Virgil and The Tempest offers a new assessment of the art and politics of Shakespeare's comic masterpiece by examining its relationship to both the contemporary political context and to Virgil's Aeneid. Challenging the view that The Tempest supports the absolutist theories and policies of King James I, Donna Hamilton instead shows how the play represents an argument for a limited monarchy. Virgil and James I each represent a set of symbols and idioms that Shakespeare appropriates for his own use in The Tempest. In the process, he pays homage to their...