SOURCE: 'TAe Tempest and the New World," in Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 1, Winter, 1979, pp. 29-41.

In the following excerpt, Frey provides a survey of the travel literature on the New World that informs the back-ground to The Tempest, arguing that this serves to enhance an understanding of the play's fusion of history and romance.

When works of art are asked to generate their own meanings, they and culture generally suffer. For language is never autonomous. Considered in its most elemental form, as the paper and ink of a text, The Tempest has no content at all. It is only when we assign to the print information in our minds that it takes on meaning. The issue is always: What information shall we assign? What are the best standards of relevant information?

For centuries, men and women have read or heard Caliban promise Stephano:

I prithee, let me bring...