The Tempest (cross posted)
Jan. 11th, 2009 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
joshwritingI went, Friday evening past, to the Voyager's production of The Tempest.
It was a most exquisite time, filled with wonderful acting that showed the clear and gentle touch of the director. I was glad to have gone and may seek to go again on Saturday - pleading only conflict for Sunday.
But, seeing the story afresh through the eyes of its performers, I was minded to go find a couple of things that I knew were out there - some of the poetry inspired by the play, but also two of the sequels that have been written.
One of those, The Virgin Queen by Frances Godolphin Waldron, was written in 1797, and is readable in its entirety:
http://books.google.com/books?id=v_4kAAAAMAAJ&dq=waldron+%22virgin+queen%22&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=U508Y9ba3M&sig=VZha75lfNrFvtY3DbYX7WA6DkZA&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPP9,M1
The other, Renan's Caliban, suite de la Tepete, drame philosophique (1878), is (as you have no doubt guessed) in French:
http://books.google.com/books?id=BZIKAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA261&dq=intitle:caliban+inauthor:renan&lr=&as_brr=1&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ei=JU9oScTPI4KEzgTF_sSHAw#PPA263,M1
For myself, I prefer the older work - finding Renan's perspective far too gloomy. Still, neither piece is up to the original, which is hardly surprising. I was, nonetheless, interested to read what amounts, pretty much, to nothing more than Tempest Fanfic!
(Feel free to share, though I am unconvinced that they merit sharing. I liked them better in the distant past than I do now.)
Here is another of the sequels - unlike the others, this one is focused upon Ariel's life, upon being the spirit's having been given freedom:
http://books.google.com/books?id=f7UYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA249&dq=poem+ariel&lr=lang_en&as_brr=1&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ei=V4BpSeizNY6syASViITHAQ#PPA19,M1
The poem/play is cleverly entitled Ariel, written by William Whiteman Fosdick in 1855, and goes from the parting from Prospero (in which Prospero seems to me to be out of character compared with the end of the Tempest) to Ariel's return to the land of Fairy and the kingdom of Oberon.
And, because I am enjoying this theme, Sir John Everett Millais's painting, Ferdinand Lured by Ariel, from 1849: http://www.abcgallery.com/M/millais/millais3.html; and, from Wiki, William Hamilton's Prospero and Ariel, from 1797: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/William_Hamilton_Prospero_and_Ariel.jpg
It was a most exquisite time, filled with wonderful acting that showed the clear and gentle touch of the director. I was glad to have gone and may seek to go again on Saturday - pleading only conflict for Sunday.
But, seeing the story afresh through the eyes of its performers, I was minded to go find a couple of things that I knew were out there - some of the poetry inspired by the play, but also two of the sequels that have been written.
One of those, The Virgin Queen by Frances Godolphin Waldron, was written in 1797, and is readable in its entirety:
http://books.google.com/books?id=v_4kAAAAMAAJ&dq=waldron+%22virgin+queen%22&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=U508Y9ba3M&sig=VZha75lfNrFvtY3DbYX7WA6DkZA&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPP9,M1
The other, Renan's Caliban, suite de la Tepete, drame philosophique (1878), is (as you have no doubt guessed) in French:
http://books.google.com/books?id=BZIKAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA261&dq=intitle:caliban+inauthor:renan&lr=&as_brr=1&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ei=JU9oScTPI4KEzgTF_sSHAw#PPA263,M1
For myself, I prefer the older work - finding Renan's perspective far too gloomy. Still, neither piece is up to the original, which is hardly surprising. I was, nonetheless, interested to read what amounts, pretty much, to nothing more than Tempest Fanfic!
(Feel free to share, though I am unconvinced that they merit sharing. I liked them better in the distant past than I do now.)
Here is another of the sequels - unlike the others, this one is focused upon Ariel's life, upon being the spirit's having been given freedom:
http://books.google.com/books?id=f7UYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA249&dq=poem+ariel&lr=lang_en&as_brr=1&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ei=V4BpSeizNY6syASViITHAQ#PPA19,M1
The poem/play is cleverly entitled Ariel, written by William Whiteman Fosdick in 1855, and goes from the parting from Prospero (in which Prospero seems to me to be out of character compared with the end of the Tempest) to Ariel's return to the land of Fairy and the kingdom of Oberon.
And, because I am enjoying this theme, Sir John Everett Millais's painting, Ferdinand Lured by Ariel, from 1849: http://www.abcgallery.com/M/millais/millais3.html; and, from Wiki, William Hamilton's Prospero and Ariel, from 1797: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/William_Hamilton_Prospero_and_Ariel.jpg
