Chapter 46

PROSPERO'S TRIUMPH

Sum up the results consummated by Prospero's magic. Note Gonzalo's account of the play, and show the ethical results, and Ariel's part in Prospero's course of reconciliation. Explain how, if Prospero had regained his dukedom, and yet, if 'all of us,' as Gonzalo says, had not _found ourselves_, the triumph would have been material, not ethical. Show how this effect is enhanced by the plan to awaken dismay and remorse in the minds of the evil-doers and how the climax in Prospero's triumph is reached by the victory wrought in his own mind when he determines to take part with his 'nobler reason 'gainst his fury' in order to restore his enemies to themselves. What indications are there in the play that Prospero was high-strung and spirited,--a revenge-loving Italian? Trace the effects of remorse on each of the ill-doers. Is there any reason to suppose that Antonio, Stephano, or Trinculo are repentant? Is it out of character for Caliban to be?

POINTS. 1. The 'Faerie' of the play. Compare with that of 'Midsummer Night's Dream.' (See 'Fairy-lore of Midsummer Night's Dream,' _Poet Lore_, Vol. III, p. 177, April, 1891.) Victor Hugo notes the contrast as follows: '"Midsummer Night's Dream" depicts the action of the invisible world on man; "The Tempest" symbolizes the action of man on the invisible world.' (See also the 'Supernatural in Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream."' in _Poet Lore_, Vol. V, p. 490, October, 1893; in Shakespeare's 'Tempest,' p. 557, November, 1893.)

2. The duration of the play. Explain how it follows the 'unities'; and in this connection show the probable equality of 'three glasses' to three hours, and Shakespeare's mistake. (Shakespeare's use of nautical terms, approved by all seamen, seems to be here at fault in supposing a 'glass' equal to one, instead of to a half, hour.)

3. The game of chess and its pertinence here: Because so wise a father would have taught his daughter so intellectual a game; because Queen Elizabeth was fond of it, and it was _par excellence_ a 'royal game'; or because Naples was the source and center of the chess _furore_ at just this time?

4. Where is the scene of the 'Tempest' laid? Is the island real or unreal? (The main conjectures for a known place are Hunter's that it was Lampedusa, and Elze's that it was Pantelaria. Both argue that each island was so situated in the Mediterranean, between Milan or its port and Algiers, whence the sailors landed Sycorax, as to suit the requirements. Elze further urges the name of a town on the opposite African coast, Calibia, as suggesting Caliban's name. For an argument that the island is vaguely placed in the Mediterranean to suit the Old World plot and yet by many details made suggestive of the New World, see Introduction to 'The Tempest' in First Folio Edition.)

5. The influence of the New World on the writing of 'The Tempest,' and all allusions traceable to it. (See Notes of same edition for extracts from pamphlets on America, etc.)

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

What constitutes the interest in 'The Tempest,'--character, dramatic situations, movements, plot, poetry, or moral purpose?

VI

CHARACTER STUDIES

I. PROSPERO AND HIS SERVANTS

With the first word Shakespeare introduces Prospero as one who can raise and calm such a tempest as scene i describes, and the magician admits the power Miranda ascribes to him. Show from the story what his plans and motives were likely to prove. Would a sense of his own former neglect of duty be likely to embitter him against his brother or make him excuse him? Does he show signs of either? Prospero's magic, his garment, books, staff. How far is his magic in accord with the popular notions of such art? (See 'Prospero and Magic,' _Poet Lore_, Vol. III, p. 144, March, 1891.)

Show Ariel's qualities. What caused his first impatience? Is Prospero unnecessarily harsh and imperious with him? Aside from the popular supposition that spirits or familiars obeying magicians were always reluctant to serve longer than one hour (and, therefore, says Scot's 'Discovery of Witchcraft,' 'the magician must be careful to dismiss him'), how can you explain this quarrel,--as a dramatic expedient giving occasion for telling Ariel's story, or revealing the characters of both Prospero and Ariel? Note, also, its further use in introducing Prospero's second servant, Caliban, and his story. How do you explain Ariel's irrelevant rejoinder: 'Yes, Caliban, her son'; and Prospero's angry, 'Dull thing, I say so,' etc.? Do you think Moulton right in supposing that Prospero governs 'this incarnation of caprice by outcapricing him'; Rolfe, in supposing that Prospero is irritable because under the strain and suspense of conducting affairs within three hours perfectly, and upon which accuracy hangs his future and the happiness of his daughter? This was also his only chance of retrieving his own past error.

Contrast Ariel with Caliban. Show the skill of Caliban's first appearance as some slow-moving thing, half of water, half of earth, in contrast with Ariel's second appearance as a nymph. What may be learned of Caliban's traits from Miranda's speech (as in the Folio, but by various editors given to Prospero): 'Abhorred slave,' etc.? Do you think this speech should be given to Prospero? What signs are there of Caliban's having a good mind? Do you think Prospero's tyranny over Caliban altogether justified? Is Caliban's penitence consistent with his nature? How far does Ariel proceed independently of Prospero? Is he really fond of him?

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Is there any bond of love between Prospero and his servants? Do the relations between them illustrate the impossibility of gratitude?

2. THE LOVERS

Is the love of Ferdinand and Miranda an enchantment caused by Prospero, or an emotion he can help, but not cause? If not caused by him, does Shakespeare depart from magic to the detriment of the play? Would it be better, for example, if a love philter was introduced for consistency's sake? (For literary use of the love philter, see Tennyson's 'Lucretius.') Does it reflect against Ferdinand's courage that he was first to quit the ship? Are Miranda's speeches about her grandmother (I, ii, 140) and to Caliban inconsistent with the maidenly innocence assumed to be characteristic of her? Do you consider her talk with Ferdinand (III, i) in character? Is she undutiful to her father? Unmaidenly in her speedy declaration of love (III, i, 67, 89, 94-106, 110)? Should she be represented as ignorant or innocent of the world, or as in love? Describe the characters and relations to each other of the lovers from all that is given about them. Compare with Florizel and Perdita in 'The Winter's Tale.'

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Are Miranda and Ferdinand undeveloped characters whose relation to each other is more important to the play than they themselves are?

3. THE MINOR CHARACTERS

Which is the most important of the lesser characters and why? Is Gonzalo blamable at all under the circumstances for following the command to turn Prospero and Miranda adrift? Why is Gonzalo of better cheer than his companions? What do you think of his philosophy in itself and as an index to his character? Is his knowledge superior to that of his companions? Does he suspect the evil intent of Antonio and Sebastian? Show how his frankness and loyalty came out in Act III, and how his uprightness is rewarded in Act V. Do you think it significant that he closes the play? Francisco considered as the least important personage in the play: should his speech describing Ferdinand's swimming be given to Gonzalo? The sailors considered as examples of Shakespeare's skill in outline portraits. Are Stephano and Trinculo more highly developed types than Caliban? Would the play be better if they were left out?

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Is Gonzalo more like Polonius in 'Hamlet' or Rent in 'Lear'?

VII

A STUDY OF ARTISTIC DESIGN

THE SYMBOLISM OF 'THE TEMPEST'

Did Shakespeare typify himself as Prospero? Prospero (says Montégut) alludes to his own age, and intimates that the time has come for retirement to private life. What indications can you find that Prospero images Shakespeare? If he is so interpreted, what parts may Ariel and Caliban be supposed to play? Is the history of the Enchanted Island and the transformation wrought a parallel with the history of the Stage and the transformation Shakespeare wrought? According to Montégut, Caliban stands for Marlowe, Ariel for the English Genius which Shakespeare frees from its barbaric prison. Dowden ('Mind and Art of Shakespeare') fancies Prospero as the great artist lacking at first in practical faculty, cast out therefore from practical worldly success; but bearing with him Art in her infancy, the child Miranda, finds at last an enchanted country where his arts can work their magic, subduing the grosser appetites and passions (Caliban), and commanding the offices of the imaginative genius of poetry (Ariel). He supposes Ferdinand to be Shakespeare's heir as a playwright (Fletcher). Lowell ('Among my Books') considers that the characters do not illustrate a class of persons, but belong to universal nature,--Imagination embodied in Prospero; Fancy in Ariel; brute understanding in Caliban, who, with his wits liquor-warmed, plots against his natural lord, the higher reason; Miranda, abstract Womanhood; Ferdinand, Youth, compelled to drudge till sacrifice of will and self win him the ideal in Miranda. Browning makes an incidentally interesting contribution to this subject by symbolizing in Caliban rudimentary theologizing man, in his poem 'Caliban.' (See _Poet Lore_, Vol. V, p. 562, November, 1893.)

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Is 'The Tempest' an allegory? Is it in any sense an autobiographical play? Does its symbolism have much in common with that of modern symbolistic plays, such as Maeterlinck's 'Joyzelle,' for example? In what respects may it be said, do you think, as Maeterlinck himself has informed us, that 'Joyzelle' grew from 'The Tempest?'

THE WINTER'S TALE

CONSIDERED IN CONNECTION WITH GREENE'S 'PANDOSTO' AND THE 'ALKESTIS' OF EURIPIDES

I

SHAKESPEARE'S INDEBTEDNESS TO GREENE

The story of 'Pandosto' falls into two distinct divisions; first, the story of Pandosto and Bellaria; second, the story of Dorastus and Fawnia. Compare each of these two stories with the two stories interwoven in the play, noting all the analogous passages and the use Shakespeare has made of them. (For Greene's 'Pandosto' or 'History of Dorastus and Fawnia' see 'Shakespeare's Library,' or pp. 118-125 and Notes in First Folio Edition.)

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Do Shakespeare's borrowed and additional archaisms and his confusion of names and places show carelessness? Is his continuation of the story merely a playwright's device to join the two parts of the plot and make a good stage piece end happily? (As to Coast of Bohemia see _Poet Lore_, April, 1894), also in "First Folio Edition," pp. 176-177.

II

THE RESEMBLANCES TO THE 'ALKESTIS' OF EURIPIDES

In Greene and in Shakespeare the King wishes the Queen's death because he is uncomfortable so long as she lives, and he prefers his comfort to aught else, taking it as his conjugal right and royal prerogative. (See ii. 3, 1 and 204.) The Queen, understanding this, says, "My life stands in the level of your dreams, which I'll lay down." To her she says, "can life be no commodity" when love, "the crown and comfort of her life," is gone. So Alkestis (see any translation of Euripides, in Bohn edition, literal prose translation, vol. i. p. 223) says she "was not willing to live bereft" of Admetos, therefore she did not spare herself to die for him, "though possessing the gifts of bloomy youth wherein" she "delighted." This point of correspondence may have occurred to Shakespeare and suggested his continuation of Greene's novel. Admetos' image of his wife, that he would have made by the cunning hands of artists, is possibly a prototype of the statue of the Queen in 'The Winter's Tale,' the piece "newly performed by that rare Italian master, Julio Romano." Compare also, Herakles' trial of Admetos with Paulina's trial of Leontes (v. i); and Herakles' restoration of the unknown Alkestis to her husband with Paulina's bringing the statue of the Queen to life.

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Is Shakespeare's use of a striking incident from the 'Alkestis' too close not to have been suggested by it? Does it show his intention to portray in Hermione a new Alkestis?

III

SHAKESPEARE'S ORIGINALITY IN WORKING OVER HIS MATERIAL

Note Shakespeare's departures from Greene and their significance. Do they serve two ends,--make the play more effective for stage representation, make the characters stronger? Does he make Leontes more attractive than Greene does in the first part of the play? Does he make him worse or better than Pandosto in the second part? What is the sole trace left in Shakespeare of the father's guilty passion for his daughter? Garinter, in Greene, dies without any cause. See Shakespeare's explanation of this, also his use of the news of Mamillius' death to strike shame to the king's heart. Greene makes the king relent as soon as he hears the oracle. Contrast Shakespeare's conduct of the scene at this point.

Notice the difference in his treatment of the character of the cup-bearer. Does he make it his chief care to enhance the character of the Queen? Note the new characters introduced,--Paulina, Antigonus, Autolycus, the clown (in place of the wife in Greene). Conjecture any reason for his different names. The introduction of Autolycus makes the play more amusing on the stage, but is his part as well planned as Capnio's for leading up to the _dénouement_? Greene lets his mariners off alive after they set Fawnia afloat. Shakespeare wrecks his, and makes a bear eat Antigonus, to what end? What does Shakespeare gain by prolonging the life of Hermione?

QUERY FOR DISCUSSION

Does Shakespeare's remodelling of Greene's story show chiefly a higher ideal than Greene's of womanhood and of love?

IV

THE ALKESTIS STORIES IN LITERATURE

The sacrifice of the Queen to ease her husband, and the final restoration, being the two main points of contact with Euripides' version of the story, compare with these the stories of Alkestis told by William Morris in 'The Earthly Paradise,'--'June'; 'The Love of Alcestis,' by Emma Lazarus, in 'Admetos,'--'Poems,' vol. i.; by Robert Browning in 'Balustion's Adventure;' by Longfellow in 'The Golden Legend.' See also articles in _Poet-lore_,--'The Alkestis of Euripides and of Browning,' July, 1890; 'Old and New Ideals of Womanhood'; 'The Iphigenia' and 'Alkestis Stories,' May, 1891; 'Longfellow's Golden Legend and its Analogues,' February, 1892. In comparing, note first general resemblances, then slighter points of resemblance and of difference.

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Is development in literature of the ideal of womanhood away from self-sacrifice and toward self-development?

Is woman's task for the future a reconciliation of them?

V

THE OUTCAST CHILD IN CULTURE-LORE AND FOLK-LORE

A few of the outcast children in culture-lore are Krishna, Zeus, Paris, Oedipus, King Arthur, Claribel's child in the 'Faerie Queene' (canto xii.), etc. For the stories in folk-lore, see the English _Folk-lore Journal_. For the solar theory of the origin of this story, see Cox, 'Mythology of the Aryan Nations.'

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Collier says that Shakespeare changed Greene's pretty description of turning Fawnia adrift in a boat because he had used much the same incident in "The Tempest." Does Shakespeare's new treatment of Greene's "pretty incident" add dramatic force and moral purpose to the play?

VI

CHARACTER STUDIES

1. PAULINA; LEONTES; HERMIONE

Note Paulina's likeness to Emilia in "Othello." Jealousy in Shakespeare: Resemblances in Leontes to Posthumus ("Cymbeline") and to Othello. "The jealousy of Leontes," says Dowden, "is not a detailed dramatic study like the love and jealousy of Othello. It is a gross madness, which mounts to the brain and turns his whole nature into unreasoning passion." Is Hermione more highly developed than others of Shakespeare's suspected wives,--Desdemona, Imogen? Likeness or superiority to Alkestis, Compare with Queen Katharine in 'Henry VIII.' Is she hard, having made her husband do penance for sixteen years? "Deep and even quick feeling never renders Hermione incapable of an admirable justice," writes Dowden, "nor deprives her of a true sense of pity for him who so gravely wrongs both her and himself."

2. THE YOUNG LOVERS

Notice the high and pure character of their love as shown in the facts that Florizel did not find it fitting to buy pedler's "knacks" for Perdita,--a trait not in Greene. Her independent and uncringing nature as shown in another little touch of Shakespeare (see IV. iv. 492-497). Compare these two lovers with Ferdinand and Miranda in "The Tempest."

3. THE ORIGINALITY OF SHAKESPEARE'S AUTOLYCUS

For suggestions see _Poet-lore_, April, 1891. ('Notes and News.') Compare the Hermes of the Homeric Hymn with the Autolycus and Sisyphos of mythology, also the folk-lore tales of the master-thief (Cox). To discuss the probable originality with Shakespeare of a conception which is one of the universal inheritances of the Aryan race is futile; the type existed, and Shakespeare's part was to make an individual of the type.

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Is Leontes' jealousy too gross and unfounded to be likely?

Is Hermione, not hard, but slow to be satisfied, because her love is noble?

Is Mamillus not too precocious to be natural?

VII

A STUDY OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PLOT

Has Shakespeare welded the two parts of the story together in such a way as to unify the plot? Does Autolycus contribute anything to the development of the plot? How does it compare with "Julius Cæsar" or "Macbeth," for example, in the construction of the plot? Is the movement more rapid in the last half of the play or in the first? Note the expedient introduced by Shakespeare to bridge over the lapse of time between the first part and the last part; compare with other examples of the same sort in Shakespeare.

QUERY FOR DISCUSSION

Does the dramatic interest of 'The Winter's Tale' suffer because the plot is of less importance than the incidents and characters.

VIII

SHAKESPEARE'S WORKMANSHIP IN "THE WINTER'S TALE"

The versification is that of Shakespeare's latest group of plays. Dowden says, "No five-measure lines are rhymed and run on lines, and double endings are numerous." Give examples of the construction of the lines from "Love's Labour's Lost" as an earlier play, "Merchant of Venice" as a riper play. It has been said that the difficulties of style in the play are accounted for by the endeavor of the author to reflect the changing moods of Leontes. Compare with Prospero's diction and construction in "The Tempest." Give examples of these.

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Does the lawlessness of poetic workmanship in "The Winter's Tale," together with the looseness of the dramatic construction, show a deterioration from the ripe power of Shakespeare's middle period, or that practised artistic mastery which is free from art by means of perfect art?

IX

PERDITA'S GARDEN

The flower-imagery of "The Winter's Tale" compared with other flower-scenes in Shakespeare,--in "A Midsommer Nights Dreame" and "Hamlet." The classic and folk-lore allusions. The pastoral element in "As you Like It" and "Winter's Tale."

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

The rustic scenes have little bearing on the play; are they necessary to Shakespeare's art in order to throw a clear light on the character of his protagonists?

X

THE ETHICS OF "THE WINTER'S TALE"

"The Winter's Tale" gives examples of meritorious actions losing their virtue with the progress of ideas; for example, the civic virtue, allegiance to the king, is what Leontes depends upon in his talk with Camillo, with Antigonus, and the other lords. Note Camillo's reason for not poisoning Polixenes to order,--that it is risky to kill a king even at command of a king. That such a reason would be considered small moral support to-day appears, for example, in the indignation or amusement expressed in the newspapers on the German Emperor's address to his army on the soldier's duty of obedience. In Shakespeare's day a king had taken matters in his own hands in the trial of his wife, much as Leontes did (see "Henry VIII".). The moral significance of Hermione's patience under accusation appears in the long reparation she requires. Paulina is made to speak for her during her seclusion.

What are the "secret purposes" which Shakespeare makes her subserve? Observe that, if the fulfilment of the oracle and the restoration of the child were all Paulina anticipates, there would be no use in her remonstrances against a second marriage and in her goading the king to remorse.

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Does Shakespeare's ideal of love and constancy, as revealed in 'The Winter's Tale,' imply that second marriages are offences against the first. Has the objection Paulina makes to his re-marriage such a cause or is it a necessity of the plot?

Does the way of telling "The Winter's Tale" indicate the passing away of aristocratic and the formation of democratic ideals, and the dawning change in the _status_ both of woman and the commoner?