1. The Tempest
Variety of style

2. Different levels of speech
Variety of style
Different levels of speech
Shakespeare used different levels of speech and action to
portray his characters from different angles.
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.
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3. From everyday prose to solemn verse
Variety of style
Prospero
From everyday prose to solemn verse
William Hamilton, Prospero and Ariel (from Shakespeare's The Tempest), 1797, Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin
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4. Everyday prose: Act I scene II
Variety of style
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. […]
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5. SIGHT HEARING TASTE TOUCH
Variety of style
Solemn verse:
Act V, Scene I
Synaesthesia is typical of Prospero’s solemn speeches
SIGHT HEARING TASTE TOUCH
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 fly him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites;
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Variety of style
Ferdinand
Solemn verse of love
Angelica Kauffmann, Miranda and Ferdinand (1782),
Austrian Gallery, Vienna
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Variety of style
Solemn verse of love:
Act III, Scene I
FERDINAND
33 ‘Tis fresh morning with me when you are by at night […]
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. .
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8. Caliban Regression of the character Variety of style
Caliban faces Prospero; Miranda sleeping in the cave (The Tempest, 1, 2), by Heinrich Fuseli,
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Variety of style
Regression of the character:
Act I, Scene II
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! 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!
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Variety of style
Regression of the character:
Act II, 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!
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Variety of style
Regression of the character:
Act II, Scene II
CALIBAN
No 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!
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12. Ariel Magic and the supernatural Variety of style
Prospero and Ariel played by Dennis Kleinsmith and Don Pitsch in Auburn Regional Theatre’s 2007 production of The Tempest
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Variety of style
Magic and the supernatural:
stage directions and songs
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!
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Variety of style
Shapes
Music and dance
Dance Theatre Adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Thempest. October, 2007, McLennan College Theatre, Waco, Texas
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Variety of style
Music and dance:
stage directions
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)
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