The Tempest

1. The Tempest Second lecture

2. Prospero • Is there any other play of Shakespeare that concentrates so much on a single character? • Some other characters, the court party, for example, seemed just sketched. • Miranda and Ferdinand seem simply “the young lovers” – but appealing when well cast, well acted. • The “play” of the backstory was “The Tragedy of Prospero, Duke of Milan.” • Now what? “Prospero’s Revenge”? • Does Prospero himself know? • He indicates only “bountiful Fortune” has delivered “mine enemies” to this shore and now his “zenith” depend upon a star he must “court.” • Not an easy-going guy! • Does his experience explain that? • He had been a devoted scholar: “for the liberal arts/ Without a parallel” (I.2.73-74). • “Me (poor man) my library was dukedom large enough.” • In a way, he becomes a kind of fantasy of the Renaissance man, the magus who could, through mastery of arcane learning, control the elements. • And also of the artist who could body forth his imaginative life? • But his “day job” was being a duke . . . • . . . which he neglected (and in so doing neglected the real business of life?). • Which meant overthrow, nearly death, and 12 years of exile.

3. More Prospero • Will he allow himself to be inattentive in the future. • Or to control everything? • His treatment of Ariel. • Partly “exposition,” but his insistence on Ariel’s obedience and need for gratitude indicates his desire to dominate matters. • The control of Caliban seems only partly successful. • And the result of Propero’s “Caliban experiment”? • Miranda a part of this: “I pitied thee/ Took pains to make thee speak . . .” • “You taught me language, and my profit on’t/ Is I know how to curse.” • (We’ll come back to this when we talk about the “post-colonial” Tempest.) • Finally, what does Prospero intend in the round-up of his enemies? • How can they be properly punished? • Does he know? • How can he be sure that Ferdinand is not some spoiled aristocratic jerk?

4. The “Macbeth moment” • While Ariel presides over the scene, we have a “test case” of treason and murderous intention. • Antonio plays Lady Macbeth to Sebastian’s Macbeth. • And both are brought to the verge of murdering Alonso and Gonzalo. • The episode confirms Prospero’s narrative and indicates the continued treacherous intentions of the two. • And their intention of accomplishing their treason is confirmed in III.3. 11-17. • A sort of controlled experiment that proves the danger of Prospero’s position? • And says something about human nature? • The “banquet” of III.3 also a kind of testing moment. • Gonzalo sees benevolence in the spirits. • But the whole vision is designed to bring them to judgment.

5. Doubled by the Caliban plot • The “Macbeth moment” treason doubled by the Caliban/Stephano/Triculo plot. • Which turns comic the whole idea of plotting against Prospero? • Like the “anti-masque” in a masque. • Caliban is starting over with a new master, but repeating the pattern established with Prospero. • But Stephano and Triculo prove disappointing assassins. • Ariel distracts them with “trumpery” and the whole plot collapses in greed.

6. Prospero’s art • The disappearing “banquet” had been one example of Prospero’s art, a work designed to elicit guilt. • The wedding masque for Miranda and Ferdinand is another “vanity of mine art.” • At one level it celebrates abundance, prosperity, long life, happiness. • “Spring come to you at the farthest/ At the very end of harvest.” • But it’s also about self-control, the banishing of Venus in favor of Juno. • And echoes Prospero’s concerns about Ferdinand’s not breaking Miranda’s “virgin knot” until “All sactimonious ceremonies,” all holy rites have been performed. • (A preoccupation of Shakespeare’s, it seems.) • The masque is a visually elaborate and stunning moment in the play, taking up more stage time than our merely reading it suggests. • The dance of “certain reapers” and the nymphs recapitulates something of what we saw in WT, a moment of pure, abstract entertainment that has nothing to do with plot or narrative. • But interrupted by Prospero’s anxieties – he’d forgotten the plot of the “beast Caliban.” • (Of course, as it turns out, he needn’t have worried since Ariel has the whole situation under complete control. • And he’s “in some passion” – that is, furiously angry, upset also with himself?

7. Art and life • “Sir, I am vexed./ Bear with my weakness: my old brain is troubled.” • This is a man who has just looked death in the face. • And thinks he’s lost it once again. • Is life any less fragile than art? • How long does a play last? • Like Prospero’s little play, “the baseless fabric of this vision,” everything else -- towers, palaces, temples, “the great globe itself” -- will disappear without a trace. • And we too are just something that someone is dreaming, no more substantial than a dream. • But he’s also referring – metatheatricality! – to the very place where we are, the towers, palaces, churches of London, and the “Great Globe” where we’re sitting, standing. • (Which did disappear almost without a trace – just that little bit of foundation found under the Anchor Terrace.) • The whole perception is melancholy in the extreme – an old man’s vision? • “A turn or two I’ll walk/ To still my beating mind.” • Then we learn that Ariel had everything under control. No need for P’s anxiety.

8. Prospero’s moment of decision • Did Prospero know what he would do to his enemies? • Would it make the best dramatic sense to think he did not? • That he must come to a decision, one that would make demands on himself? • At V.1 Ariel reports on the distracted (mad) state of P’s three enemies – and the rest “brimful of sorrow and dismay.” • Ariel asserts that Prospero’s own emotions would become “tender” if he beheld them. • What to make of P’s reply, “Dost thou think so spirit?” • Surprised? Unbelieving? • Ariel sets up the challenge: “Mine would, sir, were I human.” • Is there a pregnant pause at this point – in which Prospero must look at Ariel and reflect? • Reflect on what is implied by A’s response? What does it mean to be “human”? • Prospero seems to reflect on the elements of the decision in the lines that follow. • “Nobler reason ‘gainst my fury.” • The renouncing of “art,” “this rough magic.” • Are there risks in this renouncing?

9. Breaking the staff, drowning the book • At once the renouncing of exceptional powers and the giving up of art. • P. confronts each of his enemies. • But can we say what the response is of each? • Alonso returns P’s dukedom and ask for pardon. • Do Antonio and Sebastian respond? • Miranda’s “wonder”: “How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world/ That has such people in’t!” • And Prospero’s world-weary reply: “’Tis new to thee.” • Gonzalo’s happy ending: V.1.205ff. • How far can we trust this? • The isle left to Caliban. • And Ariel “to the elements.”

10. Epilogue: “spoken by Prospero” • Unusual for the epilogue to be spoken by the protagonist. • A liminal moment for the play: “by Prospero” implies the actor in character, but it’s also the actor who is appealing for applause. • P’s renounced powers are now assumed to reside with the audience. • It’s playful – but serious play? • It’s as if the power to imagine, to create a play, resides first with an audience willing to accept what’s played. • And so the playwright must take from and return his powers to an audience. • The despairing magus/player/playwright must be “relieved by prayer.” • The thematic of pardon, forgiveness, of the play’s narrative is now a demand on the audience – again serious “play.” • What formulation do the final two lines appear to echo? • Suggesting a mutuality of acceptance of imaginative power.