SOURCE: "The Aeneid in The Tempest," in Shakespeare Survey: An Annual Survey of Shakespearian Study and Production, Vol. 39, 1987, pp. 159-68.

In the following essay, Wiltenburg argues that in The Tempest "Shakespeare has imitated, with important differences, the main pattern of Virgil's poem in its beginning, middle, and end; that is, in its situation, development, and resolution."

Even those sympathetic to source studies may well feel that enough has been said about the sources of The Tempest. More than most of the plays, it seems to be a rich confluence of elements drawn from Shakespeare's diverse reading, conversation, and theatrical experience. So many things float to the surface here: contemporary excitement over the exploration and colonization of the New World; bits of Italian and Spanish history and fiction involving usurpations, flights, islands, and returns; scenes and techniques from the ongoing human comedy of commedia dell'arte improvisations; some of Montaigne's...