As the third part of his trilogy on Shakespeare, Prospero's Powers extends the
study of the late plays O'Meara offered in Othello's Sacrifice, to consider
more closely how Shakespeare fulfills his personal artistic development in
The Tempest.
The play is seen as expressing in its structure the whole of Shakespeare's
tragic development up to that time. Great powers of self-knowledge and of
inner knowledge of the cosmos are shown to have emerged from this
development, which Prospero now embodies. Structural links are pursued
that further connect Prospero's powers with the mysterious process of selfgrowth
that is dramatized in The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz.
Behind both works, and the Renaissance alchemical tradition they mediate,
lies the mystery of the sacrificial death of the Sophia into human
consciousness that was taking place at that time. From the event of this death
come the great possibilities of self-development and inner power over the
world that Shakespeare boldly prophesizes in the play that brings his artistic
career to consummation.
"an excellent and profound study"
-Richard Ramsbotham,
Who Wrote Bacon?: William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon and James I