The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1560 Monday, 19 September 2005
[1] From: David Basch <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Sunday, 18 Sep 2005 13:21:03 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 16.1529 Caliban's Father
[2] From: David Evett <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Sunday, 18 Sep 2005 20:35:39 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 16.1546 Caliban's Father
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Basch <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Sunday, 18 Sep 2005 13:21:03 -0400
Subject: 16.1529 Caliban's Father
Comment: Re: SHK 16.1529 Caliban's Father
Joe Egert wrote:
>David Basch casts Ariel and Caliban as "good angel" and
>"bad angel" respectively, willing servants of their
>Creator.
>
>But are they willing? Or do they both chafe under His
>command(ments)? After insisting that Prospero's books be
>burnt (not drowned), Caliban contends that without these
>books Prospero is "but a sot...nor hath not one spirit
>to command: they all do hate him..." A revered Father?
>Or just another tyrant?
If the text of the Tempest is studied carefully, we learn that the two
angels, Calaban and Ariel, are willing and even zealous servants of
their Creator. But first a little background.
Satan in the Hebrew Bible has the role of serving the Lord as "the
accusing angel." (Satan in Hebrew means "accusor.") In legend and in
Kabbalistic thought, so zealous was Satan that he rebelled at God's wish
to create man, warning that man will sully God's universe by bringing in
corruption and evil. So strident was Satan, that God had to evict him
from the heavenly assembly in order to go through with His plan to
create man. Ever since that time, Satan tries to vindicate his advice,
serving as a temptor to man to prove he was right after all, thereby
doing good service for the Lord.
The lines spoken by Caliban that Joe Egert presents above is thus
vintage Satan, slandering God, and exorting humans to trespass God's
laws and rebel against Him. Caliban uses every persuasive argument he
can muster to get the men to commit evil. Here are Caliban's lines to
Stephano and Trinculo:
Why, as I told thee, 'tis a custom with him,
I' th' afternoon to sleep: there thou mayst brain him,
Having first seized his books, or with a log
Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake,
Or cut his wezand with thy knife. Remember
First to possess his books; for without them
He's but a sot, as I am, nor hath not
One spirit to command: they all do hate him
As rootedly as I. Burn but his books.
What is interesting is some of the details of Caliban's advice. This
reveals the importance of Prospero's books, which are actually the books
of the Bible. Kabbalistic thought regards God's Torah as the blueprint
that God used to create the universe and which God uses to guide His
actions on earth, hence Caliban wants the books separated from God.
The idea of the Bible as the blueprint for earthly events is enacted in
many of the episodes of the Tempest. One striking example is the scene
on shore in which Antonio and Sebastian enact the intended massacre by
the Egyptians of the Israelites described in Exodus:
The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide
the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw
my sword, my hand shall destroy them." (Exodus 15:9)
In a similar pattern, Antonio and Sebastian prepare to draw their swords
to kill the good Alonso and Gonzolo and to share the spoils gained from
the crime and, similar to the rescue of the Israelites, this intention
is foiled by God through his rescuing angel, Ariel ("The angel of the
LORD ... delivereth them" - Psalm 34:7).
We can recognize another Judaic theme in the play in the episode in
which Prospero disciplines Ariel. To audiences that take this event at
face value, Prospero seems a cantankerous, tyrannical employer. However,
esoterically, the episode is an enactment of the situation of the Rosh
Hashonah Judgment Day, which is what is happening in the play. On the
solemn day of Rosh Hashonah, a solemn prayer ("Nesaneh Tokef") is
intoned that describes the awesomeness of the day, telling that this is
"a day when even the angels are brought into judgment and that even they
are not fully clean of faults," so perfect is the Lord's standard.
Ariel's faults disclosed in the episode beautifully enact this Judgment
Day concept.
Is Ariel rebellious in wanting to be freed? The Rosh Hashonah prayers of
the Day of Judgment envision heavenly angels singing praises to God and,
having finished their mission, "are heard from no more." The implication
is that, having performed their mission, these angels are forever freed.
In the case of Ariel, his fault is jumping the gun and wishing his
freedom before he has fulfilled the purpose for which his Master, God,
created him. This very episode that is so confusing and troubling to
commentators and audiences turns out to be revelatory of who Prospero is
and of the context of his acts.
Some on the list have raised the question as to whom would Shakespeare
have been communicating with through this arcane content. Clearly, the
ordinary Elizabethan audience would not have known the meaning of these
details. But would this fact be proof that such content does not exist?
Consider that it is an observable a stylistic characteristic of
Shakespeare's work that it is chock full of arcane material reflecting
the poet's uncommon depth and breadth of knowledge. This is illustrated
in such things as the reported specialized information on falconry, law,
and many other crafts that enrich his lines, indicating the poet's
encyclopedic reach that only later has been discovered, brought to the
surface by scholarly experts.
In The Tempest, irrespective of whether such an arcane content is
understood or not, these contribute to a sense of the inscrutableness of
Prospero and his actions, creating the impression that he is beyond
ordinary understanding, which is a way of giving audiences a glimpse of
the fact that Prospero is an allegorization of the Divinity. Hence,
knowing the meaning of all the arcana that appears is not absolutely
indispensable to enjoying the play since this functions to create
mystery surrounding Prospero and his works, impelling audiences to
deeper reflection about what is happening in the play.
On the other hand, when an aficionado nobleman finds direct evidence
that Shakespeare knew the finer points of falconry or the care of prize
hounds, that nobleman could not have failed to be impressed by the
playwright that knew the details of this privileged life and would have
perhaps seen the writer as one of his own. Similarly it is plausible
that the arcane elements of The Tempest could have served the same
function for secret Jews known to have lived in London and elsewhere in
England. Perhaps this content of the play was beamed to Christian
Kabbalists, a presence at the time, though more frequent in Europe. And
then perhaps it was meant for scholars to fathom, as aspects of it has
indeed been fathomed by some scholars. Whatever the truth about the
identity of the targeted special audience, the play becomes richer and
its episodes more coherent as the play's message of sin and repentance
unfold, a message not of insignificance to a wide world.
David Basch
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Evett <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Sunday, 18 Sep 2005 20:35:39 -0400
Subject: 16.1546 Caliban's Father
Comment: Re: SHK 16.1546 Caliban's Father
Stuart Manger takes the materialist line that has dominated critical
treatment of *Tem* for three decades when he focuses a comment on
Ariel's grudging service at the opening of the play. He might look at my
treatment of the master-servant relationship in *Tem* in my book,
*Discourses of Service in Shakespeare's England*, recently published by
Palgrave-Macmillan. Both Ariel's initial show of resistance and
Prospero's insistence on his magisterial privileges modulate into
something more dynamically mutual by the end of the play.
David Evett
_______________________________________________________________
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>
DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the
opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the
editor assumes no responsibility for them.