The Tempest Overview: Sources & Statistics

Category: Comedy
Period written: By 1611
First known performance: November 1, 1611 (Whitehall Palace, London)
Number of lines: 2275
Number of scenes: 10
Total Characters: 19
Prose/Verse: 21%/79%
Folios: Folio 1 (1623), Folio 2 (1632), Folio 3 (1663-4), Folio 4 (1685)
Quartos: None
Possible Sources: Metamorphoses (Ovid, 8 A.D.), The first part of the Mirrour of Knighthood (M. Tyler, 1578), The third part of the First Book of the Mirrour of Knighthood (R. Parry, 1586), John a Kent and John a Cumber (Anthony Munday, 1594), A Most Pleasant Comedie of Mucedorus (Anonymous, 1598), Hymenaei, A Masque (Ben Johnson, 1606), Colloquia: The Shipwreck, a Dialogue (Desiderius Erasmus, 1606), A True and Sincere declaration of the purpose and ends of the Plantation begun in Virginia (Virginia Company of London, 1609), A True Reportory of the Wracke and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight (William Strachey, 1610), A true Declaration of the estate of the Colonie in Virginia (Sir Thomas Gates, 1610), The Three Satyrs, A Pastoral Tale (Anonymous, c. 1600), The Fair Sidea (Jacob Ayrer, 1618)