Tempest, The ~ William Shakespeare ~ October Book Club Online

[BooksAdmin]

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 October Book Club Online

The Tempest, Shakespeare's last play, was written in 1611 in the final period of his career.   The play is not really a comedy, but  combines elements of tragedy with comedy, a tragicomedy.    Shakespeare set the play on an unnamed island in an unidentified age. In it, he  portrays an aging magician, Prospero,  who has been living in exile with his young daughter on a remote island for the past twelve years. Over the course of a single day, Prospero uses his magic to whip up a tempest to shipwreck the men responsible for his banishment. He then proceeds to dazzle and dismay the survivors (and the audience) with his art as he orchestrates his triumphant return home where he plans to retire in peace. For a lot of audiences and literary scholars, Prospero seems like a stand-in in for Shakespeare, who spent a lifetime dazzling audiences before retiring in 1611, shortly after The Tempest was completed. Its epilogue seems to be a final and fond farewell to the stage. When Prospero (after giving up the art of magic he's spent a lifetime perfecting) appears alone before the audience he confesses, "Now my charms are all o'erthrown, / And what strength I have's mine own," we can't help but wonder of Shakespeare is speaking through this character here. From multiple sources, including Shakespearean Criticism, Gale Cengage

Discussion Schedule

Act I	October 1~7
Act II	October 8~14
Act III	October  15~21
Act IV	October 22~28
Act V	October 29~Nov.4

Some Topics to Consider Act I.  Scene 1 1. Are you finding unfamiliar vocabulary and expressions a problem?  How are you handling them?  Can you cite a few specific examples? 2. What words did Shakespeare use to describe the tempest in the opening scene?  If you have access to William Strachey's letter describing a similar storm at sea, did you note similar descriptions, similar vocabulary usage? 3. Can you think of a reason Shakespeare may have set the scene in the Italian city states and the Mediterranean?  What would happen if both the duke of Milan and the king of Naples went down in the storm?   What do we learn of the relationship between the royals and  the mariners on board the ship?  Did you find any of the characters in the opening scene at all likable?

Act I. Scene 2   1.  Miranda seems aware of her father's power over nature when she asks him  why he's raised the storm now.  Does he give her an answer?  Do you have any ideas?  Do you think  belief in myth, magic and the occult was widely accepted by Shakespeare's audience in the early 1600's? 2.  Can you sympathize at all with Prospero's brother, Antonio,  or do you think  Prospero should have continued on as the Duke of Milan? How did Prospero lose control of the government?  Does he seem to regret the time he spent bettering his mind?   3.  Is Prospero holding Ariel and Caliban on the island as prisoners?   Is Ariel male or female?  Caliban - "not honored with a human shape."  How do you see these two inhabitants of the island?  Who would you say has a claim on this island?  Anyone? 4.  What had been Prospero's relationship with Caliban when he and Miranda first came to the island?  Why does he now regard him as a "poisonous slave got by the devil himself?" 5.  Caliban's mother: the "foul witch," Sycorax, born in Algiers.  Do you think this will be significant?  If she was truly a witch, his father, the devil himself, what does this make Caliban?  Has he special powers too? 6. Why does Caliban wish the red plague on Prospero for teaching him his language?  What does language have to do with their animosity towards one another? 7.  Why does Prospero send Ariel back to the shipwreck, this time disguised as a sea nymph?  Can anyone see him/her? Was his/her mission accomplished? Did Prospero plan on Miranda falling in love with the Prince of Naples on first sight?  Is this part of his magic?  Does their romance sound like a fairy tale? 8.  Do you believe in love at first sight? -  "A beautiful face and body reflect the beauty of the spirit within."   Do you agree with Shakespeare?

 

Relevant links:   BookTV: Hobson Woodard: A Brave Vessel ,
Translation of W. Strachey's long letter describing the shipwreck to the Excellent Woman,
Listen to Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Full Fathom Five"

DLs: JoanP,  Marcie,  Barb,   JoanK , Babi

[JoanP]

The curtain rises... right in the middle of a tempest!  Shakespeare wastes no time leading up to the storm, but lets us know from SCENE 1 that the rest of the play will be based on the conflict between man and nature, between man and man.  So much is happening in this scene - beyond mere survival.   We're looking forward to hearing from you and your reactions to the opening act.

First question - are you finding unfamiliar vocabulary and expressions a problem? Some of you were sharing tips and ideas during our pre-discussion.  Hopefully you will share some of them now at the start of our discussion with everyone aboard.  How are you handling the unfamiliar language?  Will you cite a few specific examples?

You are all so welcome and we look forward to hearing from each of you soon.

[Frybabe]

X

[AMICAH]

 : I'm eager to star,and hope i'll be able to keep up.Although I seldom post, I read all.
 I found a site which might be of interest.Originally, I was thinking of reading along with tnis course using my grandmothers edition of Shakespeare. Publishing date of1846 edition 1911.(The english is a genuine challenge,) On second thought downloaded from kindle.
  The site is:SHAKESPEARE AFTER ALL ;THE LATE PLAYS  HARVARD WITH MARJORIE GARBER
 LECTURE 11 OF 12  (ACADEMIC EARTH)I suppose anyone interested can find it with this info.
As you can tell posting is very new to:-)me, but I'm alwayskeeping up with posts. 

[AMICAH]

Im eager to   START.  You can see why I do not post often. 

[marcie]

Amicah, I'm glad you will be joining us. How interesting that you have your grandmother's edition of Shakespeare. I wonder if it is better not to be reading from it as it might fall apart since it is so old.

I'm looking forward to our discussion too!

[BarbStAubrey]

Leaving my book on a chair till later...

[Frybabe]

Yesterday, I read Act I, Scene I out loud to my cat. Oddly, he seemed interested.

[Babi]

Oh, heavens, AMICAH. If we let an occasional typo or misspelling hinder us, we'd all
be reluctant posters!  Jump right in, lady.

  Some of the obscure language I can figure out from it's similarity to known words and/or it's use
in context.  Happily, I also have footnotes.  It did help to find that 'yarely'  means 'briskly' and 'welkin's
cheek' means the face of the sky.
   I am finding Miranda a bit too.... well, overly effusive. 

[PatH]

I'm glad I have notes on the language, it seems more difficult than some of Shakespeare's plays.  So far my favorite line is: "Your tale, sir, would cure deafness."

[JudeS]

Thank Goodness that I bought the Barnes & Noble edition. Not a word or expression left unexplained. Sometimes there are interesting info on words that enhance the events and broaden the picture.
For example: Loines 72 ,3 and 4..
"And Prospero the prime duke, being so reputed
in dignity, and for the liberal arts
Without parallel."

Prospero's academic acheivments encompass both legitimate learning (liberal arts) and magic (secret studies). The former condsisted  of the seven established fields of study-the trivium(grammar, logic,rhetoric) and the quad rivium (arithmetic,geometry, music,astronomy) -whereas the latter are less clear cut.  The audience would be aware of a dramatic precedent in the figure of Dr. Faustus, best known to them from Marlowes play, at the end of which the protagonist is dragged to  Hell: they would therefore be wary of Prospero's occult learning.

Quite a footnote I would say.

[Dana]

Talking about memorable lines, how about

What seest thou else in the dark backward and abysm of time?

[salan]

Marking my spot and hoping to join you later.
Sally

[Art Hippy]

Having few issues with the vocabulary (since I'm using A. L. Rowse, annotated, 1988), I'll touch on Topic #2...

What words did Shakespeare use to describe the tempest in the opening scene?  If you have access to William Strachey's letter describing a similar storm at sea, did you note similar descriptions, similar vocabulary usage?

I did notice similar descriptions, although much condensed in S's work.  Especially the use of the term "roarers" in line 18 of The Tempest has a close relationship with Strachey's use of it in his paragraph 3..."...a dreadful storm and hideous...which swelling, and roaring as it were by fits..."  Another descriptive word that stood out to me was "howling" in line 39.  While I couldn't find Strachey's actual use of this word, he described the winds as drowned "in thunder", as "mad",  and as "fury and rage" in the middle and end of paragraph 3.

[Jonathan]

That does make it sound like the storm came out of Strachey's letter, doesn't it? But what a shock to hear that Prospero with his 'art' has himself raised the storm. Miranda is aghast at what she sees happening to the 'brave vessel'. And provides the title to a book to be written four hundred years later.

It's shocking. Is Prospero following in the footsteps of Dr Faustus?  Will he, too, be dragged off to hell in the end? And if he is dabbling about in 'the dark backward and abysm of time', as well as playing with the weather, is it any wonder that even Frybabe's cat sits up to listen?

Only Miranda has trouble staying awake.

I like to imagine that the passengers on the brave vessel were promised a pleasant crossing.

[Jonathan]

Keep it up, AMICAH. Your post made great sense. It's Shakespeare's constructions and meanings that aren't alway easy to understand. Sometimes it almost seems to me that he has difficulties with the language. Or he has a little game going.

[Dana]

Oh come on Jonathon,  it's not Shakespeare who has trouble with the language.  It's us who have trouble with his language.  Things do change in 400 years.  S. is one of  the greatest exponents of language of any age.

[PatH]

Shakespeare lived in a time when the English language was evolving and changing very rapidly.  I would guess that it was even a bit different at the end of his career than at the start.  This is an interesting contrast with Spanish.  Cervantes died at the same time as Shakespeare.  When we read Don Quijote on the old site, led by the fearless JoanP, I got the book in Spanish too.  With my modest ability (one college year of Spanish) I found it no harder to read than modern Spanish.  The reverse would certainly not be true.  I can't imagine anyone whose knowledge of English was at my level of Spanish trying to struggle through Shakespeare.

[JoanK]

I found my notes very helpful. For example, at the beginning, the nobles keep taking heart from the fact that the boatswain looks like such a rascal. The notes explain the common saying that he who is born to be hanged will never drown. Thus, If they can convince themselves that the boatswain was surely born to be hung, they are confident he (hence they) will survive the storm.

I find this hilarious. They're talking about how awful he is, while he's just trying to get them out of the way so he can do his job.

[JoanK]

I was interested in Shakespeare's use of the word "yare". Does anyone else remember that word from the movie "Philadelphia Story"?

[PatH]

The first scene is only 3 pages long, but what a dramatic beginning.  The sailors are working like crazy, trying to keep the ship from sinking, and in troop the noblemen, pulling rank, trying to micromanage without having any real idea of what needs to be done.  It's both dramatic and hilarious.  I wonder how it's usually staged.  Does anyone know?

[JoanP]

 - When the first scene opens describing the tempest - the tempest of the title, I was  a bit surprised.  Thought we'd work up to it.  Now the storm, the "tempest" is over and the play has just begun!

  PatH, I've seen this scene on stage a number of times...and as I remember, it was dramatic and tense.  But I can see the hilarity you and JoanK  describe - the mariners trying to save the ship - the nobles resisting being ordered about as the storm rages.  And the boatswain, born to be hanged will never drown."  A good reason for the nobles to listen to the boatwain! I think I missed the humor  all these years.  
It will be interesting to watch how this animosity between the two groups plays out as the play progresses.  Perhaps the title refers to more than wind and rain.

The humor of the situation comes through - though some of the language is obscure, though some of it you can decipher -   "yarely" - a good example...who knew what that meant (before checking footnotes or otherwise?)  And yet, from the immediacy of the situation, it was clear that the boatswain was ordering the passengers to move swiftly wasn't it?  JoanK, I DO remember the sailboat in "Philadelphia Story," the True Love.  I'd forgotten what "yar" meant, but remember Hepburn repeating, "my, she was yar" a number of times.  I looked it up just now  - Sure enough - rapid and quick to the helm...  Here's a "clip you might like to see again - my, wasn't she yar?
 
It seems many of us have notes, but we all have one another. If you have a troublesome line or two, just holler.   The notes are a tremendous help - almost a bit like cheating with Cliff notes, aren't they?  Thank you for sharing yours, Jude.  Let's all do that whenever we can - share the notes that you think might help others, okay?  AMICAH, let us know if you find anything on this first scene in the "SHAKESPEARE AFTER ALL," site,  will you?  So glad you are in the boat with us!  

Babi - a "welkin"?

Fry, you're funny!  We need a mascot here - what's your cat's name...do you have a photo?

We need to start a list of memorable lines from Shakespeare's final play.  Maybe we can talk Marcie into making a page just for these quotes:
 ~ "What seest thou else in the dark backward and abysm of time?"  Dana
 ~ "Your tale, sir, would cure deafness." PatH.



 

[JoanP]

Linda, thanks so much for sharing William Strachey's description of the storm...the roaring thunder of the storm.  How many think of a tempest in this way?  Certainly not Shakespeare who had never experienced a storm at sea before...but clearly Strachey did!  Why try to improve on that - why not put it right into the play?

For those who haven't read Woodward's book describing Strachey's experience, would someone who has done so share the names of some of the passengers on that "brave vessel" to give us all some idea of what happened there...shortly before Shakespeare wrote THE TEMPEST?

How did Shakespeare portray the characters in the first scene of THE TEMPEST?  Were there any who made an impression on you one way or another?

[JudeS]

Meanwhile my favorite character is Ariel. His name is Hebrew for Lion of God.
Did Shakespeare know this and chose the name as opposite to the character who is really a scaredy cat.?
The rest of the cast (so far at least) are overly serious while Ariel is sizing things up while doing Prospero's bidding.

As to another matter. Remember the children born on the island in "A Brave Vessel" being christened  Bermuda and Bermudas?
Well my foot note tells me a huge amount about the island and its history. I just want to note here one fact -
The Bermudas was the name given to a part of London that was a safe haven for prostitute and outlaws. So the reference while looking away from home also glances inward.

[hats]

Good morning, I've downloaded The Tempest to my Kindle.

[kidsal]

Strachey caught the feel of the storm - the violence, the passengers fear.  Shakespeare came no way close.

[JoanP]

Good morning, Hats!  Delighted you are joining us!  Does the Kindle version come with any notes or explanations?  If not, you have many resources here - don't hesitate to ask.  Welcome aboard!

An interesting observation, kidsal!  I wonder if Shakespeare was trying to capture that same fear?  Were his passengers working together to save the ship from sinking?

[nfarm]

: I'm eager to star,and hope i'll be able to keep up.Although I seldom post, I read all.
 I found a site which might be of interest.Originally, I was thinking of reading along with tnis course using my grandmothers edition of Shakespeare. Publishing date of1846 edition 1911.(The english is a genuine challenge,) On second thought downloaded from kindle.
  The site is:SHAKESPEARE AFTER ALL ;THE LATE PLAYS  HARVARD WITH MARJORIE GARBER
 LECTURE 11 OF 12  (ACADEMIC EARTH)I suppose anyone interested can find it with this info.
As you can tell posting is very new to:-)me, but I'm alwayskeeping up with posts. 

This course at Harvard is free and really wonderful as is her book Shakespare After All. I recently had the pleasure of seeing King Lear performed by Trinity Rep in Providence R I and my enjoyment was enhanced having read and listened to Garber's lectures on the play. Then reading before seeing the play it was just a wonderful experience.

[BarbStAubrey]

A full table - how nice - I am with you kidsal - even Virgil makes more of the Mediterranean storm in his story. You can feel those open, rowing and sailing triremis being tossed to the sky on top of monstrous size waves.

In flight, bang, right out of the shoot as Linda points out, we read of this storm. Which makes me think the storm is not as big a focal point but a vehicle taking the play or reader into the fantasy, as some stories use laying down for a night's sleep to pull you into another realm. Maybe the storm is just that, a means of mental and emotional transportation to get you to a small island unknown to the audience.

Ah ha you also nfarm are pleased with the link and know the professor's work - I didn't have two hours to watch the entire of the great Youtube from Harvard that AMICAH suggested - wow the prof really moves quickly through the story doesn't she, offering an interpretation of each character - I was thrilled seeing the class, thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Did you get to see the Michael Wood's In Search of Shakespeare on PBS recently JudeS... I forgot parts having seen it some years ago but there again was the bit about Shakespeare having a lover while he was in London that they have traced her as an accomplished musician from a well known musical Venetian Jewish family. And so, it could be that he did know the meaning and symbolism for his choice of naming Ariel.

Funny yes, as if looking down from above seeing men like ants scrambling in all directions but frankly PatH I thought, terror - you know, the flight-fight or freeze reaction. Being successful men they had to 'fight' but without knowing how their brains froze. And by the way, having been around boats for years we used the word yare to mean sleek, well built, smooth with a well designed hull, placement and size of the ribs (bones of the hull) so that it would quickly glide through the water. Which fits the description offered but the word can have a fuller meaning. Today, the word is used more often to describe a sailing vessel, 'she's yare' which can have a double meaning and would describe the likes of a Kathryn Hepburn. Where as here, Shakespeare is using the word as an action verb.

I would think the storm had the sailors awake without the Master calling them to bestir. Burst the wind - sails trimmed (rolled within themselves and tied) to a smaller sail area to counter the strong downdraft of wind.

Adding to the fun that PatH you noted I think this exchange by the Boatswain is great satire.

You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour,

[Frybabe]

No picture of Twerp, JoanP. I had one, but it seems to have disappeared. It is probably stored on a zip disk. My zip drive died long ago. George may still have a copy somewhere.

[PatH]

Composers love to set Shakespeare's songs to music, so I thought maybe someone had done "Full fathom five".  Don Reid (Radioman) on our sister site tells me there are two--by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Igor Stravinsky.  Here's the Vaughan Williams (found by Chya):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YfJ66YmO8k

As a bonus, we also get "The Cloud-capp's Towers, from Act IV.

Here's the Stravinsky, which sounds a bit formless to me.  It's the second piece, starting a few seconds before 3 minutes in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcTuvAaUDsQ&feature=related

[Dana]

Interesting to hear Ralph William's version of Full Fathom Five.  Thanks, Pat.

 When reading it I was struck by the phrase
....But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.

It reminded me of Donald Sutherland saying that to his new girlfriend in The Eagle has Landed.....I have suffered a sea change.....(obviously it must have struck me pretty forcibly) so, as often with Shakespeare, I wondered which came first, Shakespeare, or was it a phrase in common usage, so I looked it up, and it IS a saying come down from the bard to describe a profound transformation......we have no idea I think, how much stuff we say comes from Shakespeare.  Macbeth has the most quotes.....perhaps 

[BarbStAubrey]

My goodness Pat - I had not heard any of these pieces - surprised by the Full Fathom Five rather than the excitement of a storm blowing.

That would be an interesting little book Dana wouldn't it - listing all the Shakespearian quotes we continue to use in conversation today.

[PatH]

I'd put my money on Hamlet for most quotes.  It's incredibly full of them.

[JoanK]

Hi, HATS.Great to see you! Hope you enjoy your kindle as much as I do.

Also great to see Kathryn Hepburn again. My, she was yar!

[JoanP]

Ah Pat, thank you so much - you've added a whole dimension to our enjoyment with  musical accompaniment to our reading.  Do you get the feeling we are getting carried away with the whole experience?  isn't it grand?

'But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange"

Definitely let's add "sea change" to memorable quotes from  The Tempest.  Glad you followed up on that, Dana - so the expression did originate with Shakespeare.  Wait a minute!  Maybe it didn't!  Maybe William Strachey coined it and Shakespeare lifted it!  Do you think?

I've a question - maybe one of you reading Woodward's "A Brave Vessel' can answer.  Woodward uses many sources for this book...Strachey's accounts, Silvester Jourdain,  John Rolfe, to name a few.  But Shakespeare hadn't seen all of this research when writing The Tempest.  He probably hadn't seen all of Strachey's memories either.  All he saw was the letter Strachey had written to his patron, the Excellent Lady.  How long was this letter?

Here's my question for you - is Strachey's letter to his patron, the Excellent lady, which Shakespeare read before/while writing the Tempest available for us to read - and compare?  I'd really like to read that, aside from the amazing story Woodward's research provides us. I seem to remember talking about this in the pre-discussion, but dreadful memory - a blank.

[JoanP]

** nfarm - good to see you here.  Wouldn't it be fun to see The Tempest after we've read and discussed it this month?  I think we'll really appreciate it more when we see it after this.  Will have to do a search to see where it is playing  in different parts of the country.  I did check out film 'adaptations' - but I really want to see it on the stage.  In one of the film versions I saw Helen Mirren cast as Prospero.  Imagine that...

Here's another question for you -

"Meanwhile my favorite character is Ariel. His name is Hebrew for Lion of God."  Jude
How do you visualize Ariel - male or female? 

[BarbStAubrey]

JoanP there was more than the letter - there were reports to the Virgina Company from Strachey and others that because of the many connections Shakespeare had with the investors there is evidence he read all of it. What is in the letter is included in the reports along with other information that those who have made a close comparison say could only have been included in the play if he read the reports.

There were several ships that returned before Strachey returned. Isn't a copy of the letter included in the holdings in the Folger collection and shared in the per-discussion - maybe it could not easily be read - there is also the separate accounts by Sir George Somers and Captain Newport, admiral of the fleet and Captain Gates who was with Somers in Bermuda. Several ships crossed with accounts to the Virgina Company.

Interesting to hear in the Michael Wood PBS Searching for Shakespeare, Strachey and the Virginia Company are mentioned.

The book Shakespeare's The Tempest Its Political Implications and the first Colonists of Virginia includes more of Strachey's beliefs about the cause of the failures in Jamestown that were included in the reports - in a nutshell the first chapters explain Strachey's beliefs based on the opinion that drove the settling of the New World that the Reformation view of the New World was a wondrous, peace-loving, natural, accident of Providence... that required no work to "husband". Nature would be so bountiful that the hearts of men living there would be pure and with faith in God His generosity planted the seeds requiring only the labor to pick the bounty - this is the belief that both Shakespeare and Starchey questioned - that this Reformation view of the New World, and the superiority to the world of Elizabethan England, were oversimplifications.

Supporting the concept of the pure native was a document known to have been read by Shakespeare, written by Michel de Montaigne, Of Canniballes (1603) I no longer have the link to this document handy but it was included in a book available on Amazon.

[marcie]

Joan, Strachey's letter to an unknown woman was long. There is a version of the letter in the original "olde" English and translated into a bit more modern English linked from the wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Strachey under the heading "Strachey's works." It's entitled
 A true reportory of the wracke, and redemption of Sir THOMAS GATES
Knight; vpon, and from the Ilands of the Bermudas: his comming to
Virginia, and the estate of that Colonie then, and after, vn-
der the gouernment of the Lord LA WARRRE,
Iuly 15. 1610. written by WILLIAM
STRACHEY, Esquire

Here is a link to the document in WORD http://www.virtualjamestown.org/TR%20modern.doc

The original version is 51 pages and the modern version is 38 pages in Microsoft Word in 12 point type.

I haven't read the letter yet but the account of the storm in the book, "Brave Vessel," is compelling. Several times, everyone on the ship thought that they were done for. In fact, if the ship's captain had not sighted land when he did, most of the passengers had given up and were about to stop bailing out water and let the ship go down.

[JoanP]

Thanks...I remember now that letter from Strachey was long...too long to search through for a reference to "sea change?" and that it had been translated from Old English - Here's the link to the translation of Strachey's long letter describing the shipwreck to the Excellent Woman...

It occurs to me that those coming into this discussion right now might be in the dark about this talk of Woodward's The Brave Vessel and William Strachey's account.  Please, please, if you are not aware of this letter, speak up and we'll be happy to tell you about it.  This will influence the way you regard Shakespeare and the way wrote his plays.
 
Marcie, when you have some time, will you please create a special page for these memorable quotes from The Tempest...and we'll add more as they are brought to the discussion?  So far:
~ "What seest thou else in the dark backward and abysm of time?"  
~ "Your tale, sir, would cure deafness."
~ "But doth suffer a sea change Into something rich and strange"

Can you think of a reason Shakespeare may have decided to  set the scene in the Italian city states and the Mediterranean?  What would it it mean if both the duke of Milan and the king of Naples went down in the storm?  Could this have been Prospero's intention before Miranda interceded?

http://www.shakespeareinamericanlife.org/identity/shipwreck/storm1.cfm