Prospero

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For other meaning see Prospero (disambiguation)

Prospero is the protagonist in The Tempest, a play by William Shakespeare.

He was the rightful Duke of Milan who (with his daughter, Miranda) was sent off on a boat to die by his usurping brother Antonio so that he could become duke. Prospero and Miranda survived on the boat and found exile on a small island. He had learned sorcery and uses it while on the island to control the other characters. On the island, he became the master of Caliban and Ariel.

By chance, Antonio sails near this island and Prospero conjures the eponymous tempest which forces him (and others) ashore. Prospero regains his dukedom from Antonio through the events of the play.

Because of his powers, some believe that Prospero represents Shakespeare, James I or God. It is likely that the character was based on or at least inspired by Thomas Harriot, a philosopher and scientist with a reputation as a magician in Shakespeare's time. Harriot did explore pre-colonial Virginia and was a member of the Earl of Northumberland's School of Night (with Shakespeare's friend and fellow playwright Christopher Marlowe [1]). However, most scholars agree that the most likely inspiration for the character of Prospero was John Dee, an astonomer/astrologer and a Magus of Queen Elizabeth I's court and so a man who Shakespeare would most probably have socialised with.

However, at the end of the play, Prospero drowns his books and renounces magic. In the view of the audience, this may have been required to make the ending unambiguously happy, as magic smacked too much of diabolical works; he drowns his books for the same reason that Doctor Faust, in an earlier play, futilely promised to burn his books.

Some also believe that Prospero represents a colonist, due to his treatment of Caliban and Ariel and his general use of power.

[edit] Prospero's speech

The final soliloquy and epilogue in The Tempest is considered to be one of the most memorable speeches in Shakespearean literature. In it, Prospero describes his loss (magic) and his imprisonment of Caliban and Ariel. He relates his imprisonment of them to that of his own bondage, which can only be undone by the applause of the audience.
Loreena McKennitt has sung a slightly altered version of the speech on her 1994 album The Mask and Mirror.

[edit] Epilogue

Now my charms are all o'erthrown,

And what strength I have's mine own,

Which is most faint: now, 'tis true,

I must be here confined by you,

Or sent to Naples. Let me not,

Since I have my dukedom got

And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell

In this bare island by your spell;

But release me from my bands

With the help of your good hands:

Gentle breath of yours my sails

Must fill, or else my project fails,

Which was to please. Now I want

Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,

And my ending is despair,

Unless I be relieved by prayer,

Which pierces so that it assaults

Mercy itself and frees all faults.

As you from crimes would pardon'd be,

Let your indulgence set me free.