William Shakespeare, The Tempest

(1) Shakespeare’s Life and Times (2) Introduction to The Tempest: Genre, Themes, Sources, Contexts (3) Prospero vs. Caliban

Comedic aspects of The Tempest: - romantic main plot - comic subplot - a passage from court society to the wilderness and the promise of a return - happy ending, marriage

Potentially tragic themes of The Tempest: - hatred between brothers - betrayal of a legitimate ruler - revenge - magic

Tragicomedy: a fusion of tragedy and comedy Romance elements of The Tempest: - exotic setting - love, adventure, miraculous accidents - supernatural events - atmosphere of wonder

Thou earth, thou! Speak! (1.2.313-4) What ho! Slave! Caliban! Thou earth, thou! Speak! (1.2.313-4) This island’s mine by Sycorax my mother, Which thou tak’st from me. (1.2.331-2) But thy vile race, Though thou didst learn, had that in’t which good natures Could not abide to be with. (1.2.357-9) This thing of darkness I Acknowledge mine. (5.1.275-6)

Sounds, and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not. Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices, That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches Ready to drop upon me, that, when I waked, I cried to sleep again. (3.2. 133-141)

They are both in either’s powers. But this swift business I must uneasy make, lest too light winning Make the prize light. (1.2.448-450)

Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let ’em forth Graves at my command Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let ’em forth By my so potent art. (5.1.48-50)

You do look, my son, in a moved sort, As if you were dismayed. Be cheerful, sir. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air; And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind.

As dreams are made on, and our little life We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vexed. Bear with my weakness: my old brain is troubled. Be not disturbed with my infirmity. If you be pleased, retire into my cell And there repose. A turn or two I’ll walk To still my beating mind. (4.1. 146-163)

Now my charms are all o’erthrown, And what strength I have’s mine own, Which is most faint. Now ’tis true I must be here confined by you, Or sent to Naples. Let me not, Since I have my dukedom got And pardoned the deceiver, dwell In this bare island by your spell, But release me from my bands With the help of your good hands.

Gentle breath of yours my sails Must fill, or else my project fails, Which was to please. Now I want Spirits to enforce, art to enchant; And my ending is despair, Unless i be relieved by prayer Which pierces so, that it assaults Mercy itself and frees all faults. As you from your crimes would pardoned be, Let your indulgence set me free. (Epilogue, 1-20)

This island’s mine by Sycorax my mother, Which thou tak’st from me. When thou cam’s first Thou strok’st 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 less, That burn by day and night. And then I loved thee And showed thee all the qualities o’ th’ isle, The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile.

Cursèd be I that did so! All the charms Of Sycorax — toads, beetles, bats — light on you! For I am all the subjects that you have, Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me The rest o’ th’ island. (1.2.331-344)

Caliban, a savage and deformed slave

“filth,” “earth,” “hag-seed,” “beast,” “misshapen knave,” “bastard one,” “as disproportioned in his manners / As in his shape,” “a thing most brutish,” “a strange thing,” “a thing of darkness,” a member of “a vile race,” “a villain … / I do not love to look on,” a “fish,” “a plain fish,” “half a fish and half a monster,” “tortoise,” “mooncalf,” “cat,” “demi-devil,” “a born devil,” and, a “monster” (used about forty times)

PROSPERO Thou most lying slave, Whom stripes may move, not kindness. I have used thee, Filth as thou art, with humane care, and lodged thee In mine own cell till thou didst seek to violate The honor of my child. CALIBAN O ho, O ho! Would’t had been done! Thou didst prevent me. I had peopled else This isle with Calibans.

MIRANDA Abhorrèd slave, Which any print of goodness wilt not take, Being capable of all ill. I pitied thee, Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour One thing or other. When thou didst not, savage, Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes With words that made them known. But thy vile race, Though thou didst learn, had that in’t which good natures Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou Deservedly confined into this rock, Who hadst deserved more than a prison. CALIBAN You taught me language, and my profit on’t Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you For learning me your language! (1.2.344-364)

A devil, a born devil, on whose nature Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains, Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost. (4.1.188-90)

PROSPERO He is as disproportioned in his manners As in his shape. Go, sirrah, to my cell; Take with you your companions. As you look To have my pardon, trim it handsomely. CALIBAN Ay, that I will; and I’ll be wise hereafter, And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass Was I to take this drunkard for a god, And worship this dull fool! (5.1.290-97)

PROSPERO. And now, Caliban, there’s only us PROSPERO And now, Caliban, there’s only us! What I have to tell you will be brief: Ten times, a hundred times, I’ve tried to save you, above all from yourself. But you have always answered me with rage and venom, like the opossum that hoists itself up by its own tail the better to bite the hand that pulls it from the darkness. Well, boy, I shall spurn my indulgent nature and, from now on, I will answer your violence with violence! Time passes by, symbolized by the curtain’s being lowered halfway and then being taken up again. In semi-darkness, PROSPERO appears, aged and weary. His gestures are stiff and automatic, his speech weak and listless.

PROSPERO. Funny, for some time now we’ve been invaded by opossums PROSPERO Funny, for some time now we’ve been invaded by opossums. They’re everywhere… Peccaries, wild boar, all those unclean beasts! But above all, opossums. Oh, those eyes! And that hideous leer! You’d swear the jungle wanted to invade the cave… But I’ll defend myself… I will not let my work perish… (Roaring.) I will defend civilization! (He fires in all directions.) They’ve got what was coming to them… Now, this way, I’ll have some peace for a blessed while… But it’s cold… Funny, the climate’s changed… Cold on this island… Have to think about making a fire… Ah well, my old Caliban, we’re the only two left on this island, just you and me. You and me! You-me! Me-you! But what the hell’s he up to? (Roaring.) Caliban! In the distance, above the sound of the surf and the mewing of birds, snatches of CALIBAN’S song can be heard. Liberty, oh-ay! Liberty! (Aimé Césaire, A Tempest)

No more dams I’ll make for fish, Nor fetch in firing At requiring Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish, Ban, ban, Ca-caliban Has a new master: get a new man. Freedom, high-day, high-day freedom, freedom high-day, freedom! (2.2.176-182)