Shakespeare Uncovered

Coming up... Captioning made possible by Friends of NCI Major funding for "Shakespeare Uncovered" Just imagine... you've been marooned on a deserted island for 12 years, when, amazingly, the men who conspired to put you here... are shipwrecked in a storm and are washed up defenseless onto the same shore. They're at your mercy. So what are you gonna do? This is a story of anger and the search for revenge, of paternal love and sacrifice, all unfolding in a magical world. Along the way, you'll see a creature that's barely human and airy spirits conjured from the elements. A storm which stops as mysteriously as it began. It sounds like a work of science fiction, yet it comes from the imagination of a man writing 400 years ago. It's the last complete play by William Shakespeare. It's "The Tempest." I directed "The Tempest" with Ralph Fiennes in the leading role in 2011. It was a play I'd always wanted to do. Alas, nothing of our work was filmed, but what still intrigues me about this play is what it tells us about Shakespeare himself. It's more ambitious than anything he'd written before, more radical in the ideas it explores, and more imaginative in the kind of staging it demands. Yet, he was in his latter years when he set himself this challenge. Astonishingly, what he decides to do at the end of his writing lifetime, is an experiment. This is an experimental play that requires people to fly, spirits to emerge and shape shift, apparitions, disappearing acts. It's all experiment. This was his last complete play. I think it's also one of his most personal. Almost autobiographical. It's even possible that Shakespeare, who was also an actor, could have played the leading role himself. Shakespeare would have been 50 at the point of this play. Prospero's 50. Did he play Prospero? Why not? I mean, is it not only his last play, but his last performance? Different film versions of the play go back to the very earliest attempt in 1911. But at its core, "The Tempest" is the story of one man and a choice he must make. The man is Prospero, Duke of Milan, who's been betrayed by his brother, cast away on a boat with his tiny daughter, Miranda. Ahh. it's extraordinary. Left to their fate, they survive, marooned on a deserted island for 12 years. Prospero is no ordinary man. He's a magus, a magician, who commands spirits and the elements. Special effects. Through this magic, his art, he has discovered that his treacherous brother and co-conspirators will pass his island on their ship. Here are the villains. He conjures up a tempest that hurls his enemies onto his shore. But what will he do with them? What will happen when his past and present lives collide? This play will ask huge questions. How do we become the people we are? What does it mean to be human? And what happens when for the first time we fall in love? While the play tackles all of these issues, the central theme is the relationship between a father and his daughter alone together for 12 years. I think the relationship between Prospero and Miranda is one of the great interests and sort of puzzles of the play, because, really, the action kind of rests on it. I have done nothing but in care of thee.

DICKSON

There's obviously a lot of love there. It's a very, very intimate relationship. But also from Prospero's side, there's a real sense of controlling of her and controlling of her personality and wanting her to do certain things and not do other things. and so immediately there's a kind of tension there. Lend thy hand and pluck my magic garments from me.

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Since the age of 3, her father has been the only person in her life. This play is a paternal fantasy, about the daughter that I could raise if I had her to myself. If I didn't have mothers coddling her and if I didn't have other people getting in the way of the person that she could become if I were to shape her. Lie there, my art. Controlling he frequently is, but Prospero is clearly devoted to his daughter. He says kind of, you saved my life, because you were in the boat. Then I felt there was something worth living for. It's very, very potent between the two of them. It's an arresting premise-- a father and a daughter surviving a nightmare journey, drifting in an open boat before finally reaching an island. Shakespeare has invented a story of people surviving marooned on a bare island. They don't really know where they are. This is 150 years ahead of "Robinson Crusoe." So where did Shakespeare get this idea from? We know he had access to the London bookstores. And we know that like screenwriters today, Shakespeare reworked and embellished existing plots. But uniquely, for this play, there was no existing fictional story. It's possible that Shakespeare was influenced by a real event. "Chapter 6: "A true reportery of the wrecke and redemption "of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight, upon and from the island of the Bermudas." It's quite clear that one of the most important events that Shakespeare almost certainly must be drawing on is the expedition of a ship called the "Sea Venture" that sets out for the Americas in the summer of 1609, around 500 people on this boat. And it disappears. "One: A most dreadful tempest." We know it's actually stranded in Bermuda, but from the contemporary perspective, this is a disaster. "...so huge a sea brake upon the poope and quarter, upon us, as it covered our shippe from stern to stem." There are many accounts. William Strachey's, the famous account, that Shakespeare may have had access to. But there are any number of other little pamphlets that report this drastic and difficult sort of expedition. "Sea brakes in. Leake cannot be found-- which cannot but be found." "The waters still increasing. We were now sinking." These sorts of episodes are absolutely embraced by the reading public in early 17th century England. This sort of voyage of discovery. "Utter darkness. "Their laboure for life three dayes and foure nights." And just as with Shakespeare's story, all the shipwrecked passengers survived. So then a year later, or almost a year later, in May 1610, The wrecked people have managed to create their own boat and they arrive in Jamestown. And it seems to me that these same themes of individuals being shipwrecked on an island in the middle of nowhere, who somehow eventually recovered and go on their way, it's too much of a coincidence not to have been used by Shakespeare. The first known performance of the play was just over a year after this story came out. So Shakespeare may have been inspired by a real event. But how was he going to get his magus to create a shipwreck on stage. Shakespeare needed a way of manipulating what his audience was seeing and hearing, finding new ways of playing with light and illusion. But his theater, the Globe, was open to the sky, hardly ideal. Flying spirits would need to be suspended from the ceiling. Disappearing acts needed darkness. He needed a theater with a roof, where they could act by candlelight. At the Globe today, they still recognize that problem. Clearly, a lot of the atmosphere of this magic world of the play would have been so much more potent in an interior candlelit space than in an open-air space where you would see it in the afternoon. I mean, I think candlelight is a massive game changer. It makes light sources unspeakably powerful. If you walk onto the Globe stage with a lantern, you look like a bit of an idiot, 'cause it's sort of meaningless. If you come into a darkened room with a lantern and that's the only light source in the room, you're a very, very powerful presence. So Shakespeare and his company began performing in an existing indoor theater, the Blackfriars. No one knows exactly what it looked like. But across the Atlantic, a reconstruction has been created. In Stanton, Virginia, they're rehearsing the opening scene of "The Tempest," the shipwreck. Boatswain! Here, master. What cheer? Good, speak to the mariners! Heigh, my hearts! Cheerly, my hearts, yaw, yaw! This is a daytime rehearsal with the house lights on, but it reveals another demand of the play-- dramatic sound effects. At the beginning of "The Tempest," has this huge storm, and so trying to figure out how Shakespeare might have staged it when he didn't have smoke machines, he didn't have all of the special effects that we have in the 21st century. So trying to figure out how we can aurally create the idea of big, huge storm is what we were after. How do you get a huge storm and a shipwreck in the Blackfriars Playhouse?

Shouting, indistinct dialogue

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It's like the beginning of a film. "The Tempest"as a play takes you by the throat immediately. It opens in the middle of this storm. We're on a ship. Hence...

indistinct

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for the name of King. To cabin! The ship is going down. There are sailors running across the stage. They gas on the ship, running the other way. No one knows what's going on.

Sailors shouting

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At this stage, not even the audience knows what's really going on, because, in fact, nothing is what it seems. Take in the topsail! These elements of high drama and magic have inspired many different film versions. But at the center of every "Tempest"is this strange magus character, the betrayed Duke Prospero. He's created the storm. He's stage-managing all the action. No one on the ship will be harmed, but they of course don't know that and they're terrified. We're in the company of a great magician, conjurer, alchemist, who can control the elements, and indeed, almost control people's destinies. Somebody who seems to be playing at God. Therefore, he's somebody to be feared. Do we trust Prospero? I don't know. He's conjured up this storm from nothing. He's made it go away again. He's actually brought the ship safely into harbor. And he's deposited passengers quite carefully on different parts of the island. And it's clear that Prospero is setting this up because he wants to control this plot. He's going to bring them together, But he's going to bring them together when he wants them to be together. And we don't really know what is going to result from that. He's brought his brother and his enemies to the same island on which he struggled ashore. They're in his power. The play hinges on a moral question. What would he decide to do with them? A man who's a literary scholar with a unique insight into moral problems is the Archbishop of Canterbury. Prospero begins "The Tempest,"I think, as somebody who is, metaphorically as well as literally, on an island. He's stuck with himself. And all that he's had to say to himself for years is, "I was treated badly. I was treated badly. I was treated badly." Prospero is very human, because he wants to take revenge. And he wants it to be extreme. He really wants to hurt the people who've hurt him. Prospero is--is a profoundly angry, bitter, enraged person. Enraged. With absolute reason. Full, absolutely rightfully enraged. But definitely with a burning rage inside of his belly. Prospero doesn't ever spell out the intentions he has. One of the main questions of this play is, will Prospero be capable of forgiveness?

Indistinct dialogue

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Having depicted the angry magus, the play then reveals Prospero the reassuring father. He tells his daughter for the first time how they became castaways. How came we ashore? My brother is divine. From the first, Prospero's words to Miranda are some of the tenderest in the play. He talks about his daughter as dear. He tells here that she saved his life. He's trying to instruct her about the world she's about to enter that she has no experience in, and he's worried about it. She's 15 and he's worried about it. He is my teacher. I have very few memories before this place. It's just the given. It's the given circumstances. And I know that my father talks to spirits, and I know that my father runs this storm, and I know that he's probably got a purpose for all of these things that he's doing. But, uh, I feel like it's just a given that I understand that's he's go this magic and he's got this ability to talk to the spirits. Prospero and Miranda are not completely alone. Their fellow inhabitant is among Shakespeare's strangest characters-- Caliban-- a creature possibly inspired by the talk in Shakespeare's local tavern. The Globe theater was close to the river Thames, and at that time, London was one of the busiest ports in the world. Sailors returning from distant parts would of course exaggerate about the weird and wonderful creatures that they had seen. But strange creatures, half man, half animal were thought to exist. And, indeed, drawings were made of them, and those drawings were printed. The monstrous Caliban may be a fantasy, but dramatically, he's essential and disturbing. I want to try something-- Really attack all of them.

Continues indistinct

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These Royal Shakespeare Company actors are rehearsing the first scene between Caliban and Prospero. OK, let's get working. Something has happened that has resulted in Prospero enslaving Caliban. Slave! Come hie! The relationship is full of anger. Come forth! As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed with raven's feather from unwholesome fen drop on you both! Each actor in every production has to decide exactly what Prospero feels about Caliban. I talked to Jonathan Slinger, an unusually youthful Prospero. Your Prospero, does he think of Caliban as his servant, as his slave? Does he think of him as an animal? I think they have been on a real journey. Their relationship has been on an incredible journey. Which is articulated beautifully, actually, by Caliban himself, who talks about Prospero arriving and treating him very well, very nicely, giving him food. When thou camest first, Thou strok'st me and made much of me, wouldst give me water with berries in 't... And then I loved thee. He then betrayed me, horribly, by trying to rape my daughter. And now, he is very much my slave. Ohh... I don't think of Caliban as an animal. He is a being that I have had enormous love and respect for in the past. But no longer. And, uh--and I am punishing him terribly. For all of Caliban's beastly behavior, it's typical of Shakespeare's humanism that he should also give him one of the most poetic speeches. Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments will hum about mine ears, is also complicated by the question, who really owns this island? Certainly Caliban is enslaved against his will. And certainly Prospero has come to an island where he himself is not native born and is taking it over and becoming its ruler. So the structure is a colonial structure. In our century, it seems obvious to link Caliban and colonialism. But is that what Shakespeare had in mind? The play is about power, freedom, and slavery, but that's not the same as Empire. It would help to get a clearer idea of where Shakespeare intended his island to be. So, this, for the late 16th, early 17th century Englishman is what the world looks like. And what you can see is obviously-- This looks quite modern. There you can see Britain. You can see the Mediterranean very clearly here. So even by this time, by the very early 17th century, you have quite a comprehensive world picture. Imagery like this, would it be known or would it be a very specialist? No, it would have been known. They would have been able to situate themselves within this world. It has to be said, doesn't it, that the bulk of the references in the play are to this Mediterranean world. I mean, Caliban was the son of Sycorax, the witch of Algiers, and there isn't a suggestion in the play, is there, that we're dealing with what came to be known as the New World? No, because look at this. Look at this map. If you look at North America and South America, this is quite approximate. OK, Columbus just goes in 1492. But the English have been nowhere in that process. Only from the turn of the 17th century when they start settling in Virginia. What the English audience knows is this Mediterranean world, which is what the play's describing. But in trying to give the play more contemporary relevance, productions often make the legacy of European colonialism the central theme of this 17th century play. Indeed, the problem with a colonial take is that, of course, Prospero becomes just another white colonialist who's taken over somebody's country. And that isn't his story. Wherever this island may be, Prospero commands a spirit servant here, Ariel. Using his magic, he released Ariel from a tree in which he'd been imprisoned by Caliban's mother, a witch. Ariel belongs to the elements. There's Caliban, who represents something very close to the earth, something visceral and physical. And then there's Ariel, who represents all of the opposite things of that. The spirit and something sacred and something magical. Something otherworldly. And the human being is pulled between those poles, you know? The relationship between Prospero and his spirit is complex, as Prospero has promised him freedom, but only after Ariel has helped him fulfill his plan. My liberty! Ariel, throughout the play, from the first moment that we see him, really, is saying to Prospero, when am I going to be free? When are you going to let me go? You promised me that if I sorted out this storm, you would free me. Thou didst promised to bate me a full year. Ariel is definitely another slave, you know. Caliban's one and Ariel's another. I thank thee most... But I suppose there's this sort of... intimacy and love there for the person who is his captor. The magus is about to call on Ariel for a very different part of his shipwreck plan. Prospero has brought his enemies ashore, not only to settle an old score, but to secure a new future for his daughter. One of the survivors is Ferdinand, the son of the King of Naples. Using an enchanted song, Ariel must deliver this young man into the presence of Miranda. Where should this music be, in the air or the earth? It's the first young man she has ever seen. What is it? A spirit? No, wench, this gallant that thou see'st was in the wreck. Sir, it carries a brave form. He can put Ferdinand and Miranda together, but he can't make them fall in love. That's going to happen or it's not going to happen. I might call him a thing divine, for nothing natural I ever saw so noble. We call it love at first sight, but it's not that deep love. It's a tickle. It's, um, sexual intrigue. It's a sexual interest that has never existed, I believe, in her body. O, you wonder. If you be maid or no? No wonder, sir, but certainly a maid. My language. Heavens. But then suddenly, Prospero interrupts. A word, good sir. I fear you've done yourself some wrong. A word. Why speaks my father so ungently? If a virgin and your affection not gone... Prospero has his reservations about Ferdinand. Soft, sir! One word more. The Prince has something of a playboy past. Young Ferdinand has been 'round the block with young ladies various. And Prospero is anxious that the relationship between him and his daughter should be not just a thing of physical attraction. What he wants is a meeting of minds. One word more, I charge thee that thou attend me! Thou dost here usurp the name thou owest not, and hast put thyself upon this island as a spy to win it from me, the lord on 't. No, as I am a man! There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple. Follow me! Speak not you for him. Prospero's worried that if the teenage girl is too easily won, Ferdinand won't value her. But he can come across as the archetypal competitive male. And dynamic changes if Prospero is played by a woman. In a new film, Helen Mirren plays the part. This gallant which thou see'st was in the wreck. I might call him a thing divine, for nothing natural I ever saw so noble. I felt that it was a very strong addition. The play doesn't change, but the perception in the audience's mind changes watching a woman doing and saying these things. They are both in either's powers. But this swift business I must uneasy make, lest too light winning make the prize light. It's a fantastically different reaction that this Prospero has, because there's no testosterone. When a young man comes calling for the daughter of Prospero, there's a lot of competition going on. Here, with Prospero it's really much more of a tigress protecting her cub. She knows exactly what can happen with this young man if he's not true. Thou think'st there is no more such shapes as he, having seen but him and Caliban. Foolish child, to the most of men this is a Caliban and they to him are angels. My affections are then most humble. I have no ambition to see a goodlier man. It's still a parent-child relationship, so that is the constant. Um, but, yes, it lost that slightly, I thought, to me, because I--slightly patriarchal controlling thing that I always felt when it's played by a man. Whenever you see a work by Shakespeare, it's natural to wonder how much of it comes from his own life experience. But "The Tempest"provokes more of these speculations than any other of his plays. It's April the 23rd, and Shakespeare's birthday is being celebrated in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Now he's world famous, but even during his lifetime, he was known in his hometown as a successful playwright, with his own coat of arms, a family, and a reputation to protect. It's not impossible that Prospero's fears were rather close to his own. All writers draw on their experience as they write plays, and we know that at the time Shakespeare is writing this play, "The Tempest,"he's a little bit worried about one of his daughters, his daughter Judith, who is involved with a man who may not be quite reliable. And at some level, those--those paternal anxieties are part of the play. The man his daughter was intent on marrying had made another woman pregnant. Inevitably, things that happen in your life inform your work. So there is that concern with actually testing a husband to check that they are suitable before a daughter marries them, which, of course, is played out in "The Tempest". We can't be sure of this, of course, but Shakespeare the experimental dramatist was certainly determined to explore bold, fundamental ideas. Shakespeare uses his magical island to investigate the truth about human nature. Are we bestial or benign? On another side of the island, his treacherous brother and the co-conspirators are trying to understand where they are and what's happening to them. But amongst them is the aging Gonzalo. No traitor he, but a courtier always loyal to Prospero. And in this virgin world, he dreams of his perfect society. All things in common nature should produce without sweat or endeavor treason, felonies, sword, pike, knife, gun or need of any engine, would I not have. Anticipating Karl Marx, he says that in future, everything should be held in common. There should be no usury-- the making of money out of lending money, no weapons, no wars. Everything should be produced by nature. Paradise. I think it's a tabula rasa, the island. It's a clean slate. There's no connection to civilization. So you have to see how nature or nature, how embedded is it in humanity. You have this court come to the island. They have no castles. They have nothing. And yet, all what is nature in them, which is the deceit, starts up again. You know, their character is embedded in them. And you watch this incredible duplicitous nature come out in the conspiracy. As sleep overtakes the other survivors, Prospero's usurping brother Antonio tries to persuade his crony to commit murder; to gain for both of them more wealth and more power. I remember you did supplant your brother Prospero. True. And look how well my garments sit upon me, Much feater than before. Even in a new land, in an ideal society, the darker human instincts will always emerge. As the play continues, Shakespeare delves even deeper into the darker side of human nature. Caliban comes across two surviving drunken shipmates-- a jester and a butler. And together, they strike a deadly deal. Caliban, desperate for his freedom, wants Prospero dead. He tells them how, in detail, they must kill the mages. There thou mayst brain her, or with a log batter her skull; or paunch her with a stake; or cut her weasand with thy knife. If they will kill Prospero, then the butler will be king of the island. Miranda, his concubine... She will become their bed, I warned. and bring three forth a brave, brutal...

gasping

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Monster will kill this witch.

INDISTINCT YELLING

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The deal is done. Prospero is now a dead man walking.

Indistinct singing

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So can anyone be trusted with power? This question underpins the play. It even applies to Prospero himself. Prospero's power is rather different. His magic comes from his knowledge; his book. An idea familiar to a seventeenth century audience. In the early modern period, magic is a practice. Not anyone can be a wise man, or mages. You have to work at it; you have to study the books and the records. You have to explore, scientifically, by experimentation, the different permutations of chemicals, the different types of dye, the different movements of the stars. If it's handled in the wrong way, it can become ungodly. And one of the keen things I think we see in the play is that delicate balance between good and bad magic. This tension recurs throughout "The Tempest". How should the power of knowledge or science be used? It's a timeless and universal question, of course, that has prompted a very different version of Shakespeare's story.

ANNOUNCER

These magnificent scenes in striking Eastman color stagger the imagination. But it is, look! I mean, that is striking Eastman color.

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In this sci-fi take on the play, the island is a planet in outer space.

ANNOUNCER

When you reach the forbidden planet, you will meet Dr. Morbeus, played by...

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Prospero is a scientist. The doctor is sole owner of this fabulous world. There is a Miranda and a Ferdinand. I didn't bring my bathing suit. What's a bathing suit? Oh, murder. There's a mysterious power...

ANNOUNCER

Conceal a strange and evil force.

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But the essential question remains the same. Can the central character be trusted with special power? Somehow, he doesn't understand it. And yet, in his dream states, in his unconscious rages, he lets loose this monstrous force. But does he ever use it for anything benign? I mean, Prospero can be punitive and mean-spirited, but he can also be generous with his magic and celebratory with his magic. Yes, he is benign. But he also is marshalling a power that enables the dark side. And it is, in the end, a film about him facing up to the responsibility that he has, having played with this power.

Bird squawking

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Back on Shakespeare's island, the benign side of Prospero's nature seems to be winning-- at least as far as his daughter is concerned. Ignoring the plot against his life, he's concentrating intently on her courtship. Sit it down and rest here. Disobediently, she's gone to see Ferdinand. Secretly, she thinks, but in fact, Prospero is watching. My father's hard at study. Pray now, rest yourself. He's safe these three hours. Poor worm, thou art infected. There's just an element of bad taste about that, isn't there, you know, in hiding and overhearing and spying. We come to realize that it's entirely protectively. Love is a tricky thing, you know. He has to be tested, you know. If he says that he loves her, does he really love her? Prospero absolutely has to know what kind of a guy he is. What is your name? Miranda. Oh, my father, I have broke your hest to say so. Clearly by now, Miranda is ready to assert herself. If Miranda didn't have her moment of disobedience, I would feel much less enthusiastic about her. In fact, she does want to hang out with Ferdinand, even at the cost of disobeying her father's wish. Do you love me? Oh, heaven... She has been brought up to be the obedient child. But in fact, there is fire in her. I am a fool to weep at what I am glad of. Fair encounter two most rare affections. Prospero is starting to realize that Ferdinand does love his daughter. He stays and he watches them. I am your wife... if you will marry me. And actually, it's quite touching in performance to see him watching his only daughter fall in love with another man.

Waves crashing

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Prospero's beginning to let go. He's initiated their union and tested the prince. Now, he's ready to approve their marriage. The Globe actors are trying out the scene. Choosing to forget the would-be murderers, Prospero gives himself to his daughter's joyous moment. Then, as my gift, and thine own acquisition worthily purchased, take my daughter. But he can't quite let go. He gives a stern warning to Ferdinand not even to think about pre-marital sex with Miranda. Ferdinand protests his innocence. The strongest suggestion our worser genius can, shall never melt mine honor into lust. Fairly spoke. Sit, then. And talk with her. She is thine own. Prospero creates a magical display; a musical entertainment calling on celestial goddesses to celebrate the betrothen. It's a moment of exuberant joy. I find the marriage ceremony rather interesting, because it's actually-- it's an aborted marriage ceremony. He brings them together for nuptial mask and Prospero suddenly stops it before it's finished, and says, "No, that's enough. I don't want that anymore." But Shakespeare has another purpose. The vanishing vision gives Prospero his most penetrating insight. In one of the most poetic and, for me, consoling speeches Shakespeare ever wrote, Prospero address the young couple and talks about the fragility and transience of life itself. Our revels now are ended. These, our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits, and are melted into air. Into thin air. And like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great Globe itself, Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve... Climatically, in that speech, he uses the phrase "The great Globe itself". Now, partly, of course, he means the world. The globe. That's what we refer to, the globe. But it's the name of his theater. The great Globe itself. All of our shows, all of these things that we created here, will disappear. They won't be around anymore. In that way, I think it's a hundred percent certain that there is that autobiographical ingredient. And like this insubstantial pageant faded... leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made up. And our little life... is rounded with a sleep. Everything in this life is like a series of visions. It's like a series of seeds on stage. But in the end, all we're doing is writing on the sand and the next tide comes in and our beautiful message is washed away. Understand life in those terms. We are such stuff that dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. There's a sort of wonderful sense of inevitability, I think that's what it is, of the honored role of life and death, life and death, life and death. And that we are all apart of that on the draw. And there's nothing we can do about it. While he's turning over these thoughts and feelings, Prospero's given another emotional jolt. Ariel describes how he's brought the group conspirators across the island, where they wait paralyzed in fear and distress. Now, Prospero's non-human spirit talks about human compassion. That if you now beheld them, your affections would become tender. Dost thou think so, spirit? Mine would, master... were I human. Prospero thinks, my God. If my spirit, Ariel, is so moved that he's saying you have to forgive, then that's what I have to-- and everything changes. Prospero decides he will now make the ultimate personal sacrifice. He will surrender his magical powers. There's a special poignancy in this surrender if you think, as I do, that Shakespeare is, in part, writing about himself. Shakespeare, like Prospero, has spent years conjuring with his imagination. But after "The Tempest", he will write no more plays. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves... Calling up his spirits for one last time, Prospero remembers his extraordinary accomplishments. Shakespeare, too, has summoned countless visions and brought the dead to life. Graves at my command have waked their sleepers oped, and let 'em forth by my so potent art. But this rough magic I here abjure, I'll drown my book. I think it's a devastating moment to let go of all of that. But also, it's a kind of a growing up moment for Prospero, Prospera. Not just letting go of power-- letting go of rage, letting go of anger, letting go of revenge. It's kind of sad and melancholic, but it's full of understanding. The connection I see between Prospero and Shakespeare makes this for me a particularly moving speech. I do think that "The Tempest" is a farewell work, but I didn't see that final departure as "I'm turning my back on you, I'm abandoning you." No. I'm leaving you with everything that I have to offer. And I want it to stay with you, but I have to go. Farewell, good-bye, I will never see you again moment, is something that we all understand, and have a very strong emotional reaction to. With so many very great artists, the point comes, it seems, where they see their own work, their own utterance, as having resolved nothing. And they empty their hands. A sense of the all-powerful magical figure manipulating stories, suddenly saying, I can't do this any longer, I have to become human. I think that is something that's bound into the really great artist's work. But before Prospero drowns his book, he must finally come face to face with his enemies, the moment he's dreamed of for yours. With the great final spell, Prospero brings all his enemies around him in a circle. What's he going to do? He confronts each one of them with what they've done. But for you, my brace of lords, were I so minded, I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you

and justify you traitors

at this time I will tell no tales. The devil speaks in him! Oh, no.

Chuckles

and justify you traitors

For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother would even infect my mouth, I forgive thy rankest fault... All of them.

Laughter

and justify you traitors

And require My dukedom of thee, which perforce, I know, Thou must restore. If thou be'st Prospero...

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He has forgiven, but it's been hard. He's not gracious, exactly, at the end. He's really struggling. He's-- he's an aging, angry, injured man who's lived with himself for a long time. And he knows what he has to do, and he grits his teeth and he does it. And that is, I think, one of the most extraordinary things about the play; that the bitter, savage, isolated mages figure at the beginning has become a recognizable human being. He's broken his magic wand and he's joined the human race again. Finally Prospero must be true to his spirit slave and give Ariel the freedom he years for. That...that idea that we are all entitled to our freedom is very potent in the play. And Prospero keeps his word with Ariel. And the elements be free. I love the end, 'cause what he longs for is just to no longer be in a human form and be a spirit, to be with the wind, you know, and the elements. He's longing to sort of dissolve into that. Prospero seems to pardon his would-be murderer, Caliban, too. It was a moment of mutual recognition. Of acceptance; of full recognition of the other. And so, at the end of his last play, Shakespeare tells us the struggle to achieve forgiveness can be one. Prospero has managed to forgive, and in doing so, he's also freed himself. Again, the parallels between Prospero and Shakespeare. In an epilogue, Prospero, no longer empowered, makes a plea of great simplicity. He steps forward and asks us, the audience, to set him free. "Now my charms are all o'erthrown, "and what strength I have's mine own, which is most faint". "As you from crimes would pardoned be, let your indulgence set me free." Lord. After writing "The Tempest", Shakespeare left London for good and returned to Stratford. And just two years later, he died. He was only 52. I've worked in the theater for all of my adult life. and I can't begin to understand how he could have worked at such a pitch; at such a scale in such a short span of time. For me, "The Tempest" will always be exceptional, not just because of its wisdom and humanity, but because more than any of his other plays, it leads us to the essence of the man who wrote them. My feeling is that it's in "The Tempest" through the character of Prospero that we get closest to the workings of the mind of that genius William Shakespeare. Major funding for "Shakespeare Uncovered" Watch extended interviews and full episodes, find out which Shakespeare character you are, and the learn the anatomy of a Shakespeare scene at pbs.org. A two-disc set of "Shakespeare Uncovered" is available on DVD for $34.99 plus shipping. To order, call 1-800-336-1917. Captioning made possible by Friends of NCI Captioned by the National Captioning Institute --www.ncicap.org--