10. the Tempest Style

Variety of styleThe Tempest

• Shakespeare used different levels of speech and action to

portray his characters from different angles.

Variety of style

Different levels of speech

• A character may suddenly switch from everyday prose to

solemn verse.

• There is sometimes the insertion of allegorical scenes,

songs, music and dances, magical transformations.

Only Connect ... New Directions

ProsperoFrom everyday prose to solemn verse

Variety of style

William Hamilton, Prospero and Ariel (from Shakespeare's The Tempest),

1797, Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin Only Connect ... New Directions

Everyday prose: Act I scene II[…]PROSPERO

Ariel, thy charge

Exactly is perform’d: but there’s more work.

What is the time o’ th’ day?

ARIEL

Past the mid season.

PROSPERO

240 At least two glasses. The time’ twixt six and now

Must by us both be spent most preciously. […]

Variety of style


PROSPERO

Ye elves of hills, brooks, standin lakes, and

groves;

And ye that on the sands with printless foot

35 Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do flyfly him

When he comes back; you demi-puppets that

By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,

Whereof the ewe not bites;

SIGHT

HEARING

TASTE

TOUCH

Variety of style

Solemn verse: Act V, Scene I

Synaesthesia is typical of Prospero’s solemn speeches


Variety of style

FerdinandSolemn verse of love

Angelica Kauffmann, Miranda and Ferdinand (1782), Austrian Gallery, Vienna


FERDINAND

33 ‘Tis fresh morning with me when you are by at night […]

FERDINAND

I am, in my condition,

60 A prince Miranda; I do think, a King;

I would not so! […]

Hear my soul speak:

The very instant that I saw you, did

65 My Heart fly to your service; there resides,

To make me slave to it.

.

Variety of style

Solemn verse of love: Act III, Scene I


Variety of style

CalibanRegression of the character

Caliban faces Prospero; Miranda sleeping in the cave (The Tempest, 1, 2), by Heinrich

Fuseli, 1806-1810.


CALIBAN

331 As wicked dew as e’er my mother brush’d

With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen

Drop on you both! A south-west blow on ye

And blister you all o’er!

CALIBAN

363 You taught me language; and my profit on it

Is how know how to curse. The red plague rid you

For learning me your language!

Variety of style

Regression of the character: Act I, Scene II


CALIBAN

1 All the infections that the sun sucks up

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

By inch-meal a disease!

CALIBAN SINGS DRUNKENLY

181 Farewell, master; farewell, farewell!

Variety of style

Regression of the character: Act II, Scene II


Variety of style

CALIBANNo more dams I’ll make for fish;

Nor fetch in firing

185 At requiring;

Nor scrape trenchering, nor wash dish:

‘Ban, ‘Ban, Ca-caliban

Has a new master: get a new man.

Freedom, high-day! High-day, freedom! Freedom,

190 High-day, freedom!

Regression of the character: Act II, Scene II


Variety of style

ArielMagic and the supernatural

Prospero and Ariel played by Dennis Kleinsmith and Don Pitsch in Auburn Regional Theatre’s 2007 production of The Tempest


Enter Ariel like a water-nymph (Act I, Scene II);

Enter Ariel invisible playing and singing (Act I, Scene II);

ARIEL SONG

Come unto this yellow sands,

And then take hands:

Courtsied when you have and kiss’d

380 The wild waves whist:

Foot it featly here and there,

And sweet spirites bear

The burthen. Hark hark!

Variety of style

Magic and the supernatural: stage directions and songs


Variety of style

ShapesMusic and dance

Dance Theatre Adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Thempest. October, 2007, McLennan College Theatre, Waco, Texas


Solemn and strange music; and Prospero on the top (invisible).

Enter several strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet; and dance

about it with gentle actions of salutations, and inviting the king to

eat, they depart.

[…] then to soft music enter the Shapes again, and dance, with

mocks and mows, and carrying out the table.

(Act III, Scene III)

Variety of style

Music and dance: stage directions


Documents

10. the Tempest Style