Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Criticism of the Comedies up to The Merchant of Venice: 1953–82
- Plotting the Early Comedies: The Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- The Good Marriage of Katherine and Petruchio
- Shrewd and Kindly Farce
- Illustrations to A Midsummer Night’s Dream before 1920
- The Nature of Portia’s Victory: Turning to Men in The Merchant of Venice
- Nature’s Originals: Value in Shakespearian Pastoral
- 'Contrarieties agree': An Aspect of Dramatic Technique in Henry VI
- Falstaff’s Broken Voice
- ‘He who the sword of heaven will bear’: The Duke versus Angelo in Measure for Measure
- War and Sex in All’s Well That Ends Well
- Changing Places in Othello
- Prospero’s Lime Tree and the Pursuit of Vanitas
- Shakespearian Character Study to 1800
- How German is Shakespeare in Germany? Recent Trends in Criticism and Performance in West Germany
- Shakespeare Performances in Stratford upon–Avon–and London, 1982–3
- The Year's Contributions to Shakespearian Study 1 Critical Studies
- 2 Shakespeare’s Life, Times and Stage
- 3 Editions and Textual Studies
- Index
Prospero’s Lime Tree and the Pursuit of Vanitas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2007
- Frontmatter
- Criticism of the Comedies up to The Merchant of Venice: 1953–82
- Plotting the Early Comedies: The Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- The Good Marriage of Katherine and Petruchio
- Shrewd and Kindly Farce
- Illustrations to A Midsummer Night’s Dream before 1920
- The Nature of Portia’s Victory: Turning to Men in The Merchant of Venice
- Nature’s Originals: Value in Shakespearian Pastoral
- 'Contrarieties agree': An Aspect of Dramatic Technique in Henry VI
- Falstaff’s Broken Voice
- ‘He who the sword of heaven will bear’: The Duke versus Angelo in Measure for Measure
- War and Sex in All’s Well That Ends Well
- Changing Places in Othello
- Prospero’s Lime Tree and the Pursuit of Vanitas
- Shakespearian Character Study to 1800
- How German is Shakespeare in Germany? Recent Trends in Criticism and Performance in West Germany
- Shakespeare Performances in Stratford upon–Avon–and London, 1982–3
- The Year's Contributions to Shakespearian Study 1 Critical Studies
- 2 Shakespeare’s Life, Times and Stage
- 3 Editions and Textual Studies
- Index
Summary
The lime tree features in one of the odder of The Tempest’s anticlimaxes. The plot against Prospero’s life appears to be coming to a head, and the enchanter and Ariel confer together for means to overthrow the conspirators. The tone is urgent, the terms martial: one anticipates a mimic war in heaven. Yet the episode dissipates in bathos. Ariel’s will-o’-the-wisp chase reduces murderous pursuit to a mere unseemly dance among the gorse bushes. Then Ariel himself is bidden only to deck the lime tree by the cell with trumpery garments: mere ‘stale to catch these thieves’. As a decoy the device certainly works, although its success must appear contrived. But it in no way advances the plot; the audience is baulked of the expected dramatic confrontation; and an apparently powerful enchanter is reduced to the role of second-hand clothes merchant. Why?
A first answer seems to lie in the fact that the lime tree is not a piece of plot manipulation but a carefully constructed image. As such, it is possessed of a precise technical function which is thematic rather than narrative. Designed both for immediate theatrical impact and for the later process of contemplation, it first seizes the imagination and then unfolds itself to the audience’s understanding. Like others of its kind, it states in compressed (and in this case, somewhat bizarre) form, matters of universal application. Relevant first to its own immediate context, it also acts as a focal point for themes current throughout the play.
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- Information
- Shakespeare Survey , pp. 133 - 140Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1984