That is shakespeares world planting itself in north america and thats a complicated history and its part of the history of the country and also do what was good and bad about colonialism. Was he aware of the new world . Yes he was when he wrote the tempest he pretty clearly read a pamphlet which was about a shipwreck in bermuda that he makes reference to stories about the new world that were coming back. She never visited it and he probably would have grave information about it but when he uses the phrase like brave new world, he is saying that there is a place we havent explored and its overturning our expectations about what human beings are like and what nature is like. Thats something that is firing his imagination. Spinnaker was a portion of the tour booktv took the Shakespeare Library. You can watch the full tour online at booktv. Org. Book tv on cspan2 will be live from the Shakespeare Library at noon on saturday, april 23. This is to commemorate the 400th anniversary of William