bermuda plants, early regulations to protect plants: Bernhard, “Bermuda,” 61; Stamers-Smith, “Flora,” 116-17; Collett, Plants, 56-57, 78, 83. Introduction of foreign crops: Stamers-Smith, “Flora,” 120-24; Phillips-Watlington, Botanical, 114. Count of native and introduced flora: Phillips-Watlington, Botanical, 15-18. Cedar epidemic of 1940: Stamers-Smith, “Flora,” 117; Phillips-Watlington, Botanical, 15. Impact of habitat reduction on birds: Amos, Birds, 21. Rediscovery of the cahow in 1951: Murphy and Mowbray, “Cahow”; Bowen and Andrews, “Starving,” 63; Amos, Birds, 39-40; Kennedy, Isle, 261. Commercial use of island cavern as “Prospero’s Cave”: Stamers-Smith, “Kipling,” 104. Cave creatures named for Prospero and Somers: Sterrer and Iliffe, “Mesonerilla,” 509-10, 512; Hart and Manning, “Cavernicolous,” 441-42.

  Celebration of Somers’ Day: Emanuel, Divine, 51. Plaques commemorating Somers, 1984 statue of Somers: Darrell, Links, 8-15; Fountain, “Statue.” Somers’s legacy as a mariner: Haile in NAR, 61-62, 445. Discovery of ring that may have belonged to Somers: Kennedy, Isle, 57. Raising of guns from Sea Venture, “to make a discovery”: BER, 26, 290; SMI, 2:355, 387. “Arguably the most”: Armitage, “Victuals,” 8. Discovery of wreck and artifacts: Wingood, “Report” (1982), 333- 34, 337, 341-45. Further details on wreck discovery: Jones, Bermuda, 26; Kennedy, Isle, 260; Wright, Story, 22. Jamestown archaeological dig, discovery of ring that may have belonged to Strachey: Kelso, Buried, 44-55, 89-93, 111-15, 126-39, 141-60, 170, and “Shakespearean,” 187-89.

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