INTRODUCTION. The keynote to this drama is in the following words : Miranda. "How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world That has such people in't." -V., 1, 215. Ferdinand. "Let me live here ever; So rare a wonder'd father and a wise Make this place PARADISE.” -IV., 1, 136. "The "Tempest" is a dramatization of "Paradise Regained." I mig justly be called Instauratio Magna, that is, the Great Restoration to that state of happiness which mankind, as once believed, originally possessed and lost. Its method is precisely the one laid down at the same time and for the same purpose in Francis Bacon's system of philosophy; in other words, the regeneration of the world through such a knowledge of arts and sciences as that philosophy, when full developed, was expected by its author to reveal. And the effect of the play is entirely in harmony with this view of it. In our enraptured vision we seem to catch, as it were, through the opening skies, a momentary glimpse of what the future has in store for us. As Macaulay says: "In Bacon's magnificent day-dreams there was nothing wild, nothing but what sober reason sanctioned. He knew that all the secrets feigned by poets to have been written in the books of enchanters are worthless when compared with the mighty secrets which are really written in the book of nature, and which, with time and patience, will be read there. He knew that all the wonders wrought by all the talismans in fables were trifles when compared with the wonders which might reasonably be expected from the 'philosophy of fruit,' and that, if his words sank deep into the minds of men, they would produce effects such as superstition had never ascribed to the incantations of Merlin and Michæl Scot. It was here that he loved to let his imagination loose. He loved to picture to himself the world as it would be when his philosophy should, in his own noble phrase, 'have enlarged the bounds of human empire.' Essay on Lord Bacon. Also from Sir Richard Garnett: "Here (in the drama of the Tempest), more than anywhere else, we seem to see the world as, if it had depended upon him, Shakespeare would have made it." Prospero is the new man. Oblivious of all worldly interests under the old regime, he is wholly absorbed in secret studies. Even when cast adrift on the open sea he is accompanied by his books; books, he takes pains to inform us, from his own library, such as he loved, and such as would enable him to go on with his investigations. Caliban knows full well the source of Prospero's magical powers, for in his injunctions to the conspirators he is continually crying"Seize his books," And when the curtain is about to fall on the scene, the actors to melt into air, into thin air, and the insubstantial pageant to fade, the wonderful magician exclaims, "I'll break my staff, Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, And deeper than did ever plummet sound, Man's empire over nature, as illustrated in the play, is complete. The ocean obeys him. The spirits of the air, the nymphs of the sea, the brute creation, all yield to his will. But this subjection comes not without resistance. Fetters are fetters still, though made of gold. Ariel and Caliban alike require the threat of force. Even Ferdinand, who may be supposed to have some of the old turbulent spirit left temporarily within him, finds himself unable to draw his sword. Order, which is Heaven's first law, is at last supreme. It was, of course, a necessary part of the author's device that every form of wickedness in the world, as the world now is, should be met and overcome. Accordingly we have certain crimes, serving as types, portrayed to this end. Ariel is cruelly imprisoned by Sycorax in a cloven pine and left there, uttering groans "as fast as mill-wheels strike-" without hope of release; an example of that spirit of enmity that lies at the root of all animal creation, and that has provided every creature either with weapons of attack upon others, or with special means of escape from them. Caliban attempts the seduction of Miranda. Antonio and Sebastian conspire to murder Alonzo and Gonzalo while they sleep, under pretence of watching over them, although Alonzo is Sebastian's brother, Gonzalo a wise counsellor, and both, as far as we know, loving friends of the conspirators. At the instance of Caliban, Stephano and his drunken companion creep stealthily toward Prospero's cell with intent to kill him, Falsehood, treachery, selfishness abound, and yet nothing of the kind succeeds. The ends of justice are always preserved. Forgiveness, based on penitence, crowns all. The most extraordinary event recorded in the play, however, is the betrothal of Ferdinand and Miranda. All the world loves a lover, but we have here something more even than the apotheosis of love. It is a story like that of our first parents, told in great wealth of detail, and with a charm that keeps us spell-bound from beginning to end. Milton studied it when he wrote his "Hymn to the Nativity of Christ," for then also "a brave (beautiful) new world" was about to be ushered in. Nature herself bursts forth into song. The sea holds its breath. Virtue and Innocence join hands, and under the blessings of the Queen of Heaven plight their faith; while the goddess of the rainbow, arching the sky, proclaims her promise for the future of humanity. The play was probably written in 1613; it was not printed until ten years later, in the great Shakespearean folio of 1623. Intended to be the author's last, it afforded him the opportunity to illustrate, on a scene of action remote from the inhabited world, and thus specially adapted to the purpose, that command over Nature which the philosophy of the period was expected eventually to confer. EDWIN REED. |