Modern Age - Spring 2016 - 27

SHAKESPEARE, CERVANTES, AND THE ROMANCE OF THE REAL

The key to the meaning of the play is, then, that Prospero must
renounce the seemingly limitless power of his magic. This magic
is, to be sure, as much illusion as actual power to change the physical world: we are left in doubt as to whether he manufactures a
real "tempest" or merely the appearance of one. It has no effect
on the ship, no one drowns, and even the clothes of the apparently shipwrecked crew and their party of noble passengers are
unaffected by having been drenched in salt water.
But if Prospero's magic creates only illusions, there is a sense in
which our temporal lives are also illusory, as the magician himself
spells out when he brings to a close the visual pageant conjured
to celebrate the betrothal of his daughter, Miranda, and Ferdinand, son of the King of Naples:
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-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And like this insubstantial pageant faded
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. (4.1.148-63)

It is worth recalling, fully to feel the thrust of this speech, that
Prospero has just been reminded of a "foul conspiracy / Of the
beast Caliban and his confederates" and that the playwright's
theater was called The Globe.
moder nagejour nal .com

27



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Modern Age - Spring 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Modern Age - Spring 2016

Contents
Modern Age - Spring 2016 - Cover1
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Modern Age - Spring 2016 - Contents
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