 Title page of the part in theFirst Folio | |
| Editors | Edward Blount andIsaac Jaggard |
|---|---|
| Author | William Shakespeare |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Shakespearean comedy Tragicomedy |
| Publication place | England |
The Tempest is aplay byWilliam Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, the rest of the story is set on a remote island, whereProspero, a magician, lives with his daughterMiranda, and his two servants:Caliban, a savage monster figure, andAriel, an airy spirit. The play contains music and songs that evoke the spirit of enchantment on the island. It explores many themes, includingmagic, betrayal, revenge, and family. In Act IV, a weddingmasque serves as aplay-within-a-play, and contributes spectacle, allegory, and elevated language.
AlthoughThe Tempest is listed in theFirst Folio as the first of Shakespeare's comedies, it deals with both tragic and comic themes, and modern criticism has created a category ofromance for this and others of Shakespeare's late plays.The Tempest has been put to varied interpretations, from those[1][2][3] who see it as a fable of art and creation, with Prospero representing Shakespeare, and Prospero's renunciation of magic signaling Shakespeare's farewell to the stage, to interpretations that consider it an allegory of Europeans colonizing foreign lands.
Twelve years before the action of the play,Prospero, formerly Duke ofMilan and a gifted sorcerer, had been usurped by his treacherous brother Antonio with the aid of Alonso, King ofNaples. Escaping by boat with his infant daughterMiranda, Prospero flees to a remote island where he has been living ever since. There he used his magic to force the island's only inhabitant,Caliban, to protect him and Miranda. He also frees the spiritAriel and binds them into servitude.
When a ship carrying his brother Antonio passes nearby, Prospero conjures up a storm with help from Ariel and the ship is destroyed. Antonio is shipwrecked, along with Alonso, Ferdinand (Alonso's son and heir to the throne), Sebastian (Alonso's brother), Gonzalo (Prospero's trustworthy minister), Adrian, and other court members.
Prospero enacts a sophisticated plan to take revenge on his usurpers and regain his dukedom. Using magic, he separates the shipwreck survivors into groups on the island:
Prospero intends that Miranda, now aged 15, will marry Ferdinand, and he instructs Ariel to bring some other spirits and produce amasque. The masque will feature classical goddesses,Juno,Ceres, andIris, and will bless and celebrate the betrothal. The masque will also instruct the young couple on marriage, and on the value of chastity until then.
The masque is suddenly interrupted when Prospero realises he had forgotten the plot against his life. Once Ferdinand and Miranda are gone, Prospero orders Ariel to deal with the nobles' plot. Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano are then chased off into the swamps by goblins in the shape of hounds.
Prospero vows that once he achieves his goals, he will set Ariel free, and abandon his magic, saying:
I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I'll drown my book.[4]
Ariel brings on Alonso, Antonio, and Sebastian. Prospero forgives all three. Prospero's former title, Duke of Milan, is restored. Ariel fetches the sailors from the ship, and then Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano. Caliban, seemingly filled with regret, promises to be good. Stephano and Trinculo are ridiculed and sent away in shame by Prospero. Before the reunited group (all the noble characters with the addition of Miranda and Prospero) leave the island, Ariel is instructed to provide good weather to guide the king's ship back to the royal fleet and then to Naples, where Ferdinand and Miranda will be married. After this, Ariel is set free.
In an epilogue, Prospero requests that the audience set him free — with their applause.
The Tempest begins with the spectacle of a storm-tossed ship at sea, and later there is a second spectacle—the masque. A masque in Renaissance England was a festive courtly entertainment that offered music, dance, elaborate sets, costumes, and drama. Often a masque would begin with an "anti-masque", that showed a disordered scene ofsatyrs, for example, singing and dancing wildly. The anti-masque would then be dramatically dispersed by the spectacular arrival of the masque proper in a demonstration of chaos and vice being swept away by glorious civilisation. In Shakespeare's play, the storm in scene one functions as the anti-masque for the masque proper in act four.[5][6][7]
The masque inThe Tempest is not an actual masque; rather, it is an analogous scene intended to mimic and evoke a masque, while serving the narrative of the drama that contains it. The masque is a culmination of the primary action inThe Tempest: Prospero's intention to not only seek revenge on his usurpers, but to regain his rightful position as Duke of Milan. Most important to his plot to regain his power and position is to marry Miranda to Ferdinand, heir to the King of Naples. This marriage will secure Prospero's position by securing his legacy. The chastity of the bride is considered essential and greatly valued in royal lineages. This is true not only in Prospero's plot, but also notably in the court of the virgin queen, Elizabeth.Sir Walter Raleigh had in fact named one of the new world colonies "Virginia" after his monarch's chastity. It was also understood by James, king whenThe Tempest was first produced, as he arranged political marriages for his grandchildren. What could possibly go wrong with Prospero's plans for his daughter is nature: the fact that Miranda is a young woman who has just arrived at a time in her life when natural attractions among young people become powerful. One threat is Caliban, who has spoken of his desire to rape Miranda, and "people ... this isle with Calibans",[8] and who has also offered Miranda's body to a drunken Stephano.[9] Another threat is represented by the young couple themselves, who might succumb to each other prematurely. Prospero says:
Look thou be true. Do not give dalliance
Too much the rein. The strongest oaths are straw
To th'fire i'th'blood. Be more abstemious
Or else good night your vow![10]
The need to teach Miranda is what inspires Prospero in act four to create the masque, and the "value of chastity" is a primary lesson being taught by the masque along with having a happy marriage.[11][12][13]
It is not known for certain exactly whenThe Tempest was written, but evidence supports the idea that it was probably composed sometime between late 1610 to mid-1611. It is considered one of the last plays that Shakespeare wrote alone.[14][15] Evidence supports composition perhaps occurring before, after, or at the same time asThe Winter's Tale.[14]Edward Blount enteredThe Tempest into theStationers' Register on 8 November 1623. It was one of 16 Shakespeare plays that Blount registered on that date.[16]
There is no obvious singleorigin for the plot ofThe Tempest; it appears to have been created with several sources contributing, chiefly William Strachey's "Letter to an Excellent Lady".[17] Since source scholarship began in the eighteenth century, researchers have suggested passages from "Naufragium" ("The Shipwreck"), one of the colloquies inErasmus'sColloquia Familiaria (1518),[a] andRichard Eden's 1555 translation ofPeter Martyr'sDe orbo novo (1530).[19]
William Strachey'sA True Reportory of the Wracke and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight, an eyewitness report of the real-life shipwreck of theSea Venture in 1609 on the island ofBermuda while sailing towardVirginia, may be considered a primary source for the opening scene, as well as a few other references in the play to conspiracies and retributions.[20] Although not published until 1625, Strachey's report was first recounted in his "Letter to an Excellent Lady", a private letter describing the incident and the earliest account of all; the letter was dated 15 July 1610, and it is thought that Shakespeare may have seen the original sometime during that year.E. K. Chambers identified theTrue Reportory as Shakespeare's "main authority" forThe Tempest, despite the fact that it was published in 1625.[21] Regarding the influence of Strachey in the play,Kenneth Muir says that although "[t]here is little doubt that Shakespeare had read ... William Strachey'sTrue Reportory" and other accounts, "[t]he extent of the verbal echoes of [the Bermuda] pamphlets has, I think, been exaggerated. There is hardly a shipwreck in history or fiction which does not mention splitting, in which the ship is not lightened of its cargo, in which the passengers do not give themselves up for lost, in which north winds are not sharp, and in which no one gets to shore by clinging to wreckage", and goes on to say that "Strachey's account of the shipwreck is blended with memories ofSaint Paul's—in which too not a hair perished—and with Erasmus' colloquy."[22]
Shakespeare almost certainly read Strachey's account from the original source, according toCharles Mills Gayley. Gayley posits that Shakespeare had access to Strachey's original "Letter to an Excellent Lady", brought to England by Sir Thomas Gates the summer of 1610: "The letter was entrusted by this lady to certain members of the [Virginia Company] council, and one of them, probablySir Edwin Sandys, incorporated from it such portions as were fitting for the True Declaration issued to the public....The letter was always in the keeping of those vitally concerned untilPurchas got hold of it [and published it fifteen years later]. That Shakespeare was allowed to read it and to use certain of its materials for a play, as with just discrimination and due discretion as he did, is illustrative of the closeness of his intimacy with the patriot leaders of the Virginia enterprise."[23][better source needed]
AnotherSea Venture survivor,Silvester Jourdain, published his account,A Discovery of The Barmudas dated 13 October 1610;Edmond Malone argues for the 1610–11 date on the account by Jourdain and theVirginia Council of London'sA True Declaration of the Estate of the Colonie in Virginia dated 8 November 1610.[24][better source needed]
A poem entitledPimlyco; or, Runne Red-Cap was published as a pamphlet in 1609. It was written in praise of a tavern inHoxton. The poem includes extensive quotations of an earlier (1568) poem,The Tunning of Elynor Rymming, byJohn Skelton. The pamphlet contains a pastoral story of a voyage to an island. There is no evidence that Shakespeare read this pamphlet, was aware of it, or had used it. However, the poem may be useful as a source to researchers regarding how such themes and stories were being interpreted and told in London near to the timeThe Tempest was written.[25]
The Tempest may take its overall structure from traditional Italiancommedia dell'arte, which sometimes featured amagus and his daughter, their supernatural attendants, and a number of rustics. Thecommedia often featured aclown known asArlecchino (or his predecessor,Zanni) and his partnerBrighella, who bear a striking resemblance to Stephano and Trinculo; a lecherous Neapolitan hunchback who corresponds to Caliban; and the clever and beautiful Isabella, whose wealthy and manipulative father,Pantalone, constantly seeks a suitor for her, thus mirroring the relationship between Miranda and Prospero.[26]
Gonzalo's description of his ideal society[27] thematically and verbally echoesMontaigne'sessayOf the Canibales, translated into English in a version published byJohn Florio in 1603. Montaigne praises the society of theCaribbean natives: "It is a nation ... that hath no kinde of traffike, no knowledge of Letters, no intelligence of numbers, no name of magistrate, nor of politike superioritie; no use of service, of riches, or of poverty; no contracts, no successions, no dividences, no occupation but idle; no respect of kinred, but common, no apparrell but natural, no manuring of lands, no use of wine, corne, or mettle. The very words that import lying, falsehood, treason, dissimulation, covetousnes, envie, detraction, and pardon, were never heard of amongst them."[28]
A source for Prospero's speech in act five, in which he bids farewell to magic[29] is an invocation by the sorceressMedea found in Ovid's poemMetamorphoses. Medea calls out:
Ye airs and winds; ye elves of hills, of brooks, of woods alone,
Of standing lakes, and of the night, approach ye every one,
Through help of whom (the crooked banks much wondering at the thing)
I have compelled streams to run clean backward to their spring.[30]
Shakespeare's Prospero begins his invocation:
Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him
When he comes back ...[31][32]
Recently, scholars have also identified the influence on the Tempest ofJohn Marston'sThe Malcontent,[33]Beaumont and Fletcher'sPhilaster[33] and the anonymous romancePrimaleon, Prince of Greece.[34]
The Tempest first appeared in print in 1623 in the collection of 36 of Shakespeare's plays entitled,Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies; Published according to the True and Original Copies, which is known as theFirst Folio. The plays, includingThe Tempest, were gathered and edited byJohn Heminges andHenry Condell.[35]
A handwritten manuscript ofThe Tempest was prepared byRalph Crane, ascrivener employed by the King's Men. Crane probably copied from Shakespeare's rough draft, and based his style on Ben Jonson's Folio of 1616. Crane is thought to have neatened texts, edited the divisions of acts and scenes, and sometimes added his own improvements. He was fond of joining words with hyphens, and using elisions with apostrophes, for example by changing "with the king" to read: "wi'th' King".[36] The elaborate stage directions inThe Tempest may have been due to Crane; they provide evidence regarding how the play was staged by the King's Men.[37]
The entire First Folio project was delivered to the blind printer,William Jaggard, and printing began in 1622.The Tempest is the first play in the publication. It was proofread and printed with special care; it is the most well-printed and the cleanest text of the thirty-six plays. To do the work of setting the type in the printing press, three compositors were used forThe Tempest. In the 1960s, a landmark bibliographic study of the First Folio was accomplished byCharlton Hinman. Based on distinctive quirks in the printed words on the page, the study was able to individuate the compositors, and reveal that three compositors worked onThe Tempest, who are known as Compositor B, C, and F. Compositor B worked onThe Tempest's first page as well as six other pages. He was an experienced journeyman in Jaggard's printshop, who occasionally could be careless. In his role, he may have had a responsibility for the entire First Folio. The other two, Compositors C and F, worked full-time and were experienced printers.[35]
At the time, spelling and punctuation was not standardized and will vary from page to page, because each compositor had their individual preferences and styles. There is evidence that the press run was stopped at least four times, which allowed proofreading and corrections. However, a page with an error would not be discarded, so pages late in any given press run would be the most accurate, and each of the final printed folios may vary in this regard. This is the common practice at the time. There is also an instance of a letter (a metalsort or a type) being damaged (possibly) during the course of a run and changing the meaning of a word: After the masque Ferdinand says,
Let me live here ever!
So rare a wondered father and a wise
Makes this place paradise! (4.1.122–124)
The word "wise" at the end of line 123 was printed with the traditional long "s" that resembles an "f". But in 1978 it was suggested that during the press run, a small piece of the crossbar on the type had broken off, and the word should be "wife". Modern editors have not come to an agreement—Oxford says "wife", Arden says "wise".[38][39][40]
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. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
The Tempest is explicitly concerned with its own nature as a play, frequently drawing links between Prospero's art and theatrical illusion. The shipwreck was a spectacle that Ariel performed, while Antonio and Sebastian are cast in a troupe to act.[42] Prospero may even refer to theGlobe Theatre when he describes the whole world as an illusion: "the great globe ... shall dissolve ... like this insubstantial pageant".[43] Ariel frequently disguises himself as figures fromClassical mythology, for example anymph, aharpy, andCeres, acting as the latter in amasque andanti-masque that Prospero creates.[44]
Thomas Campbell in 1838 was the first to consider that Prospero was meant to partially represent Shakespeare, but then abandoned that idea when he came to believe thatThe Tempest was an early play.[45]
As it was probably Shakespeare's last solo play,The Tempest has often been seen as a valedictory for his career, especially in the passage beginning "Our revels now are ended..."[46][47] and in Prospero's final speech in which he tells the audience "Let your indulgence set me free",[48] asking to be released from the stage one last time before retiring,[49][50][51]
Prospero is a magician, whose magic is a beneficial "white magic". Prospero learned his magic by studying in his books about nature, and he uses magic to achieve what he considers positive outcomes. Shakespeare uses Caliban to indicate the opposite—evil black magic. Caliban's mother, Sycorax, who does not appear, represents the horrors that were stirring at this time in England and elsewhere regarding witchcraft and black magic. Magic was taken seriously and studied by serious philosophers, notably the GermanHenricus Cornelius Agrippa, who in 1533 published in three volumes hisDe Occulta Philosophia, which summarized work done by Italian scholars on the topic of magic. Agrippa's work influencedJohn Dee (1527–1608), an Englishman, who, like Prospero, had a large collection of books on the occult, as well as on science and philosophy. It was a dangerous time to philosophize about magic—Giordano Bruno, for example, was burned at the stake in Italy in 1600, just a few years beforeThe Tempest was written.[52]
.jpg)
Prospero uses magic grounded in science and reality—the kind that was studied by Agrippa and Dee. Prospero studied and gradually was able to develop the kind of power represented by Ariel, which extended his abilities. Sycorax's magic was not capable of something like Ariel: "a spirit too delicate to act her earthy and abhorred commands."[53] Prospero's rational goodness enables him to control Ariel, where Sycorax can only trap him in a tree.[54] Sycorax's magic is described as destructive and terrible, where Prospero's is said to be wondrous and beautiful. Prospero seeks to set things right in his world through his magic, and once that is done, he renounces it, setting Ariel free.[52]
What Prospero is trying to do with magic is essential toThe Tempest; it is the unity of action. It is referred to as Prospero's project in act two when Ariel stops an attempted assassination:
My master through his art foresees the danger
That you, his friend, are in, and sends me forth—
For else his project dies—to keep them living![55]
At the start of act five Prospero says:
Prospero seems to know precisely what he wants. Beginning with the tempest at the top of the play, his project is laid out in a series of steps. "Bountiful fortune"[57] has given him a chance to affect his destiny, and that of his county and family.[58]
His plan is to do all he can to reverse what was done twelve years ago when he was usurped: First he will use a tempest to cause certain persons to fear his great powers, then when all survived unscathed, he will separate those who lived through the tempest into different groups. These separations will let him deal with each group differently. Then Prospero's plan is to lead Ferdinand to Miranda, having prepared them both for their meeting. What is beyond his magical powers is to cause them to fall in love—but yet they do. The next stages for the couple will be a testing. To help things along he magically makes the others fall into a sleep. The masque which is to educate and prepare the couple is next. But then his plans begin to go off the tracks when the masque is interrupted.[59][failed verification] Next Prospero confronts those who usurped him. He demands his dukedom and a "brave new world"[60] by the merging of Milan and Naples through the marriage of Ferdinand and Miranda.[61]
Prospero's magic has not worked on Sebastian and Antonio, who are not penitent.[citation needed] Prospero then deals with Antonio, not with magic, but with something more mundane—blackmail.[62][citation needed] This failure of magic is significant, and critics disagree regarding what it means:Jan Kott considers it a disillusionment for both Prospero and for the author.[63]E. M. W. Tillyard plays it down as a minor disappointment. Some critics[who?] consider Sebastian and Antonio clownish and not a real threat.Stephen Orgel blames Prospero for causing the problem by forgetting about Sebastian and Antonio, which may introduce a theme of Prospero's encroaching dotage.[64] David Hirst suggests that the failure of Prospero's magic may have a deeper explanation: He suggests that Prospero's magic has had no effect at all on certain things (like Caliban), that Prospero is idealistic and not realistic, and that his magic makes Prospero like a god, but it also makes him other than human, which explains why Prospero seems impatient and ill-suited to deal with his daughter, for example, when issues call on his humanity, not his magic. It explains his dissatisfaction with the "real world", which is what cost him his dukedom, for example, in the first place. In the end, Prospero is learning the value of being human.[61]
Comedy: The Tempest is listed first among the "Comedies" in the 1623First Folio of Shakespeare's works.[65] The plot contains elements deriving from the Italian tradition ofcommedia dell'arte.[66] In Shakespeare's time, whether a work was classified as comedy was chiefly defined by the resolution of its plot: typically one ending in marriage.[67]
Tragicomedy: Although the plot contains similarities to Shakespeare's early comedies, its darker tone has led some twentieth-century critics including Joan Hartwig to label it atragicomedy in the same tradition as contemporary mixed-mode plays such as the collaborations betweenBeaumont and Fletcher.[68]E. M. W. Tillyard argued that the classic principles of tragedy were divided between two of Shakespeare's late plays: destruction being explored more fully inThe Winter's Tale, and regeneration more fully inThe Tempest.[69]
Romance: Four of Shakespeare's late plays -Pericles,Cymbeline,The Winter's Tale andThe Tempest - have become grouped together as hisromances.[70][71] This places them in a tradition derived from third-century Greek narratives, and practiced by Elizabethan writers includingLyly,Lodge,Greene andSidney.[70] These plays (in the words of Reginald Foakes) "create a world dominated by chance ... in which we are attuned to delight in and wonder at the unexpected."[72]
LikeThe Comedy of Errors,The Tempest roughly adheres to theunities of time, place, and action.[73] Shakespeare's other plays rarely respected the three unities, taking place in separate locations miles apart and over several days or even years.[74] The play's events unfold in real time before the audience, Prospero even declaring in the last act that everything has happened in, more or less, three hours.[failed verification][75][76] All action is unified into one basic plot: Prospero's struggle to regain his dukedom; it is also confined to one place, a fictional island, which many scholars agree is meant to be located in the Mediterranean Sea.[77] Another reading suggests that it takes place in theNew World, as scholars have noted some parts of the play share similarities with theEuropean colonization of the Americas.[78] Still others argue that the island can represent any land that has been colonised.[79]
In the denouement of the play, Prospero enters into a parabasis (a direct address to the audience). In his bookBack and Forth, the poet and literary critic Siddhartha Bose argues that Prospero's epilogue creates a "permanent parabasis" which is "the condition ofSchlegelian Romantic Irony".[80] Prospero is often identified with Shakespeare himself in this final speech, in which both appear (in the words of Germaine Greer) to be "[not] so much bidding farewell to the stage as begging to be released from it".[49]
The Tempest is one of the plays (alongsideThe Merchant of Venice andOthello) most analysed in aPostcolonial context,[81] and indeed is considered to be the work upon which postcolonial studies first took root.[82] The play has become, in the words of Peter Hulme, "emblematic of the founding years of England's colonialism".[83] From a postcolonial perspective, Prospero is seen as having imported to the island the social and moral structures of Milan (meaning, for early audiences, of London) by seizing rule, and making slaves of its inhabitants Caliban and Ariel.[84]
In the description ofGonzalo's Utopia,[85] Shakespeare drew onMontaigne's essayOf Cannibals—which discusses the values of societies insulated from European influences.[86]
Traditionally, it was common to viewThe Tempest as an allegory of artistic creativity, with Prospero as all-knowing and benevolent.[87] Beginning in about 1950, with the publication ofPsychology of Colonization byOctave Mannoni, postcolonial theorists have increasingly appropriatedThe Tempest and reinterpreted it in light of postcolonial theory. This new way of looking at the text explored the effect of the "coloniser" (Prospero) on the "colonised" (Ariel and Caliban). Although Ariel is often overlooked in these debates in favour of the more intriguing Caliban, he is nonetheless an essential component of them.[88] So, in the 1960s and 1970s, Caliban's "This island's mine... which thou tak'st from me"[89] became a rallying-cry for African and caribbean intellectuals.[87]
Feminist interpretations ofThe Tempest consider the play in terms of gender roles and relationships among the characters on stage, and consider how concepts of gender are constructed and presented by the text, and explore the supporting consciousnesses and ideologies, all with an awareness of imbalances and injustices.[90] Two early feminist interpretations ofThe Tempest are included in Anna Jameson'sShakespeare's Heroines (1832) and Mary Clarke'sThe Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines (1851).[91][92]
The Tempest is a play created in a male dominated culture and society, a gender imbalance the play explores metaphorically by having only one major female role, Miranda. Miranda is fifteen, intelligent, naive, and beautiful. The only humans she has ever encountered in her life are male. Prospero sees himself as her primary teacher, and asks if she can remember a time before they arrived to the island—he assumes that she cannot. When Miranda has a memory of "four or five women" tending to her younger self (1.2.44–47), it disturbs Prospero, who prefers to portray himself as her only teacher, and the absolute source of her own history—anything before his teachings in Miranda's mind should be a dark "abysm", according to him. (1.2.48–50) The "four or five women" Miranda remembers may symbolize the young girl's desire for something other than only men.[12][93]
Other women, such as Caliban's motherSycorax, Miranda's mother and Alonso's daughter Claribel, are only mentioned. Because of the small role women play in the story in comparison to other Shakespeare plays,The Tempest has attracted much feminist criticism. Miranda is typically viewed as being completely deprived of freedom by her father. Her only duty in his eyes is to remain chaste. Ann Thompson argues that Miranda, in a manner typical of women in a colonial atmosphere, has completely internalised the patriarchal order of things, thinking of herself as subordinate to her father.[94]
Most of what is said about Sycorax is said by Prospero, who has never met Sycorax—what he knows of her he learned from Ariel. When Miranda asks Prospero, "Sir, are you not my father?", Prospero responds,
Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
She said thou was my daughter.[95]
This surprising answer has been difficult for those interpretations that portray their relationship simply as a lordly father to an innocent daughter, and the exchange has at times been cut in performance. A similar example occurs when Prospero, enraged, raises a question of the parentage of his brother, and Miranda defends Prospero's mother:
The bookBrave New World byAldous Huxley referencesThe Tempest in the title, and exploresgenetically modified citizens and the subsequent social effects. The novel and the phrase fromThe Tempest, "brave new world", has itself since been associated with public debate about humankind's understanding and use of genetic modification, in particular with regards to humans.[98]
A record exists of a performance ofThe Tempest on 1 November 1611 by theKing's Men beforeJames I and the English royal court atWhitehall Palace onHallowmas night.[99] The play was one of the six Shakespeare plays (and eight others for a total of 14) acted at court during the winter of 1612–13 as part of thefestivities surrounding the marriage ofPrincess Elizabeth withFrederick V, theElector of the Palatinate of the Rhine.[100] There is no further public performance recorded prior to theRestoration; but in his 1669 preface to the Dryden/Davenant version, John Dryden states thatThe Tempest had been performed at theBlackfriars Theatre.[101] Careful consideration of stage directions within the play supports this, strongly suggesting that the play was written with Blackfriars Theatre rather than theGlobe Theatre in mind.[102][103]
Adaptations of the play, not Shakespeare's original, dominated the performance history ofThe Tempest from theEnglish Restoration until the mid-19th century.[104] All theatres were closed down by thepuritan government during theEnglish Interregnum. Upon the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, twopatent companies—theKing's Company and theDuke's Company—were established, and the existing theatrical repertoire divided between them.Sir William Davenant'sDuke's Company had the rights to performThe Tempest.[105] In 1667 Davenant andJohn Dryden made heavy cuts and adapted it asThe Tempest, or The Enchanted Island. They tried to appeal to upper-class audiences by emphasising royalist political and social ideals: monarchy is the natural form of government; patriarchal authority decisive in education and marriage; and patrilineality preeminent in inheritance and ownership of property.[104] They also added characters and plotlines: Miranda has a sister, named Dorinda; Caliban also has a sister, named Sycorax. As a parallel to Shakespeare's Miranda/Ferdinand plot, Prospero has a foster-son, Hippolito, who has never set eyes on a woman.[106] Hippolito was a popularbreeches role, a man played by a woman, popular with Restoration theatre management for the opportunity to reveal actresses' legs.[107] Scholar Michael Dobson has describedThe Tempest, or The Enchanted Island by Dryden and Davenant as "the most frequently revived play of the entire Restoration" and as establishing the importance of enhanced and additional roles for women.[108]
_2.jpg)
In 1674,Thomas Shadwell re-adapted Dryden and Davenant as an opera of the same name, usually meaning a play with sections that were to be sung or danced. Restoration playgoers appear to have regarded the Dryden/Davenant/Shadwell version as Shakespeare's:Samuel Pepys, for example, described it as "an old play of Shakespeares" inhis diary. The opera was extremely popular, and "full of so good variety, that I cannot be more pleased almost in a comedy" according to Pepys.[109] Prospero in this version is very different from Shakespeare's: Eckhard Auberlen describes him as "reduced to the status of aPolonius-like overbusy father, intent on protecting the chastity of his two sexually naive daughters while planning advantageous dynastic marriages for them".[110] The operaticEnchanted Island was successful enough to provoke a parody,The Mock Tempest, or The Enchanted Castle, written by Thomas Duffett for the King's Company in 1675. It opened with what appeared to be a tempest, but turns out to be a riot in a brothel.[111]
In the early 18th century, the Dryden/Davenant/Shadwell version dominated the stage. Ariel was—with two exceptions—played by a woman, and invariably by a graceful dancer and superb singer. Caliban was a comedian's role, played by actors "known for their awkward figures". In 1756,David Garrick staged another operatic version, a "three-act extravaganza" with music byJohn Christopher Smith.[112]
The Tempest was one of the staples of the repertoire ofRomantic Era theatres.John Philip Kemble produced an acting version which was closer to Shakespeare's original, but nevertheless retained Dorinda and Hippolito.[112] Kemble was much-mocked for his insistence on archaic pronunciation of Shakespeare's texts, including "aitches" for "aches". It was said that spectators "packed the pit, just to enjoy hissing Kemble's delivery of 'I'll rack thee with old cramps, / Fill all they bones with aches'."[113][114] The actor-managers of the Romantic Era established the fashion for opulence in sets and costumes which would dominate Shakespeare performances until the late 19th century: Kemble's Dorinda and Miranda, for example, were played "in white ornamented with spotted furs".[115]
In 1757, a year after the debut of his operatic version,David Garrick produced a heavily cut performance of Shakespeare's script atDrury Lane, and it was revived, profitably, throughout the century.[112]
It was not untilWilliam Charles Macready's influential production in 1838 that Shakespeare's text established its primacy over the adapted and operatic versions which had been popular for most of the previous two centuries. The performance was particularly admired forGeorge Bennett's performance as Caliban; it was described by Patrick MacDonnell—in his "An Essay on the Play ofThe Tempest" published in 1840—as "maintaining in his mind, a strong resistance to that tyranny, which held him in the thraldom of slavery".[116]
TheVictorian era marked the height of the movement which would later be described as "pictorial": based on lavish sets and visual spectacle, heavily cut texts making room for lengthy scene-changes, and elaborate stage effects.[117] InCharles Kean's 1857 production ofThe Tempest, Ariel was several times seen to descend in a ball of fire.[118] The hundred and forty stagehands supposedly employed on this production were described byThe Literary Gazette as "unseen ... but alas never unheard".Hans Christian Andersen also saw this production and described Ariel as "isolated by the electric ray", referring to the effect of acarbon arc lamp directed at the actress playing the role.[119] The next generation of producers, which includedWilliam Poel andHarley Granville-Barker, returned to a leaner and more text-based style.[120]
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Caliban, not Prospero, was perceived as the star act ofThe Tempest, and was the role which the actor-managers chose for themselves.Frank Benson researched the role by viewing monkeys and baboons at the zoo; on stage, he hung upside-down from a tree and gibbered.[121]
Continuing the late-19th-century tradition, in 1904Herbert Beerbohm Tree worefur andseaweed to playCaliban, with waist-length hair andapelike bearing, suggestive of a primitive part-animal part-human stage ofevolution.[121] This "missing link" portrayal of Caliban became the norm in productions untilRoger Livesey, in 1934, was the first actor to play the role with black makeup. In 1945Canada Lee played the role at theTheatre Guild in New York, establishing a tradition of black actors taking the role, includingEarle Hyman in 1960 andJames Earl Jones in 1962.[122]
In 1916,Percy MacKaye presented a communitymasque,Caliban by the Yellow Sands, at theLewisohn Stadium in New York. Amidst a huge cast of dancers and masquers, thepageant centres on the rebellious nature of Caliban but ends with his plea for more knowledge ("I yearn to build, to be thine Artist / And 'stablish this thine Earth among the stars- / Beautiful!") followed by Shakespeare, as a character, reciting Prospero's "Our revels now are ended" speech.[123][124]
John Gielgud playedProspero numerous times, and is, according to Douglas Brode, "universally heralded as ... [the 20th] century's greatest stage Prospero".[125] His first appearance in the role was in 1930: he wore aturban, later confessing that he intended to look likeDante.[122] He played the role in three more stage productions, lastly at theRoyal National Theatre in 1974.[126]Derek Jacobi's Prospero forThe Old Vic in 2003 was praised for his portrayal of isolation and pain in ageing.[127]
Peter Brook directed an experimental production at theRound House in 1968, in which the text was "almost wholly abandoned" in favour ofmime. According to Margaret Croydon'sreview,Sycorax was "portrayed by an enormous woman able to expand her face and body to still larger proportions—a fantastic emblem of thegrotesque ... [who] suddenly ... gives a horrendous yell, and Caliban, with blacksweater over his head, emerges from between her legs: Evil is born."[128]
In spite of the existing tradition of a black actor playing Caliban opposite a white Prospero,colonial interpretations of the play did not find their way onto the stage until the 1970s.[129] Performances in England directed byJonathan Miller and byClifford Williams explicitly portrayed Prospero ascoloniser. Miller's production was described, by David Hirst, as depicting "the tragic and inevitable disintegration of a more primitive culture as the result of European invasion and colonisation".[130][131] Miller developed this approach in his 1988 production at theOld Vic in London, starringMax von Sydow as Prospero. This used a mixed cast made up of white actors as the humans and black actors playing the spirits and creatures of the island. According toMichael Billington, "von Sydow's Prospero became a white overlord manipulating a mutinous black Caliban and a collaborative Ariel keenly mimicking the gestures of the island's invaders. The colonial metaphor was pushed through to its logical conclusion so that finally Ariel gathered up the pieces of Prospero's abandoned staff and, watched by awe-struck tribesmen, fitted them back together to hold his wand of office aloft before an immobilised Caliban.The Tempest suddenly acquired a new political dimension unforeseen by Shakespeare."[132]
Psychoanalytic interpretations have proved more difficult to depict on stage.[131]Gerald Freedman's production at theAmerican Shakespeare Theatre in 1979 and Ron Daniels'Royal Shakespeare Company production in 1982 both attempted to depict Ariel and Caliban as opposing aspects of Prospero's psyche. However neither was regarded as wholly successful:Shakespeare Quarterly, reviewing Freedman's production, commented, "Mr. Freedman did nothing on stage to make such a notion clear to any audience that had not heard of it before."[133][134]
Italian directorGiorgio Strehler directed aBrecht-inspired version of the Tempest from 1978 which proved influential in containing the much-copied image of Prospero at the centre of the play's opening storm scene, orchestrating the visual effects around him.[135]
In 1988,John Wood played Prospero for theRSC, emphasising the character's human complexity, in a performance a reviewer described as "a demented stage manager on a theatrical island suspended between smouldering rage at his usurpation and unbridled glee at his alternative ethereal power".[136][137]
Japanese theatre styles have been applied toThe Tempest. In 1988 and again in 1992Yukio Ninagawa brought his version ofThe Tempest to the UK. It was staged as a rehearsal of aNoh drama, with a traditional Noh theatre at the back of the stage, but also using elements which were at odds with Noh conventions.[138][139] In 1992, Minoru Fujita presented aBunraku (Japanese puppet) version inOsaka and at theTokyo Globe.[140]
Sam Mendes directed a 1993RSC production in whichSimon Russell Beale's Ariel was openly resentful of the control exercised byAlec McCowen's Prospero. Controversially, in the early performances of the run, Ariel spat at Prospero, once granted his freedom.[141] An entirely different effect was achieved byGeorge C. Wolfe in the outdoorNew York Shakespeare Festival production of 1995, where the casting ofAunjanue Ellis as Ariel oppositePatrick Stewart's Prospero charged the production with erotic tensions.[142] Productions in the late 20th-century have gradually increased the focus placed on sexual tensions between the characters, including Prospero/Miranda, Prospero/Ariel, Miranda/Caliban, Miranda/Ferdinand and Caliban/Trinculo.[143]
The Tempest was performed at theGlobe Theatre in 2000 withVanessa Redgrave as Prospero, playing the role as neither male nor female, but with "authority, humanity and humour ... a watchful parent to both Miranda and Ariel".[144] While the audience respected Prospero,Jasper Britton's Caliban "was their man" (in Peter Thomson's words), in spite of the fact that he spat fish at thegroundlings, and singled some of them out for humiliating encounters.[145] By the end of 2005,BBC Radio had aired 21 productions ofThe Tempest, more than any other play by Shakespeare.[146]
In 2016The Tempest was produced by theRoyal Shakespeare Company. Directed byGregory Doran, and featuringSimon Russell Beale as Prospero, the RSC's version used motion capture to project Ariel in real time as a "pixelated humanoid sprite" on stage. The performance was in collaboration withThe Imaginarium andIntel, and featured (in the words of the London Standard's review) "some ... gorgeous, some interesting, and some gimmicky and distracting"[147] use of light, special effects, and set design.[147][148]
In 2019,Mohegan writerMadeline Sayet's solo showWhere We Belong atShakespeare's Globe engaged in apostcolonial speculation about the European characters' abandonment of the island ad the play's end: wondering whether Caliban's native language would return to him.[149]
The Tempest has more music than any other Shakespeare play, and has proved more popular as a subject for composers than most of Shakespeare's plays. Scholar Julie Sanders ascribes this to the "perceived 'musicality' or lyricism" of the play.[150]
Two settings of songs fromThe Tempest which may have been used in performances during Shakespeare's lifetime have survived. These are "Full Fathom Five" and "Where The Bee Sucks There Suck I" in the 1659 publicationCheerful Ayres or Ballads, in which they are attributed toRobert Johnson, who regularly composed for the King's Men.[151] It has been common throughout the history of the play for the producers to commission contemporary settings of these two songs, and also of "Come Unto These Yellow Sands".[152]
The Tempest has also influenced songs written in thefolk andhippie traditions: for example, versions of "Full Fathom Five" were recorded byMarianne Faithfull forCome My Way in 1965 and byPete Seeger forDangerous Songs!? in 1966.[153]
Ludwig van Beethoven's 1802Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2, was given the subtitle "The Tempest" some time after Beethoven's death because, when asked about the meaning of the sonata, Beethoven was alleged to have said "ReadThe Tempest." But this story comes from his associateAnton Schindler, who is often not trustworthy.[154]
Among those who wrote incidental music toThe Tempest are:
At least forty-six operas orsemi-operas based onThe Tempest exist.[164] In addition to the Dryden/Davenant and Garrick versions mentioned in the "Restoration and 18th century" section above,Frederic Reynolds produced an operatic version in 1821, with music by SirHenry Bishop. Other pre-20th-century operas based onThe Tempest includeFromental Halévy'sLa Tempesta (1850) andZdeněk Fibich'sBouře (1894).[citation needed]
In the 20th century,Kurt Atterberg'sStormen premiered in 1948 andFrank Martin'sDer Sturm in 1955.Michael Tippett's 1971 operaThe Knot Garden contains various allusions toThe Tempest. In Act 3, a psychoanalyst, Mangus, pretends to be Prospero and uses situations from Shakespeare's play in his therapy sessions.[165]John Eaton, in 1985, produced a fusion of livejazz with pre-recorded electronic music, with a libretto by Andrew Porter.Michael Nyman's 1991 operaNoises, Sounds & Sweet Airs was first performed as anopera-ballet byKarine Saporta. The three vocalists, asoprano,contralto, andtenor, are voices rather than individual characters, with the tenor just as likely as the soprano to sing Miranda, or all three sing as one character.[166][better source needed]
The soprano who sings the part of Ariel inThomas Adès's21st-century opera is stretched at the higher end of the register, highlighting theandrogyny of the role.[167][168] Mike Silverman of theAssociated Press commented, "Adès has made the role of the spirit Ariel a tour de force for coloratura soprano, giving her a vocal line that hovers much of the timewell above high C."[This quote needs a citation]
Luca Lombardi'sProspero was premiered in April 2006 atNuremberg Opera House. Ariel is sung by 4 female voices (S,S,MS,A) and has an instrumental alter ego on stage (flute). There is an instrumental alter ego (cello) also for Prospero.[169][170]
Kaija Saariaho has set six fragments ofThe Tempest as accompanied arias between 1993 and 2014, and published them asThe Tempest Songbook.[171] The work is not intended as a music theatre piece, but it has been staged for instance byGotham Chamber Opera at theMetropolitan Museum in 2015,[172] in a collage containing also the incidental music forThe Tempest attributed to Purcell[173] (Saariaho's work exists in settings for both modern and Baroque instruments[174]).
Choral settings of excerpts fromThe Tempest includeAmy Beach'sCome Unto These Yellow Sands (SSAA, fromThree Shakespeare Songs), Matthew Harris'sFull Fathom Five,I Shall No More to Sea, andWhere the Bee Sucks (SATB, fromShakespeare Songs, Books I, V, VI), Ryan Kelly'sThe Tempest (SATB, a setting of the play's Scene I),Jaakko Mäntyjärvi'sFull Fathom Five andA Scurvy Tune (SATB, fromFour Shakespeare Songs andMore Shakespeare Songs),Frank Martin'sSongs of Ariel (SATB),Ralph Vaughan Williams'Full Fathom Five andThe Cloud-capp'd Towers (SATB, fromThree Shakespeare Songs), andDavid Willcocks'sFull Fathom Five (SSA).[citation needed]
Orchestral works for concert presentation includePyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's fantasyThe Tempest (1873), Fibich's symphonic poemBouře (1880),John Knowles Paine's symphonic poemThe Tempest (1876),Benjamin Dale's overture (1902),Arthur Honegger's orchestral prelude (1923),Felix Weingartner's overture "Der Sturm",Heorhiy Maiboroda's overture, andEgon Wellesz'sProsperos Beschwörungen (five works 1934–36).[citation needed]
Ballet sequences have been used in many performances of the play since Restoration times.[175] A one-act ballet ofThe Tempest by choreographerAlexei Ratmansky was premiered byAmerican Ballet Theatre set to the incidental music ofJean Sibelius on 30 October 2013 in New York City.[citation needed]
Stage musicals derived fromThe Tempest have been produced. A production calledThe Tempest: A Musical was produced at theCherry Lane Theatre in New York City in December 2006, with a concept credited toThomas Meehan and a script by Daniel Neiden (who also wrote the songs) andRyan Knowles.[176] Neiden had previously been connected with another musical, entitledTempest Toss'd.[177] In September 2013,The Public Theater produced a new large-scale stage musical at theDelacorte Theater inCentral Park, directed by Lear deBessonet with a cast of more than 200.[178][179]
In August 2010, the renowned Brazilian heavy metal bandAngra released the albumAqua, conceptually based on Shakespere's The Tempest. The album has 10 tracks and tells the journey ofProspero as he passes through the entire work.
According to the band's guitarist and founder,Rafael Bittencourt, the album adopts the element of water as the focus of the most diverse transformations in life, which is represented by Prospero's desires and actions against his enemies:
"Besides all the qualities of the text, we found out that the element 'water' is one of the main characters of the history. It transforms itself during the cycles and changes the things around. It represents the rage of high tides and tempests, and then the forgiveness and wisdom in calm. Everything happens after a violent storm that occurs in the sea, in an island hill. While the wild waters come from up and down, a ship and the entire crew are fighting for surviving. As from this point, we developed one very interesting narrative that will get the attention of the listeners".[180]
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the earliest poets to be influenced byThe Tempest. His "With a Guitar, To Jane" identifies Ariel with the poet and his songs with poetry. The poem uses simple diction to convey Ariel's closeness to nature and "imitates the straightforward beauty of Shakespeare's original songs".[181] Following the publication ofDarwin's ideas onevolution, writers began to question mankind's place in the world and its relationship with God. One writer who explored these ideas wasRobert Browning, whose poem "Caliban upon Setebos" (1864) sets Shakespeare's character pondering theological and philosophical questions.[182] The French philosopherErnest Renan wrote a closet drama,Caliban: Suite de La Tempête (Caliban: Sequel to The Tempest), in 1878. This features a female Ariel who follows Prospero back to Milan, and a Caliban who leads a coup against Prospero, after the success of which he actively imitates his former master's virtues.[183]W. H. Auden's "long poem"The Sea and the Mirror takes the form of a reflection by each of the supporting characters ofThe Tempest on their experiences. The poem takes aFreudian viewpoint, seeing Caliban (whose lengthy contribution is aprose poem) as Prospero'slibido.[184]
Postcolonial ideas influenced late 20th-century adaptations.Aimé Césaire of Martinique, in his 1969 French-language playUne Tempête setsThe Tempest in a colony suffering unrest, and prefuiguring black independence. The play portrays Ariel as amulatto who, unlike the more rebellious black Caliban, feels that negotiation and partnership is the way to freedom from the colonisers.[185][186] Fernandez Retamar sets his version of the play inCuba, and portrays Ariel as a wealthy Cuban (in comparison to the lower-class Caliban) who also must choose between rebellion or negotiation.[187]Michelle Cliff, a Jamaican author, has said that she tries to combine Caliban and Ariel within herself to create a way of writing that represents her culture better.[citation needed] Such use of Ariel in postcolonial thought is far from uncommon; the spirit is even the namesake of ascholarly journal covering post-colonial criticism.[88] The figure of Caliban influenced numerous works of African literature in the 1970s, including pieces byTaban Lo Liyong in Uganda, Lemuel Johnson in Sierra Leone,Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o of Kenya'sA Grain of Wheat, and David Wallace of Zambia'sDo You Love Me, Master?[188][189] A similar phenomenon occurred in relation to feminist ideas in late 20th-century Canada, where several writers produced works inspired by Miranda, includingThe Diviners byMargaret Laurence,Prospero's Daughter by Constance Beresford-Howe andThe Measure of Miranda by Sarah Murphy.[190] Other writers have feminised Ariel (as inMarina Warner's novelIndigo) or Caliban (as inSuniti Namjoshi's sequence of poemsSnapshots of Caliban).[191]
Fantasy writerNeil Gaiman based a story on the play in one issue (the final issue)[192] of his comics seriesThe Sandman. The comic stands as a sequel to the earlierMidsummer Night's Dream issue.[193] This issue follows Shakespeare over a period of several months as he writes the play, which is named as his last solo project, as the final part of his bargain with the Dream King to write two plays celebrating dreams. The story draws many parallels between the characters and events in the play and Shakespeare's life and family relationships at the time. It is hinted that he based Miranda on his daughterJudith Shakespeare and Caliban on her suitorThomas Quiney.[citation needed]
As part ofRandom House's Hogarth Shakespeare series of contemporary reimaginings of Shakespeare plays by contemporary writers,Margaret Atwood's 2016 novelHag-Seed is based onThe Tempest.[194] The 2019 novellaMiranda in Milan by Katharine Duckett also reimagines the events which might occur after the end of the play.[citation needed]
From the mid-18th century, Shakespeare's plays, includingThe Tempest, began to appear as the subject of paintings.[195] In around 1735,William Hogarth produced his paintingA Scene from The Tempest: "a baroque, sentimental fantasy costumed in the style of Van Dyck and Rembrandt".[195] The painting is based upon Shakespeare's text, containing no representation of the stage, nor of the (Davenant-Dryden centred) stage tradition of the time.[196]Henry Fuseli, in a painting commissioned for theBoydell Shakespeare Gallery (1789) modelled his Prospero onLeonardo da Vinci.[197][198] These two 18th-century depictions of the play indicate that Prospero was regarded as its moral centre: viewers of Hogarth's and Fuseli's paintings would have accepted Prospero's wisdom and authority.[199]John Everett Millais'sFerdinand Lured by Ariel (1851) is among thePre-Raphaelite paintings based on the play. In the late 19th century, artists tended to depict Caliban as aDarwinian "missing-link", with fish-like or ape-like features, as evidenced inJoseph Noel Paton'sCaliban, and discussed inDaniel Wilson's bookCaliban: The Missing Link (1873).[200][183][201]
Charles Knight produced thePictorial Edition of the Works of Shakespeare in eight volumes (1838–43). The work attempted to translate the contents of the plays into pictorial form. This extended not just to the action, but also to images and metaphors: Gonzalo's line about "mountaineers dewlapped like bulls" is illustrated with a picture of a Swiss peasant with agoitre.[202] In 1908,Edmund Dulac produced an edition ofShakespeare's Comedy of The Tempest with a scholarly plot summary and commentary byArthur Quiller-Couch, lavishly bound and illustrated with 40 watercolour illustrations. The illustrations highlight the fairy-tale quality of the play, avoiding its dark side. Of the 40, only 12 are direct depictions of the action of the play: the others are based on action before the play begins, or on images such as "full fathom five thy father lies" or "sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not".[203]
In 2015Charmaine Lurch's installationRevisiting Sycorax gave a physical form to a figure only spoken about in Shakespeare's play, and intended to draw attention to the discrepancy between the presence of African women in the world and the way they are spoken of in European male dialogue.[204]
The Tempest first appeared on the screen in 1905.Charles Urban filmed the opening storm sequence ofHerbert Beerbohm Tree's version atHer Majesty's Theatre for a2+1⁄2-minuteflicker, whose individual frames were hand-tinted, long before the invention of colour film. In 1908Percy Stow directedThe Tempest running a little over ten minutes, which is now a part of theBritish Film Institute's compilationSilent Shakespeare. It portrays a condensed version of Shakespeare's play in a series of short scenes linked byintertitles. At least two other silent versions,one from 1911 byEdwin Thanhouser, are known to have existed, but have been lost.[205] The plot was adapted for the WesternYellow Sky, directed byWilliam A. Wellman, in 1946.[206]
The 1956 science fiction filmForbidden Planet set the story on a planet in space, Altair IV, instead of an island. Professor Morbius and his daughter Altaira (Anne Francis) are the Prospero and Miranda figures (both Prospero and Morbius having harnessed the mighty forces that inhabit their new homes). Ariel is represented by the helpfulRobby the Robot, while Sycorax is replaced with the powerful race of the Krell. Caliban is represented by the dangerous and invisible "monster from theid", a projection of Morbius' psyche born from the Krell technology instead of Sycorax's womb.[207]
In the opinion of Douglas Brode, there has only been one screen "performance" ofThe Tempest since the silent era, he describes all other versions as "variations". That one performance is theHallmark Hall of Fame version from 1960, directed byGeorge Schaefer, and starringMaurice Evans as Prospero,Richard Burton as Caliban,Lee Remick as Miranda, andRoddy McDowall as Ariel. It cut the play to slightly less than ninety minutes. Critic Virginia Vaughan praised it as "light as asoufflé, but ... substantial enough for the main course".[205]
A 1969 episode of the television seriesStar Trek, "Requiem for Methuselah", again set the story in space on the apparently deserted planet Holberg 917-G.[208] The Prospero figure is Flint (James Daly), an immortal man who has isolated himself from humanity and controls advanced technology that borders on magic. Flint's young ward Rayna Kapec (Louise Sorel) fills the Miranda role, and Flint's versatile robotic servant M4 parallels Ariel.[209]
In 1979,Derek Jarman produced the homoerotic filmThe Tempest that used Shakespeare's language, but was most notable for its deviations from Shakespeare. One scene shows a corpulent and naked Sycorax (Claire Davenport) breastfeeding her adult son Caliban (Jack Birkett). The film reaches its climax withElisabeth Welch belting out "Stormy Weather".[210][211] The central performances wereToyah Willcox's Miranda andHeathcote Williams's Prospero, a "dark brooding figure who takes pleasure in exploiting both his servants".[212]
Several television versions of the play have been broadcast. Among the most notable is the 1980BBC Shakespeare production, virtually complete, starringMichael Hordern as Prospero.[citation needed]
Paul Mazursky's 1982 modern-language adaptationTempest, with Philip Dimitrius (Prospero) as a disillusioned New York architect who retreats to a lonely Greek island with his daughter Miranda after learning of his wife Antonia's infidelity with Alonzo, dealt frankly with the sexual tensions of the characters' isolated existence. The Caliban character, the goatherd Kalibanos, asks Philip which of them is going to have sex with Miranda.[212]John Cassavetes played Philip,Raul Julia Kalibanos,Gena Rowlands Antonia andMolly Ringwald Miranda.Susan Sarandon plays the Ariel character, Philip's frequently bored girlfriend Aretha. The film has been criticised as "overlong and rambling", but also praised for its good humour, especially in a sequence in which Kalibanos' and his goats dance toKander and Ebb'sNew York, New York.[213]
The Swedish-made 1989 animated filmResan till Melonia (directed byPer Åhlin) is an adaptation of the Shakespeare play, focusing on ecological values.Resan till Melonia was critically acclaimed for its stunning visuals drawn by Åhlin and its at times quite dark and nightmare-like sequences, even though the film was originally marketed for children.[citation needed]
John Gielgud wrote that playing Prospero in a film ofThe Tempest was his life's ambition. Over the years, he approachedAlain Resnais,Ingmar Bergman,Akira Kurosawa, andOrson Welles to direct.[214] Eventually, the project was taken on byPeter Greenaway, who directedProspero's Books (1991) featuring "an 87-year-old John Gielgud and an impressive amount of nudity".[215] Prospero is reimagined as the author ofThe Tempest, speaking the lines of the other characters, as well as his own.[125] Although the film was acknowledged as innovative in its use ofQuantel Paintbox to create visual tableaux, resulting in "unprecedented visual complexity",[216] critical responses to the film were frequently negative:John Simon called it "contemptible and pretentious".[217][218]
Closer to the spirit of Shakespeare's original, in the view of critics such as Brode, isLeon Garfield's abridgement of the play forS4C's 1992Shakespeare: The Animated Tales series. The 29-minute production, directed byStanislav Sokolov and featuringTimothy West as the voice of Prospero, usedstop-motion puppets to capture the fairy-tale quality of the play.[219]
Another "offbeat variation" (in Brode's words) was produced forNBC in 1998:Jack Bender'sThe Tempest featuredPeter Fonda as Gideon Prosper, a Southern slave-owner forced off his plantation by his brother shortly before theCivil War. A magician who has learned his art from one of his slaves, Prosper uses his magic to protect his teenage daughter and to assist the Union Army.[220]
Christopher Plummer's stage version of the play from the 2010Stratford Festival was recorded and released on DVD the following year.[citation needed]
DirectorJulie Taymor's 2010 adaptationThe Tempest starredHelen Mirren as a female version of Prospero. In 2012, the year that the UK hosted a 'Tempest' themed Olympics opening ceremony,[221] directorsRob Curry and Anthony Fletcher released a theatrical documentary following a South London youth club as they staged a production of the play at theOval House Theatre inKennington. The adaptation focused heavily on the post-colonial legacy of the play, featuring as it did a racially mixed cast of young Londoners.[222]
The award-winning 2015 speculative fiction film,Ex Machina, developed the theme ofThe Tempest. Prospero was reprised as Nathan, the flawed technical genius; Eva, a possibly sentientartificial person, corresponds to Miranda; Ferdinand becomes Caleb, the manipulated visitor.[223]
In 2020, a parodyshock film based on The Tempest was released byTroma Entertainment titled "Shakespear's Shitstorm", starring directorLloyd Kaufman and guest starringRon Jeremy. The film features ridiculous interpretations of many key parts of Shakespear's work. In this film Prospero is a mad scientist seeking revenge against pharmaceutical executives who ruined his career after he found the cure foropioid addiction. Prospero releases a large amount of whale laxative into the ocean during the executives' cruise toNorth Korea, resulting in whales leaping over the ship spraying feces all over the passengers, ultimately causing them to wash ashore at Tromaville where he begins to plot the murder of the executive that ruined him. As with allTroma films it contains generous amounts of nudity and pays no mind to censorship.[citation needed]
The 2022 Japanese anime television seriesMobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is heavily influenced by the play and functions as a modern adaptation of it in many respects, including but not limited to; a female interpretation of Prospero namedLady Prospera, her infant daughter Ericht whose spirit becomes infused in the titulargundamAerial (an interpretation of Prospero's fairy Ariel), a "monstrous" mobile suit used by the protagonist Suletta Mercury named Gundam Calibarn (named after the slave Caliban and the holy swordCaliburn) and the story's prologue depicting an assassination attempt that leaves Prospera and her infant daughter as the only survivors, leading to their refuge on the remote planet ofMercury. The series also follows a similar narrative arc as the play does, incorporating several key plot points; most notably Lady Prospera arranging for her daughter's betrothal to the heiress of the Benerit Group, theMegacorporation responsible for her misfortune. The series also ends with Lady Prospera abandoning her plans for revenge, and the eventual marriage of her daughter to the Benerit heir.[224]
The 1999 Adventure gameThe Book of Watermarks is based uponThe Tempest and the 1991 filmProspero's Books. Game designer Takashi Kobayashi has stated additional inspiration for the game came from the 1941 short storyThe Library of Babel.[225]
References toThe Tempest are to the Arden Third Series Edition (i.e.Vaughan and Vaughan 1999). Under its numbering system 4.1.148 means act 4, scene 1, line 148; and 5.E.20 means the epilogue following act 5, line 20.
Shakespeare himself was at the end of his career, and it is hardly possible not to see, as the poet Campbell suggested, in Prospero's resignation of his magic a reflection of Shakespeare's own farewell to his art.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
The Tempest public domain audiobook atLibriVox
