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William Shakespeare, arguably the most important writer in all of English literature, is certainly the most influential playwright of the English Renaissance. Born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon in rural northern England, he was the son of a middle-class glovemaker. He married in 1582 and fathered three children; in the late 1580s or early 1590s, he left his family and moved to London to work as an actor and playwright. Competing against such illustrious company as Christopher Marlowe …

…critics often re-read the play in this light from a "post-colonialist" viewpoint, examining what it can tell us about Renaissance attitudes toward European colonization of the Americas. There are a number of film adaptations of The Tempest. None are particularly recent or remarkable, although some are very strong. Those who like aesthetically challenging "art films" may find Peter Greenaway's film Prospero's Books, inspired by the imagery of the play, to be both interesting and lovely.