The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1399  Friday, 26 August 2005

From: 		William Babula <
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Date: 		Thursday, 25 Aug 2005 10:08:06 -0700
Subject: 	Caliban's Island

In traveling in Sicily this summer I came across this guide book 
description of the island of Stromboli, one of the seven Aeolian Islands 
in the Tyrrhenian Sea just north of Milazzo, Sicily: Stromboli has a 
four-sided box-shape with an areas of 12.6 sq. kilometers. There is only 
one active volcano vent. The eastern side of the island is rich in 
vegetation but the central area, by contrast, is barren and arid. Could 
it have been so described in Shakespeare's time and possibly one source 
of Caliban's island which is variously described by Gonzalo as 'lush and 
lusty' while Trinculo on another part of the island 'finds neither bush 
nor shrub. . .' It would seem to me to be located on a sea lane from 
Naples to Tunis. I pass over the unreliable negative comments on the 
lushness of the island by the cynics Sebastian and Antonio who are 
goading Gonzalo.

Of course the Bermudas remain central to The Tempest.

William Babula

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