The Tempest Act One –“My library was dukedom large enough…”

The Tempest Act One –“My library
 was dukedom large enough…”

In August 1610, another Italian Commedia del’ arte troupe appeared at the request of James I at Hampden Court Palace. Shakespeare was probably invited to this performance and even though he was familiar with Commedia plots and characters, he probably was influenced by this specific performance as he developed a plot involving an overprotective father and his daughter, comic servants and a hunchback beast. he maybe got the name Prospero (meaning prosperous or wealthy in Spanish) from this Commedia play since the name sometimes was used by Italian troupes when Pantalone was made into a Spanish character to add to the sense of derision. As the summer months hit, and Shakespeare basked in the glory of the staging of his previous creations, he, as always, probably stored up these Commedia characters and relationships. As the hot summer of 1610 drew on, Shakespeare probably travelled back and forth to Stratford upon Avon a couple of times and started to think through ideas for his next play for early in 1611 for either the Globe or at the Blackfriars Theatres.

Later, in September of 1610, news started to filter through to London about the fate of the ship the Sea Venture which disappeared (presumed sunk) in July 1609 on its way to Jamestown, Virginia. The survival of the ship and its passengers seemed stranger than fiction. Shakespeare would have heard about how the ship battled a huge storm off Bermuda for three days and how 150 people and one dog survived the storm and landed safely on Bermuda. He would have become increasingly interested (perhaps with his ideas for a play already brewing). He may have even obtained and read a copy of letter which circulated around London in late September 1610, which contained an account of the storm, the shipwreck and the survival. he may have even been a little bit obsessed with the circumstances surrounding the shipwreck of the Sea Venture when the accounts of two survivors also appeared in pamphlet form in October of 1610. As winter started to hit London and Shakespeare knew he had to burn the midnight candle to thrash out another play, he did not turn to his beloved Plutarch or his Holinshed but he turned to his own rich mind and the medieval romances he loved in his childhood and youth, and the rich characters of the Commedia del arte and the bizarre events of the shipwreck of the Sea Venture and he wove a magical tapestry with a artistry as rich as the magic of Prospero himself. Little did he know that this was probably the last play he was to write on his own. So sometime in 1611, ‘The Tempest', one of Shakespeare's most magical and rich comedies premiered.

‘The Tempest' starts “On a ship at sea” with the sound of the “tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning”. A Master and a Boatswain enter in distress. Noblemen are on board the ship including Alonso (the King of Naples), Sebastian (his treacherous brother), Antonio (Prospero's brother) and Gonzalo (a kind lord who once helped Prospero and Miranda). The Boatswain tells the nobles to get below the decks. They get below the decks and then soon re-emerge and Sebastian and Antonio curse the Boatswain. The storm intensifies and panic reins. Gonzalo suggests they save the king and knows that their fate is not in their own hands:

“The king and prince at prayers! let's assist them,

For our case is as theirs…

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.”

Meanwhile, on the island, Prospero and his daughter, Miranda, have just seen this shipwreck and Miranda asks her father, who seems to have some magical power, to make sure that no-one on the ship has come to harm. Prospero assures her no-one has been harmed. Prospero tells her that there is a reason he created this storm and he tells her the story of how he and her came to the island. Prospero starts by teling Miranda that he was once the Duke of Milan and renown for his intelligence and love of books.

“My brother and thy uncle, call'd Antonio--

I pray thee, mark me--he whom next thyself

Of all the world I loved and to him put

The manage of my state; as at that time

Through all the signories it was the first

And Prospero the prime duke, being so reputed

In dignity, and for the liberal arts

Without a parallel; those being all my study,

The government I cast upon my brother

And to my state grew stranger, being transported

And rapt in secret studies…

I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated

To closeness and the bettering of my mind

With that which, but by being so retired,

O'er-prized all popular rate, in my false brother

Awaked an evil nature; he did believe

He was indeed the duke; out o' the substitution

And executing the outward face of royalty,

With all prerogative: hence his ambition growing…

To have no screen between this part he play'd

And him he play'd it for, he needs will be

Absolute Milan. Me, poor man, my library

Was dukedom large enough: of temporal royalties

He thinks me now incapable; confederates--

So dry he was for sway--wi' the King of Naples

To give him annual tribute, do him homage,

Subject his coronet to his crown and bend

The dukedom yet unbow'd--alas, poor Milan!--

To most ignoble stooping…

The King of Naples, being an enemy

To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit;

and presently extirpate me and mine

Out of the dukedom and confer fair Milan

With all the honours on my brother: whereon,

A treacherous army levied, one midnight

Fated to the purpose did Antonio open

The gates of Milan, and, i' the dead of darkness,

The ministers for the purpose hurried thence

Me and thy crying self…

So dear the love my people bore me, but

With colours fairer painted their foul ends.

In few, they hurried us aboard a bark,

Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepared

A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd,

Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats

Instinctively had quit it: there they hoist us,

To cry to the sea that roar'd to us, to sigh

To the winds whose pity, sighing back again,

Did us but loving wrong…

O, a cherubim

Thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile….

A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,

Out of his charity, did give us…

Rich garments, linens, stuffs and necessaries,

Which since have steaded much; so, of his gentleness,

Knowing I loved my books, he furnish'd me

From mine own library with volumes that

I prize above my dukedom.”

Prospero then reveals that fate has seen this ship with his enemies come near to their island. Then, perhaps due to a charm Prospero puts on his own daughter, Miranda has sleep overtake her and she succumbs. With Miranda sleeping, Prospero summons a spirit under his command called Ariel. The audience learns that Ariel was responsible for the storm (at Prospero's command) and that once everyone but the crew had abandoned the ship, Ariel brought all of the passengers including Prospero's enemies, safely to their island. Ariel reports that the king’s son is alone. He also tells Prospero that the mariners and Boatswain have been charmed to sleep in the ship, which has been brought safely to harbor. The rest of the fleet that was with the ship, believing it to have been destroyed by the storm, has headed safely back to Naples.

Prospero thanks Ariel for his service, and Ariel takes this moment to remind Prospero of his promise to take one year off of his agreed time of servitude if Ariel performs his services without complaint. Prospero does not take well to being reminded of his promises, and he chastises Ariel for his impudence. He reminds Ariel of where he came from and how Prospero rescued him. Ariel had been a servant of Sycorax, a witch banished from Algiers (Algeria) and sent to the island long ago. Ariel was too delicate a spirit to perform her horrible commands, so she imprisoned in a tree and forgot to free him before she died. Prospero arrived and rescued him. Reminding Ariel of this, Prospero threatens to imprison him for twelve years if he does not stop complaining. Ariel promises to be more polite. Prospero then gives him a new command: he must go make himself like a nymph of the sea and be invisible to all but Prospero. Ariel goes to do so, and Prospero, turning to Miranda’s sleeping form, calls upon his daughter to awaken.

Prospero suggests that they talk to his servant Caliban, the son of Sycorax. Caliban appears at Prospero’s call and begins cursing. Prospero promises to punish him by giving him cramps at night, and Caliban responds by chiding Prospero for imprisoning him on the island that once belonged to him alone. He reminds Prospero that he showed him around when he first arrived. Prospero accuses Caliban of being ungrateful for all that he has taught and given him. He calls him a “lying slave” and reminds him of the effort he made to educate him. Caliban’s hereditary nature, he continues, makes him unfit to live among civilized people and earns him his isolation on the island. Caliban, though, cleverly notes that he knows how to curse only because Prospero and Miranda taught him to speak. Prospero then sends him away, telling him to fetch more firewood and threatening him with more cramps and aches if he refuses. Caliban feels compelled to follow Prospero’s orders.

With music, Ariel in Ferdinand. Prospero tells Miranda to look upon Ferdinand, and Miranda, who has seen no humans in her life other than Prospero and Caliban, immediately falls in love. Ferdinand is similarly smitten and reveals his identity as the prince of Naples. Prospero is pleased that they are so taken with each other but decides that the two must not fall in love too quickly, and so he accuses Ferdinand of merely pretending to be the prince of Naples. When he tells Ferdinand he is going to imprison him, Ferdinand draws his sword, but Prospero charms him so that he cannot move. Miranda attempts to persuade her father to have mercy, but he silences her harshly. This man, he tells her, is a mere Caliban compared to other men. Miranda continues to plea for Ferdinand:

“My affections

Are then most humble; I have no ambition

To see a goodlier man….

Prospero then leads Ferdinand to his imprisonment thanking Ariel (who can’t be seen) for his service and insisting that soon prospero will see through his bargain and give Ariel his freedom:

“Thou shalt be free

As mountain winds: but then exactly do

All points of my command…

Come, follow. Speak not for him.”