‘The Isle is Full of Noises’: Caliban’s speech from The Tempest has become one of the most celebrated and studied sections of Shakespeare’s play. The Tempest is, of all Shakespeare’s plays, perhaps the one filled with the most magic and enchantment; only A Midsummer Night’s Dream potentially matches it.
Caliban is a childlike and in many ways childish native of the enchanted island where Prospero lives with his daughter, Miranda. The offspring of the witch Sycorax, Caliban was formerly treated generously by Prospero, who arrived on Caliban’s island twelve years earlier, teaching him to speak Prospero’s own language and […]
The character of Prospero is one that many notable actors over the centuries have taken on, ever since Richard Burbage – the lead actor in Shakespeare’s company, who had also been his first Hamlet and first Richard III – took to the stage in 1611 and (probably) played the role […]