Shakespearean actor John Bell, in a monologue he recently performed at the Sydney Opera House, argued that the real Bard of Avon, whom we know little about, is revealed in the lead role of one of his last plays, The Tempest.

In Prospero, the deposed Duke of Milan, Bell sees an older Shakespeare who, like his character, is “a great magician leaving his magic island and giving up his art” who “resigns himself to retirement, old age and death”.