By the time you read this, Julie Taymor's wonderful 2010 film version of Shakespeare's The Tempest starring Helen Mirren as “Prospera” will be available on DVD. Since we could not obtain it for the June meeting, we instead showed the BBC's 1980 version directed by John Gorrie, with Michael Hordern as a more traditional Prospero. This older version includes more of the play's full text—both stage and film versions of Shakespeare's plays are usually cut, often extensively. For example, it was a treat to see the “masque” scene of Act 4, with Juno and two other goddesses.
Loss is a central theme in The Tempest. Prospero was marooned on an island after he lost his dukedom. He and his daughter Miranda have been the only human creatures on this island for 12 years, and now Prospero faces the loss of their close bond as she falls in love with Ferdinand. The play ends as Prospero voluntarily relinquishes his formidable magical powers. His precious books have been his intellectual companions on the island, but he even “drowns” his book of magic.
Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford (1550-1604) voluntarily relinquished credit for some of the greatest works of literature ever written. As though seeking divine encouragement for his anonymity, he wrote the single word “continue” in the margin above a biblical passage that provides reassurance that God knows all and will reward secret acts of virtue. Henry James was profoundly skeptical about the traditional authorship legend. In his essay on The Tempest, he wrote that it was nearly unbearable not to know more about the real author. He found it especially inconceivable that the greatest writer in history simply retired from his writing career, as the traditional theory maintains. Of the enigma of this ostensible retirement from writing, James commented, “Its power to torment us intellectually seems scarcely to be borne.”
Freud became so taken with de Vere's authorship of Shakespeare's canon that, when he died, half of his books on English literature were devoted to the topic. In 1928, he wrote to Ernest Jones, “It would surely repay an analyst's interest to look into the matter.” Despite his efforts, none of his followers would take this idea seriously.
If The Tempest was indeed Shakespeare's farewell to the stage, it should not surprise us to find several salient connections with the final two years of de Vere's life. His close friend Queen Elizabeth died in March 1603. De Vere was ill during the months leading up to his death in June 1604. As he was facing death, his youngest daughter, Susan, was preparing to marry Philip Herbert (one of the brothers to whom Shakespeare's 1623 First Folio of complete plays was dedicated).
People have loved Shakespeare's works for centuries, without knowing who their true author was. For psychoanalysts especially, these works of genius take on even greater depth and humanity when we begin looking at the complex interactions between de Vere's life experiences and his peerless imagination.
For more details on Freud, Shakespeare, and The Tempest, see .
Richard M. Waugaman, M.D., is training and supervising analyst, emeritus, Washington Psychoanalytic Institute; clinical professor of psychiatry, Georgetown; and reader at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Thirty-five of his 100 publications are on Shakespeare and the psychology of pseudonymity.