First Performance and Publication
The Tempest, or the Enchanted Island premiered at the Duke of York’s Theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields on November 7, 1667, before a packed house. Charles II and “a great many great ones”, in Samuel Pepys’s words, attended the first performance of the tragicomedy. The Tempest was co-authored by Sir William Davenant (1606-1668), the innovative manager of the Duke’s Company and England’s venerable poet laureate, and John Dryden, the much-younger, intensely ambitious playwright who was already emerging as the most important dramatist of his generation. The Dryden-Davenant Tempest was a huge success in its first run and the play was frequently revived between 1667 and 1674. Dryden, who succeeded Davenant as the poet laureate in April, 1668, published The Tempest, or the Enchanted Island in 1670, with a preface that spoke...
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Citation: Brady, Jennifer. "The Tempest". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 September 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7896, accessed 09 June 2026.]
