“In My Power”: The Tempest as Shakespeare’s Antitheatrical Vision

This article argues that in The Tempest, Shakespeare dramatises the deepest antitheatrical anxieties of his time about music, drama, and the power that artists–playwrights, players, musicians–wield over audiences. Through a close reading of the interrelated representation of music and drama in The Tempest and in early modern English antitheatrical pamphlets, the article demonstrates the resemblance between Prospero and the antitheatrical vision of the powerful, manipulative artist who deliberately excites his audience’s senses, floods them with emotion, undermines their reason, and places them in his power, while claiming that he only aims to please.