Prospero, former duke of Milan, has been living on a desert island in the Mediterranean with his daughter Miranda since the day his brother Antonio usurped and exiled him.
Prospero is a wizard and he uses magic to provoke a tempest and the apparent sinking of Antonio's accomplice ship, king Alonso, on their way back to Naples from Tunis.
Antonio, the king and his son Ferdinand, his court and the mariners are thrown on different points of the island.
Each character is convinced that the others died, while the king's ship is "safely in harbour".
On Prospero's arrival the island was inhabited by Caliban, the son of the witch Sycorax, and by a magical being, Ariel.
Prospero makes the half-human Caliban his slave and Ariel his magical helper.
Trinculo, a jester at king Alonso's court, on first seeing Caliban says:
What have we here? a man or a fish? dead or alive? A fish: he smells like a fish; a very ancient fish- like smell; a kind of not the newest Poor- John. A strange fish!
But soon he realizes the "fish" is:
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.
The spirit Ariel is invisible to common people, though they can hear his music.
He helps Prospero in taking his - bloodless - revenge against his usurpers and getting his dukedom back.
He is painted as a nymph (below).
Each character is convinced that the others died, while the king's ship is "safely in harbour".
 |
| Free icons for non-commercial use from: http://sweetclipart.com/ and http://www.clker.com/ |
On Prospero's arrival the island was inhabited by Caliban, the son of the witch Sycorax, and by a magical being, Ariel.
Prospero makes the half-human Caliban his slave and Ariel his magical helper.
Trinculo, a jester at king Alonso's court, on first seeing Caliban says:
What have we here? a man or a fish? dead or alive? A fish: he smells like a fish; a very ancient fish- like smell; a kind of not the newest Poor- John. A strange fish!
But soon he realizes the "fish" is:
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.
The spirit Ariel is invisible to common people, though they can hear his music.
He helps Prospero in taking his - bloodless - revenge against his usurpers and getting his dukedom back.
He is painted as a nymph (below).
 |
| William Hamilton, Prospero and Ariel, 1797
Or as a spirit with a somewhat animal face, like in Fuseli's painting (below). "On the bat's back I do fly".
|
 |
| Henry Fuseli, Ariel, 1800-1810 |
In William Hogarth's Scene from The Tempest, Ariel is an angel musician (below, left, on top of the rock), while Caliban (below, right) is a poor being, deformed, sentenced to hard labour.
 |
| William Hogarth, The Tempest, 1728. |
It is Ariel's hypnotic music that guides the young prince and the other shipreck, in small groups, from different points of the island, towards Prospero's cave.
While Ferdinando is following the path traced by Ariel's music, he meets Miranda.
She is astonished at the sight of the young man: the only human being she has ever known is her father and she wonders if Ferdinando is of their same species.
The two young ones fall in love at first sight.
Before giving his consent to their wedding, Prospero tries Ferdinando charging him with hard work, that the young man dutifully carries on.
No comments :
Post a Comment