English 154/180 Harlan
LECTURE ON THE TEMPEST
(Citations refer to the Signet Classic paperback revised edition)
Introduction
The Tempest was written 1610-1611 and first performed at court in 1611. It was probably performed again at court at the marriage celebration of the King's daughter Elizabeth in 1612. It comes at a time when Shakespeare was preparing to retire from the King's Men. He had a home and extensive property in Stratford, and his two daughters had married local men. The acting company had the large public theater, the Globe, and a smaller, more exclusive private indoor theater at the Blackfriars within the city limits. The Tempest is undoubtedly the last play Shakespeare wrote entirely on his own before his retirement from the stage. As such, many scholars have seen in some of Prospero's speeches Shakespeare's own farewell to his art. Whether or not this is true, the play does make a memorable statement about the magical power of art and illusion, and it is a most unusual play.
In the last few years of his career Shakespeare did an extraordinary thing. He consciously turned from the tragic themes and complex characters like Iago, Hamlet and Macbeth. He wrote four plays on the idea of redemption using simple characters but with highly complicated and poetic language. These plays have come to be called "romances" because they all have stories of high adventure, magical power and many coincidences, much as the romance stories of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. (You may recall that Don Quixote by Shakespeare's contemporary Cervantes was obsessed with romances.) Robert Langbaum says of the romances and The Tempest in particular, it is "a deliberate return to naivete." (Langbaum's introduction to the Signet edition is excellent, and I recommend you read it.)
The romances all share some things in common. They are all set in distant lands or olden times. They all have as their central characters rulers who are under threat of being overthrown. These characters are often responsible for their own downfall because of their own sinful actions. They all involve the innocent daughter of a king who is the instrument of order being restored. All the plays end in a wedding or reaffirmation of marriage vows. Although the plays are classified as comedies and do have some comic scenes, they are not the laugh-a-minute, slam-bang kinds of plays like A Midsummer Dream. Instead their most important effect is the restoration of order and the redemption of people who have managed to screw their lives up. There is an almost religious quality about the romances, as though Shakespeare were showing us how God might view humankind. Through innocence and many coincidences the romances demonstrate over and over how good comes out of apparent evil and how much of what we experience in daily life is an illusion, if only we could see it.
The Tempest is an unusual Shakespearean play because it has no source for the story. (The only other play that Shakespeare didn't steal the plot for was Love's Labors Lost.) It is also unusual because there really is no suspense. Normally in a play, the writer creates conflict within a dramatic situation and builds suspense until the conflict is resolved. In The Tempest we have a potential conflict and dramatic situation, but by the end of the second scene all the suspense is gone. The protagonist is a powerful, omniscient wizard (I like to think of him as the old comic book hero, Superman) who controls all the events and manipulates all the characters to the ends he has chosen for them. What Shakespeare is left with is creating the illusion of suspense and generating a sense of magic and wonder. And yet this is one of Shakespeare's most charming and popular works.
Although Shakespeare had no source for the basic plot of the play, he did use some contemporary material which makes this work especially interesting. The play was written at a time of enormous interest in voyages of discovery. Travel accounts (both authentic and fictional) were among the popular works of the day. In particular the English colony at Jamestown in Virginia had started, financed by a private stock company. In 1609 a fleet of ships with supplies and colonists for the new settlement was blown off course by a terrible storm near Bermuda (then thought to be inhabited by devils). The flagship went aground and was presumed lost, but those onboard managed to get ashore without loss of life and found the island very hospitable. Later they were able to construct a boat which got all of them to Jamestown. Their salvation was declared a miracle and an account of the adventure was written by William Strachey and circulated among the stockowners in the venture, several of whom were associated with Shakespeare. In the back of the Signet edition there are some passages from Strachey's account which make clear Shakespeare's debt, both in idea and specific language, for the play.
Another source for some of the ideas in the play is to be found in the essays of the French writer Montaigne. He was a civil servant in sixteenth century France who witnessed the worst excesses of the religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants in that country. Montaigne tried to retain his humanity by writing some of the most thoughtful essays on a variety of themes. One of his most famous was called "On the Cannibals." Montaigne addressed the shock and disgust that many Europeans felt when they learned that many natives in the New World engaged in ritual cannibalism. (In fact some scholars think the word "cannibal" came from "Carib," the name of the peoples who lived on islands in the Caribbean.) Montaigne offered the opinion that he preferred cannibals to the kind of religious extremists and hypocrites who lived in France. At least the cannibals were open about their actions. Montaigne went on to describe the idyllic life of the simple "noble savages" who lived in the New World, a powerful idea which is still with us. Shakespeare knew Montaigne's essay in translation, but he disagreed with the Frenchman, preferring civilization with all its faults as a necessary restraint on the kind of innate human evil of people like Iago. Montaigne's ideas are included in the play, and the name for the character of Caliban may be a play on "cannibal." Check out the original essay in the final section of your Signet edition.
The only film version of this play that I can recommend is a video of a television production done back around 1960, starring Maurice Evans as the lead, a very young Lee Remick as Miranda, Roddy McDowell as Ariel and, surprisingly, Richard Burton as Caliban. It's available in the DVC Media Center and is only about 90 minutes long.
Act I, scene one
In this scene we get the tempest of the play's title. A ship is caught in a savage storm and is being driven aground off an unmapped island. The boatswain, an irreverent sailor, commands the men and tries to put on enough sails to keep the ship from being blown ashore. "Yarely" or "quickly" [line 4] he keeps urging. The social tempest is equally violent. A king and his courtiers are the passengers, and they keep trying to interfere with the running of the ship in this emergency. When the boatswain orders them to go below and let his men work, the court people remind him who they are. He responds by telling them sarcastically to "use your authority" [line 24] on the storm. Sebastian and Antonio, two of the play's villains, are particularly angry and profane in their fight with the boatswain [line 41--46]. The king's senior councilor, Gonzalo, sees hope in the boatswain's lack of reverence: obviously such a disrespectful commoner is destined to die by hanging, "his complexion is perfect gallows," [line 31] so as long as he's on board no one will drown [line 47]. When the ship does run aground and splits, everyone panics. Gonzalo has a poignant comment at the end when he says he would willingly trade "a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground" [line 64--65] because he would rather die a dry death. Through the ages humans have dreaded the prospect of death at sea.
Act I, scene 2, lines 1 -- 186
[Lines 1 -- 13]: Miranda confirms what the action in the previous scene suggested to us -- the destruction of the ship off shore. She says there were there is lightning (fire in the sky) which is extinguished by the stormy ocean that "dashes out the fire" in "the welkin's cheek," or "face of the sky," [line 4-5]. Remember Miranda has never seen another human being other than her father (and possibly Caliban on a good day), and yet her heart goes out in sympathy for the poor souls in the brave, or gallant, ship that was swallowed up. If she had had the power of a god she would have sunk the sea into the earth to save the ship. This passage demonstrates Miranda's natural goodness and empathy for others.
[Line 13 -- 22]: Prospero reassures his daughter that all is well, that no harm's done. Furthermore he tells her that he has done all this on her behalf. And now he proposes to tell her who she really is. For a teenager, Miranda seems very docile. She assures her father she has never wondered about her origins: "More to know/Did never meddle with my thoughts," [lines 21-22]. Docile to the point of heavy medication or natural imbecility? That's too harsh! Miranda is just incredibly innocent, and her father intends to keep her that way, at least for a little while longer.
[Lines 23 -- 53]: Before Prospero can tell his daughter who he really is, he must take off his magic robe, which he refers to as "my art," [line 25] or source of his magical power. He will also refer to his magic staff and his books as source of his extraordinary powers. These are important in the play because when Caliban wants to seize power, these are what he tries to get and when Prospero wants to give up his power, he must destroy them. Prospero again reassures Miranda and commends her on her compassion. He tells her no one was injured in the shipwreck. (Remember the miraculous wreck at Bermuda in Strachey's account where no one perished!) He will now tell her who they really are. He has apparently started to tell her before but always stopped himself, saying, "Stay, not yet." The time has now arrived. He asks if she can remember a time before they came to the island, and she does remember having women who waited on her, but that's all she can recall.
[Line 54 -- 132]: Prospero starts his story. Twelve years previously Miranda's father had been the Duke of Milan. (Shakespeare probably pronounced the Italian city with the accent on the first syllable: MILL-on). Miranda is confused. "Aren't you my father?" This introduces a little humorous by-play found frequently in the plays when the question of parentage comes up. In those benighted days before blood tests and DNA, who was the father of a child depended upon people's perception. So at line 56 Prospero says in effect, "Well, your mother told me I was your father, and I have no reason to doubt her word." At line 60 Miranda asks a key question, "What foul play had we that we came from thence?/Or blessed was it that we did?" This is the apparent paradox posed by all the romances, where good things apparently arise out of bad. Prospero recognizes the paradoxical nature of what happened to him and Miranda because he answers, "Both, both" (blessing/foul play), [line 61]. Naturally compassionate, Miranda worries about how much trouble ("teen") [line 64] she caused her father at that time.
Prospero recounts how as duke he turned the running of the state over to his beloved brother, Antonio, in order to spend his time in what he calls "liberal arts" [line 73]. (Almost any advanced study in Shakespeare's days suggested studying the occult.) Prospero describes how Antonio as substitute duke used his position to create courtiers who supported him, so that after awhile Antonio had obscured the true leader of Milan: "he was/ The ivy which had hid my princely trunk" [line 85-86]. Prospero calls what he was doing instead of governing "the bettering of his mind" [line 91]. As commendable as that sounds, to the Elizabethans Prospero was at fault for neglecting his duty as a leader. They prized an active life, especially in helping to run a state, over the life of study and contemplation.
At this point the suspense is pretty much over. We'll find out the details of how Prospero and his child came to the island and what he intends to do to his enemies, but any doubt about the outcome has been dispelled when we learn that he raised and controlled the storm. Nobody can defeat Superman on his own island. It's at this point Shakespeare begins creating an artificial suspense. One subtle way he does this is to make Prospero appear cranky with Miranda, as if his anger is building so fast he may not be able to control his temper when he confronts the castaways on his island. Six times he tells her to pay attention or accuses her of not listening as he tells about Antonio's plot. "Golly," we think, "if he's this angry with his innocent, dutiful daughter, what's he going to do when he meets his brother in the flesh?"
Prospero finishes his account of how his evil brother formed a conspiracy with Alonso, the ambitious king of Naples, to overthrow Prospero and get rid of him and Miranda, the rightful heir to the throne. Ever polite, Miranda at line 118 regrets thinking bad thoughts about her grandmother, Antonio's mother, but observes that "Good wombs have borne bad sons," [line 119]. Antonio opened the gates of Milan in the night to the army of Alonso which helped him seize power.
[Line 132 -- 186]: Rather than being guilty of regicide, the conspirators placed the overthrown duke and his daughter on a rotten boat and cast them adrift in the Mediterranean. However, even here, Prospero recalls that the waves and wind seemed to empathize and "did us but loving wrong," [line 151]. The paradoxical nature of the wrong (beneficial/ foul play) is also shown in the cheerful temperament of little Miranda
("Infused with a fortitude from heaven,") [line 154] and in the actions of Gonzalo, the councilor to King Alonso. Gonzalo out of his own charity provided them with supplies and most importantly Prospero's books, the second source of his magical powers. Miranda, in a foreshadowing, wishes that she might meet the good Gonzalo. On the island Prospero has raised and educated his daughter better than she might have been back in Milan. Still unclear about the connection to the present, Miranda asks why her father has raised the storm. Prospero explains that Fortune has helped him by bringing all the men who had done him wrong close to the island. He has an opportunity to right the wrongs done to him, but he must act quickly. At this point he simply puts Miranda to sleep so he can move ahead with his plan. ( Upon his return to civilization Prospero actually patented the Adolescent Sleep Inducer, as he called his technique, and sold it with infomercials on late-night cable shows. Made a fortune!)
Act I, scene 2, lines 187 -- 304
[Lines 187 -- 224]: Ariel is Prospero' secret weapon, a spirit that is invisible to all but his master and who is capable of taking any shape, performing any magical task, and commanding other spirits as well. It is Ariel who did the actual storm illusion. He describes how he appeared on the ship as the rare phenomenon St. Elmo's fire, a condition during electric storms at sea when strange flames develop around a ship. As Ariel says at line 198, "I flamed amazement." In Shakespeare's day it was believed that lightning was the burning of sulfur in the atmosphere and that it signaled the appearance of the thunder that caused the real damage in a storm. Ariel says his display was even more awesome. Now Shakespeare had read of accounts of St. Elmo's fire in some of the incredibly popular travel books of his age, including the "True Repertory" of the 1610 wreck on Bermuda by Strachey. It is Ariel's display that induced all the passengers to jump overboard. Ferdinand, at line 214--215, cried: "Hell is empty,/ And all the devils are here!" Ariel has dispersed the castaways in different groups around the island, and we'll find out that this is to facilitate Prospero's master plan. Most importantly Ferdinand is by himself, believing everyone else is drowned.
Ariel is fascinated by human behavior, and he imitates the prince's gestures of despair at lines 222 --224: "cooling of the air with sigh,/ In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting,/ His arms in this sad knot." As the play progresses Ariel is the one who reports to Prospero on the emotional state of people in Alonzo's party. Who, or what, is Ariel? He is distinctly non-human, one of the spirit associated with a particular place that many in Shakespeare's audience believed in fervently. Remember Puck, Oberon and Titania and their intimate connection with the forest? Many scholars believe that Ariel is associated with air and fire, two of basic elements of creation for the Elizabethans. We certainly see this identification in the description of the storm. (Of the other two elements, earth and water, earth is definitely associated with Caliban; Ariel could also be said to connected with water, but so too is Caliban on occasion.) We'll also discover that Ariel's gender is also open to conjecture. Several times he adopts disguises as female beings. In many modern productions Ariel is played by a woman for physical as well as psychological reasons, not the least of which is to generate a subtle sexual tension with Prospero.
[Lines 224 -- 304]: Ariel has safely hidden the ship with the crew in a kind of suspended animation. It is here that Ariel mentions the ship's hiding place in conjunction with Bermuda, what Ariel calls "the still [always] vexed Bermoothes," [line 229]. Prospero had sent his spirit assistant there for some dew. Although Shakespeare clearly had in mind the places and experiences of the New World when writing this play, don't forget that the actual location of the island is in the Mediterranean, somewhere between Naples and Tunis in North Africa.
When Prospero mentions there is more work to do that afternoon, Ariel rather testily reminds Prospero of his promise to grant the spirit his liberty after a specified period of time. (A historical factoid: probably 60% of the immigrants who came to the English colonies before the Revolution came, like Ariel, as indentured servants who got someone to pay their passage or their debts in exchange for 10 years of servitude, or more properly slavery.) This reminder in turn sets off an outburst from the mighty magician. Prospero threatens the spirit and reminds him of how he had rescued him from torment.
We now get the history of the island. The first human to arrive was a witch from Algiers named Sycorax, convicted of "mischiefs manifold and soceries terrible," [line 264]. Rather than being executed, which was normal in such cases, she was banished to this uninhabited island. This may well have been because she was pregnant; pregnancy was a time-honored way to escape the gallows. All we are told about Sycorax is that she had a pronounced stoop, so much so she had grown into a hoop. She tried to enslave Ariel, but the spirit was "too delicate/ To act her earthy and abhorred commands," [line 272--273]. (The mind boggles at what Sycorax might have commanded Ariel to do!) Anyway, she imprisoned the spirit in a pine tree, gave birth to her son, Caliban. (Prospero calls the birth "littering") and later died. For 12 years Ariel groaned inside the tree until Prospero's magic freed him. Now, says Prospero, "if you complain any more I'll put you inside an oak tree." Think for a moment about the different between a pine, which has regular, smooth grain, and an oak, the grain of which is twisted. Which sounds less comfortable? Here again we see that crankiness in Prospero that we observed with Miranda. This guy reminds us of Capulet, a decent man until you cross him and he explodes in rage. Except that it's all show. He has no intention of punishing anyone. He needs Ariel to carry out his master plan, and he needs his daughter as bait. Prospero tells Ariel to assume the shape of an invisible sea nymph (line 301) and get back to work. Since a "nymph" was a female spirit we see that gender ambiguity with Ariel that I spoke of before. With a "sea nymph" we see that identification with the element of water I also mentioned.
Act I, scene 2, lines 305 -- 374
Prospero awakens Miranda and tells her they must go and speak to their slave, Caliban. We can tell what Prospero thinks of Caliban by looking at what he calls him: "a freckled whelp, hagborn," [line 283]; "slave," [line 313 and lots of other places]; "thou earth," [line 314]; "tortoise," [lie 316]; "got by the devil himself/ upon thy wicked dam," (your father was the devil and your mother was a wicked animal) [line 319-320]; "filth as thou art," [line 346]; "hagseed," [line 365]; "malice," [line 367]. I think we can conclude that there is tension in the relationship. Notice how many of these insults are based on animal images, such as "whelp" for a mongrel dog. Also we get that association of Caliban with the element of earth. Miranda is uncomfortable in the presence of Caliban, and with good reason: Caliban was treated as a member of the family and was taught language, until he tried to rape Miranda. Unlike Ariel, there is absolutely no doubt about Caliban's gender or the hatred father and daughter have for him. However, as Prospero points out, they need him to do the menial work, so they keep him imprisoned under a rock out back of the cell where they live.
Given his ancestry and the way Miranda and Prospero speak of him, you might expect some kind of monosyllabic monster. But this is Shakespeare, who delights in doing the unexpected, so we get in Caliban the character who is the most eloquent in the play. Look at his first curse at lines 321 -- 324. It's verbally violent but also rather poetic. Shakespeare makes Caliban speak English in a rather unusual way, as someone might for whom English is not his first language. Look at his version of what happened on the island: "When thou camest first, / Thou strokest me and made much of me; wouldst give me/ Water with berries in't; and teach me how/ To name the bigger light and how the lesser that burn by day and night," [lines 333--336]. Notice the rhythmic pattern of repetition of words and sounds and the graceful way he refers to sun and moon, the words for which he's forgotten. Caliban speaks in beautiful verse throughout most of the play.
Caliban has a legitimate grievance against Prospero. As he points out at line 331, "This island's mine by Sycorax my mother,/ Which thou tak'st from me." Although he is powerless to resist Prospero's magic, and although he is physically tormented by Prospero's cruelty ( at line 317: "thou shalt be pinched/ As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging/ Than the bees that made 'em"), Caliban still resists. He curses Prospero and Miranda: "all the charms/ Of Sycorax -- toads, beetles, bats light on you," [line 339--340]. Rather than denying the charge of attempted rape, he revels in it: "Would it had been done [the rape]./ Thou didst prevent me./ I had people else/ This isle with Calibans," [lines 349 -- 351].
The speech which most condemns Caliban is at lines 351 -- 362, and it is a bit of a mystery because it is attributed to Miranda, who has appeared up to this point a very delicate and compassionate young girl. Directors in production often give the speech to Prospero, who after all is very cranky here as elsewhere in the play. (In the recording that accompanies the taped lecture on this play, the speech is delivered by Prospero.) Other directors choose to have Miranda keep the speech and suggest that this otherwise shy and kind-hearted young woman is rabid in her hatred of the slave, thereby confirming that Caliban is thoroughly bad because even nice people hate him. There is in the speech a classic example of cultural arrogance of the kind that Europeans used to justify their forcible colonization of Third World peoples. Miranda claims, "I pitied thee,/ Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour/ One thing or other. When thou didst not, savage,/ Know thy own meaning, but wouldst gabble like/ A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes/ With words that made them known," [lines 353 -- 358]. The assumption here is of course that natives can't even communicate without their European masters. Caliban has a great comeback: "You taught me language, and my profit on't/ Is, I know how to curse!" [lines 363--364]
Act I, scene 2, lines 374 -- 502
Suddenly Ariel appears, singing and playing an instrument, followed by King Alonso's son, Prince Ferdinand. The invisible Ariel has lured the prince into following him with music. The first song we hear appears to be a kind of nonsense song with the sounds of dogs and a crowing rooster; however, it contains that image of harmony symbolized by music and dancing that we saw in A Midsummer Night's Dream when Oberon and Titania reconciled. In this case the harmony is imposed upon the "wild waves," [line 378]. Ferdinand is intrigued by the music and believes it must be played for some god. However, when he first heard it, as he sat mourning for his father's death, it eased the ocean's storm and his own inner turmoil.
The next song Ariel sings is even more pointed in its meaning for Ferdinand. "Full fathoms five thy father lies," [line 397]. Here the noble son is mourning his father he assumes is drowned; it's likely he's even thinking about the body underwater and how it will rot and be eaten. How cruelly tasteless to sing of the event and remind poor Ferdinand of his loss! And yet….
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange. [lines 398 -- 402]
Now Ariel begins to describe a strange kind of transformation whereby the physical body becomes one with the natural world, and rather than the corruption of death we have a magical change into "something rich and strange." All of the romances have this kind of magical quality where human emotions, especially sorrow and loss, are shown to be limited, where death is not what we thought at all!
Prospero points out Ferdinand to Miranda ("The fringed curtains of thine eyes advance," [line 409], and her first reaction is to see him as a spirit, [line 411] a natural reaction given how she has been raised. When her father assures her he is another human being, she calls him "a thing divine," [line 419]. Of course, when Ferdinand first sees Miranda, he mistakes her for the "goddess" of the isle at line 422. The innocent girl sees in Ferdinand something wonderfully new; he sees in her innocent beauty something almost supernatural. Now Prospero reveals his master plan: "It goes on, I see,/ As my soul prompts it," [line 420--421]. This is what Prospero has planned all along: he will throw his daughter and Prince Ferdinand together, encourage them to fall in love and marry, and Prospero will be restored to the throne of Milan, as well as becoming the father of the future ruler of Naples. He reassures the invisible Ariel twice that he will free him within two days for the successful plot.
Miranda and Ferdinand promptly fall in love. In lines 422 -- 428, without even noticing Prospero's presence, Ferdinand asks "the goddess" three questions: 1.) Do you "remain" or live on this isle? 2.) "Will you some good instruction give/ How I may bear me?"
3.) Whether or not you're still unmarried ("a maid")? The second question is especially revealing of the courtly ideal of that age. Ferdinand, as a courtly gentleman, is always concerned about being correct in his behavior and speech (how to "bear me"). Before he even asks where he is or how he can survive on a desert island, he wants to know which fork to use and if his clothes are in style. Miranda is transfixed by his attention. By
line 449 he's already talking about making her Queen of Naples.
Prospero, however, continues to play the cranky father, but now for a different reason. As he tells us at lines 451 -- 453, "But this swift business/ I must uneasy make, lest too light winning/ Make the prize light." His final psychological touch in the love plot is to serve as an obstacle which will make the kids fall even more in love. He accuses Ferdinand of usurping the title of King of Naples when it does not belong to him. Then he declares that Ferdinand is a spy who has come to take the island from him. When the prince naturally resists, he places a charm on Ferdinand so that he cannot lift his sword and threatens to chain him and feed him nothing but mussels, roots and acorn husks with seawater to drink. When Miranda pleads for her love, Prospero tells her to shut up, and accuses her of trying to overturn the natural order: "My foot my tutor!" [line 469] ("You, who are below me want to teach me the truth?") As he leads the enchanted Ferdinand to be imprisoned, he forbids his daughter to speak for him.
Tempest Act II, Scene 1
Lines 1 -- 188
Shakespeare now deals with the "bad guys": Prospero's brother, Antonio; Alonso, King of Naples; and his brother, Sebastian. They are accompanied by several other lords and the good old councilor Gonzalo, who helped save Prospero. When these men are placed on an island, freed from all restraints of civilization, their natural evil begins to assert itself. As far as they know they are the only survivors of the wreck, cast up on a desert island from which escape is unlikely. Alonso, convinced that his son is drowned, is filled with despair, despite the best efforts of Gonzalo and others to cheer him up. Sebastian and Antonio cynically heckle Gonzalo's efforts to comfort the king.
Gonzalo opens with the observation that they are lucky to be alive, and their survival must be a basis for comfort. Antonio and Sebastian start their heckling, sometimes just between the two of them, sometimes loud enough for Gonzalo to hear. They mock what they see as old Gonzalo's slow wits: "Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike," [line 14--15]. Gonzalo continues by observing that if they entertain or suffer every grief that's offered, all they get for their pains is….And before he can finish his thought Sebastian jumps in to say, "A dollar," [line 20]. That's right, concludes Gonzalo, you get "a dolor" (or pain). The two jokers have a bet on whether Gonzalo or Adrian, another lord, will "first begin to crow," [line 31]. When Adrian comments that although the island appears deserted, it has "a subtle, tender and delicate temperance," [line 45], Antonio turns it into a bawdy reference about a girl named Temperance (a common name, especially among Protestant families) who is "subtle." (As we saw in Othello, the word can be used to imply sexual promiscuity.) When Gonzalo describes the surprising qualities of the island, he says, "but the rarity of it is -- which is indeed almost beyond credit [or belief] -- " only to have Sebastian interrupt with, "as many vouched rarities are," [lines 61 -- 63]. Sebastian is referring to the exaggerated reports and outright lies which were found in many of the travelers' accounts of the day. This tendency toward disbelief runs throughout the play.
It is a disbelief that we might well share were we in the same circumstances. What Shakespeare has done, by focusing on the asides and private jokes between Sebastian and Antonio, is to encourage us to share their cynical and disbelieving point of view at first. The irony is that old Gonzalo is absolutely right, if only the others would listen. Around line 65 he observes that their clothes, rather than being stained with seawater, are fresh. Instead of seeing the obvious Sebastian begins to berate Alonso sarcastically for agreeing to marry his daughter to the King of Tunis in North Africa. (It was on the return voyage that the shipwreck has occurred.) When Gonzalo recalls the famous mythical history of Carthage (near the modern city of Tunis), he refers familiarly to the "Widow Dido," which sets off Antonio and Sebastian ridiculing the old man some more, Finally at line 111 following Alonso responds, "You cram these words into my ears against/ The stomach of my sense." The king is filled with self-recrimination and despair. He now blames himself for agreeing to his daughter's marriage because it has led to the death of his only son, Ferdinand: "what strange fish/ Hath made his meal on thee?'"
[line 117--118]. Despite the assurance from another lord that Ferdinand was seen swimming to shore above "the contentious waves," [line 123], the king has given way to despair and insists his son is dead. Sebastian deepens that despair by hammering on Alonso's guilt: "We have lost your son,/ I fear, forever. Milan and Naples have/ Moe [more] widows in them of this business' making/ Than we bring men to comfort them./ The fault's your own," [lines 136 -- 139]. To which Alonso in his grief cries out, "So is the dearest of the loss," [line 140].
Gonzalo chides the two cynics for making the situation worse. He now changes the subject and begins describing how he would rule the island if he had the management ("plantation" at line 148) of it. Beginning at line 152 and running to line 169, Gonzalo gives us a paraphrase of what the French essayist Montaigne had written in his essay "On the Cannibals." He outlines a ideal society which would exist without industry, trade, money or laws, one in which people would live simply on Nature's abundance and therefore would not know any human vices, like jealousy or hatred. This only arouses Sebastian and Antonio's scornful humor, as they gleefully point out the inconsistencies in Gonzalo's plan. When Alonso objects that he isn't paying attention, Gonzalo says he is only sharing his thoughts to provide fodder for the Antonio and Sebastian, "who are of such sensible and nimble lungs that they always use to laugh at nothing," [line 178--179]. He observes about them at line 186 following, "You are gentlemen of brave mettle; you would lift the moon out of her sphere if she would continue in it five weeks without changing."
Act II, Scene 1
Lines 189 -- 331
Prospero now proceeds with his plot for the villains. He sends Ariel to induce sleep in everyone but Sebastian and Antonio. The king, Gonzalo and the courtiers quickly drop off to sleep, while the two arch villains promise to keep guard. Once they are asleep, it only takes about six lines of dialogue before Antonio suggests an evil plot to Sebastian: "My strong imagination sees a crown/ Dropping upon thy head," [line 212--213]. For the next 30 lines or so Sebastian and Antonio dance around the subject, with Antonio hinting at some big opportunity if Sebastian will only listen to reason. Antonio then insists that Ferdinand is drowned, and Sebastian agrees. The next heir to the throne of Naples after the prince is Claribel, Alonso's daughter now in Tunis, and so far removed that she will never hear the news from Naples. That leaves Sebastian as the next in line for the crown, should something happen to Alonso. From about line 265 to 300 Antonio is urging Sebastian to agree to the assassination of Alonso and Gonzalo. And yet in all that language there are a couple of key words missing, words we would expect to hear. What are they? Why are they missing?
Antonio's plan is simplicity itself. He will stab Alonso (thereby allowing Sebastian to escape the further crime of fratricide) if his associate will kill Gonzalo at the same time. As for the rest of the court, they'll simply accept the political reality after the fact. In exchange for engineering this coup, Antonio will no longer have to pay annual tribute to Naples, the cost of his overthrow of Prospero. As they pause just before doing the deed, Ariel returns, whispers in Gonzalo's ear that Prospero anticipated this plot and has sent the spirit to wake him, "(For else his project dies,)" [line 303]. To complete the awakening, Ariel sings a song about "open-eyed conspiracy," [line 305]. Gonzalo rouses the others and they discover the two plotters, their swords drawn. The bad guys quickly claim they were responding to loud noises, perhaps the roaring of wild beasts, and only trying to protect the king. The castaways all arm themselves and continue to search for Ferdinand.
A moment's reflection will reveal how desperate Antonio's and Sebastian's plot is. Here these people are on a desert island with no hope of rescue and no assurance that they can even survive for very long. Under these circumstances, what difference does it make who is the king of Naples?
The Tempest Act II, scene 2
We now go to the opposite end of the social spectrum. The humor in this scene is right out of "The Three Stooges." What's unusual about this scene is that it is the only one in the play where Prospero and/or Ariel are not present and of which they have no prior knowledge. It's also interesting because it is a parody of the ritual of discovery. We're all familiar with the idea of first contact, whether it's Columbus meeting the native people of the "Indies" or the kids finding "E.T." in the Spielberg film. Of course, Shakespeare was close in time to the voyages of discovery, and he was familiar with many accounts in the travel books of his time, and he used some of this material in writing the play. For example, in the book History of Travel by Eden Shakespeare learned that when Magellan's expedition landed in Patagonia at the southern tip of South America, they found that the natives worshipped the god Setebos. This exotic figure shows up in Act I, scene 2 at line 373 when Caliban identifies him as the god his witch-mother Sycorax worshipped. Shakespeare also learned about how natives reacted when they first met Europeans, an experience he shows in this scene.
Caliban, sent out to gather wood, enters cursing his master in eloquent terms: "All the infections that the sun sucks up/ From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him/ By inchmeal [inch-by-inch] a disease!" [lines 1 -- 3]. Caliban is absolutely sure that the spirits which torment in the night do so only at Prospero's command: "sometimes am I/ All wound with adders, who with cloven tongues/ Do hiss me into madness," [lines 12--14]. Caliban is frightened by the appearance of Trinculo and pretends to be dead to avoid what he assumes is a vengeful spirit. Trinculo, a jester in Alonso's court, is an unlikely explorer and is only interested in avoiding the coming storm. When he first finds Caliban, he thinks it is a fish, and a pretty old one at that, based on the smell. Trinculo's first thought is that if he had this fish in England, he could have made a fortune: "There would this monster make a man," [line 31]. As he says rather cynically about Englishmen, "When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian," [lines 32 --34]. This is a morbid reminder that the great discoveries of exploration had their dark sides, such as the trade in exotic bodies and body parts. As Trinculo discovers more human characteristics of Caliban, he changes his mind and decides this is the body of an islander killed by a thunderbolt. When the storm grows worse, he gets under Caliban's cloak, offering the now famous line, "Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows," [lines 41--42].
Now Stephano, Alonso's butler, enters in a drunken state. He sings a bawdy little ballad about Kate, who hated sailors, "Yet a tailor might scratch her where'er she did itch,"
[line 54]. He's frightened when he sees what he takes to be a four-legged monster, what he calls a savage or man of Inde (India), a reference to those travel books I mentioned earlier. Like Trinculo, Stephano's first thought is to take this monster back home where he could make a fortune, "a present for an emperor," [line 71]. He thinks the monster is sick with a fever ("ague") and proposes to cure him with the wine he has with him: "if he have never drunk wine afore, it will go near to remove his fit," [lines 76 -- 78]. It's interesting that Caliban starts this scene speaking verse, then shifting to prose, while Trinculo and Stephano speak prose consistently. Stephano finds Caliban's head and pours wine into his mouth, saying, "here is that which will give language to you," [line 85]. Prospero and his daughter had taught Caliban to speak, and now a drunk proposes to give him the means of communicating through wine. Trinculo recognizes Stephano's voice and cries out to him, frightening him into thinking he's dealing with a four-legged devil rather than a monster. Not for the only time in the play, Stephano panics: "I will leave him. I have no long spoon," [line 103], meaning that he doesn't want to get any closer. When Trinculo persists and finally gets Stephano to recognize him, the drunken Stephano is amazed by the apparent anatomy of his discovery at line 111: "How cam'st thou to be the siege [shit] of this mooncalf? Can he vent [fart] Trinculos?" Obviously he thinks the Trinculo end of the monster is anatomically somewhat lower than the Caliban end. "Mooncalf" is what both the castaways end up calling Caliban. The name suggests some kind of natural monstrosity, caused by the baleful influence of the moon.
The way Stephano and Trinculo treat Caliban and the way he responds to them recall the stories of many encounters between native peoples and European explorers. The newcomers use liquor ("firewater" in the old cowboy and Indian movies) to impress, control and oppress. The natives often responded to the Europeans as if they were gods: "These be fine things, and if they be not sprites./ That's a brave god and bears celestial liquor./ I will kneel to him," says Caliban at lines 121 -- 123. When Caliban asks if they have not dropped from heaven, Stephano tells him, "Out of the moon, I do assure thee. I was the Man in the Moon," [line 143]. Caliban naively replies, "I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee," [line 145]. Later he begs the drunken butler to be his god [line 156]. Of course, what Caliban foolishly does is to exchange one master for another, and in the process to glorify the worst of humankind into a deity. All the arduous tasks he reluctantly performed for Prospero he now gladly offers to do for his new god. Caliban even offers his one advantage over everyone else, his knowledge of the island at line
168 -- 172 and again at lines 175 -- 180. (Read about my interpretation of "scamels" in the "Notes on The Tempest" from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival program.)
The wine Stephano has saved from the wreck quickly becomes the basis of power in the new dynamics of the island, and he assumes control. At line 135 when he gives Trinculo a drink, he solemnly says, "Here, kiss the book," the same phrase judges used when they swore people in to give testimony in court. He eagerly accepts Caliban's offer of footlicking devotion. He officially accepts command at lines 181 -- 185. At the same time Stephano moves into the power, Trinculo begins to compete with Caliban for the new leader's attention. From line 151 -- 196 how many times does Trinculo insult Caliban or try to warn of his possible betrayal? What reasons besides competition for Stephano's affection seems to motivate Trinculo's reaction to Caliban?
The Tempest Act III, scene 1
Just as Caliban was shown at the beginning of the last scene gathering wood, so this scene begins with Ferdinand hauling logs, a task the prince is undoubtedly not used to. But unlike Caliban, Ferdinand takes pleasure in the job: "some kinds of baseness/Are nobly undergone," [line 2-3]. He thinks of himself serving Miranda, who "makes my labors pleasure," [line 7]. The difference in attitude toward work is instructive: Caliban rebels and Ferdinand finds meaning. Miranda enters, with her father, unseen, watching, and she urges Ferdinand to rest as she weeps for him. She even offers to haul the logs in his place at line 24, which, of course, he refuses. While Prospero looks on and approves, Ferdinand asks her name, and Miranda blurts it out and immediately remembers his father's strict admonition not to do so at line 37. This scene in some ways parallels the previous "ritual of discovery" with Caliban and his new friends.
"Admired Miranda!" declares Ferdinand, making a subtle play on her name at line 37. For Shakespeare's audience the charm of this scene lies in the contrast between the worldly, sophisticated prince ("Full many a lady/I have eyed with best regard," [line 39-40]) and the absolutely innocent girl ("Nor have I seen/More that I may call men than you, good friend,/And my dear father," [line 50--52]). Ferdinand declares her to be "So perfect and so peerless," [line 47]. Much like Juliet in the balcony scene, Miranda doesn't play the courtship game, in this case because she's totally unaware of it. At line 67 she simply asks if he loves her, and at line 83, like Juliet, she proposes marriage. In fact she tells him, "To be your fellow [equal]/You may deny me; but I'll be your servant,/whether you will or no," [lines 84 -- 86]. The gallant Ferdinand accepts her offer saying appropriately that he does so as willingly as a person in bondage would welcome freedom at line 88--89.
Of course this rapid courtship is helped along by Prospero's reverse psychology. The more he has oppressed and separated them, the more they love. Miranda keeps recalling her father's strict orders, the moment after she's broken them. Ferdinand's condition as a prisoner and slave seems to enflame his passions. The hidden Prospero tells us three times that this is exactly what he had planned: "So glad of this as they I cannot be, /Who are surprised withal; but my rejoicing/At nothing can be more," [line 92-94]. They may be surprised by falling in love, but he's not, and while they are supremely happy, he rejoices as well, especially since it helps fulfill his political plans. Notice at the very end of this scene [line 94] Prospero refers to "his book" as another source of his magical power.
The Tempest, Act III, Scene 2
If the previous scene was Prospero's "love plot," this scene with Caliban convincing Stephano and Trinculo to murder Prospero and seize his power becomes the "comic plot." Once again, the humor is slapstick and physical, but there are a couple of interesting subtleties.
As the scene opens all three of the comic conspirators are drunk, and proud of it. (Trinculo observes that there are only five people on the island, and if the other two are in the same shape as the three of them, "the state totters," [line 7]. Stephano clearly enjoys lording it over the other two, commanding them to continue to drink to his honor. Trinculo is still jealous of Caliban's position with Stephano. At line 4 he calls him "The folly of this isle!" and at line 26 "most ignorant monster." At line 30 he accuses Caliban of lying and brings up his original theory that he was a fish: "Wilt thou tell a monstrous lie, being but half a fish and half a monster?" One difference is that Caliban now understands the threat posed by Trinculo and tries to curry favor with Stephano by badmouthing Trinculo. "I'll not serve him; he's not valiant," [line 25], and asking Stephano to bite Trinculo to death at line 36. It is so gratifying to see the benefits of civilization brought to indigenous people like Caliban! Stephano extends his "royal" protection to his monster and orders Trinculo to leave him alone, on pain of getting no more wine.
Now Caliban begins to assert more and more leadership. He has proposed a plan to overthrow Prospero. Unfortunately for the Caliban Liberation movement, invisible Ariel stumbles on the conspirators and hears everything. Besides promising to tell Prospero, he engages in some dirty tricks and interrupts Caliban's pitch by shouting "Thou liest!" which gets poor clueless Trinculo beaten. Trust me, it plays a lot funnier than it reads. Caliban's account is filled with recriminations: Prospero stole the island from him [line 47]; all the spirits hate Prospero as much as Caliban [line 98]. But what Caliban most uses to motivate Stephano to lead the coup d'tat is the allure of the "nonpareil" Miranda. As Caliban says of her, "I never saw a woman/But only Sycorax my dam and she;/ But she as far surpasseth Sycorax/ As great'st does least," [lines 104 -- 107].
When Caliban discuss how they can get rid of Prospero, he is brutally direct: "I'll yield him thee asleep/Where thou mayst knock a nail into his head," [line 64--65]. Look at lines 93 -- 95. How many different ways has Caliban come up with to kill Prospero? What does this tell us about Caliban and what has occupied his thoughts for some time? How is Caliban's language discussing assassination different from that of Antonio and Sebastian? Notice also that Caliban thinks he has figured out the source of Prospero's power. What is it?
As the conspirators march off to do the deed, Caliban begs that they sing the "catch" or round that they had just taught him, and they gladly agree. Caliban is delighted with this simple song of "Flout 'em and scout 'em" sung in parts because it is new to him. Ariel livens things up when he produces his "magical" music, invisibly. Both Stephano and Trinculo freak out and pray for forgiveness, thinking they are about to die. Caliban asks, "Art thou afeard?" [line 138] and begins to see some small flaws in his all-too-human gods. Caliban describes the music of the island, which is considerably better than the castaways' "catches." His description from line 140 -- 148 is one of the most poetic in the play and quite illuminating about the power of art. Read it closely. Trinculo and Stephano turn the episode into a joke, but they are distracted by the music and follow it, with Caliban reluctantly following after.
The Tempest Act III, scene 3
The first scene of Act III was the love plot. Ariel will tell Prospero about the comic plot that was revealed in the second scene. Now comes the third scene with its serious or revenge plot.
The royal party has wandered the "mazes" of the island in search of Ferdinand, and Gonzalo is exhausted. Alonso, as he did before, declares that he has lost all hope for his son's survival: "the sea mocks/ Our frustrate search on land," he declares in utter despair at line 10. Antonio and Sebastian at lines 11 -- 18 reaffirm their conspiracy and plan to strike that night when everyone else is asleep. Suddenly a group of strange figures enter, with Prospero watching, bringing in a banquet and inviting the humans to eat. This scene usually allows the director and costume designer a great opportunity to stage something very creative and otherworldly. The figures invite the hungry castaways to eat, and they respond with fear and amazement. Antonio prays that God with give them guardian angels ("kind keepers") to protect them. They all profess astonishment at these creatures and promise they will henceforth believe any traveler's incredible tale, no matter how outrageous. Sebastian says, "Now I will believe/ There are unicorns," [line 21-22]. Even heretofore cynical Antonio proclaims, "Travelers ne'er die lie,/ Though fools at home condemn 'em," [line 26-27]. Kind old Gonzalo, still thinking perhaps of Montaigne's noble cannibals, observes, "Their manner are more gentle, kind, than of/ Our human generation you shall find/ Many -- nay, almost any." [lines 32 -- 34]. Gonzalo is the first to declare that since there are so many miraculous discoveries which now must be accepted the food the creatures offer must be safe for them to eat: "Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were boys,/ Who would have believed that there were mountaineers/ Dewlapped like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em/ Wallets of flesh? Or that there were such men/ Whose heads stood in their breasts," [lines 43 -- 47]. Gonzalo has listed some of the more common and fanciful reports of that age and assumes they are all true.
But when the guilty humans begin to eat, Ariel enters, disguised as a harpy, and causes the banquet to magically disappear. A harpy was a female monster of Greek mythology, often associated with revenge, so once again Ariel plays the woman's part. He condemns Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio in words that only they can hear, calling them "three men of sin," [line 53]. Read Ariel's speech line 53 -- 82 since it contains the clearest statement of Prospero's revenge and the means of the villains' own redemption. The Harpy reveals that Destiny or Fortune is behind the revenge they are now suffering. Destiny controls this lower world and uses it to further vengeance -- "the never-surfeited sea/Has caused to belch up you and on this island,/ Where man doth not inhabit you 'mongst men/ Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad;/ And even with suchlike valor men hang and drown/ Their proper selves," [lines 55 --60]. The shipwreck was part of a larger plan, and now for their sins the guilty will suffer madness, a madness which drives desperate and despairing men to kill themselves. When they, like Ferdinand before them, try to resist with their swords, Ariel mocks their foolishness. He now makes clear the reason for the revenge and its consequence: because they did conspire to supplant or overthrow Prospero and tried to kill him and his innocent child, "The pow'rs, delaying, not forgetting, have/ Incensed the seas and shores, yea all the creatures,/ Against your peace," [lines 73 -- 75]. Specifically, the powers have taken the life of Alonzo's son. And they have condemned the three men of sin: "Lingering perdition [punishments of hell] (worse than any death/ Can be at once) shall step by step attend [follow]/ You and your ways," [line 77 -- 79]. The only thing that can save them, "is nothing but heart's sorrow/ And a clear life ensuing," [line 81 --82]. Prospero commends Ariel and his associate spirits' performance and comes as close to gloating as he does in the play, announcing, "mine enemies are all knit up/ In their distractions," [line 89--90].
Gonzalo has neither heard nor seen the Harpy, but he can see that Alonso is powerfully upset and asks what has happened. Alonso replies: "O, it is monstrous, monstrous! /Methought the billows spoke and told me of it;/ The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder,/ That deep and dreadful organ pipe, pronounced/ The name of Prosper; it did bass my trespass./ Therefore my son i' th' ooze is bedded; and/ I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded/ And with him there lie mudded," [lines 95 -- 102]. We can see in this speech how Alonso accepts the connection between his crime and his son's death. We also see how the knowledge has driven him to despair as he runs off to drown himself. The Elizabethans considered such spiritual despair to be both a mortal sin and one of the most life-threatening states a person could experience. By way of contrast Sebastian and Antonio reject their guilt and run off to fight what they take to be demons who have raised the scene with the Harpy. Gonzalo urges the other, younger courtiers to follow the "three men of sin" to keep them from "what this ecstasy [madness]/ May now provoke them to," [line 103--104].
The Tempest, Act IV, scene 1
Lines 1 -- 193
Prospero apologizes to Ferdinand for the labor he imposed upon the prince. He points out that the compensation, Miranda's hand in marriage, made it worthwhile. The tasks were only "trials of thy love," [line 6], and Ferdinand has passed the test with flying colors. Prospero cannot help himself and must brag on Miranda's worth: "she will outstrip all praise," [line 10]. Ferdinand responds: "I do believe it/ Against an oracle," [line 11-12], meaning that even if an oracle, the ultimate source of truth in the ancient world, were to declare Miranda was not worthy, he would not believe it.
Prospero now suddenly starts warning Ferdinand against breaking "her virgin-knot" [line 15] before the marriage ritual is completed. He is adamant, even issuing a curse on the marriage should that happen: "discord shall bestrew/ The union of your bed with weeds so loathly/ That you shall hate it both," [line 20--22]. There are three major reasons for Prospero's concern. First, he wants there to be no doubt or shadow of suspicion over Miranda's marriage; otherwise it might call his whole plan into question. Secondly, with Prospero reconciled to Ferdinand, he needs some new concern to maintain his old cranky façade; "damn kids, got to keep your eye on them all the time!" you can just hear him mutter. Third, Shakespeare creates a sexual tension by this constant suggestion that Ferdinand and Miranda are so horny they have to be watched all the time; this will pay off in a joke near the end of the play. For his part, Ferdinand swears a solemn oath that he won't violate Prospero's oath or Miranda's body. "As I hope/ For quiet days, fair issue, and long life,/ …. the murkiest den/ The most opportune place, the strongest suggestion/ Our worser genius can, shall never melt/ Mine honor into lust," [line 23--27].
Prospero now orders Ariel and his fellow spirits to perform a "vanity of mine art" [line 41] for Ferdinand and Miranda. Prospero does want to impress Ferdinand with his power, but he is also very proud of his magical accomplishments and wants to share them with this new audience. After one more warning to the young couple to cool their lust, "the strongest oaths are straw/ To the fire in the blood," [line 52--53], and one more reassurance from Ferdinand, "the white cold virgin snow upon my heart/ Abates the ardor of my liver," [line 55-56], they proceed with the magic show. (The Elizabethans believed that the source of lust was the liver.) These frequent warnings suggest how the love between Miranda and Ferdinand might be played, especially for a modern audience.
Prospero's magic show takes the form of a masque. A masque was a short dramatic skit that used music and dance to enhance its theme of blessing or moral caution. It was a form of entertainment associated with the court, where courtiers and even the royal family might take part. The characters were often figures from mythology, and the dramatic action was enhanced by the use of elaborate mechanical devices which created spectacular special effects. This particular masque, from line 60 -- 138, takes the form of a blessing on the union of Ferdinand and Miranda. The characters are the Roman goddesses Ceres, Juno and Juno's attendant spirit, Iris, who were associated with married love, home and fruitfulness. Their language is very formal, rather stilted and filled with allusions to stories from antiquity. Notice at line 87--101 that Venus and her son Cupid, both associated with physical lust, are specifically excluded from the festivities. This is still one more warning to Ferdinand and Miranda to cool it. The mechanical device associated with the masque is found here in the elaborate entrance of Juno. She is lowered from the roof of the theater, probably in a basket, beginning at line 72 and finally alighting at line 101. As required by the masque form, a group of "sicklemen," harvesters, join a group of female nymphs to perform a dance in honor of fertility. Suddenly Prospero interrupts the proceedings at line 139, and the figures all vanish from the stage. It is possible that the when the play was performed at court, members of the royal family took part in the masque in various roles. Directors often shorten this masque segment or drop it altogether. Dramatically the main purpose of this section is to celebrate the pending marriage and to do so in a way that will demonstrate Prospero's art.
Prospero's sudden anger seems unlike him, says Miranda. We learn that he has remembered the plot of Caliban and his low-life companions. When Ferdinand expresses regret that the show has ended, Prospero gives the most famous speech of the play in explanation. Look closely at the speech from line 148 -- 158. Prospero announces that the revels are ended and reminds the couple that the actors were spirits and are vanished into air. In just the same way all the special effects were simply illusions. For Prospero the magician, his art is simply illusion. For Shakespeare the playwright, his art has always been make-believe. And so too is what we call reality, so that all the things around us that seem so solid and real -- "the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces/….The great globe itself," [line 152--153], perhaps suggesting the theater where this was performed, all of it is ultimately an illusion and will disappear, without a trace or "rack." Even we ourselves are part of the illusion and are "such stuff/ As dreams are made on, and our little life/ Is rounded with a sleep," [lines 156--158]. You can see why over the centuries so many different people thought that this speech represented Shakespeare's farewell to the stage.
Prospero sends the youngsters into his cell or cave by themselves while he deals with this problem. (Oh my, what will those kids do when they're out of sight?) Prospero asks Ariel for a status report on the comic conspirators. You remember that the last time we saw them, the drunken Stephano and Trinculo were following Ariel's magic music, despite Caliban's urging that they assassinate Prospero first. Ariel now recounts how he charmed their ears with music and led them through brambles and thorns and into the "filthy mantled pool beyond your cell,/ There dancing up to the chins," [line 182--183]. What is this pool behind Prospero's cell? Think about it.
Prospero rages at Caliban's betrayal, which is no different than that of his brother, Antonio: "A devil, a born devil, on whose nature/ Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,/ Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost," [line 188--190]. He declares that he will punish the conspirators until they roar. He sends Ariel to fetch "glistering apparel" (cheap, gaudy clothes) and hang it on a lime tree.
Act IV, Scene 1
Lines 194 -- 266
When the conspirators sneak in, Stephano and Trinculo are very angry about the dowsing they received in the filthy mantled pool. Trinculo complains of smelling " all horse piss," [line 199], and Stephano has dropped his homemade wine bottle in the pool and vows to retrieve it, even if "I be o'er ears for my labor," [line 214]. Caliban desperately warns them to be quiet and to focus on the task of killing Prospero, but when the boys spot those flashy clothes, they are distracted. They begin to grab the garments, with Stephano demanding the best of the bunch. When they try to order Caliban to carry their loot for them, he angrily demands, "What do you mean/ To dote thus on such luggage? Let 't alone/ And do the murder first," [lines 230--232]. Clearly the only one with any brains, Caliban warns them that if Prospero catches them, he will turn them into "barnacles [a kind of goose] or apes/ With foreheads villainous low," [line 248-249]. Prospero then has his spirits in the form of hunting dogs attack the conspirators and chase them away. He orders that they be punished with convulsions, cramps and pinches. Prospero now declares victory, with all his enemies at his mercy, and promises once more to free Ariel.
Why does Shakespeare have Prospero use "glistering apparel" to distract Stephano and Trinculo? He could have used gold or food, almost anything. Dramatically, clothing works because the boys have just been dunked in the filthy pool and really want a change of clothes. Shakespearean scholar Allen Dessen has suggested another reason that I think makes sense. Shakespeare has set up the parallel between the comic conspiracy with Caliban and the boys and the serious conspiracy with Antonio and Sebastian. Despite the differences in social rank and language, these bad guys are pretty much the same. Dessen argued that the flashy clothes Stephano and Trinculo put on looked like cheap knock-offs of the fancy court clothes that the upper-class villains wore. This similarity would help establish the moral link between the two groups in the final scene. The audience doesn't recognize the connection until all the villains are on stage together.
Why does Shakespeare have Prospero chase the comic conspirators with dogs? Scholars have suggested a parallel in the story from mythology of a hunter turned into a stag that is pursued and killed by his own hounds. I believe a more immediate source is found in the accounts of the first explorers to reach the New World. Columbus and others used specially trained mastiff dogs to terrorize and control the native people. The dogs were said to be more feared by the Indians than were guns and horses. This episode in the play could be still one more reminder of the unsavory aspects of the age of exploration.
The Tempest, Act V, scene 1
Lines 1 -- 171
Prospero asks Ariel for a status report. The spirit tells him the "three men of sin" are confined in a grove nearby, held in a state of suspended animation until Prospero frees them. He describes Gonzalo grieving for King Alonso. "His tears run down his beard like winter's drops/ From eaves of reeds, [line 16-17] and concludes that were Prospero to see Gonzalo's sorrow, "Your affections would become tender," [line 18-19]. Ariel adds that he himself would be moved by this emotional display, if he were human. Prospero is impressed and says that if Ariel, who is composed of air, can empathize, he, Prospero, can do no less. "Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,/ Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury/ Do I take part. The rarer action is/ In virtue than in vengeance," [lines 25-- 28]. So if we had any fear that Prospero would squash his enemies rather than manipulate them to his own ends, we can stop worrying. Of course, I have emphasized all along that there was never any danger of Prospero giving way to his emotions.
Prospero now sends Ariel to release the king and his followers, while he destroys his charms. This action of voluntarily giving up his magical powers was a big deal on Shakespeare's stage. The audience believed that such power, even when it was used for good, had a tendency to seduce humans into abusing the magic. Two previous plays had developed this idea at some length. In Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus the wise and virtuous scholar ends up losing his soul to the devil in exchange for supreme power. At the point of his death he realizes too late that he cannot give up his satanic gift, although he offers to "burn my books [of magic]." In Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay a well-intentioned cleric uses his occult powers to protect England from invasion by erecting a wall of brass around the country. Unfortunately his action kills an innocent person, and the friar dies of remorse. Therefore it is significant that Prospero chooses to give up his magic voluntarily at the point he has accomplished his goal.
The speech he gives in saying farewell to his magic (lines 33--58) is important. Review it carefully. The speech tells us a lot about the source of Prospero's power; the spiritual creatures associated with specific places and processes in the natural world have enabled him to become a great magician. You can see Shakespeare's country background as he identifies some of these beings: the elves of the land and those that chase and flee the waves without leaving a footprint; the "demi-puppets," [line 36] or tree-spirits that cause what are called fairy rings of grass to grow; the spirits that generate the growth of mushrooms overnight. These were all familiar figures in the folklore and superstition of the country people. It was through the collective help of these individual spirits, each of them alone a "weak master," [line 41], that Prospero has been able to darken the sun, raise the winds and create a state of war between the sea and sky -- in other words generate the storm in the opening scene. He has learned how to control lightning and make the earth to quake and tall trees to fall. Prospero has even used his power to raise the dead. Yet now he voluntarily gives up his magic, and after one last demonstration of heavenly music, he promises to destroy two of the three sources of his power: "I'll break my staff,/ Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,/ And deeper than did ever plummet sound/ I'll drown my books," [lines 54--57]. Here Shakespeare deliberately echoes the final words of Faustus when he tried unsuccessfully to repent.
Marlowe had his hero utilize the satanic power of the Devil in Doctor Faustus; Shakespeare has Prospero rely upon the less spectacular power of nature. Faustus waits too long to repent and loses his soul; Prospero gives up his art voluntarily once his plan to restore virtue is complete. Faustus gave way to his passions; Prospero, despite his cranky bluster, has used his power only for good.
With the accompaniment of heavenly music Ariel leads Alonso's party on stage. Prospero asks, "A solemn air, and the best comforter/ To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains," [line 58--59]. (Remember how the Elizabethans consider music a restorer of order in other plays.) It's no surprise that Prospero first addresses Gonzalo, his savior, rather than King Alonso, as protocol would require. He promises Gonzalo to repay Gonzalo in both word and deed, [line 71]. He accuses Alonso of cruelty towards himself and his daughter. He tells Sebastian that he is guilty of both conspiring against Prospero and his brother Alonso. His most bitter indictment is against his own brother, Antonio who "Expelled remorse and nature," [line 76]. He forgives his brother, "Unnatural though thou art," [line 79]. Prospero's no fool; he knows Antonio is not going to change despite being caught. All this while (lines 58--84) the charmed captives are slowly regaining consciousness. At line 85 Prospero orders Ariel to bring the hat and rapier he wore when he was still Duke of Milan while he removes his magic robe (the third and last symbol of his magic power) so that they will recognize him. This idea that by simply changing a hat someone can become instantly recognizable is one of the conventions of Shakespeare's stage. In Othello Roderigo hid his real identity with a fake or "usurped" beard. Here the audience simply accepted as fact that Prospero would be recognized with this small costume change.
Ariel, who's been promised freedom all the way through the play, now realizes that he is almost liberated. He sings a charming little song at line 88--94 revealing how he plans to spend his freedom in nature, "Under the blossom that hangs on the bough," [line 94]. Prospero sends him off to bring in the crew of the ship. Gonzalo is the first to return to consciousness, and his reaction is one of terror: "All torment, trouble, wonder and amazement/ Inhabits here," [line 104--5]. Later Prospero tells him, "You do yet taste/ Some subtleties o' the isle that will not let you/ Believe things certain," [lines 123--125]. (Be sure to read the footnote on the origin of "subtleties.") Prospero, finally wearing his former apparel as the Duke, introduces himself again to Alonso and embraces him to prove he is not an illusion at line 109. Alonso is not sure of the reality, although he does feel Prospero's heart beat, but the affliction of his mind, what he believes was madness, begins to lift. He immediately, and without threat or request, resigns Prospero's dukedom of Milan and asks for an explanation of Prospero's presence. After embracing Gonzalo, he warns Antonio and Sebastian that he has his eye on them and could expose their plot to Alonso, although he will keep quiet for now. When Antonio whispers that the devil speaks from inside Prospero, the magician lets him have it: "No./ For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother/ Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive/ Thy rankest fault -- all of them; and require/ My dukedom of thee," [lines 129--134].
When Alonso begins to mourn for Ferdinand's death, Prospero reveals he too has lost a child, his daughter, in the recent storm. Alonso now utters the magic words: "O heavens! That they were living both in Naples,/ The king and queen there!" [line 149--150] With this assurance of acceptance, Prospero is now free to reveal what really happened to the royal children. After reassuring everyone that he is indeed Prospero and that he has few attendants and no subjects on the island, he invites them into his cell. (Oh my God! What will they find when they walk in on those horny kids?)
Act V, Scene 1
Lines 172 -- 319
Here is the pay-off for Prospero's frequent warnings to avoid sexual contact. What Prospero reveals when he opens the curtains to the inner stage is the couple playing chess (sublimated sex?) while they speak the elaborate language of courtship. (Miranda: "Sweet lord, you play me false!" Ferdinand: "No, my dearest love./ I would not for the world!" [lines 171--173]. Apparently she thinks he threw the chess game so she could win, and he denies he did. She goes on to add that he would too let her win out of love, and she would allow him to get away with it, she loves him so much. Everyone is astonished, Alonso pessimistically declaring that if this is an illusion, he will lose his son twice, [line 176--177]. Ferdinand acknowledges the presence of a higher power: "Though the seas threaten, they are merciful./ I have cursed them without cause," [line 178--179].
Miranda experiences the shock of discovery as well: "O brave new world/ That hath such people in it!" To which her father, without her sense of wonder, simply observes, "'Tis new to thee," [line 183--184]. This famous phrase, "O brave new world," besides serving as the title for a famous novel by Aldous Huxley, is often cited as source for calling the Americas the New World. However, Miranda uses the phrase to describe the people of Europe who will soon return to Naples and Milan, not the wonders of the continents Columbus had discovered. Shakespeare remains a man rooted in the Old World with his faith firmly in the order of European civilization.
When he sees Miranda, Alonso assumes, as his son did before, that Miranda is a goddess. Ferdinand explains that she will be his wife and that he chose her when he thought Alonso was dead. (We see here why Alonso's earlier approval of the idea of a marriage between his heir and Prospero's is so important to the success of Prospero's plan.) Alonso, who has been completely repentant since he first saw Prospero, immediately validates his son's choice and adds, "O, how oddly will it sound that I/ Must ask my child forgiveness," [line 197--198]. His contrition is genuine and extends to all those endangered by his actions 12 years before. Prospero graciously excuses the need for dwelling on Alonso's past sins, "Let us not burden our remembrance with/ A heaviness that's gone," [line 200].
Gonzalo now explains the larger philosophical significance of what has taken place. He asks that the gods who have made all this happen bless the young couple and drop a golden crown on them: "it is you who have chalked forth the way/ Which brought us hither," [line 203--204]. He asks rhetorically if Prospero were overthrown 12 years before just so his heirs could become the rulers of Naples. Alonso lost his daughter (through marriage) in Tunis and her brother Ferdinand found a wife when he was thought to be lost. Prospero found his dukedom again, "and all of us [found] ourselves/ When no man was his own," [line 212--213]. Gonzalo has articulated the theme of all of Shakespeare's romances -- that out of apparent loss errant mankind is brought to redemption by some higher power.
Ariel returns with the ship's crew, including the irreverent boatswain whom Gonzalo predicted would be hanged on land in the opening scene. He, although still somewhat dazed, reports that the ship is as good as new and ready to sail. Repeatedly throughout this scene Alonso and others ask how all this has happened. And in this request we see in a small way how Shakespeare's skill grew as he gained more experience. In an early play Romeo and Juliet the Prince of Verona in the final scene demanded to know what had happened to result in Romeo and Juliet's suicide. Friar Lawrence is brought in to run through the whole story again for everyone on stage -- a story the audience already knows. In his later plays Shakespeare realized that psychologically the characters want to know, but dramatically the audience doesn't need to hear what they have already experienced. So throughout the scene people keep asking and Prospero keeps assuring everyone that he will give them all the details and explain all the mysteries, not just now: "Sir, my liege,/ Do not infect your mind with beating on/ The strangeness of this business," [line 245--246] he tells Alonso.
Ariel brings in the comic conspirators. Stephano, still drunk, tries to rouse his companions to fight back against the invisible demons who beset them: "Coragio [courage], bully monster," [line 258]. Trinculo sees the king and his court and welcomes this "goodly sight," [line 260] because it means they may be saved from further dog attacks. Caliban sees the strangers: "O Setebos [the god of his mother], these be brave spirits indeed!" [line 261]. Notice that he echoes Miranda's line about "Brave new world that hath such people in it!" Caliban instinctively realizes that these strangers represent the power of Prospero: "How fine my master is. I am afraid/ He will chastise me," [line 262-263].
Now here is where Allen Dessen's theory about the "glistering apparel" of Stephano and Trinculo pays off. If as he suggests the comic conspirators are wearing cheap, gaudy knock-offs of the courtly costumes of Antonio and Sebastian, that should set up a visual parallel between the two pairs of bad guys, a parallel which the audience and the noble villains see immediately when all four are on stage at once. Sebastian and Antonio, who have not said a word for the last 130 lines, suddenly speak up, as if with nervous laughter, to mock the lower class conspirators and Caliban. Prospero points out to Alonso and his court, "Mark but the badges of these men, my lords,/ Then say if they be true," [line 267--268]. Since Stephano and Trinculo are not in their normal work clothes or wearing the badges of their positions, this remark might well be an ironic reference to their stolen garments and their similarity to the other conspirators whose plot Prospero has agreed to hide for the moment. It would certainly serve as a powerful reminder to the noble criminals that Prospero can reveal them at any time.
Prospero reveals the plot of the comic bunglers and the inherent evil of Caliban, whom he calls a "bastard," [line 273] and "thing of darkness," [line 275]. Prospero mocks their attempt on his life: "You'd be king of the isle, sirrah?" To which Stephano says, "I should have been a sore one then," [lines 288--289]. (Remember the physical punishment Prospero had commanded they suffer!) Prospero now orders Caliban to take charge of the group and to take his companions into the cell and await punishment. Caliban, chastened, resolves, "I shall be wise hereafter,/ And seek for grace. What a trice-double ass/ Was I to take this drunkard for a god/ And worship this dull fool," [lines 295--298]. Now Prospero has disparaged Caliban throughout the play, saying he is wicked and can never learn. And yet here we see that Caliban in some ways has learned and changed the most in the course of the play.
Prospero invites everyone into his cell and promises to tell all the details of his story. The next day they will all depart for Naples to see the wedding of Ferdinand and Miranda. Finally Prospero frees Ariel and bids farewell to him. He will leave the island to the spirit and the monster, just as it had been when he landed 12 years before. The epilogue is left to Prospero who reminds us he has given up all his magic powers. He asks the audience to help return him to his dukedom by their applause and acceptance of the play. He ends the play by requesting, "As you from crimes would pardoned be,/ Let your indulgence set me free." So in a curious way the magic of the play comes full circle to involve the audience in bringing closure.