Coda: Global Romance after Shakespeare

Abstract

In 2012, more than four hundred years after Martin Frobisher carried a copy of Mandeville’s Travels with him to the Arctic Circle and dramatizations of the Travels first hit theaters, Mandeville returned to the London theatrical scene. This time, however, it was on a global stage in the midst of the opening ceremonies for the games of the thirtieth Olympiad. This “Mandeville” was a wonder of a different kind, a cartoonish one-eyed mascot conjured for marketing the games to its worldwide audience. As Anthony Bale noted of these opening ceremonies, titled “Isles of Wonder” by director Danny Boyle, the spectacle drew on a range of medieval and early modern cultural resources: “it was shot through with references to the medieval and early-modern past.” Indeed, the leitmotif for the performance was Caliban’s line from The Tempest: “Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises” (3.2.130). Printed at the top of the ceremony’s program, etched on the bell that signaled the games’ opening, and called out in the voice of Kenneth Branagh, Shakespeare’s words seemed to call the “Isles of Wonder” into being.