The Tempest Garden
The Tempest has 37 plants—almost as many as Midsummer Night's Dream. But where Midsummer's forest is chaotic and wild, Prospero's island is controlled, cultivated, deliberate. He's been here twelve years, learning magic, teaching Miranda, and preparing for this exact day when his enemies wash ashore.
When the shipwrecked nobles first arrive, terrified, Gonzalo begs for
an
acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any
thing.
He'd rather die on wasteland than drown. But once he's on the island, he can't believe what he sees: How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green! The island isn't barren—it's abundant beyond imagination.
And then Prospero stages a masque where the goddesses bless Miranda and Ferdinand's marriage:
Earth's increase, foison plenty,
Barns and garners never empty,
Vines and clustering bunches growing,
Plants with goodly burthen bowing.
This is Ceres speaking—goddess of agriculture, of cultivation, of harvest. Not wild nature, but nature shaped by patient work.
That's the key: Prospero has spent twelve years on this island, not just surviving but growing something—knowledge, power, Miranda's education, a plan for justice and reconciliation. But the island can't be the end. When he finally faces his enemies, he chooses mercy over revenge. He breaks his staff, drowns his book, gives up his magic.
The epilogue is famous:
Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
And what strength I have's mine own,
Which is most faint.
After all that power, all that control, all that carefully cultivated abundance—he's just a man again, asking the audience to set him free with their applause. The island was never meant to be permanent. It was preparation. The vines and barns and garners full of grain—all that fertility and growth—taught him something about power and forgiveness that Milan never could.
But in the end, he has to leave the garden and go back to the world. The plants stay on the island. What he takes with him is what he learned from them.
Special thanks to longtime CSF supporter and thespian Chuck Wilcox for voicing the part of The Bard in our video series. Full production credits available here. All photos copyright Colorado Shakespeare Group except those in the public domain, published under Creative Commons (CC) licensing. For more information on (CC) artwork in this video, click here.
Enjoy this slideshow of the plants we have in our Tempest garden:
