University Microfilms International - Arizona Campus Repository

25
This Booke hath beene kept from the Translator heerof
a long time, since when (until1 it was in a manner thoroughlie
Printed) hee never had sight of it, and therefore could not
possiblie peruse it over, as his desire was, meaning to have
corrected, what you perhaps may finde amisse. Some faults (no
doubt there be) especially in the Verses, and to speake truth,
how could it be otherwise, when he wrote all this Volume,
(as it were) Cursorily, and in hast: Never having so much
leisure, as to overlooke one leaf, after he had scribbled out
the same.
Williams believes that the translation was done before the death of
Tofte's brother John in 1599 because of a reference in the verse
dedication to Anne Heme: "Thanks I yeeld you, (the pay of younger
Brother)" (p. 423). Regardless of the date of composition, a reading
of Honours Academie does not support the claim that it was written
"Cursorily, and in hast."
The most extensive study of Honours Academie has been done by
Fox in Notes on William Shakespeare and Robert Tofte (pp. 26-40). Fox
suggests that the shipwreck in Honours Academie (sig. Rr4 V and following)
resembles that in The Tempest, that the old magician in Tofte's translation
bears a general resemblance to Prospero, and that a "Savage Satire"
in Honours Academie (sig. Pp3), a monster-like creature who abducts the
beautiful shepherdess Flora, resembles Caliban in appearance and
behavior. The date of composition of The Tempest is not known, but a
performance of the play is recorded for 1 November 1611. If it was
written in the year before its first performance, Shakespeare was working
on it after the publication of Honours Academie. Once again, specific
support suggesting that Shakespeare knew something of Tofte's work is
lacking; Fox does little more than to speculate that Honours Academie
was a source for The Tempest.