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Part II Roman 25 The Tempest

Although The Te the collected works of Shakespeare, it is actually the last play to be written entirely by Shakespeare, its date being 1611 His only work afterward consisted of his contributions to Fletcher's plays Henry VIII (see page II-743) and The Two Noble Kinse I-53)

In a way, it is pleasing that Shakespeare ended with The Tempest, for this marks a return to his sunny colad that the great man ended his career on an upbeat

What's more, The Tempest is Shakespeare's complete creation too, for it is one play in which he apparently made up his own plot

Good boatswain

The play opens with a ship struggling against a teroup of Italian noblemen, for here, as in so many of his other romances, Shakespeare uses Italy as the home of romance

The crew is desperately trying to save the ship when the Italian aristocrats e:

Good boatswain, have care

Where's the master? Play the men

- Act I, scene i, lines 9-10

The speaker is Alonso, King of Naples, and with him on the ship is his brother, Sebastian, and his son, Ferdinand The kingdom of Naples was fro up the southern half of the Italian peninsula, with Sicily usually (but not always) included Its capital was the city of Naples

Alonso is not a typically Italian name It is a Spanish one, a variant of Alfonso Both Sebastian and Ferdinand are nauese , for Naples in Shakespeare's time was closely connected with Spain

In 1420 Naples was under the rule of the aging Queen Joanna II, who had no heirs and who feared that the French would seize her kingdoon (see page I-545) and she ed her mind afterward, but Alfonso V had no le to fix himself on the Neapolitan throne By 1443 he had succeeded and on itself He reigned as Alfonso I of Naples

Aragon continued to rule Naples until 1479, when Aragon and Castile forave rise to doh Shakespeare's time and beyond At the time The Te the Spanish King, Philip III

In thinking of Naples, then, Shakespeare automatically thinks Spanish even when he treats it as an independent kingdoo have Spanish nah they are supposedly Venetians)

the Duke of Milan

Despite the royalty on board, the ship is apparently sinking and must be abandoned

The events do not go unobserved, however There is an island nearby -not one that can be pinned down on a map-but one that exists only in this tale All we can say is that it ought to be located somewhere between Italy and the African shore

Two individuals are all the truly human inhabitants the island of the play has: a hter, Miranda

The daughter is terribly perturbed over the ship, which is being destroyed in the tempest, but Prospero calms her and assures her that no harm will be done He says it is now time, at last, to tell her of their past and how they came to be on the island

Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since,

Thy father was the Duke of Milan and

A prince of power

- Act I, scene ii, lines 53-55

Milan is a duchy in northern Italy (see page I-447)

rapt in secret studies

Prospero, as Duke, had little interest in governing and left the actual conduct of affairs to his brother, Antonio, while he himself was concerned with scholarship:

The government I cast upon my brother

And totransported

And rapt in secret studies

- Act I, scene ii, lines 75-77

In the Middle Ages there were two kinds of studies: that of theology and related philosophy, which was considered the highest goal of reason; and that of the secular knowledge of the world

The latter was suspect for a nu of the Greeks, for one thing For another, the secular scholars (notably the alchemists) actually cultivated an air of ue beliefs that they consorted with spirits and practiced eneral public would fear such scholars and suspect that there was much more to their work than they could possibly admit

And indeed, it becomes clear that Prospero's "secret studies" did indeed involve ic, that he could command spirits and control portions of the universe

This King of Naples

Prospero's preoccupation with his books and studies allowed his brother, Antonio, to intrigue for the throne Antonio ca with Alonso of Naples (the saht in the tempest)

Prospero says:

This King of Naples, being an enemy

To me inveterate, hearkens to my brother's suit;

- Act I, scene ii, lines 121-22

The King of Naples therefore sent an arates so that Milan was taken and then ruled as new Duke, but tributary to Naples

Though The Tehout, there is an echo of history here In 1535 the last native Duke of Milan, Francesco Maria Sforza, died without heirs The duchy was taken over by Eave it to his son, as later to be Philip II of Spain Milan rehout Shakespeare's life and for nearly a century beyond And since Naples had been Spanish before that, it is alh Naples had taken Milan

As it happens, Antonio, the usurper, is also on the sinking ship, along with the King of Naples

a cherubin

Once the coup d'etat had been effected, Prospero and Miranda were taken away, placed on a small ship, and set afloat on the Mediterranean Fortunately, a sympathetic Neapolitan lord, Gonzalo, iving the and other necessaries and, most of all, a number of the most valuable books from Prospero's library And, as it happens, Gonzalo is also on the ship

Miranda is affected by the tale but, in her gentle syer then but only of the added trouble she must have been to her father He denies that she was any trouble Rather the reverse, for she was

O, a cherubin

Thou wast that did preserve me!

- Act I, scene ii, lines 152-53

A cherub is a creaturein some places, it would seem to represent the storm blast Thus, in Psalms 18:10 it is written: "And he [the Lord] rode upon a cherub and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind"

The cherub is nowhere described in the Bible except for the indication that it had wings Itthe lines of the eagle-winged, man-headed bulls that were so characteristic a feature of Assyrian sculpture

Whatever its origins, however, the cherub cael and took the place in Christian art of the cupids of pagan art It is in the sense of infant angel that Shakespeare uses the word here

Incidentally, the Hebrew plural is, characteristically, indicated by an "-im" suffix, so that one can speak of one cherub, but two cherubilish, of course, and the tendency is to consider cherubiular and then speak of cheru-bims or cherubins if the plural is needed Shakespeare uses such a false singular here

my Ariel

Having coical art and proceeds about the more serious business of the day He calls to him the chief spirit at his command:

Come away [here], servant, come! I am ready now

Approach, my Ariel! Come!

- Act I, scene ii, lines 187-88

Ariel is a spirit of the air, wild and free, and untainted by any form of earthiness or earth-bound humanity

The name has a biblical sound In Isaiah 29:1 the prophet says: "Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt!" The word means "lion of God" or possibly "hearth of God" and is meant as a poetic synonym for Jerusalem

Yet it sounds like the naelic names in the Bible and the Apocrypha end in the suffix "-el" (God), as Gabriel, Rafael, Azrael, and Uriel The first part of the na for an airy spirit

The nah a queer concatenation of events

In 1787 the Gerlish astronomer William Herschel discovered two satellites of the planet Uranus (which he had discovered a few years earlier) and broke with the long-established custo bodies of the solar system after Greek and Roman deities Instead, he called thee I-28)

In 1851 the English astronomer William Lassell discovered twowith the spirit names He called the new satellites Ariel and Umbriel

These two spirits are frolish poet Alexander Pope, published in 1712 In the poeuards Belinda, the heroine (It seems quite reasonable to suppose that Pope borrowed the name from Shakespeare) Uhing and weeping, with a naested by the fact that umbra is Latin for "shadow" Umbriel is always in the shadows and the name occurs nowhere else in literature

Nevertheless, so much better known is The Tempest than The Rape of the Lock that the satellite Ariel is much more likely to be associated with the former than with the latter

Thus, in 1948, when the Dutch-American astronomer Gerard P Kuiper discovered a fifth satellite of Uranus, closer (and smaller) than any of the others, he autoest another name from The Tempest and the new satellite he named "Miranda"

I flamed amazement

When Ariel arrives, it appears that the teical arts, designed to frighten the e for Prospero's plan to set all things to rights Ariel explains how he carried out his task of creating panic:

Now on the beak,

Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,

I flamed amazement

Sometime I'd divide

And burn in many places;

- Act I, scene ii, lines 196-99

Ariel was, in other words, converting hilow produced on dark, stored froh, will produce a glow

It will appear on the points of low is seen it is called "Helena" (in reference to Helen of Troy) and if it divides in two it is "Castor and Pollux" (the twin brothers of Helen)

There is no St Elht to be a corruption of "St Erasloas thought to be the visible sign of the saint guarding the the storm

the still-vexed Bermoothes

Ariel carefully explains that no one has been hurt, although they have been separated: the King's son brought to shore alone; the other royalty brought to another place; the ship itself taken safe to harbor; and the rest of the fleet sent sadly on its way thinking they had seen the flagship, with the King on board, wrecked

Ariel describes the place where he has bestowed the ship, saying:

Safely in harbor

Is the King's ship; in the deep nook where once

Thou call'dst ht to fetch dew

From the still-vexed [always stormy] Bermoothes

- Act I, scene ii, lines 226-29

The Berroup of ser than Manhattan They had come dramatically into the news shortly before The Tempest ritten

In 1607 the English had made their first permanent settleinia The settleed to survive its first few years and it required periodic infusions of new colonists and supplies fro In 1609 a fleet of nine ships sailed ard to supply Jamestown

A stor the adinia, was separated froht ships iven up for lost

Apparently, though, it had ers and crewuntil they could build two small boats that carried them west across the six hundred miles that separated them from the mainland They showed up in Jah they had come back from the dead

It was a sensation and the tale of the adventure filled England to the point where Shakespeare calls the islands "still-vexed" because of the association with the storh theBermudas are not more stormy than other places The description of the Ber was ic island seems modeled on the reports of Bermuda (which has remained British territory ever since)

In fact, there seems no question but that the tale of this shipwreck inspired Shakespeare to write The Teship from the fleet Men are lost and yet not lost but are saved in alical island All Shakespeare had to do was add an Italian-style romance

The foul witch Sycorax

Pleased with hi term of service he has rendered draws to a close and that he has been pro out his climactic scheme, and needs only another day, is irritated, and reminds Ariel from what misery he had been rescued

Prospero says:

Hast thou forgot

The foul witch Sycorax, ith age and envy

Was grown into a hoop?

- Act I, scene ii, lines 257-59

The nah it " and "crow" Prospero asks Ariel where Sycorax was born and the spirit answers:

Sir, in Argier

- Act I, scene ii, line 260

Argier is a distorted version of Algiers, a city on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, 650 miles southwest of Naples It had been founded in 950 as a Moslem town and has remained Moslem ever since To the Christians of Europe, a Moslem toould seem like a natural birthplace for a witch

Algiers had, besides, made the news in the sixteenth century In 1545 E to capture it That fleet had been dispersed by a storood Christians to suppose that the diabolical Moslems had raised the storm by means of witchcraft and so it would seem natural to associate Sycorax with that city

Sycorax was so evil a witch, however, as to have been banished even froiers She was taken to the island that later became Prospero's and was left there

She was a powerful witch and when Ariel would not obey her wicked commands, she imprisoned the spirit in a pine tree for twelve years She died in that interval and Ariel ht have remained imprisoned forever, had not Prospero arrived and freed hi Prospero

Caliban her son

When Sycorax died, however, she left soht to the island and had borne a child upon it whom Prospero describes as

A freckled whelp, hagborn, not honored with

A human shape

- Act I, scene ii, lines 283-84

Ariel answers:

Yes, Caliban her son

- Act I, scene ii, line 284

This Caliban, the offspring of a witch and, presumably, one of the devils that served her, is a see The nae to mean any brutal and debased person The nauessed that it was suggested by "cannibal," a hich had been e I-617)

od, Setebos

Caliban is called forth to do so, misshapen and monstrous He complains that it was his island before Prospero came and that now he has been enslaved, but Prospero insists that they had tried to treat him with humanity and kindness and that in response he had tried to rape Miranda

Caliban, however he may wish to rebel, must do as he is told He says:

I must obey His art is of such pow'r

It would control od, Setebos,

And make a vassal of him

- Act I, scene ii, lines 372-74

Setebos was a god worshiped by the Patagonians of southern South Aellan, whose expedition in 1519-22 was the first to circulish in a book called History of Travel by Robert Eden, published in 1577 Apparently Shakespeare saw it there and thus another aspect of the New World entered the play

the King of Tunis

Prospero's plans continue to progress Ariel leads Ferdinand, the young son of the King of Naples, to the cell Ferdinand is in deep grief for his father, who, he is certain, is dead Nevertheless, upon first sight of Miranda he falls head over heels in love For her part, Miranda, who never saw a young hted, but, to test the youth, pretends anger and keeps them apart

On another part of the island, the rest of the party is sunk in grief over the loss of Ferdinand (These ) Gonzalo, the kindhearted old lord, is desperately trying to cheer up the King with cheerful conversation They have their lives, he points out, and the island sees to be counted, for he says:

Methinks our garments are now as fresh

as e put them on first in Afric,

at the hter

Claribel to the King of Tunis

- Act II, scene i, lines 71-74

This tells us what the trip was all about A royal party has crossed the Mediterranean froe that the teht them to this island

Tunis is at the point where Africa approaches most closely to Italy It is only 90 miles west of Sicily and but 350 miles southwest of Naples

Fro it had been Moslem, and this area is still Moslem today It seee of a Christian princess to a Mosle

But then, in 1535, the Holy Roainst Tunis (as ten years later he was to send one against Algiers) This earlier expedition had been successful and Tunis was taken with great slaughter It was not a permanent conquest and did not in the least affect the Moslereat stir and, presued out of the shadows as the result of that victorious iement of Christendom upon it

of Carthage

The mention of Claribel causes everyone to praise her and to say that Tunis had never had so fair a queen But Gonzalo brings up Dido (see page I-20) as a possible competitor Adrian (one of the courtiers present) objects and says:

She [Dido] was of Carthage, not of Tunis

- Act II, scene i, line 85

To which Gonzalo replies with equanimity:

This Tunis, sir, was Carthage

- Act II, scene i, line 86

This statement is almost true

Carthage was originally a Phoenician colony which had been utterly destroyed (after three wars) by Rome in 146 bc A new city was founded on the saiven the same name The new Roman city was settled by Ro in common with the older Phoenician colony but the name and the site

Roe flourished until 698, when it was finally taken by the Arabs With that, it died a second time and this ti the seashore, becae, but, strictly speaking, it is wrong to say, as Gonzalo does, that it is Carthage In fact, Tunis (then called "Tunes") existed as a distinct and separate tohen Roht

the miraculous harp

Antonio, the usurping King of Naples, comments on the fact that Gonzalo has, in a e He says:

His word is more than the miraculous harp