Throughout the acts of the play there are a few
instances when the certain characters break out into singing and dancing. They
all vary in reasons as to why they are being done though. The first instance is
in Act 2, scene 4. It is not much of a song but more of a telling of the island
by the Devil himself below the stage. There are constant repetitions of the
word “hell” and other words referring to suffering and gore. This is some scary
S*#!. It does continue later on at the
end of the scene.
The
Next instance is what seems to be a drunken Caliban. This is one of those
comedic moments in a play when no one knows what is going, but it is still pretty
hilarious.
Act 4 scene 2 lines 45-48
Caliban: We want musick, we want
mirth,
Up, Dam, and cleave the Earth:
We have now no Lords that wrong us
Send thy sprights among us
Next
thing you know a bunch of spirits come out of nowhere and they seem to be
having a party. It is pretty brilliant how the stooges of the island are off
having an amazing time. The question can be raised as to whether or not the
spirits really did exist of not, or they are all just going crazy on the “enchanted
island”.
The
very end of the play, dancers and singers all come together as if this play
just became a musical. This play has such an epic ending; it had to have blown people’s
minds back then. Davenant and Dryden really went all out here, because this performed
in real life would be absolutely amazing.
I also noticed the strange references to Hell and the voices of what appear to be demonic angels singing and dancing in order to explain the ruse of the Enchanted Island. However, I was not able to come up with an appropriate interpretation of this villainous adaptation from the original Tempest in which the sprites and fairies merely dance about, preparing a feast and keeping the tone lively and light-hearted. Ironically, Dryden and Davenant's The Tempest has been established in our class discussion as the more comical "action-packed" version. However, this scene illustrates a much darker portrayal of the island; in our class discussion today, we discussed the context of the play during its times. Milton's Paradise Lost would have had a significant impact on the literary works of the time particularly for Dryden who adapted this work in rhyming couplets. Aside from the historical and literary context, I wonder if there was a greater significance for the demonic voices in terms of the work as a whole.
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