I’ the commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
And use of service, none; contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
No occupation; all men idle, all;
And women too, but innocent and pure;
No sovereignty.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1. The theme of colonialism and the relationship between the European colonizer and native colonized people are explored throughout The Tempest, especially in Prospero’s control of the island and Caliban. But it’s also not far under the surface of the kind and noble Gonzalo. Here he delivers a speech about his idyllic plantation, a new colony of commonwealth, where lack of social rank, labor, riches and poverty would deliver a utopia. Work would be abolished and people would live a life of leisure. Gonzalo imagines creating this perfect state on an island like the one they are on. There would be no kingship, he pledges. Yet he would be ruler and "execute all things." Spoken like a true colonizer! The irony here in Gonzalo’s commonwealth speech is clear.