in
THE TEMPEST
by
PETER DAWKINS
Author of
___
Published by I.C. Media Productions
Warwickshire, UK
2000
_________
Shakespeare's Tempest needs little introduction as being one of his greatest and yet one of his most mysterious plays. In this stimulating book, the author delves into this mystery, introducing the reader to the real meaning of Prospero's magic, the nature of Ariel his spirit, the roles of the other characters as aspects of the human psyche, and the alchemical and cosmological rhythms of the play.The Tempest is shown as being a 'book' of wisdom and initiation, with many levels of profound meaning, written by a Master who knows the nature and possibilities of the human mind, and who appears to have been deeply involved in the underground Rosicrucian movement of his time.
This is the fourth of Peter Dawkins' books on the Wisdom of Shakespeare. The series is devoted to showing the depth of wisdom and the extraordinary knowledge of the Mystery traditions contained in the Shakespeare Plays. The books are written for all Shakespeare lovers, students of the Western wisdom traditions, and for all actors and audience alike.
"With meticulous research and astonishingly diverse knowledge Peter Dawkins creates a provocative and compelling case for seeing The Tempest as an initiatory text and a true mystery play. This valuable series will change the way you think about Shakespeare." Richard Olivier, Director of Mythodrama, Creative management courses, Globe Theatre.
"We know Shakespeare is entertaining, and his work a phenomenon amongst mankind's achievement's, but what is he actually saying to us? There are many interpretations. I find Peter's one of the most beautiful and one that is beneficial to my life, enriching my ability to live intimately with myself, others, and the world around me, seen and unseen." Mark Rylance, Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Globe Theatre
"Whether you are a student of Renaissance Neoplatonism or someone who is just plain curious about the extraordinary magic that the Shakespeare plays still exert over our lives, globally, then you will find, as I have, that Peter Dawkins will lead you through a maze of wonder in his exploration of The Tempest. There is a beauty and harmony to Peter's work that embraces all cultures and beliefs in an extraordinary voyage of discovery." Claire Van Kampen, Director of Theatre Music, Shakespeare Globe Theatre.
CONTENTS
with Illustrations
Introduction |
xiii |
Foreword |
xxi |
Author's Preface |
xxv |
1.Background |
1 |
2.The Story |
21 |
3.The Mysteries |
33 |
4.Ariel |
57 |
5. Plots & Themes |
75 |
6. The Four Levels of Human Evolution |
93 |
7. The Alchemical Progress of Humanity Tables |
111
|
8.The Seven Virtues |
133 |
9.The Three Kingdoms |
151 |
10.The Characters |
163 |
11.Nature's Art |
177 |
12. The Rosicrucians |
191 |
Notes on the Text |
219 |
Index |
235 |
Foreword by Mark Rylance
The most striking characteristic of my friend Peter Dawkins is that he does in fact practice what he teaches others. The Philosophy he sees in The Tempest is a philosophy he lives by. You could say he walks his talk, especially as his other passion is Landscape and Architecture. He is a man equally concerned and knowledgeable about what is beneath his feet as above his head.
I find this particular unusual amongst writers on Shakespeare,
perhaps because most writers on Shakespeare don't imagine his work as
philosophy, or as part of a philosophical movement in the Renaissance
of Europe. We know so little about the actor from Stratford, and what
we do know : the petty law suits against poachers for example:
doesn't marry naturally with the deep compassion, wit and
philosophical insight of the plays. But when we compare the plays
with the teachings of the Greeks, Romans, Christians, and Jews, we
find similar language and a similar search for good.
What do I mean by good? Well, I mean a similar search to distill
accurate observation of human, natural and divine activity into a
philosophy that helps people to be whole and realise their potential
in life. Perhaps a simple way of expressing this to compare us with
England's patron, St.George, known as a warrrior, but also, when he
is not forced to fight the dragon, a gardener. All gardeners must
learn when and how to plant, water and harvest their seed in order to
survive. Well, as we learn more and more, both genetically and
psychologically about our soul's code, the seed of our soul, we
should also turn to philosophy to learn how to grow those seeds. I
mean by 'good' that it would be good for our souls to bear fruit in
the actions of our lives.
I share Peter's belief that Shakespeare's work was intended by the
author to help us create a garden for our souls. I believe he foresaw
the growth of science, the division and politicising of religion, and
also the decline of philosophy into academic talking shop. He took a
radical and inspired step, by applying the acute observation of
natural science to human behaviour, freeing his work from any
definite religious bias, and placing his observation, and the
observation of the ancient philosophers, in the common and accessible
world of popular entertainment, the theatre.
Since I met Peter eleven years ago, in 1989, he has helped me to
understand why it is that everyone promotes Shakespeare as being so
good for you. We know Shakespeare is entertaining and his work a
phenomenon amongst mankind's achievement's, but what is he actually
saying to us? There are many interpretations. I find Peter's one of
the most beautiful and one that is beneficial to my life, enriching
my ability to live intimately with myself, others, and the world
around me, seen and unseen.
I first met Peter while playing Hamlet and Romeo at the
Royal Shakespeare Company in Warwickshire. He lives in Warwickshire.
Two friends had come to hear Romeo and began to speak about the
alchemical imagery in the play. The use of lead, silver and gold to
desccribe the interior states of Romeo. What they said made enormous
sense to me. I asked them where they learnt this stuff, and they said
why don't you come along tomorrow morning to this talk we're going
to. So on Sunday morning, not a natural time for an actor playing
Romeo and Hamlet to go anywhere, I dragged myself along to Peter's
talk on A Midsummer Night's Dream.
He is a tall man, with a tall wife and even taller children. That
Sunday I found myself entering a high ceilingned room, which he had
built. He was an architect by profession. Thirty or so people were
seated listening to him and a wild old gentleman, Sir George
Trevelyan, speak about the meaning of A Midsummer Night's
Dream. Peter is extremely humble, and speaks quietly. One has the
curious impression that he is listening while he speaks. He is always
thoroughly prepared with quotes and diagrams, some of which his sons
illustrate for him. He never manages to get through to them all, as
the talk follows the intuition and enquiry of the group. His
knowledge of Shakespeare and the Renaissance philosophical movements
is astounding, yet he gets tremendously excited about discoveries,
and breaks easily into fits of laughter when he gets things wrong.
When I first met him, his shyness was tangible. Sir George, who had
demanded many years before that Peter spoke about Shakespeare in
front of people, would fall asleep after lunch next to Peter, wake
with a start, and immediately fire off some of the best acting of
Shakespeare I have had the privilege to hear. They were a right pair!
But, my God, the love and enquiry into Shakespeare was deeper than I
had ever encountered in any rehearsal room.
What I heard that day, and subsequently at the many talks of Peter's
I have attended, changed my life as an actor, and inspired me with an
appreciation of the foundations and architecture of the Shakespeare
work.
That same year , my wife and I decided to begin to work directly with
Peter on our productions of Shakespeare. The Tempest performed
on the Rollright Stone Circle and subsequently at the site of
Shakespeare's Globe, led me to meet Sam Wanamaker and later to become
the first Artistic Director of the Globe in 1996. Both Sam andSir
George are sadly now gone. I hope that the spirit of their wonderful
work lives on in the work that Peter and I do together.
I hope you enjoy this book. Try to remember Peter's laughter and
doubt, if the written word doesn't answer your question or appears to
have signed and sealed what continues to be an open enquiry.
MARK RYLANCE
The Tempest traditionally referred to as Shakespeare's last play, is reputedly the crown jewel of the Bard's dramatic works. With this I would wholeheartedly agree. Whether it's his best play in performance depends alot on how and where it is produced, the actors' performances and the director's input; but when The Tempest is produced and acted well, it becomes sheer magic--which, of course, is what the play is all about. Moreover, the play seems to summarise all that has gone before it and, more than any other Shakespeare play, provides an insight into the author and his Art, as well as into the knowledge and teachings of the Western Wisdom tradition. The Tempest has always fascinated me, and more than any other Shakespeare play has helped me a gateway into the sometimes very secret world of our Western Wisdom.
Like the sacred scriptures and the Mysteries, the play has various
levels of meaning, and possible interpretation, which means tht it
can provide an almost endless source of knowledge and inspiration to
whoever cares to look and feel beyond the first veil. Every time I
read or experience a performance of it, for instance, I discover new
things, and I am sure that this is, or can be, true for everyone.
Moreover, each discovery can be inspirational or catalytic in one's
life, providing explanations for the previously inexplicable and
guidance as to the steps that might (or could) lie ahead.
This book is largely the result of various seminars that I gave in
England during the summer of 1991, in tandem with the exciting open
air production of The Tempest performed by Mark Rylance and
Claire Van Kampen's acting company, Phoebus Cart, with which I was
involved as a friend and consultant.. Having written it first as a
much larger but unfinished volume, left to mature a while longer, I
have drawn on those pages for this shorter, more condensed version
for the Wisdom of the Shakespeare series. What I have written inn
this book is by no means an attempt to make a consummateor infallible
interpretation of this wonder play, as there are so many jewels of
truth to be found in this treasure house of knowledge, but what I
have written I hope that you will find useful.
The Tempest as a Mystery play has, of course, been written
about before, as has its important psychological concerns and its
Hermetic, Neoplatonic and Cabalistic background and sources by such
eminent scholars and authors as Colin Still, C. G. Jung, W. E. C.
Wigston, Frances A. Yates, Noel Cobb, and some others less well
known. 2 But there is a great deal more that could be said or is
waiting to be discovered and I share in this volume some fresh
insights and discoveries that I have found over the course of of many
years of studying and enjoying the play. Not only this, but in these
following pages I endeavour to show the direct association of the
play and Shakespeare himself with the Rosicrucians and Freemasons of
that vital 16th-17century period in world history, and the ultimate
importance of the play as a summary of the path of initiation.
For the plan of the book, I begin with a sketch of the play's
background history, to set the scene in terms of the writing of the
play. It was an exciting period in English history, during which the
'invisible' Brethren of the Rosie Cross were beginning to make their
work known, and the first successful English colony was being
established in North America. Both of those events influence the play
profoundly , and the the play can be seen as an integral part of
those very events especially the former.
The second chapter summarises the story of the play scene by scene.
This is not only for the benefit of those who do not know the play
very well, but also as a help to those who do, as it emphasises the
key points that will be discussed in the book.
Since the play is essentially a Mystery play, based on ancient
sources, the third chapter sets the scene in terms of the Ancient
Mysteries, so that what Shakespeare is doing and what material he
uses can be more easily seen.
After dealing with the background history, the story, and the
sources, the rest of the book (with the exception of the last
chapter) devotes itself to peering into the play's profundity,
discovering its light and its music. Its light is a profound wisdom
concerning life and the human soul, whilst its music is to be found
in the poetry, mathematics and rhythmical structures that underlie
the outer sound of the spoken work.
Because Ariel is such a key figure in the play, the investigation
begins with a chapter on this artful Spirit, to see what it really is
or might be. After this comes a chapter (the fifth) identifying the
major plots and themes. The sixth and seventh chapters deal with the
major levels and stages of human evolution that are depicted in the
play, together with our alchemical progression and initiation through
these levels as allegorised in the stories of the characters.
The eighth chapter also deals with this allegorical portrayal of
human evolution, but showing the 'planetary'progression of the story
that is, as far as I know, unique to Shakespeare and Spenser, and
which plays the seven 'notes' of Pan's pipes in a special creative
sequence. Musicians interested in the harmony of the spheres and the
underlying creative 'sound' of great poetry and drama should find
this food for thought and further investigation.
The ninth chapter looks at the locations used in the play, which form
a scenario analogous to the human body: a landscape temple, in other
words, in which the Mystery is enacted. This is followed by a chapter
devoted to the relationship and the meaning of the names of the
characters, which helps to explain what they each represent in the
context of the whole play; whilst the penultimate chapter (chapter
eleven) discusses Prospero's Art : his music.
The final chapter is on the Rosicrucians, of whom Prospero can be see
to be a personification. This chapter outlines a remarkable trail of
signposts and hints that link The Tempest and, indeed, the
whole of the Shakespeare canon, to the Rosicrucians, and point to
Shakespeare as being a Brother of the Rosie Cross.
As in the previous books of this series, I have used the Arden
edition of The Tempest, when quoting from the play, which I
recommend both for its text and notes, although reference to a copy
of the original Shakespeare Folio is always worth the effort.
Biblical quotes are from the Companion Bible. The works of
Shakespeare and the Bible go together very well, and I recommend
anyone who wishes to enjoy Shakespeare to the full, and understand
the Bible more deeply, to have both on hand : as well as experiencing
the play in performance, of course!
In this series I am not attempting to provide a bibliography as such,
since this could be a weighty matter that unbalances the book itself;
but the endnote references should provide ample scope for further
research, and the treasure trail can be followed in this way, from
one book or author to the next.
The material we are dealing with is Renaissance Neoplatonism, itself
derived from Christian, Hebraic, Neoplatonic and Platonic,
Pythagorean, Orphic, Hermetic, Ancient Egyptian , Magan and Druidic
sources. It is also Rosicrucian, and entirely relevant for this day
and age. In exploring this material, and putting it into practice, I
wish you great joy and the freedom that it eventually
brings.
P.D. March 2000
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