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The Tempest magic banquet, and the chasing of Caliban and his drunken friends by 'dogs and hounds.' The singing of many lyrics, the trolling of the catch, the duet of Juno and Ceres, and the dance of the nymphs and reapers, lent to the play a certain effect not unlike that of later operatic entertainments.

This spectacular and musical aspect recommended the play to the attention of the Restoration stage. In 1667 Dryden and Davenant produced a comedy entitled, The Tempest, or The Enchanted Island. It is often described as a 'version' of Shakespeare's play; but it is not so much that as a new play based on a familiar plot. The authors themselves describe it in their prologue as a 'new reviving play,' which springs up from Shakespeare's 'honoured dust.' In the light of this statement it is hardly worth while to pour out upon the authors the contempt that should be reserved for those who really despised Shakespeare. How far the Restoration authors departed from their original may be seen from the additions to the dramatis personæ. Here are Hippolito, 'one that never saw woman,' Dorinda, a second 'daughter to Prospero, that never saw man,' Sycorax, Caliban's sister, Mustacho and Ventoso. This play ends as an opera, with the entry of Neptune, Amphitrite, Oceanus, and a host of sea-gods. Its popularity is attested by the fact that Pepys witnessed it with great delight at least six times within fifteen months. In 1673 Shadwell turned the piece frankly into an opera. The retention of operatic features marked the great productions of The Tempest by David Garrick in the eighteenth century; the play was still half opera when it was produced by Mr. Augustin Daly a generation ago.

The play, with its subtle study of primitive life, has renewed its popularity in our own day. It has been often acted in both England and America. In 1904, Sir Herbert Tree bestowed upon its production