Prospero's Powers: A Short View of Shakespeare's Last Phase

As the third part of his trilogy on Shakespeare,Prospero's Powersextends thestudy of the late plays O?Meara offered inOthello's Sacrifice, to considermore closely how Shakespeare fulfills his personal artistic development inThe Tempest. The play is seen as expressing in its structure the whole of Shakespeare'stragic development up to that time. Great powers of self-knowledge and ofinner knowledge of the cosmos are shown to have emerged from thisdevelopment, which Prospero now embodies. Structural links are pursuedthat further connect Prospero's powers with the mysterious process of selfgrowththat is dramatized inThe Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz. Behind both works, and the Renaissance alchemical tradition they mediate,lies the mystery of the sacrificial death of the Sophia into humanconsciousness that was taking place at that time. From the event of this deathcome the great possibilities of self-development and inner power over theworld that Shakespeare boldly prophesizes in the play that brings his artisticcareer to consummation. ?an excellent and profound study? ?Richard Ramsbotham,Who Wrote Bacon?: William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon and James IO'Meara, John is the author of 'Prospero's Powers: A Short View of Shakespeare's Last Phase' with ISBN 9780595410002 and ISBN 0595410006.