142 FRANK KERMODE [Art vs, Nature}} 1. Buds of Nobler Race. The civilized castaways of The Tempest are brought into close contact with a representative of Nature un- controlled by Art. How do they differ from Caliban, and how is this diferenceexpresed? tis useful to compare Spenser’ treatment of two salvage men in The Faerie Queene. The one who carries off Amoret in Book IV is an unamiable personification of greedy lust—"For he liv all on avin and on rape” (iv. vii. 5). The full description leaves no doubt that this is the wild man of the entertainments, and that his arethe ‘natural” activities of lust and cannibalism. The salvage! man who treats Serena so gently in the sixth book is quite different; though he cannot speak he shows a tenderness which is, apparently, against his nature. The reason is, that “he was borne of noble blood” (v1. v. 2); we do not hear how he came to be languageless and salvage, but we know he owes his gentleness to his gentle birth. O what an easie thing is to descry ‘The gentle bloud, how ever it be wrapt In sad misfortunes foule deformity And wretched sorrowes, which have often hapt! For howsoever it may grow mis-shapt, Like this wyld man being undisciplynd, That to all virtue it may seeme unapt, ‘Yet will it shew some sparkes of gentle mynd, And at the lst breake forth in his owne proper lynd. (vi. v. 1.) That gentle birth predisposed a man to virtue, even if it was not absolutely necessary to virtue, was part of the lore of courtesy. Fortes creaniur fortibus . . argument as to the mode of inherit- i, and of enliivating, nobilitas, runs through the history of moral philosophy from Aristotle through Dante to the Renaissance. It is true that, with evidence to the contrary continually before their eyes, philosophers could not uniformly maintain that where there + From Th Temps (Landon: Arden Eaton, 1950 pl Rein af The Arken Shaheen. an prt ef'Thampats Conraing Line punters te Sm ntl Ei at ip pew mde ohn as an er ‘Site te Fin Fal desrpion of Clune it of character, imate io erae aah ie carr fon ics its ae og led a aa fon dae sks ns og 2. Fach ge the brave orc) [itn [Arr vs, Narvre) 143, was high birth there was virtue, taking nobility to mean the non vile, “the perfection of its own nature in each thing’;? and in Italy there was a growing tendency to judge of nobility by actual man- ners and merit, rather than by family. As early as the Convito the conditions of its development are described as much more complex than the racial theory of its provenance allows;* but more common- place thought constantly recurs to the biological analogy; est in ju- vencis, est in equis, patrum Virtus*—as Polixenes conceived that there were “buds of nobler race”. The question is debated in the first book of Castiglione’s Courtier by Canossa and Pallavicino. The arguments are conventional, but they serve to illustrate the theory of natural nobility which ani- mates Spenser's portrait of the salvage man, Nature makes the work of greatness easier, and the penalties of failure heavier, for the high-born; “because nature in every thing hath deepely sowed that privie seed, which giveth a certaine force and propertie of her be~ ‘ginning, unto whatsoever springeth of it, and maketh it like unto herselfe. As we see by example . . . in trees, whose slippes and grafts alwaies for the most part are like unto the stock of the tree they cam from: and if at any time they grow out of kinde, the fault is in the husbandman”;* which is to say, in the individual noble~ man—a fault of nurture, not of nature. Thus Canossa, though not to the satisfaction of Pallavicino, accounts also for the Antonios of the world. He allows an important place to education, believing, with Prospero and againct Socrates, that pedagogues could be found capable of nursing the seed: ‘Therefore even as in the other artes, so also in the vertues, it behofefull to have a teacher, that with lessons and good exhor- tations may stirre up and quicken in us those moral vertues, whereof wee have the seede inclosed and buried in the soule.’ If the seed is not there (and here Prospero's experience confirms hhim) the husbandman loses his labour, and brings forth only “the briers and darnell of appetites” which he had desired to restrain. Canossa omits all the other factors which might be brought into consideration—the complex nature of the seed”, “the disposition of the dominant Heaven’—which Dante two centuries before had at- tempted to calculate, and takes account only of nature and of nur- ture. This leaves an opening for Pallavicino’s reply, and Castiglione had, of course, to arrange matters to suit his dialectic scheme. But 4, 1 Comino, The Banguet of Dune Alghet erann Es P. Sayer (1887), p. 226, Sew the arin lecute in Chascers Wife of Ba Tae 4. tha see eg p- 281 5. cers aad In horses sto be found the excellence of their sire (Horace) (Editon. 6, The Conrtier (1538), trans, Hoby (1561), eof 1928 (Everyman), . 31 5: Castgione, The Courter144 Frank Kermone for Spenser moral virtues inhabit the simpler, the ideal, world of ro- mance, and his salvage man differs from his kind in that he has the seed implanted by nature, though not husbanded by nurture. ‘There is a striking version of the theory by Edward Phillips, the nephew of Milton. Phillips, in a passage so much above his usual manner that critics have seen in it the hand of his uncle, identifies two forces which distinguish the better part of mankind from the more brutish: the first is that Melior natura which the Poet speaks of, with which whoever is amply indued, take that Man from his Infancy, throw him into the Desarts of Arabia, there let him converse some years with Tygers and Leopards, and at last bring him where civil society & conversation abides, and ye shall see how on a sudden, the scales and dross of his barbar- ity purging off by degrees, he will start up a Prince or Legisla- tor, or some such illustrious Person: the other is that noble thing call'd Education, this is, that Harp of Orpheus, that lute of Amphion, so elegantly figur'd by the Poets to have wrought such Miracles among irrational and insensible Creatures, which raiseth beauty even out of deformity, order and regular- ity out of Chaos and confusion, and which, if throughly and rightly prosecuted, would be able to civilize the most savage natures, & root out barbarism and ignorance from off the face of the Earth: those who have either of these qualifications singly may justly be term'd Men; those who have both united in a happy conjunction, more than Men; those who have n ther of them in any competent measure .. . less than Men Phillips here takes the view expressed by Dante, Pallavicino, and many others, that the want of nature can be partially supplied by Education, and in this respect differs from those who, like Canossa and, as we shall see, the romance-writers, held more rigidly to the notion of the seed without which all husbandry is not only wasted but even harmful, since it promotes the growth of undesirable weed-like qualities. The unknown poet's melior natura provides an excellent label for all the ideas associated with “buds of nobler race”, and hic “Education” enables us to sce Prospero’s “uuitune” in its proper context. Miranda, as Prospero early informs us, is en- dowed not only with the melior natura, but with education: here Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee mote profit Than other princess’ can, that have more time For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful. (1. ii, 171-4.) '8, Preface to Therm Poctarum (1675): in Critical Esuys ofthe Seventeenth Century, el JE, Spingarn (1908), 237, ™ [Ant vs. Nature] nS) She has both these qualities of nobility “united in a happy conjunc tion’, Caliban has neither, and there is in the structure of the play a carefully prepared parallel between the two characters to illus- trate this point; Caliban’s education was not only useless—on his nature, which is nature tout court, nurture would never stick—but harmful. He can only abuse the gift of speech; and by cultivating him Prospero brings forth in him “the briers and damell of ap- petites”—lust for Miranda, discontent at his inferior position, am- bition, intemperance of all kinds, including a disposition to enslave himself to the bottle of Stephano. And there is in his “vile race” that “which good natures Could not abide to be with"? in other words there is a repugnance between the raw, unreclaimed nature which he represents, and the courtier-stock with which he has to deal, endowed as it is with grace, and nurtured in refinement through the centuries, in the world of Art.! 1. Prospero’ Art. At the risk of introducing “distincts” where there is no “division” it may be said that Prospero’s Art has two functions in The Tempest. The first is simple; as a mage he exercises the su- pernatural powers of the holy adept. His Art is here the disciplined ‘exercise of virtuous knowledge, a “translation of merit into power”? the achievement of “an intellect pure and conjoined with the pow- ers of the gods, without which we shall never happily ascend to the scrutiny of secret things, and to the power of wonderfull workings”.® Thie Art ie contracted with the natural power of Sycorax to exploit for evil purposes the universal sympathies. It is a technique for lib- 9, 1u,361-62[357-59]. My tics. 1: Rita cept aeused in wide range of meanings in The Temes a they ebways aren Itcrature. Ihave shown how it used in connesion with Caliban (his ile race” opposed othe race mom ile—the stock eymoogy of walle) and there also Some play oF the Hea shu stature unoations’ iS pradae wich involves the concep of another and higher nature. Lord that a monster should e such a pata” {ILA 0-31) where the pun depends upon the clloqial “natural Tanda pus the paradox the othe way round when she sees Ferdinand: ISrecspie “or nating natural lever saw s0 noble” (i-421-20(416-17), where the Balior natures contested with the vile she recognized in Caliban, There ls here of Course a strong admiature of natura” meaning snot supernatural’. This meaning recurs inthe Act when Alonso, hearing tat the ship fey sy “These eno nat Tatura breath of course imply “haman’ breath, though the reading “These words seeammuel bread (NS) mais slighy There rete ther mening though ‘oul be pointed out that tis schematiation inevitably entails ver-simpliation) An tonto, who taf rable race, and should have the better nature, exhibits an el nature’ {1253} hs ambiton: Thiet sposition to do evil which can inhere ip god stock {ereasons given below. Hei called unnatural” (VE.79) by Prospero a he forgives him, the primary meaning here is “unfotrnalnepleting the tes of blood, but thee i also the Bone of “dopeterstc, 4 betayer of lun tue sof te better ature See also Vii78-7. Final mature naturans occurs ina form we have lared to recognize, in Gonzalo "al tinge in common nate should produce’ and "nature should bring forth ‘of iow kind. te. without clare) 114.138, 158-39. 2. RH, West, The isle World (1939), pp. 41-8 3. Gomelas Agrippa, Oceals Php, tanalated by JF (1651), i146 Frank Kermone erating the soul from the passions, from nature; the practical appli- cation of a discipline of which the primary requirements are learn- ing and temperance, and of which the mode is contemplation. When Prospero achieves this necessary control over himself and nature he achieves his ends (reflected in the restoration of harmony at the human and political levels) and has no more need of the i strument, “rough magic”. The second function is symbolic. Prospero’s Art controls Nature; it requires of the artist virtue and temperance if his experiment is to succeed; and it thus stands for the world of the better natures and its qualities. This is the world which is closed to Caliban (and Co- mus); the world of mind and the possibilities of liberating the soul, not the world of sense, whether that be represented as coarsely nat. ural or charmingly voluptuous. Art is not only a beneficent magie In contrast to an evil one; it is the ordination of civility, the control of appetite, the transformation of nature by breeding and learning; it is even, in a sense, the means of Grace. Prospero is, therefore, the representative of Art, as Caliban is of Nature. As a mage he controls nature; as a prince he conquers the passions which had excluded him from his kingdom and over- thrown law; as a scholar he repairs his loss of Eden; as a man he learns to temper his passions, an achievement essential to success in any of the other activities. Prospero describes his efforts to control his own passion in V. i ast ‘Though with their high wrongs I am struck to th’ quick, Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury Do I take part. In an age when “natural” conduct was fashionably associated with sexual promiscuity, chastity alone could stand as the chief function of temperance, and there is considerable emphasis on this particu- lar restraint in The Tempest. The practice of good magic required it; but in this it is again merely the practical application of civility. Prospero twice, and Juno again, warn Ferdinand of the absolute ne- cessity fur it, and Ferdinand’s ability to make pure beauty “abate the ardour of his liver” is in the strongest possible contrast to Cal- iban’s straightforward natural lust for it. The unchaste designs of Stephano arouse Prospero's anger also; it is as if he were conduct- ing, with magically purified book and rod, the kind of experiment which depended for its success on the ahsolute purity of all con- ceed; and indeed, in so far as his aims were a dynastic marriage and the regeneration of the noble, this was so. This is characteristic of the way in which the magic of Prospero translates into more general terms. The self-discipline of the magi- [Arr vs. Nature] 147 cian is the self-discipline of the prince. It was the object of the ‘good ruler to make his people good by his own efforts; and that he might do so it was considered necessary for him to acquire learn- ing, and to rid himself “of those troublous affections that untem- perate mindes feele”.* The personal requirements of mage and prince are the same, and Prospero labours to regain a worldly as well as a heavenly power. Like James I in the flattering description, he *standeth invested with that triplicitie which in great veneration was ascribed to the ancient Hermes, the power and fortune of a King, the knowledge and illumination of a Priest, and the Learning and universalitie of a Philosopher”.> Learning is a major theme in the play; we learn that Miranda is capable of it and Caliban not, and why this should be so; but we are also given a plan of the place of leur the dispositions of providence. Prospero, like Adam, fell from his kingdom by an inor- dinate thirst for knowledge; but learning is a great aid to virtue, the road by which we may love and imitate God, and “repair the ruins of our first parents", and by its means he is enabled to return. The solicitude which accompanied Adam and Eve when “the world was all before them” went also with Prospero and Miranda when they set out in their “rotten carcass of a butt” By foul play, as thou say’st, were we heav'd thence, But blessedly holp hither. (1. ii. 62-3.) "They came ashore “by Providence divine"; and Gonzala leaves no doubt that Prospero’s fault, like Adam's, was a happy one: Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue Should become kings of Naples? O rejoice Beyond a common joy! ...(V. i 205-7.) He had achieved the great object of Learning, and regained a richer heritage.’ But he is not learned in only this rather abstract sense; he is the learned prince. Like Boethius, he had been a natural philosopher, and had learnt from Philosophy that “to hate the ‘wicked were against reason.” He clearly shared the view that “no wise man had rather live in banishment, poverty, and ignominy, than prosper in his own country. . . For in this manner is the office of wisdom performed with more credit and renown, where the gov- ‘ernors’ happiness is participated by the people about them.” And Philosophy, though ambiguously, taught both Boethius and Pros- 1e way by which thou mayest return to thy country”.* pero 4 Gating, op. 277 5 See Tamaon of mg No Men {Sit 67 Eten in Pe Wer, of, Mages. Fe oes aig trp diferent itl ce N-Cohil “The Bass of Shakespenrian Comedy” Esse and Studies (1930), p. 1-28 She Ceaaton of Phlsopy, Prone 3,1 Prove | Coeb edition, pp- 335,365),148, Gronce LamMine ‘There is nothing remarkable about Prospero's ambition to regain his own kingdom and strengthen his house by a royal marriage. To be studious and conemplative, but also to be able to tran knowledge into power in the active life, was the object of his dis line; the Renaissance venerated Scipio for his demonstration of this truth, and Marvell's Horatian Ode speaks of Cromwell in the same terms. ‘The chiefe Use then in man of that he knowes, Is his paines taking for the good of all ‘Yet Some seeke knowledge, merely but to know, And idle Curiositie that is .. ’ Prospero is not at all paradoxical in presenting himself at the cli- max as he was “sometiine Milas". Yet Ine dues not intend merely £0 look after his worldly affairs; every third thought is to be his grave, ‘The end of the active or doing life ought to be the beholding; as of war, peace, and as of paines, rest.”' The active and contemplative les are complementary. In all respects, then, Prospero expresses the qualities of the world of Ar ofthe mo sla To STresses the ules of th GEORGE LAMMING A Monster, a Child, a Slavet xe nh nes iment anthing ore who never conquered anything But who in ave gve themes to the essence of things Igor’ othe el tse by thes hg inten on congue but pang the game ofthe od True and tly the at bom ofthis world “ Receptive to every breath ofthe wold Brotherly enclosure for ll the winds ofthe wold Bed and no gute forall se oters af the world Sparks of the hoy fire of the wor, remblng nthe words remble ‘The Tempest is @ drama which rama which grows and matures from the seeds of exile and paradox, Through a process of poetic schematisation, it contains and crystallises all the conflicts which have gone before. It : Baas A Tate of Homane Leaning (1609-8), St. 44-9, el. G. Balluh heey 1,4 deme ssh conmace Monts Class 1 Fron The Pleswes of se 1960} (London Alison & Baby, 1988), pp. 95-117. Amended by the author. Reprinted by permission ofthe aut Amended bythe aor. Reprinted by pein ofthe asthe: Line nanber Yo the ‘A Monster, & Cup, a SLAVE 149 is the poet's last will and testament; but the details of the legacy read like an epitaph: an apology for any false dividends which Art— meaning all method and experience of transfumativs—msey have brought home. Now my charms are all o'erthrown, ‘And what strength I have's mine own, Which is most faint: now, 'tis true, T must be here eunfin'd 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 reliev'd 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. (Epilogue, 1-20] Itis the Epilogue which reminds us that the Voyage is not over. In- deed, we are right back where we started: ACT I. Scene 1 (On a ship at sea a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning, heard) Will the magic of prayer help Prospero and his crew safely to- wards Milan where the marriage of Miranda and Ferdinand may re- mind them that Innocence and Age are two sides of the same coin; that there are no degrees of forgiveness; that compassion will not exclude any? Will Prospero, no longer interested in temporal sue- cess, enter his grave without admitting that his every third thought remains alive? For where, we wonder, is our excluded Caliban? And what fearful truth will Caliban discover now the world he prized has abandoned him to the solitude of his original home: the Island which no act of foreign appropriation ever could deprive him of. It is not only aesthetic necessity, but the fects of lived experience which demanded that the territory of the drama had to be an is- land. For there is no landscape more suitable for considering the ‘Question of the sea, no geography more appropriate to the study of exile. And it is that ruthless, though necessary wreck, which warns