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Prospero’s Art – Revelation

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Miranda asks her father the reason for ‘raising this Sea-storme’, and he responds:

Know thus far forth,
By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune
(Now my dear Lady) hath mine enemies
Brought to this shore; And by my prescience
I find my Zenith doth depend upon
A most auspicious starre, whose influence
I now I court not, but omit; my fortunes
Will ever after droop:....

In light of what has so far been said concerning both the astonishing level of compression in THE TEMPEST, and what I’ve referred to as  Shakespeare’s penchant for ambiguity, this tiny speech has yielded all kinds of information in terms of story and character, and goes straight to the essence of Prospero’s Art:

So, in no particular order (in terms of importance), here are some of my discoveries:

- the accidental/fortunate event which brought Prospero’s enemies within range of his Magic–his intense awareness (discovery) of the delicate balance between these two poles of randomness(quantum elements) and divine intervention

- the dictionary refers to ‘prescience‘ as: a) divine omniscience, and b) the fore-knowledge of events; here I feel Shakespeare gives the speaker the opportunity to play both of these definitions: a) Prospero’s quest for truth has resulted in an extraordinary (supernatural) knowledge of self/cosmos, and a heightened sense of personal responsibility; and b) he has already seen a future wherein his daughter and the son of his mortal enemy are destined to form a sacred union of Love, and he cannot hide from this Truth

- the influence of the star indicates his awareness that he only one chance to wield the full power of his Art (become as the Creator), and that he must maintain a peak level of mindfulness throughout–here lack of consciousness is the true Enemy, and that which would rob Prospero of his chance to save his daughter, and in turn, himself and the world

This, in turn, continues to shed light on the first part of the scene, wherein Prospero–for the very first (and last) time–tells Miranda the story of their exile.  We learn from Miranda that he has tried over the years to tell her, but each time ended up backing out, saying either it was too painful or not the right time.

So, given the arrival of his ‘enemies’ on the Island, Prospero now has no choice but to tell her, and a very limited time within which to do so.  Coupled with the fact that he must never stray from the principles of Truth and Personal Responsibility, I feel that his journey is as much a discovery of how the universe works (metaphysics) as it is about any particular ‘wrong’ that he feels has been done to him, and that Prospero realizes (accepts) that his choice to abandon life as Duke in favour of seclusion and ‘secret study’ was ultimately responsible for his brother Anthonio’s turn toward ‘evil’.

I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness and the bettering of my mind
With that, which but by being so retir'd
Ore-prize'd all popular rate:  in my false brother
Awak'd an evil nature, and my trust
Like a good parent, did beget of him
A falsehood in it's contrary, as great
As my trust was, which had indeed no limit,
A confidence sans bound.  He being thus Lorded
Not only with what my revenue yielded,
But what my power might else exact.  Like one
Who having into truth, by telling of it, 
Made such a sinner of his Memorie
To credit his own lie, he did believe
He was indeed the Duke....


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