The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-04
" THE TEMPEST
By D. B. ANDERSON.

The wear and tear of time has done little to abate the majestic strength oi
 Shakespeare's Tempest. The best ei- forts of other geniuses have shone witn lustrous grandeur Tn their day, and, per hans. were still able to hold their grasp on the attention and memories of sue ceeding generations, but as the current of events sweeps on its way, they 1aoe from recollection and are as compietely effaced AS the grave Alaric the Goth. over which the waters of Bussento nave now rolled for fourteen centuries thelr foamine torrents. But time can never oispossess "The Tempest" of It's power to charm and instruct because 1t has it's roots in that human nature which IS perennial It's poetic portraits are not mere distractions of personified virtues and vices, but it places before us the out ward semblance and the inward character of men as they walk the earth In flesh and blood, speaking the language or tne human heart.
 According to the best accounts Tne Tempest" was produced during season of public excitement by the shipwrecK of Sir George Somers in 1909, on the stormy and desolate coast of Bermuda, and it Is also said that 1t and "Macpeth were written within few months or each other, in the spring ana autumn of the year 1910; and if that De true' we can account for the certain resemoiahce bet-yeen the two, in the scenes of land scrane and the scenes amidst the alternate gloom and glare of tnunoer storni' Whatever might have been the true CIT cumstances out of which this comedy or i,,nated if is one of Shakespeare's best productions, displaying his superha.urai rowers to their fullest perfection, In ex- hi, ,itine intelligent and rational beings ,at are not human, but who at the same tme are conceived existing under circumstances which are true to life. For moral and philosophical speculation, "The Tempest" is unequaled. The ldea or lne Tempest'' means retribution, and such in tbe fruest signiflcation of the word is the proper theme of this comedy. The due apportionment of temporal rewards and punishments Is here righteously meted out at the bar of poetic justice.
 The reader will doubtless remember that Prospero was a prince of power, ana the right Duke of Milan, and who, be ing transported and rapt In secret studies" intrusted the management Of state affairs to his brother, Antonio, whom he loved next to hlmseli. Whiie thus withdrawn from the sight of his sub iects in acquiring knowledge, Anton'o confederates with Alonso, the King of Naples who is also the inveterate en- emy of Prospero, and scheme IS settieo upon for his destruction At the dead or night a treacherous army opens the gates of Milan, seize Prospero, with his S--year- old daughter, Miranda, and hurry them aboard a barque which bears them few leagues to sea, where they prepared rotten carcass of a boat not rigged, nor tackle, sail nor mast; the very rats in stinctively had quit it." There Prospero and Miranda are set adrift at the mercy of the waves. By Providence divine they come ashore on little island where Prospero discovers a cell fit for haplta- ton, in which he moves his rich gar ments, linen stuffs," necessaries and ns library, all of which Gonzalo. an honest old counsellor, who being appointed by Alonso and Antonio master of the scheme, out of kindness of heart had provided for his much beloved prince and master. Here on this lonely island for l2 years Pros pero devoted his time to his studies ana to the tutorage of Miranda. And here have I. thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit than other princes can, that have more time for vainer hours and tutors not so careful"
 An extreme credu1ity and curiosity about extraordinary sights and strange physical phenomena has often been mo- ticed as a foible of the English people. This weakness is well satirlzed by Shake speare in "The Tempest" Prospero, after he became an inhabitant of this island, is represented as the possessor of most