Here's a portrait by Sir Frank Dicksee (there are lots of places on the internet to buy prints of this painting).
Prospero and Miranda have been abandoned on an island by some enemies of Prospero. Some travellers from their country land on the island and Miranda falls in love with the young prince, who ends up rescuing them and bringing them back to civilization. You might recognize this quote from Miranda in Act V:
O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!
Godric Wilkie godric@gozen.demon.co.uk has this to add about Shakespeare and Miranda:
You might like to know some more stuff about your first
name: Spain and Portugal have several (at least five) towns
called "Miranda". These usually have in common the fact that
the town is on an elevation overlooking a river valley. The
word miranda referring to the wonderous view; the Latin root
is mirari - a wonder, and hence we have both "miracle" and
"admire" from the same origin - so Shakespeare's so-called pun
in The Tempest "Admir'd Miranda" is perhaps less clever than
it appears. Little is known of Shakespeare's early adult life
but it is quite likely that he travelled in Europe - many of
his plots existed in earlier European versions - so he might
have stayed in a town called Miranda and used the name later,
rather than inventing it for Prospero's daughter (most British
"name-your-child" type books state that the name was invented
by WS, but as many of these towns predate him, and presumably
people from these towns would have been identified by the name
this is clearly not so).
The Tempest was written in 1611, and is generally considered to be Shakespeare's last play. The play is now a public work, and there are many texts of it available online in various forms. Here are some of the best texts and some other interesting resources:
Peter Greenaway made a movie based on The Tempest called Prosero's Books. You might be interested in The far side of the mirror, an essay by Herbert Klein about the movie, or a transcription of the movie showing extra text added by Greenaway, and lines from the original text omitted by Greenaway (this page is obviously copied from somewhere else, but I don't know where the original is).
I've also found a list of painting inspired by The Tempest, from Shakespeare Illustrated, (thanks Miranda 'Ran' Ward)
There is also a contemporary movie remake of the story called "Tempest", directed by John Cassavetes, filmed in Greece, and including Gena Rowlands and Susan Sarandon, had a very young Molly Ringwald (15) as Miranda (thanks Tom Z).
I'm always looking for more Miranda trivia, so if you have any drop me an email. (I used to have a guestbook, but it got too much spam.)
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