Cardenio – The Lost Play

Cardenio – The Lost Play

We know that 'Cardenio' as a play existed. We know that it was written as a collaboration between William Shakespeare and John Fletcher. We know that it was probably written about 1612 and it appeared in the performance list in 1613.

When the plague hit London badly in 1608, the King’s Men had to tour the provinces for almost 6 months. On top this, the Burbage family had started to suffer huge loses in London particularly with their theatres including the Blackfriars Theatre. Late in 1608, the ownership of the Blackfriars Theatre was re-organised into a new partnership arrangement between the Burbage family and the King’s Men. The new ownership arrangement for the Blackfriars Theatre included the financial partners of Richard Burbage, Cuthbert Burbage (non-acting partner), Thomas Evans (theatre manager agent), John Heminges, Henry Condell, William Sly, and William Shakespeare. When Sly died early in 1609, his shares were split among the other partners. When the all of the theatres re-opened in May of 1609, this saw substantial money coming into the King’s Men from both the Globe and Blackfriars. This meant that by 1612, Shakespeare had substantial shares in two theatres along with receiving the income coming in from his many land holdings in Stratford upon Avon. It is likely at this point that Shakespeare, started arranging for a smooth transition into retirement. The problem was that a substantial part of the success of the King’s Men lay with Shakespeare himself and the company having a house playwright who could write good and sometimes great plays quickly and prolifically. Enter John Fletcher.

Shakespeare probably hadn’t got on well with John Fletcher initially. Firstly, Fletcher was a Cambridge man and Shakespeare had had an acrimonious relationship with some ‘University Wits’ like Marlowe, Greene and Nashe. Secondly, Fletcher’s work with Beaumont on plays using companies of boys around 1605 had also not enamoured him to Shakespeare. When Fletcher started to collaborate with Ben Jonson, Shakespeare probably started to take Fletcher more seriously and when in late 1611, Richard Burbage suggested John Fletcher be contracted as a second playwright to the King's Men, Shakespeare’s only probable only condition was that John Fletcher not be made a partner in the King’s Men.

Sometime around the beginning of 1612, William Shakespeare and John Fletcher started to collaborate on a play which was to become known as ‘Cardenio’. No copy of this play exists but it is known to have been performed a number of times including in August of 1613 by the King’s Men at Blackfriars Theatre and is listed in the Stationer’s Register in 1653 as being attributed to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher. They probably based the play around the character of Cardenio in Miguel Cervantes’ ‘Don Quixote’ which portrays Cardenio as a young male who lives in Morena and is being driven slowly to madness.

The style of the piece was probably ultimately a comedy (in the Shakespearean sense). The story of the play probably involved showing the wealthy Cardenio who lives in Andalucia. He is in love with Lucinda, a girl he grew up with and who comes from another rich family of nobility. Lucinda’s father is not eager for them to marry and Cardenio’s father also is not keen on the marriage. The Duke summons Cardenio to court and Cardenio asks Lucinda to wait until he returns so that they can marry.

This section of the play may have involved Cardenio going away to a war or wars for the Duke and probably this accounts for why the play is sometimes referred to by the title of 'The History of Cardenio'. When he returns to court after fighting in wars for the Duke, Cardenio befriends the Duke’s son, Fernando, who reveals that he is in love with a girl not of nobility. Cardenio tries to help Fernando and perhaps arranged some meeting between Fernando and his love. Cardenio is well received at the court and the Duke's son and him become good companions but Cardenio does not know how to advise Fernando on what to do about his love.

The piece then probably involved, Cardenio and Fernando wooing their respective girls. This involved writing love poetry in secret maybe like in 'Love's Labour's Lost'. Some of Cardenio’s poetry is found by the Duke and Cardenio is embarrassed and requests that the Duke release him from service. Cardenio returns to his father. He proposes to Lucinda but he thinks she has been disloyal. Cardenio becomes mad with jealousy and a number of 'Othello' style speeches were probably inserted at this point. Then, at the altar, Cardenio takes on a jealous madness which drives him to falsely accuse Lucinda at the wedding of infidelity. At this point the play was probably a bit like 'Much Ado About Nothing'. Fernando and his love probably find the person who damaged Lucinda's reputation and the play probably ended with a double marriage of Cardenio and Lucinda and Fernando and his love. The play was a love story with elements as passionate as ‘Romeo and Juliet but with points of as tragic as ‘Othello’ but with characterizations similar to 'Much Ado About Nothing'. The play was well received and apparently many performances were done. But the story does not stop there. 

In 1727, Lewis Theobald (English writer, editor and literary critic) announced that he had obtained three Restoration manuscripts one of which he claimed was Shakespeare and Fletcher's 'Cardenio'. He rewrote and 'improved' the text and attempted to publish them as 'Double Falsehood or the Distrest Lovers'. For some reason the publishing was stopped (some claim through disputes with the owner of the rights to Shakespeare). Theobald would not publically display the manuscripts so by 1732, it was widely assumed that Theobald had faked and manufactured the manuscripts himself. 

250 years later, a number of people had become interested in the manuscripts again. During the 1990's, interest in Theobald's work was looked at in a whole new light. English historian and broadcaster Michael Wood created a program which was aired in 2003 which reinvigorated interest in the 'Double Falsehood' manuscript. In 2008, Professor Brean Hammond started working on a version of 'Double Falsehood which appeared in the Arden Shakespeare series in 2010. In 2011, the Royal Shakespeare Comapny presented a version of 'Double Falsehood' under the title, 'Cardenio - Shakespeare's 'lost play' reimagined'. In 2012, Terri Bourus directed Gary Taylor's "unadaptation" of Theobald's adaptation of 'Cardenio'. Taylor came to believe as he worked on this project that Theobald had used Shakespeare and Fletcher's original manuscript. Then in 2013, Academic Ryan L. Boyd, at the University of Texas, Austin Campus, assisted by James W. Pennebaker, subjected 'Double Falsehood' to stylometric tests using psychological theory and text analysis software. They surprisingly found that on every measure bar one, Shakespeare was the most likely author of the text. The indicators were particularily strong for the first half of the play. The results of the study were published in the journal 'Psychological Science' in 2014.

The Tempest Act Five – “Now my charms are all o'erthrown, and what strength I have's mine own.”

The Tempest Act Five – “Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
 and what strength I have's mine own.”

Act Five of ‘The Tempest’ starts with Ariel telling Prospero that it was now sunset and 6pm and that Prospero had promised to release Ariel by this time. Prospero agrees that he had said this when he first raised the tempest but then asks Ariel how the king and the lords were doing. Ariel reveals that they are safe in the grove and that Gonzalo was weeping constantly:

“Confined together

In the same fashion as you gave in charge,

Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir,

In the line-grove which weather-fends your cell;

They cannot budge till your release. The king,

His brother and yours, abide all three distracted

And the remainder mourning over them,

Brimful of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly

Him that you term'd, sir, 'The good old lord Gonzalo;'

His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops

From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works 'em

That if you now beheld them, your affections

Would become tender.”

Prospero commands Ariel to let the men go and Ariel exits. Shakespeare then gives Prospero his most well-known soliloquy where he decides to give up his magic:

“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; you demi-puppets that

By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,

Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime

Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice

To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,

Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd

The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,

And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault

Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder

Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak

With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory

Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up

The pine and cedar: graves at my command

Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth

By my so potent art. But this rough magic

I here abjure, and, when I have required

Some heavenly music, which even now I do,

To work mine end upon their senses that

This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,

Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,

And deeper than did ever plummet sound

I'll drown my book.”

Ariel then re-enters with Alonso, Gonzalo, Sebastian, Antonio and others who are all under a spell, and form a circle. While they are still in a trance, Prospero speaks to them all praising some like Gonzalo:

“A solemn air and the best comforter

To an unsettled fancy cure thy brains,

Now useless, boil'd within thy skull! There stand,

For you are spell-stopp'd.

Holy Gonzalo, honourable man,

Mine eyes, even sociable to the show of thine,

Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace,

And as the morning steals upon the night,

Melting the darkness, so their rising senses

Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle

Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo,

My true preserver, and a loyal sir

To him you follow'st! I will pay thy graces

Home both in word and deed. Most cruelly

Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter:

Thy brother was a furtherer in the act.

Thou art pinch'd fort now, Sebastian. Flesh and blood,

You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition,

Expell'd remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian,

Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,

Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee,

Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding

Begins to swell, and the approaching tide

Will shortly fill the reasonable shore

That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them

That yet looks on me, or would know me Ariel,

Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell:

I will discase me, and myself present

As I was sometime Milan: quickly, spirit;

Thou shalt ere long be free.”

Prospero then sends Ariel to get, from his cell, the clothes he had worn years ago as the Duke of Milan. Ariel exits and quickly returns with Prospero’s clothes and helps him to put these clothes on. Prospero reinforces his promise to Ariel to release him and asks Ariel to fetch the Boatswain and other sailors from the ship.

“Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee:

But yet thou shalt have freedom: so, so, so.

To the king's ship, invisible as thou art:

There shalt thou find the mariners asleep

Under the hatches; the master and the boatswain

Being awake, enforce them to this place,

And presently, I prithee.”

Then Prospero undoes the spell he has on Alonso, Gonzalo, Sebastian and Antonio and reveals himself and forgives his brother Antonio asks Antonio to give back Prospero’s dukedom. Alonso tells Prospero of Ferdinand who went missing in the tempest. Prospero reveals to Alonso that he has also lost his own daughter:

“For the like loss I have her sovereign aid

And rest myself content…

As great to me as late; and, supportable

To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker

Than you may call to comfort you, for I

Have lost my daughter..”

Alonso is sympathetic but caught up in his own loss of his son. Then Prospero pulls across to reveal Ferdinand and Miranda playing chess. Alonso is shocked and happy. Miranda is over-the-moon to see so many people. Alonso is also happy and he hugs his son and asks Miranda’s forgiveness for what he did twelve years ago. Prospero tells Alonso to stop apologizing and forgives all and even asks Ariel to set Caliban and his friends free:

“Sir, my liege,

Do not infest your mind with beating on

The strangeness of this business; at pick'd leisure

Which shall be shortly, single I'll resolve you,

Which to you shall seem probable, of every

These happen'd accidents; till when, be cheerful

And think of each thing well. (Aside to ARIEL)

Come hither, spirit:

Set Caliban and his companions free;

Untie the spell. (Exit ARIEL)

How fares my gracious sir?

There are yet missing of your company

Some few odd lads that you remember not.”

Ariel brings the Boatswain and mariners and then brings Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano in but they are told to return the clothes they stole. Prospero then invites Alonso and his company to stay the night. He will tell them the tale of his last twelve years, and in the morning, they can all set out for Naples, where Miranda and Ferdinand will be married. It is revealed that after the wedding, Prospero will return to Milan, where he plans to contemplate the end of his life. The last charge Prospero gives to Ariel before setting him free is to make sure the trip home is made on “calm seas”.

Everyone except Prospero exits and Prospero speaks a Epilogue:

“Now my charms are all o'erthrown,

And what strength I have's mine own,

Which is most faint: now, 'tis true,

I must be here confined by you,

Or sent to Naples. Let me not,

Since I have my dukedom got

And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell

In this bare island by your spell;

But release me from my bands

With the help of your good hands:

Gentle breath of yours my sails

Must fill, or else my project fails,

Which was to please. Now I want

Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,

And my ending is despair,

Unless I be relieved by prayer,

Which pierces so that it assaults

Mercy itself and frees all faults.

As you from crimes would pardon'd be,

Let your indulgence set me free.”

The Tempest Act Four – “The strongest oaths are straw to th' fire i' the blood.”

The Tempest Act Four – “The strongest oaths are straw to th' fire i' the blood.”

Act Four of 'The Tempest' begins with Prospero finally showing his approval for Miranda and Ferdinand to be together and get married but he warns Ferdinand not to “break her virgin knot before the wedding.

“If I have too austerely punish'd you,

Your compensation makes amends, for I

Have given you here a third of mine own life,

Or that for which I live; who once again

I tender to thy hand: all thy vexations

Were but my trials of thy love and thou

Hast strangely stood the test here, afore Heaven,

I ratify this my rich gift. O Ferdinand,

Do not smile at me that I boast her off,

For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise

And make it halt behind her…

Then, as my gift and thine own acquisition

Worthily purchased take my daughter: but

If thou dost break her virgin-knot before

All sanctimonious ceremonies may

With full and holy rite be minister'd,

No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall

To make this contract grow: but barren hate,

Sour-eyed disdain and discord shall bestrew

The union of your bed with weeds so loathly

That you shall hate it both: therefore take heed,

As Hymen's lamps shall light you.”

Prospero summons Ariel and gets him to bring forth spirits to perform a wedding masque as the mythical figures Iris, Juno and Ceres. The spirits dance and then they bless Miranda and Ferdinand. Many modern directors cut this masque sequence becomes it seems awkward, dated and does not really advance the plot at all. But what one must remember is that masques were a fashionable theatrical convention around 1611 because of Inigo Jones. Shakespeare also does this quite tastefully in this scene. It is whimsical and even in modern films from romances to rom-coms to zom-rom-coms to Bollywood romantic interludes, everyone loves a good song and dance. Who knows what extra spectacles this scene originally held. It could have been like a rock-opera meets Bollywood on the catwalk. Anyway, Ferdinand is at least so impressed by the masque that he expresses his desire to stay on the island forever:

"This is a most majestic vision, and

Harmoniously charmingly. May I be bold

To think these spirits?

…Let me live here ever;

So rare a wonder'd father and a wife

Makes this place Paradise. “

The play then has Juno and Ceres do another dance but when the Reapers enter, then Prospero is reminded of the "foul conspiracy of that beast caliban and his confederates" and stops proceedings and dismisses the spirits. 
“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-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Ye 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. Sir, I am vex'd;

Bear with my weakness; my, brain is troubled:

Be not disturb'd with my infirmity:

If you be pleased, retire into my cell

And there repose: a turn or two I'll walk,

To still my beating mind.”

The anger of Prospero disturbs Miranda and Ferdinand. Prospero assures the young couple that it is only because he is troubled and he says he will be okay once he has taken a walk. Ferdinand and Miranda exit and Prospero calls Ariel to make preparations for the three conspirators who tells Prospero that when last she left them they were "red hot with drinking" and scheming to steal Prospero’s magic book and kill him. Ariel relates that he created music and lead the three into rough terrain with prickles and then into a "filthy mantled pool" beyond Prospero's cell. Prospero is pleased and thanks Ariel. Prospero and Ariel then set up their trap for Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo.

In Prospero’s cell on a clothesline, Prospero and Ariel hang an array of fine apparel for the men to attempt to steal, after which they render themselves invisible. Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano enter, wet and in a temper from their swamp ordeal. Stephano and Trinculo see the finery draping and are caught up with this, distracted and want to steal the fine clothes. Caliban complains and says that they should stick to the original plan and kill Prospero. But Stephano and Trinculo disregard Caliban's suggestion and go to take the fine clothes but are stopped by the noise of hunters and hunter horns and the appearance of a spirits shaped like hounds which seem to attack them. Prospero is able to clear the spirits and disperse Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo and then tells Ariel that Prospero's business is almost ended and that shortly he will make good on his promise to give Ariel his freedom:

“Fury, Fury! there, Tyrant, there! hark! hark!

…Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints

With dry convulsions, shorten up their sinews

With aged cramps, and more pinch-spotted make them

Than pard or cat o' mountain….

Let them be hunted soundly. At this hour

Lie at my mercy all mine enemies:

Shortly shall all my labours end, and thou

Shalt have the air at freedom: for a little

Follow, and do me service.”

The Tempest Act Three –“He that dies pays all his debts.”

The Tempest Act Three –“He that dies pays all his debts.”

“There be some sports are painful, and their labour

Delight in them sets off: some kinds of baseness

Are nobly undergone and most poor matters

Point to rich ends. This my mean task

Would be as heavy to me as odious, but

The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead

And makes my labours pleasures: O, she is

Ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed,

And he's composed of harshness. I must remove

Some thousands of these logs and pile them up,

Upon a sore injunction: my sweet mistress

Weeps when she sees me work, and says, such baseness

Had never like executor. I forget:

But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours,

Most busy lest, when I do it.”

Act Three of ‘The Tempest’ starts with Ferdinand at Prospero’s Cell doing the jobs that Caliban normally did of gathering and carrying “some thousand… logs”, but Ferdinand is consoled by Miranda. Miranda enters and wants Ferdinand to stop the hard work and let her do some of it for him since she believes Prospero is in his study. Prospero is in fact spying on Miranda and Ferdinand. Ferdinand rejects Miranda’s offer and enquires what her name is. Miranda tells Ferdinand and refuses to let her work for him but does rest from his work and asks Miranda her name. She tells him, and he is pleased:

“Admired Miranda!

Indeed the top of admiration! worth

What's dearest to the world! Full many a lady

I have eyed with best regard and many a time

The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage

Brought my too diligent ear: for several virtues

Have I liked several women; never any

With so fun soul, but some defect in her

Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed

And put it to the foil: but you, O you,

So perfect and so peerless, are created

Of every creature's best!”

Miranda does not know quite how to accept Ferdinand’s praise. She praises Ferdinand’s face then stops herself remembering that her father Prospero instruction to not speak to Ferdinand. Her tells her that he is a prince and Miranda disregards this and asks him if he loves her. Ferdinand says he does:

“O heaven, O earth, bear witness to this sound

And crown what I profess with kind event

If I speak true! if hollowly, invert

What best is boded me to mischief! I

Beyond all limit of what else i' the world

Do love, prize, honour you.”

Miranda then offers to be his wife and Ferdinand agrees. They exit to meet later. Prospero emerges and is not entirely happy with the growing relationship between his daughter Miranda and Ferdinand and he goes off to consult his book of magic for other business he has at hand.

“So glad of this as they I cannot be,

Who are surprised withal; but my rejoicing

At nothing can be more. I'll to my book,

For yet ere supper-time must I perform

Much business appertaining.”

Then Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano enter, still drinking. Stephano has assumed a high status and calls Caliban the “servant monster” and when Stephano commands Caliban to drink, Caliban readily accepts this order. They drink, argue and joke and Stephano sees himself now of 'Lord of the Island'. Caliban begins to tell them about how he is “...subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island...” Ariel enters and speaks but Caliban thinks Trinculo is stirring him and threatens Trinculo. Stephano accuses Trinculo and Trinculo claims he said nothing. Then Caliban declares to Trinculo and Stephano how he hates and wants to take revenge on Prospero. Ariel pretends to use Trinculo's voice and says “Thou liest” and in a comic interlude involving the invisible Ariel making comments which Caliban and Stephano think to be Trinculo, Trinculo is hit for his rude interruptions. 

Caliban continues to reveal his plan to get back at Prospero which he reveals involves them stealing Prospero’s magic books, killing Prospero, taking Miranda his daughter and making Stephano 'King of the Island' with Miranda as his queen. Trinculo says that he believes this to be a good plan. Caliban tells them that Prospero always goes to sleep in about half an hour. Music is played by Ariel and Caliban, Trinculo and Stephano follow the music seeing that the time is ripe for their plan to kill Prospero.

We cross to the other shipwrecked party on the island of Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo and others. They are all tired and Alonso has started to despair and give up any hope of finding his son alive. Antonio is still wanting to find an opportunity to murder Alonso. Antonio tells Sebastian that Alonso’s tiredness means that later that evening would be the perfect time to kill Alonso.

Then “solemn and strange music” fills the stage and a procession of spirits in “several strange shapes” enters, bringing a banquet of food. The spirits dance about the table, invite the king and his party to eat, and then dance away. Prospero enters at this time as well, having rendered himself magically invisible to everyone but the audience. The men disagree at first about whether to eat, but Gonzalo persuades them it will be all right, noting that travelers are returning every day with stories of unbelievable but true events. This, he says, might be just such an event.

When the men are about to eat, thunder erupts, and Ariel enters in the shape of a harpy. He claps his wings upon the table and the banquet vanishes. Ariel mocks the men for attempting to draw their swords, which magically have been made to feel heavy. Calling himself an instrument of Fate and Destiny, he goes on to accuse Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio of driving Prospero from Milan and leaving him and his child at the mercy of the sea. For this sin, he tells them, the powers of nature and the sea have exacted revenge on Alonso by taking Ferdinand. He vanishes, and the procession of spirits enters again and removes the banquet table.

Prospero, still invisible, applauds the work of his spirit and announces with satisfaction that his enemies are now in his control. He leaves them in their distracted state and goes to visit with Ferdinand and his daughter.

Alonso is concerned since hearing the name Prospero again has made him think of his son. Sebastian and Antonio decide to run after and confront the spirits. Gonzalo suggests the other lords follow Antonio and Sebastian and then says he will follow since he does not want anything un-toward happening:

“All three of them are desperate: their great guilt,

Like poison given to work a great time after,

Now 'gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you

That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly

And hinder them from what this ecstasy

May now provoke them to.”

The Tempest Act Two –“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”

The Tempest Act Two –“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”

“Beseech you, sir, be merry; you have cause,

So have we all, of joy; for our escape

Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe

Is common; every day some sailor's wife,

The masters of some merchant and the merchant

Have just our theme of woe; but for the miracle,

I mean our preservation, few in millions

Can speak like us: then wisely, good sir, weigh

Our sorrow with our comfort.”

And so Act Two of ‘The Tempest’ begins with the ever-positive Gonzalo trying to cheer Antonio, Sebastian, Alonso, Adrian, Francisco and others up after their ordeal of the tempest and their ‘shipwreck’ on the island. Alonso is specifically unreceptive to Gonzalo’s positivity. Then Antonio and Sebastian mock Gonzalo’s feeling that this island is a godsend. The lighthearted banter ends when Alonso voices expresses regret at the marriage of his daughter in Tunis which led to this situation:

“You cram these words into mine ears against

The stomach of my sense. Would I had never

Married my daughter there! for, coming thence,

My son is lost and, in my rate, she too,

Who is so far from Italy removed

I ne'er again shall see her. O thou mine heir

Of Naples and of Milan, what strange fish

Hath made his meal on thee?”

Then another lord, Francisco, tries to give hope to Alonso when he tells of how he saw Alonso’s son, Ferdinand, swimming from the wreck:

“Sir, he may live:

I saw him beat the surges under him,

And ride upon their backs; he trod the water,

Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted

The surge most swoln that met him; his bold head

'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar'd

Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke

To the shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis bow'd,

As stooping to relieve him: I not doubt

He came alive to land.”

Alonso does not think his son is alive and then Sebastian (with a strange combination of heartlessness and racism) tells his brother Alonso that the blame for Ferdinand’s death does sit with him since this would not have happened if had not married his daughter to an African.

“Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss,

That would not bless our Europe with your daughter,

But rather lose her to an African;

Where she at least is banish'd from your eye,

Who hath cause to wet the grief on't…

You were kneel'd to and importuned otherwise

By all of us, and the fair soul herself

Weigh'd between loathness and obedience, at

Which end o' the beam should bow. We have lost your

son,

I fear, for ever: Milan and Naples have

More widows in them of this business' making

Than we bring men to comfort them:

The fault's your own.”

Gonzalo tries to diffuse these discussions by asking the question of what would each person do if he were lord of this island. Sebastian says he would “ 'Scape being drunk for want of wine.” Gonzalo then espouses his utopian view:

“I' the commonwealth I would by contraries

Execute all things; for no kind of traffic

Would I admit; no name of magistrate;

Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,

And use of service, none; contract, succession,

Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;

No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;

No occupation; all men idle, all;

And women too, but innocent and pure;

No sovereignty…

All things in common nature should produce

Without sweat or endeavour: treason, felony,

Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,

Would I not have; but nature should bring forth,

Of its own kind, all foison, all abundance,

To feed my innocent people.”

Antonio and Sebastian mock Gonzalo’s idealism.

Then Ariel enters and plays music that sends all of the men (except for Sebastian and Antonio) to sleep. Antonio (who years before had usurped Propsero’s position) looks at the others asleep and starts to try to convince Sebastian that he should kill his brother and usurp his title:

“What a strange drowsiness possesses them!

… They fell together all, as by consent;

They dropp'd, as by a thunder-stroke. What might,

Worthy Sebastian? O, what might?--No more:--

And yet me thinks I see it in thy face,

What thou shouldst be: the occasion speaks thee, and

My strong imagination sees a crown

Dropping upon thy head…

Noble Sebastian,

Thou let'st thy fortune sleep--die, rather; wink'st

Whiles thou art waking…

I am more serious than my custom: you

Must be so too, if heed me; which to do

Trebles thee o'er…

If you but knew how you the purpose cherish

Whiles thus you mock it! how, in stripping it,

You more invest it! Ebbing men, indeed,

Most often do so near the bottom run

By their own fear or sloth…

Thus, sir:

Although this lord of weak remembrance, this,

Who shall be of as little memory

When he is earth'd, hath here almost persuade,--

For he's a spirit of persuasion, only

Professes to persuade,--the king his son's alive,

'Tis as impossible that he's undrown'd

And he that sleeps here swims…

What great hope have you! no hope that way is

Another way so high a hope that even

Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,

But doubt discovery there. Will you grant with me

That Ferdinand is drown'd?

… Then, tell me,

Who's the next heir of Naples?

… She that is queen of Tunis; she that dwells

Ten leagues beyond man's life; she that from Naples

Can have no note, unless the sun were post--

The man i' the moon's too slow--till new-born chins

Be rough and razorable; she that--from whom?

We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast again,

And by that destiny to perform an act

Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come

In yours and my discharge…

Say, this were death

That now hath seized them; why, they were no worse

Than now they are. There be that can rule Naples

As well as he that sleeps; lords that can prate

As amply and unnecessarily

As this Gonzalo; I myself could make

A chough of as deep chat. O, that you bore

The mind that I do! what a sleep were this

For your advancement! Do you understand me?

… And how does your content

Tender your own good fortune?

… Here lies your brother,

No better than the earth he lies upon,

If he were that which now he's like, that's dead;

Whom I, with this obedient steel, three inches of it,

Can lay to bed for ever; whiles you, doing thus,

To the perpetual wink for aye might put

This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence, who

Should not upbraid our course. For all the rest,

They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk;

They'll tell the clock to any business that

We say befits the hour…”

Sebastian sees the logic of Antonio’s argument and they draw their swords. However, Sebastian hesitates and Ariel renenters and singing in Gonzalo’s ear that trouble is afoot and Gonzalo awakens shouting “Preserve the King!” Everyone else wakes up. Sebastian claims that Antonio and him drew their swords because they heard a “burst of bellowing like bulls”. Their story, over-alliterated as it is, seems to work but Gonzalo is still suspicious. Then everyone gets up and continues to search Ferdinand.

Meanwhile, we come across Caliban carrying wood for prospero and cursing the spirits that Prospero sends to torment him:

“All the infections that the sun sucks up

From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall and make him

By inch-meal a disease! His spirits hear me

And yet I needs must curse. But they'll nor pinch,

Fright me with urchin--shows, pitch me i' the mire,

Nor lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark

Out of my way, unless he bid 'em; but

For every trifle are they set upon me;

Sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me

And after bite me, then like hedgehogs which

Lie tumbling in my barefoot way and mount

Their pricks at my footfall; sometime am I

All wound with adders who with cloven tongues

Do hiss me into madness.”

Caliban sees Trinculo (a jester who became shipwrecked but separated from the others) and thinks that Trinculo is another spirit who Prospero has sent to pinch and torment him. Caliban lies on the ground covering himself in a cloak. Trinculo looking for some cover from the storm discovers Caliban, muses at this ‘creature’ and decides to take cover under the same cloak with this creature:

“Here's neither bush nor shrub, to bear off

any weather at all, and another storm brewing;

I hear it sing i' the wind: yond same black

cloud, yond huge one, looks like a foul

bombard that would shed his liquor. If it

should thunder as it did before, I know not

where to hide my head: yond same cloud cannot

choose but fall by pailfuls. What have we

here? a man or a fish? dead or alive? A fish:

he smells like a fish; a very ancient and fish-

like smell; a kind of not of the newest Poor-

John. A strange fish! Were I in England now,

as once I was, and had but this fish painted,

not a holiday fool there but would give a piece

of silver: there would this monster make a

man; any strange beast there makes a man:

when they will not give a doit to relieve a lame

beggar, they will lazy out ten to see a dead

Indian. Legged like a man and his fins like

arms! Warm o' my troth! I do now let loose

my opinion; hold it no longer: this is no fish,

but an islander, that hath lately suffered by a

thunderbolt. (Thunder)

Alas, the storm is come again! my best way is to

creep under his gaberdine; there is no other

shelter hereabouts: misery acquaints a man with

strange bed-fellows. I will here shroud till the

dregs of the storm be past.”

Then Stephano (a drunken butler) enters singing and drinking with a bottle in hand. He hears the cry of “Do not torment me!” and sees four legs sticking out from the cloak and thinks that he is looking at a four-legged monster. When the monster cries again, Stephano decides he will give the monster some relief with a drink of alcohol.

“This is some monster of the isle with four legs, who

hath got, as I take it, an ague. Where the devil

should he learn our language? I will give him some

relief, if it be but for that. if I can recover him

and keep him tame and get to Naples with him, he's a

present for any emperor that ever trod on neat's leather…

He's in his fit now and does not talk after the

wisest. He shall taste of my bottle: if he have

never drunk wine afore will go near to remove his

fit. If I can recover him and keep him tame, I will

not take too much for him; he shall pay for him that

hath him, and that soundly.”

Trinculo, under the cloak with Caliban identifies the voice he hears as Stephano and speaks but Stephano thinks that this four-legged monster has two heads and two mouths and proceeds to pour alcohol into both of the monster’s mouths.

“Four legs and two voices: a most delicate monster!

His forward voice now is to speak well of his

friend; his backward voice is to utter foul speeches

and to detract. If all the wine in my bottle will

recover him, I will help his ague. Come. Amen! I

will pour some in thy other mouth.”

Trinculo cries out again and Stephano pulls out Trinculo from under the cloak. They are happy to see one another and tell of how they survived. Caliban emerges and tells of how he thinks the alcohol is wonderful and he starts to worship Stephano like a God and he says that he will show them all the riches of the island.

“I'll swear upon that bottle to be thy true subject;

for the liquor is not earthly…

Hast thou not dropp'd from heaven?

… I'll show thee every fertile inch o' th' island;

And I will kiss thy foot: I prithee, be my god…

I'll kiss thy foot; I'll swear myself thy subject…

I'll show thee the best springs; I'll pluck thee berries;

I'll fish for thee and get thee wood enough.

A plague upon the tyrant that I serve!

I'll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee,

Thou wondrous man…

I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs grow;

And I with my long nails will dig thee pignuts;

Show thee a jay's nest and instruct thee how

To snare the nimble marmoset; I'll bring thee

To clustering filberts and sometimes I'll get thee

Young scamels from the rock. Wilt thou go with me?”

Trinculo and Stephano decide that they will take advantage of their fortuitous control over this drunk and “most ridiculous monster”.