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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781783083756 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Anthem Press |
| Publication date: | 02/15/2015 |
| Series: | Anthem Perspectives in Literature |
| Pages: | 288 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.50(d) |
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The Tempest in Context
Sin, Repentance and Forgiveness
By Keith Linley
Wimbledon Publishing Company
Copyright © 2015 Keith LinleyAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78308-375-6
CHAPTER 1
THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT: AN OVERVIEW
In 1603 Elizabeth I died and James VI of Scotland became James I of England. The play was written between 1610 and 1611, so falls into the Jacobean period (after Jacobus, Latin for James). In the wider European literary and political contexts, the period is the waning of the High Renaissance. Historians today call it Early Modern because many features of it are recognizably modern while being early in the evolution that shaped our world.
The new king, ruling until 1625, was of the Scottish family the Stuarts. They were a dynastic disaster; none was an effective ruler, and rule and authority are key themes in The Tempest. James was a learned but flawed monarch. Prospero announces his own failings when he claims, 'My library/Was dukedom large enough' (I. ii. 109–10). James too shirked the routines of work involved in government, but was a worse ruler than Prospero for he disliked contact with his people, drank heavily, was extravagant, impulsive, tactless, hectoring and bullying, and constantly in debt. He was a hard line right-winger in religion who backed the repression of Catholics and Puritans and was in perpetual conflict with Parliament. Sir Anthony Weldon dubbed him 'the wisest fool in Christendom'. The epithet captures the discrepancy between his writings on political theory and his practice as a lazy man only intermittently engaged with his role. London celebrated with bonfires when he succeeded peacefully. His apparent engagement with his regal duties generated hope, reflected in the mass of appalling, sycophantic, eulogistic verse published. During the royal procession through the city on 15 March 1603 two St Paul's choristers sang of London as Troynovant (New Troy), no longer a city but a bridal chamber, suggesting a mystical union and new hope.
This sense of promise soon evaporated as his failings and inconsistencies emerged. The Tempest is underpinned by concerns about authority and rule (or misrule) of self and others. Misrule of self is a theme running through all Shakespeare's plays. Parental rule over a child, the difficulties of ruling a recalcitrant 'subject' and the extent and limitations of authority over others are themes running through the play from its opening scene to its last. The major characters, even Miranda, are guilty of misrule of themselves; each transgresses in some way.
The previous monarch, Elizabeth I, a Tudor, was much loved and respected and had been a strong ruler, indeed strong enough to suppress the addressing of many problems which by James's time had become irresolvable. The Tudors (Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I) ruled 1485–1603. Though dysfunctional and brutally absolutist, they successfully brought stability after the turmoil of the Wars of the Roses (though there were various short-lived rebellions against them). Questions of succession, the nature of rulers, the use and limits of monarchical power, the influence of the court and the qualities of courtiers were matters that concerned people throughout the period and are among the contexts of The Tempest. Religion was a major area of conflict, with Dissenters and Catholics fighting for freedom from tight central control by the new Established Church. The effects on society and individual morality of the wealth that the new capitalism and the expansion of trade were creating also worried Jacobean writers. The new individualism, another context of the play, emerges in the self-centred ruthlessness of Sebastian and the established amorality of Antonio.
Henry VIII's great achievement (and cause of trouble) was breaking with the Catholic Church of Rome and setting up an independent English church. It was to remain essentially Catholic until the reforms of his son Edward aligned it with the Protestant movements on the Continent. This period of seismic change was called the English Reformation. There was some limited alliance with the Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther, but in many ways the English went their own way. Monasteries and convents were dissolved and the infrastructure of Catholicism banished. Altars were stripped of ornaments (leaving only the cross), churches emptied of statues and relics and many murals whitewashed over. New church services and prayers were inaugurated in English rather than Latin. New English translations of the Bible began to appear and there was a Book of Common Prayer to be used in all parish churches. Holy shrines and saints' days were done away with as idols and superstitions. The vicar was to be the only intermediary between a person and God. After a brief fiery and bloody return to Catholicism under Mary I (1553–58), Elizabeth I succeeded and bedding-in of the new church continued. The new freedom of a reformed English religion, stripped back to its simple original faith, encouraged the rise of more extreme reformist Protestant sects (not always to the liking of the infant Established Church). These groups, called Non-Conformists, Independents or Dissenters, included the Puritans, Calvinists and Presbyterians – all Protestant, but with doctrinal differences. Some eccentric sects grew up too, such as the Anabaptists, Brownists and the Family of Love. Religion and the tensions between different sects is a persistently present consideration at this time, but despite all the official changes, the essential beliefs in sin, virtue, salvation, the centrality of Christ and the ubiquity of the Devil (the idea that he was everywhere, looking to tempt man) were the same as they always had been, as were the beliefs that punishment and possible perdition followed sin and that the world was in decline and would shortly come to an end. Sin and virtue are persistently referenced throughout The Tempest.
Another persistent feature is the political discourse on kingship. Elizabeth I (adoringly nicknamed 'Gloriana' after her identification with a character in Spenser's The Faerie Queene) ruled from 1558–1603, a time long enough to establish her as an icon, particularly as she headed up strong opposition (and victory) against the Spanish. But while external threats were repulsed, the Elizabethan-Jacobean period was one of unstoppable internal changes. These gradually altered the profile and mood of society. Religion, commerce, growing industrialization, increase of manufacture, social relationships, kingship and rule were all in flux. One feature of the period was the unceasing rise in prices, particularly of food, bringing about a decline in the living standards of the poor, for wages did not rise. The rich and the rising middle class could cope with inflation, but the state of the poor deteriorated. Enclosure of arable land (very labour intensive) and its conversion to sheep farming (requiring less labour), raised unemployment among the 'lower orders' or 'baser sort', who constituted the largest proportion (80–85 per cent) of the four to five million population. Rising numbers of poor put greater burdens on Poor Relief in small, struggling rural communities and added to the elite's fear of some monumental uprising of the disenchanted. Most of the population worked on the land, though increasing numbers were moving to the few existing cities. Later ages looked back on the Elizabethan era as a 'Golden Age' and talked of 'Merry England' – it was not, except for a small section of rich, privileged aristocrats. Also enjoying greater luxury and comfort were canny merchants making fortunes from trading in exotic goods from the 'New Worlds' of Asia and the Americas and those manufacturers making luxury goods for the aristocracy and the increasingly wealthy, acquisitive 'middling sort'. The emotional detachment of the governing classes from awareness of the state of the poor was a resonant feature of contemporary England and there is some sense in The Tempest of social tensions – between the mariners and their privileged passengers, in Trinculo and Stephano's views and other characters' attitudes towards them. On Sunday 13 March 1603, the Puritan divine Richard Stock delivered a Lent sermon at the Pulpit Cross in St Paul's churchyard, commenting: 'I have lived here some few years, and every year I have heard an exceeding outcry of the poor that they are much oppressed of the rich of this city. [...] All or most charges are raised [...] wherein the burden is more heavy upon a mechanical or handicraft poor man than upon an alderman.'
The Jacobean period was quickly perceived as declining from the high points of Elizabeth's time, with worsening of the continuing problems she had been unable or unwilling to rectify during her reign. Economic difficulties, poverty, social conflict, religious dissent and political tensions relating to the role and nature of monarchy and the role and authority of Parliament all remained unresolved. Charismatic, strong rulers (like Elizabeth and Prospero) carry their followers with them, generating loyalty though often through an element of fear. Emerging problems are ignored or masked because the ruler prevents them being discussed and councillors are afraid to raise them. Elizabeth, for example, passed several laws that made it treason to even discuss who might succeed her. It is a tenable argument that the younger Prospero did not deserve to rule since he had detached himself from the day-to-day running of the Milanese state. Antonio's means of usurping power were unacceptable, devious and Machiavellian, and legitimacy of succession was a recurrent concern throughout the period. Antonio gradually suborned the court and government to his side and then launched a coup. A polity needs an active ruler, engaged with the key problems and petty matters of the state. States needs rulers who engage physically and sympathetically with the people, not reclusive scholars who shut themselves up in their libraries improving their mind. Contemporaries would have condemned any man who claimed there were 'volumes/I prize above my dukedom' (I. ii. 167–8). Dereliction of duty deserves the loss of privilege and power. Monarchical commitment and an unwillingness to seek advice were often queried in James's time. In his first speech to Parliament James claimed he was as a husband wedded to England as his bride. It was to be a union in which the husband would bully, boss, insult and generally repress his 'helpmeet'. James's flaws consisted in regular absence from court (most often for hunting), delegation of power, inconsistency and a dictatorial manner. He issued a royal proclamation prohibiting the English from discussing 'causes of state'. In making decisions of state James relied too much on favourites as advisers, gave them too much power and tended to lecture and bully Parliament rather than consider its input. This high-handed approach encouraged his son to make similar mistakes and would contribute to the unavoidable move towards civil war.
Strong, purposeful central rule dwindled under James into rule by whim and capricious diktat. His court became more decadent and detached from the rest of the population than in his predecessor's time. Commerce and manufacture expanded rapidly, triggering a rise in the middle class that provided and serviced the new trades and crafts. Attitudes to religion and church authority began developing into resistance, and science began slowly to displace old superstitions and belief in magic. Like all times of transition, the Jacobean period and the seventeenth century in general were exciting times for some but unsettling for most, profitable for a few but a struggle for the majority. As always, the rich found ways to become richer, and the poor became poorer. Gradually the poor found men to speak up for them in the corridors of power, in the villages of England and in the overcrowded streets of the cities. The Tempest appears at first sight a light-hearted mix of romance and playful humour appealing to the idle, pleasure-loving court, but it is also a typical Jacobean play – dark at times, cynical, satirical, violent (threatened rather than actual) and psychologically disturbing, hinting deep character flaws and suspect motives. It is also much concerned with sin, punishment, repentance, redemption and reconciliation.
The first known audience was the court. Its entertainments – particularly the many masques – its fashions, lifestyle and attitudes, indicate a ritualization and artificiality that were fast detaching it from life outside. The new reign and new century were still much overshadowed by the past. Just as Prospero's past relationship with his brother resonates in the present, so past events resonated in Whitehall Palace on 1 November 1611, while a cluster of new problems were developing outside, in London, in the nation.
CHAPTER 2THE ELIZABETHAN WORLD ORDER: FROM DIVINITY TO DUST
Cosmology
How the cosmos was thought to be structured was formalized in the second century AD by Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus), a Graeco-Egyptian astronomer, geographer and mathematician living in Alexandria. His model of the universe was geocentric (centred around Earth) and conceived as a set of revolving transparent crystal spheres, one inside the other, each containing a planet. Moving out from Earth in the middle, encased in its sphere, next came the Moon's sphere, then Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, like the rings of an onion. Each planet in its sphere circled Earth at different orbital angles and different speeds. After Saturn came the firmament or fixed stars (divided into 12 zodiac sectors). Outside this were 'the waters above the firmament' (Genesis 1:7) and the tenth sphere, the Primum Mobile (First Mover), which drove the spheres. Finally came the all-surrounding Empyrean, the domain that was all God's and all God (i.e., Heaven). Here he was accompanied by the angels, the saints and the blessed. The set of concentric balls was imagined by some to hang from the lip of Heaven by a gold chain. In Tudor times his Cosmographia was still recommended by Sir Thomas Elyot for boys to learn about the spheres.
The Ptolemaic system
In the ages of faith medieval and Renaissance man thought of Creation as an all-enveloping Godliness that incorporated Heaven, the human universe and Hell.
Men could see the stars and sometimes some of the planets, but not beyond, their vision being blocked by the 'waters'. The Empyrean (Heaven), the destination for the virtuous saved, was thus made invisible. But people wanted to know what Heaven was like, they needed a visualizable image. It was easier to imagine the blessed 'living' in a celestial city rather than existing vaguely and spiritually in the heavenly ether, so the idea grew of a fortified city with towers and gates made of different substances. At the Gate of Pearl, St Peter was supposed to receive each approaching soul and consult his 'Book of Life', recording all the good and evil a person had done, to see if the soul was worthy of entry. Medieval paintings show the Civitatis Dei (City of God) resembling the walled cities of Italy, France or Germany. Painters often simply depicted the city they knew.
By Shakespeare's time the Ptolemaic system was beginning to be undermined by the revolutionary ideas of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and others, who put the sun at the heart of the universe. The idea entered the public domain with Copernicus's study De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, 1542), but was only slowly accepted by scientists and took even longer to filter down to ordinary people. The church blocked dissemination of iconoclastic research that might disturb the orthodox theology of the universe. Heresy and atheism were useful charges to block scientific advances. In 1603 Sir Christopher Heydon, displaying his knowledge of the new advances, declared, 'Whether (as Copernicus saith) the sun be the centre of the world, the astrologer careth not.' This references the triple belief system in which most people lived: 1. Christian doctrine existing uneasily alongside, 2. the new astronomy and sciences, and 3. old semi-magical beliefs in the authenticity of astrology. Heliocentrism, opposed by the scepticism of other astronomers (including John Dee), was bloodily repressed by dogmatic, authoritarian churches. The Catholic Church's Inquisition enforced conformity persuasively with thumbscrews, the rack and many other grisly tortures. The English church had its own courts to question and punish deviations from customary practice and belief; diocesan visitations enabled bishops to keep vicars and congregations in line and serious infractions could be brought before the Star Chamber. Prison and the rack were used to encourage orthodoxy in England too.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Tempest in Context by Keith Linley. Copyright © 2015 Keith Linley. Excerpted by permission of Wimbledon Publishing Company.
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Table of Contents
Introduction; Prologue; 1. The Historical Context: An Overview; 2. The Elizabethan World Order: From Divinity to Dust; 3. Sin, Death and the Prince of Darkness; 4. The Seven Cardinal Virtues; 5. Kingship; 6. Patriarchy, Family Authority and Gender Relationships; 7. Man in His Place; 8. Images of Disorder: The Religious Context; 9. The Context of Education: Nature versus Nurture; 10. The Contemporary Political Context; 11. Enchantment: The Context of Magic; 12. The Context of Colonialism and Cannibals: Theft or Duty?; 13. Literary Context; 14. Tender Patriarch or Tyrant? The Limits of Authority; 15. The Moral Context: Sins, Virtues and Transgressions; Notes; Bibliography; IndexWhat People are Saying About This
‘Those wishing to develop an insight into the contextual background from which the themes in the play developed need look no further. Although scholarly in approach, the guide avoids dry and confusing language, using an easy and informative style that will easily engage a range of readers. This guide will help students of Shakespeare manipulate themes and take a contextual overview, and will quickly become a resource for revision and essay practice. Whetting the appetite for further reading, it uses cross reference to other plays to develop an appreciation of Shakespeare’s other works and mind-set. This dynamic, contextual guide will surely become an essential study companion for students and teachers alike.’ —Jill Leese, secondary English teacher and team leader with leading UK examinations board