The Hopkins/Shakespeare Connection

I t is widely thought that the ill-starred voyage of the Sea Venture inspired Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. The real Stephen Hopkins, aboard the Sea Venture when it sailed from Plymouth for Jamestown on June 2, 1609, might even have had something to do with the character “Stephano, a drunken Butler”, in this famous play. The Sea Venture, carrying some 150 crew and colonists, was the flagship of a fleet of seven ships and two pinnacles owned by the Virginia Company of London. This was the “Third Supply Relief Fleet”, whose mission was to bring fresh supplies and additional colonists from England to the Jamestown settlement. On board was the “admiral of the flotilla”, Sir George Somers. Sir Thomas Gates, also on the Sea Venture, had been appointed Governor of the colony of Virginia. The boat was commanded by Captain Christopher Newport, who had led the first expedition to Jamestown two years before. Twenty-eight year old Hopkins was clerk to the ship’s chaplain. On July 25, the fleet ran into a hurricane and the ships were separated. After three days of being buffeted by the storm, the Sea Venture, a new boat whose timbers had not yet set, had sprung serious leaks. At this point, and within site of the Bermuda coast, Somers wedged the ship between two reefs to prevent it from sinking. Everyone on board and many of the supplies were saved. The castaways then spent ten months in Bermuda. All but three departed on May 10, 1610 on two smaller new ships, the Patience and the Deliverance, built with parts salvaged from the Sea Venture and native cedar trees. The Tempest was performed in 1613, as part of the marriage festivities of King James’ daughter, Elizabeth. It is thought that Shakespeare drew upon at least two accounts of the Sea Venture voyage in writing this play. The first was a long letter written by Sea Venture passenger William Strachey, the secretary-elect of the Virginian Company, to an unnamed noble lady. This letter was taken to London by Sir Thomas Gates in 1610. The second and shorter account, published in London in 1610, was by another passenger, Silvester Jourdain. These two accounts have been compiled into a book edited by Louis B. Wright, A Voyage to Virginia in 1609, Two Narratives, Strachey’s “True Repertory” and Jourdain’s “Discovery of the Bermudas” (U. Press of Virginia, 1964). In his introduction, Wright speculates that Strachey’s letter had been sent to Sara, wife of Sir Thomas Smith, treasurer of the Virginia Company. He notes that Shakespeare’s patron, the Earl of Southampton, was one of the promoters of the Virginia Company, and that Strachey moved in Shakespeare’s literary circles. Strachey had in fact been a shareholder in an acting company that had rented the Blackfriars playhouse from Shakespeare’s colleague Richard Burbage. Strachey’s account, not published until 1625, describes in detail the various unsuccessful mutinies which challenged the leadership of this expedition. Hopkins led one of these mutinies, only narrowly escaping execution for his pains. Jourdain’s account makes reference to the desperation of some of those aboard the stormtossed boat who, after days of pumping and bailing: …having some good and comfortable waters in the ship, fetched them and drunk one to the other, taking their last leave one of the other until their more joyful and happy meeting in a more blessed world… Echoes of the above passage and of the mutinies, as well as other allusions to the Sea Venture saga, can be found in The Tempest.