were The Tempest was probably written late in the year 1610. A few months previously had appeared ar account of the wreck of Sir George Somers' ship in a tempest off the Bermudas, entitled A Discovery of the Bermudas, otherwise called the Ile of Divels, etc., written by Silvester Jourdan. Shakespeare (Act I., Sc. II., L. 229) makes mention of "the still-vexed Bermoothes; " and several points of resemblance render it probable that in writing the play he had Jourdan's tract before him. Beyond the suggestions obtained from this tract no source of the story of the play can be pointed out. Mention was made by the poet Collins of a tale called Aurelis and Isabella containing the same incidents, but in this point he was mistaken, though he may have seen some other Italian story which resembled The Tempest. The name Setébos (Sycorax's god) and perhaps other names of persons Shakespeare found in Eden's History of Travaile, published in 1577. The Tempest, although far from lacking dramatic or human interest, has something in its spirit of the nature of a clear and solemn vision. It expresses Shakespeare's highest and serenest view of life. Prospero, the great enchanter, is altogether the opposite of the vulgar magician. With command over the elemental powers, which study has brought to him, he possesses moral grandeur and a command over himself, in spite of occasional fits of involuntary abstraction and of intellectual impatience; he looks down on life, and sees through it, yet will not refuse to take his part in it. In Shakespeare's early play of supernatural agencies-A Midsummer Night's Dream-the "human mortals made the sport of the frolic-loving elves; here the supernatural powers attend on and obey their ruler, man. It has been suggested that Prospero, the great enchanter, is Shakespeare himself, and that when he breaks his staff, drowns his book, and dismisses his airy spirits, going back to the duties of his dukedom, Shakespeare was thinking of his own resigning of his powers of imaginative enchantment, his parting from the theatre, where his attendant spirits had played their parts, and his return to Stratford. The persons in this play, while remaining real and living, are conceived in a more abstract way, more as types than those in any other work of Shakespeare. Prospero is the highest wisdom and moral attainment; Gonzalo is humorous common-sense incarnated; all that is meanest and most despicable appears in the wretched conspirators; Miranda, whose name seems to suggest wonder, is almost an elemental being, framed in the purest and simplest type of womanhood, yet made substantial by contrast with Ariel, who is an unbodied joy, too much a creature of light and air to know human affection or human sorrow; Caliban (the name formed from cannibal) stands at the other extreme, with all the elements in him-appetites, intellect, even imaginationout of which man emerges into early civilization, but with a moral nature that is still gross and malignant. Over all presides Prospero like a providence; and the spirit of reconciliation, of forgiveness, harmonizing the contentions of men, appears in The Tempest in the same noble manner as In The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, and Henry VIII. The action of the play is comprised within three hours. SCENE-A ship at Sea: an island. Ant. Where is the master, boatswain ? Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our labor: keep your cabins: you do assist the storm. Gon. Nay, good, be patient. Boats. When the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin silence! trouble us not. Gon. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard. 21 Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap. Cheerly, good hearts! Out of our way, I say. [Exit. Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging: make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage. If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable. [Exeunt. Re-enter Boatswain. Boats. Down with the topmast! yare! lower, lower! Bring her to try with maincourse. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling they are louder than the weather or our office. 40 Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GON ZALO. Yet again! what do you here? Shall we give o'er and drown? Have you a mind to sink? Seb. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog! Boats. Work you then. Ant. Hang, cur! hang, you whoreson, insolent noisemaker! We are less afraid to be drowned than thou art, Gon. I'll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell and as leaky as an unstanched wench. Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! set her two courses off to sea again; lay her off. Enter Mariners wet. Mariners. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost! Boats. What, must our mouths be cold? Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let's assist them, For our case is as theirs. I'm out of patience. Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards: This wide-chapp'd rascal-would thou mightst lie drowning 60 The washing of ten tides! [A confused noise within: Mercy on us!— We split, we split!'. 'Farewell, my wife and children!' 'Farewell, brother! '-'We split, we split, we split!'] Ant. Let's all sink with the king. [Exeunt Ant. and Seb. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any thing. The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The island. Before PROSPERO'S cell. Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA. Mir. If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek, Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered her, Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing Of whence I am, nor that I am more better More to know 'Tis time I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand, And pluck my magic garment from me. So: [Lays down his mantle. Lie there, my art. Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort. The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd Or blessed was't we did ? Pros. Both, both, my girl : 61 By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heaved thence, But blessedly holp hither. O, my heart bleeds To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance! Please you, farther. [tonio Pros. My brother and thy uncle, call'd An- In dignity, and for the liberal arts And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle- Mir. How to deny them, who to advance and who changed 'em, Or else new form'd 'em; having both the key Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state To what tune pleased his ear; that now he was The ivy which had hid my princely trunk, And suck'd my verdure out on't. Thou attend'st not. Mir. O, good sir, I do. Pros. Awaked an evil nature; and my trust, As my trust was; which had indeed no limit, A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded, Not only with what my revenue yielded, To think but nobly of my grandmother: Pros. ness, 130 The ministers for the purpose hurried thence Me and thy crying self. Mir. Alack, for pity! Well demanded, wench: My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not, So dear the love my people bore me, nor set 140 A most auspicious star, whose influence choose. Thou art inclined to sleep: 'tis a good dulness, And give it way: I know thou canst not [Miranda sleeps. Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come. Enter ARIEL. Ari. All hail, great master! hail! I come grave sir, To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly, 190 Bore us some leagues to sea; Where they pre- To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride Pros. 151 Alack, what trouble O, a cherubin Thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst And burn in many places; on the topmast, smile, Infused with a fortitude from heaven, When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt, Under my burthen groan'd; which raised in me The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, 200 Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary And sight-outrunning were not; the fire and cracks Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Nep tune Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble, Yea, his dread trident shake. Ari. Not a sou But felt a fever of the mad and play'd Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel, 211 Then all afire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand, With hair up-staring,-then like reeds, not hair, Was the first man that leap'd; cried, 'Hell is empty, And all the devils are here.' Pros. In troops I have dispersed them 'bout the isle. Pros. Of the king's ship The mariners say how thou hast disposed And all the rest o' the fleet. Ari. Safely in harbor They would not take her life. Is not this true? Ari. Ay, sir. Pros. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with child And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my slave, As thou report'st thyself, wast then her ser vant; And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate Save for the son that she did litter here, Ari. Yes, Caliban her son. Pros. Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st |