Shakespeare's Last Plays

Shakespeares Last Plays was the first of E. M. W. Tilyards influential works on Shakespeare. In it, Dr Tilyard argues that the last plays Cymbeline, The Winters Tale and The Tempest develop patterns found in the earlier works. He shows how Shakespeare intertwines reconciliation (the final phase of the tragedies) with an awareness of possible worlds (where the natural and supernatural have equal status), and concludes that The Tempest, by subordinating his tragic pattern, is his greatest achievement.