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The Bbakespeare Society of Mew Vork

Incorporated Byrif 20, 1885

 

So promote the KnowLedae and study of Be
Works of Wm. Shakespeare, and the
BBakespearean and EfizabetBan Drama

In Executive Commitrgg—June rsth, 1885.

Resolved, That in order that the papers printed under authority of this Society
may be of the highest character, and of value from all standpoints, the Society
does not stand pledged as responsible for the opinions expressed or conclusions
arrived at in the said papers, but considers itself only responsible in so far as it
certifies by its Imprimatur that it considers them as original contributions to
Shakespearean study, and as showing upon their face care, labor and research.
Publications of The Shakespeare Society of New York. Mo. 9.

 

CALIBAN

A Philosophical Drama Continuing “The
Tempest” of William Shakespeare.

Translated from the French of

>»
ERNEST RENAN,
Member of The French Institute.

By

ELEANOR GRANT VICKERY,

With an Introduction By
WILLIS VICKERY, LL.B., (Boston University)
A Member of The Shakespeare Society of New York.

NEW YORK:
THE SHAKESPEARE PRESS.

LONDON:
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & co., LTD.

1896.

as
yt
Efizfoy

AAG waa

COPYRIGHT 1896, BY
WILLIS VICKERY.
INTRODUCTION.

““The Tempest” was first given to the public in the
folio edition issued by Heninge and Condell, in 1623,
occupying the first nineteen pages of the volume. It
was written about 1611, and was, so far as can be con-
jectured or inferred, the last of Shakespeare’s dramas.

All authorities agree that it was among the last, but
there is every reason to believe it to be his very last,
literary work. He had reached the limit of his power.
His mind could go no farther. He had entered into
the make-up of every class of society, had lived their
lives and thought their thoughts. Each man can find
his prototype in Shakespeare. His dramas are the
history of all mankind for all time, past, present and
future. With a foresight which has apparently been
given to none other, he realized that he could say
nothing further. The last word is said, the book is
closed ‘‘and drowned deeper than ever plummet
sounded.”’ What he meant by that last word has chal-
lenged the attention of scholars for centuries. Perhaps
no other of the dramas, save only the ‘‘Hamlet,” has
earned so much speculation as ‘‘The Tempest.” Is it
a political thesis? Is it a poet’s dream of an ideal
country? It has been the fashion in all ages for
scholars and philosophers to dream dreams of govern-
ment which could exist nowhere except on paper.
Plato wrote his ‘‘Atlantis,” Sir Thomas More his
“Utopia,” and Lord Bacon his ‘‘New Atlantis.” ‘‘The
Tempest” is far other than these. Where is the en-
6 Calban.

chanted island situated? Nowhere, yet everywhere.
It is not down on any map, yet it as truly exists‘as any
island ever vouched for by the geographers. As the
island is real, so are the characters. No one can tell
in what day and age the Milan of Prospero existed,
or when Prospero reigned. Then did he never reign?
+ Inthe character of Prospero one can see the highest
type of man—of what man may become. He is still in
advance of humanity. There is a profound signifi-
cance in the placing of the highest and lowest forms
of human life in juxtaposition in this play. As in
Prospero we find a being higher than mankind, so in
Caliban we find a being lower and nearer to the brute
creation than any which the history of anthropology
mentions. Books have been written to prove that in
Caliban the long-lost missing link was found, that
Shakespeare was before Darwin the teacher of Evolu-
tion, as he was before Harvey the teacher of the circu-
lation of the blood. In Prospero, Shakespeare created
the profoundest being in all art or literature—created
in the zenith of his powers a student, a booklover,
who would vie with the bibliomaniac of any century;
one who thought his dukedom of less worth than his
beloved volumes, a profound thinker, a man who
could by his most potent art control the elements,
whose attendants were spirits and whose slave was a
Caliban! The time in which he is before us is short,
but in that time he acts the part of agod. He is the
god of the play. All his enemies are vanquished, his
dukedom is restored to him and he leaves the island
for Milan. It is all wrought by his magic art. This
is the end of Shakespeare’s play. He leaves Prospero
alive, and Caliban alone on the island. With Caliban
Caliban. 7

left alone there, it is easy to conceive him rapidly
sinking again to his former condition, forgetting the
language even, which had been taught him with infinite
pains. Such we conceive to be the end of Caliban, the
monster-man.

Ernest Rénan, the most brilliant member of the
French Institute, in his most inimitable style and with
profound“philosophical insight, has in the following
drama imagined otherwise for the chief actors of ‘‘ The
Tempest.” He follows the restored Prospero to Milan,
and with him takes the most delicate spirit Ariel, and
the slave Caliban, with Gonzalo and Trinculo. With
these he creates a new drama in a new situation.
Prospero is placed on the throne of Milan, and Caliban,
with nothing to do, lies wallowing in drunken stupor,
cursing as of yore. He is the same Caliban, and as in
Browning’s vivid picture, we see him still sprawling,
still blaspheming, still worshipping his mother Sy-
corax’s horrible god, Setebos.

Prospero is more intent on helping Nature to express
itself than on governing his dukedom. Giving him-
self still up to his books and experiments, he is
speedily in the way of again losing his dukedom. The
same profound philosopher, he is too great to be bound
down to the humdrum life of governing a dominion.
“‘T ignore what I do myself, my gentle friend, but I
am sure of being the instrument of a will which seeks
expression. Nature does not comprehend itself, my
gentle Ariel.’’ Bound up in study and revery, he does
not discern the clouds lowering on the political horizon
of his government. He does not heed the mutterings
of his people, for he has not heard them. Now a
strange thing is to happen, strange, yet often true in
8 Caliban.

history. Caliban, the brute who has been wallowing in
the mire, drunk on Prospero’s wine, actuated by his
fierce hatred for Prospero, fans the flames until they
are ready to break into a great conflagration. All that
the people need is a leader. Caliban, by afew well-
chosen and adroit words, draws attention to himself.
He directs their thoughts to the faults of Prospero.
He becomes their leader. ‘‘ Each revolution produces
a grand man, and the one of this revolution is Caliban,
the grand citizen Caliban.” He assumes control and
directs the revolution—certainly a great advance over
the Caliban of old, yet not so great after all, for had
his advice to Trinculo and Stephano been followed in
‘‘The Tempest,” possibly Prospero would never have
been restored to his dukedom. Yet it is such an ad-
vance that it caused wonderment. ‘‘What good sense
that Caliban has! but whence does he come? Yet
what he says is true; he loves the common people.” As
director of the revolution, Caliban advises the populace
how to strike Prospero in the most vulnerable point.
He had learned that Prospero’s strength lay in his
books, hence he advises, ‘‘ But the most essential thing
is to seize upon his. books at once. Those books of
hell! how I hate them! They have been the instru-
ments of my slavery! We must snatch and burn them
immediately! No other method will serve but this!
War to the books! They are our worst enemies, and
those who possess them will have power over all their
fellows!” This was sage advice, for, while to Caliban
the books made Prospero a little lower than a god,
they wete the instruments of all his power, which kept
the slave in subjugation and fear. To the people they
were that for which Prospero had neglected his govern-
Caliban. 9

ment, and were, in fact, the cause of the revolution.
Hence Caliban and the people were in accord, though
for different reasons. The people attributed no par-
ticular virtue, to his books; they were only things to
them, things for which Prospero had neglected them.
He to them was only a man, while to Caliban he was
agod. Hence his incantations, his magic art, so potent
with Caliban and on the island, had no power over the
people... Prospero is deposed, the revolution is suc-
cessful, the leader thereof is elevated to the throne—
Caliban is carried in triumph on the shoulders of the
multitude and placed in the palace of Prospero. Cali-
ban, the brute, has become the Duke of Milan. While
all this is taking place at Milan, Prospero is abscrbed
with his books and experiments at Pavia, heedless of
what is going on. The news is brought to him that he
has been deposed and Caliban elevated to his position.
When told this he says:

‘*Whom didst thou say was the Grand Citizen?”

Gonzalo—‘‘ Why, it is Caliban, your brute, whom you
have kept near you at Milan, and who intoxicated him-
self on your wine, without rendering you one single
other service.”

Prospero—‘‘Caliban? Ah! I cannot believe that
human beings are such base things! Caliban succeeds
me! (He bursts out laughing.) O, dukes of Milan, my
noble ancestors, the farce is ended! We will see about
it, however.”

He calls Ariel and bids him summon all his spirits
against the rebels in such a contest that the wonders
performed in the island would sink into insignificance.
Gonzalo is doubtful. The conditions are different, and
Gonzalo is right. , Prospero’s art has failed. What
i

{
Io Caliban,

was all powerful in the island over the king and nobles
is powerless against the people. Ariel reports his fail-
ure to Prospero,—‘‘ Oh! my master, our art has van-
ished! It is impossible to prevail against the people,
* * * * the spirits which were so terrible against
Alonzo’s fleet could do nothing against the people.”

Prospero is astonished, but a philosopher still—
‘«What thou sayest is so marvellous that the knowledge
thereof is worth a lost throne.”” He surrenders every-
thing, only reserving the right to laugh. To him it is
supremely ridiculous that Caliban, the brute, should
succeed Prospero, the peer, as Duke of Milan. Ab-
surdity could be carried no further.

“~~. The time has come when he must part with his deli-

cate spirit, Ariel, who has been with him and loved him
until now. He must return to the elements whence
Prospero called him. With the most pure, poetical
words breathed in soft, loving accents, Ariel, with pro-
found pathos, says: ‘‘It will be my sorrow to mingle
no more ia the life of man. But although strong and
vigorous, it is very wicked and I must have purer
caresses than it gives. All idealism shall be my love
and each pure heart shall be my sister. I will be the
virgin purity of the young girl’s heart, the blond of
her golden hair. I will flourish with the rose. I shall
be green with the myrtle, odorous with the violet, pale
with the olive. Farewell, my master; farewell! Think
thou at times of thy little Ariel.”’

As Ariel disappears Prospero falls dead. Now the
last word has been said. The magician’s wand is,for-
ever broken, but the lessons forever remain.

WILLIS VICKERY.
CLEVELAND, O., May 1, 1896.
PREFACE.

The three profoundest creations of Shakespeare’s
entire dramas are Prospero, Duke of Milan, unknown
to all historians; Caliban, a misshapen creature, almost
impossible of refinement, yet gradually developing into
manhood; and Ariel, an ethereal being, symbolizing
pure ideality.

These three are the principal actors of the play
called ‘‘ The Tempest,” and I wish to engage them as
active types of individuality in combinations especially
adapted to the ideas of our own times,

I will assume that after the tempest, Prospero, hav-
ing vanquished all his enemies by his magic art, is
once more established upon his throne of Milan. I
have brought thither with him his aerial messenger and
agent, Ariel, also his slave, Caliban, forever in spiteful
revolt, with Trinculo, his fool, and Gonzalo, his wise
old counsellor.

Shakespeare is the historian of all time. He portrays
no particular country or century. Human history is
his sole perspective. In the grand array of pure ideas,
scrupulous nicety of local color, exact representation
of costumes and of morals should be ignored. I also
conform myself to that law, and I ask that, before the
lovers of the exact accuse me of anachronism, they
tell me in what age Prospero lived.

Dear reader, kindly see in the following play an
idealist’s fancy sketch, not a theory; a simple phantasy
of the imagination, not a political thesis. I wrote it
12 Caliban.

during a loiter of several months at Ischia, in the
beautiful Bay of Naples, and principally in the early
morning when the vineyards were yet covered with
glistening dew, and the broad sea was enveloped with
clouds of white mist. The philosophy which springs
from the hours of the newly-born day, is that of the
grasshoppers and larks, which I think never have a
doubt that the sunlight is most unaccountably sweet,
life a most excellent gift, and the whole living earth a
most agreeable dwelling place.

ERNEST RENAN.
1878,
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.

Surely, Ischia, with its ‘‘ vineyards yet covered with
glistening dew and broad sea enveloped with clouds of
white mist,” could have been no more delightful to
Rénan’s lofty mind and artistic nature than this drama
of his, which was born during a ‘‘brief loiter there,”
must be to all thoughtful readers. Each sentence is
pregnant with philosophical truths especially appli-
cable to our own time. We have our Prosperos, our
Ariels, our Gonzalos, and what is more perplexing still,
our incredible, most incomprehensible Calibans.

Much farther than Rénan’s eye travelled over bay
and surrounding sea of Southern Italy did his keen
prophet-soul glance backward into the past and for-
ward into the future. The mysterious laws of nature,
the wonderful processes of life met and acted in him
as light upon the sensitized sheet at the end of the
astronomer’s telescope. He penetrated the depths
of Shakespeare’s drama, then dared to register that
measurement in this continuation. With this belief
the supreme question in my mind is, will his Caliban
eventually become a Prospero? There is in his solilo-
quy a something which grips one like an unsuspected
hand, that question of his— ‘‘ Prospero always talked
of doing good to humanity and it seems that he was
not destined to accomplish it. If by chance it should
be I—_.”

E. G. V.
CALIBAN.

PERSONS OF THE DRAMA.

legitimate Duke of Milan re-established
in his principality.

spirit of the air, sometimes visible, some-
times invisible. (Role for a woman.)
CALIBAN, a brutal and deformed slave.

Gonzato, an old honest counsellor.

ORLANDO, }
ERCOLE,
GRIFFONETTO,
RUGGIERO,
RINALDO,
BaLpuccl, J
BEVILACQUA,
Bonaccorso,
IMPERIA, a courtesan.

ZITTELLA, a young girl of gay character.
SImpPLIcoN, master of a school.
Lionarbo, a servant of Milan. °

PROSPERO, |

ARIEL, |

nobles of Milan.

; citizens of Milan. .

JACINTO,
ANGIOLINO, artists.
JACOMINO,
GASPERONE, a powerful wrestler.
WaGner, a German savant.
Fr. Aucustine, of Ferrara, a Dominican Inquisitor.
Tue Popr’s LEGATE.
THE Prior of the Monastery.
TRINCULO, a fool.
BuTTaDEo, the Wandering Jew.
A CLERK. :
A VALET.
Citizens of the Principality, Guards, Courtesans, etc.
The scenes take place partly in Milan and partly in
the Monastery of Pavia.
Act I,

(It takes place entirely in the Monastery of Pavia, where
Prospero occupies a wing reserved solely for him, in which
to pursue his studies and experiments.)

ScENE I.

A cellar opening upon a court.
Caliban, then Ariel.

Caliban, (lying drunk on the floor and twisting himself
about in a pool of wine that is running from a cask which
he has opened and forgotten to close again): Ten thousand
curses on him! Oh! the beast, the liar, the sluggard!
What trust can we place in the word of princes! In the
enchanted island where I was such an incredible idiot
as to believe that the drunkard Stephano was a God
and to worship the merry-andrew, I escaped narrowly.
We would have driven a nail in my master Prospero’s
head then—ah! what a splendid scheme that was!—
but—thanks to that imbecile fiddler whom I have for
a spying escort—Prospero learned it all in time, and I
had to suffer one of those many punishments which
made me roar like a beast. Very well—that’s not all.
I promised him to be wiser and better and he had the
stupidity to believe me. We left the island on the
following day and came, after some journeying, to this
plain of Lombardy, which resembles our first dwelling-
place about as much as a fine quarter of deer resembles
a bone after it has been gnawed bya pack of dogs.
16 Caliban.

Here I became idle, for there was no further need of
my seeking the springs hidden near the base of the
rocks, of picking berries from the trees, or taking the
nests of the young birds from their secret places. He
promised me my liberty, but I am still held in my
bondage.

Freedom is mine by all the rights of man. For-
merly I never gave it a thought, but in this plain of
Lombardy my ideas have developed with wonderful
rapidity. Since those rights are absolute, how can
Prospero allow himself to obstruct my progress? All
my pride of being revolts against it. It is true that I
can intoxicate myself in his cellar, but is not the first
crime of princes that of-humiliating-the—people by
their-bénefits? The only way by which such iniquity
can be effaced is to destroy them. Such an outrage
can only be washed out by blood—blood.

Everything told, Prospero has been to me only a
usurper. He stole from me an island of which I was
the legitimate sovereign, for it had belonged to me
since the time that Sycorax, my mother, abandoned
me there to go to all the infernal demons. I had
appropriated it to my needs, and it was home and sus-
tenance to me up to the day when that wicked sor-
cerer came to set foot thereon with his rogue of an
aerial valet. Yes, I was its first occupant and Prospero
has been a conqueror, a usurper.

(Celestial music, full of sweetness, announces Ariel's
approach.)

Always his everlasting strumming! The noxious
wretch, cheat, red beast! Ah! if I could only take
and make one mouthful of him !

(Caliban is seized with violent convulsions.) Peace! at
Caliban. 17

the least, peace! Spare me thy enraging music which
affects me like that nauseous seasickness. Go, instead,
and set the cats against the grain with thy cater-
waulings.

Ariel (visible—a long, soft trill); Why dost thou
revolt? Where couldst thou be better off than here?
The cellar is open to thee and thou knowest the way
out of it. Possibly in freedom thou mightst be less
happy than now.

Caliban: Yes, but I am simply another man’s tool,
his machine to work upon. Base valet, dost thou not
see, then, that being experimented upon by another is
the most insupportable of things? Thou hast not one
atom of honor or pride. No mortal has the right to
subjugate another and, wherever it happens, revolt is
a most righteous duty.

Ariel; Thou forgettest that thou owest thy man-
hood and existence to Prospero.

Caliban: That is fine logic. But the island was
mine. I was there before him, and it belonged to me
through Sycorax, my mother. The fertile fields, the
abundant springs, the goodly trees which went to
Prospero were all mine, and he has only given me in
return this slavery.

Artel: Thou sayest without cessation that the
island belonged to thee. In truth, it did belong to
thee, just as the desert belongs to the gazelle, the
jungle to the tiger, and no more. Thou knewest the
name of nothing there. Thou wast a stranger to
reason and thy inarticulate language resembled the
bellowing of an angry camel more than any human
speech. Those sounds which were strangled in thy
throat were very like an ineffectual effort to vomit,
18 Caliban.

but brute as thou wast, Prospero taught thee the
Aryan language, and with that divine tongue the
channel of reason has become inseparable from thee.
Little by little, thanks to language and reason, thy
deformed features have become harmonized, thy web-
fingers have separated themselves one from the
other, and from a poisonous fish thou hast become
aman. Even now thou speakest almost like a son of
Italy. .

Caliban: Oh! Besilent thou! The language in itself
answers me well enough. Why did not Prospero see
that the Aryan tongue which he taught me I would use
as a means by which to curse him? ‘He is an idiot, for
he should know that each one seeks his.own good
alone. Iam indebted to Prospero for everything thou
sayest. He was unwise. Were I in his place I would
not have done so. But why did he oblige me thus? I
asked nothing of him.

Ariel: Thou sayest horrible things. Then it is not
the duty of those who are most enlightened to seek the
elevation of others less fortunate?

Caliban: If I were in power I would look first and
mainly to my own welfare. Ah! For instance, I
should not imagine that those whom one improves
would not wish to live for themselves! Ingratitude is
the stamp of humanity. Every effort to elevate an-
other person reacts against the educator. Each lives
according to his character. The crocodile only has a
great mouth with which to better provide for his sus-
tenance. As cursing is my nature, I cannot curb my
invectives. To give me a language was to equip me
for that end. I have only learned the Aryan speech
as a means to express foulness and blasphemy. The
Caliban. 19

bend of my nature is stronger than I, for I cannot
hinder my cursing.

Ariel: Thou wouldst also have violated Miranda.

Caliban: Well, after all, we should have peopled
the island. Men place some value on themselves.
Her father owed me wages. I broke his wood, lighted
his fire and carried his water, and without me he would
have known neither cultivated fields nor trees.

Ariel: Thou scandalizest me and irritatest my
nature as much as it possibly can be irritated. I can
not refute thee, for refutation is not my forte. As for
me, I serve the ideal with delight. After the catas-
trophe to the ships in the enchanted island my master
promised me my liberty. ‘+ Return to the elements,”
he said to me, ‘‘ be free and do thy part well.” From
day to day I believed that he would liberate me, and
each day since he called me his little bird, his gentle
Ariel, and Iam content. I no longer even recall that
promise to mind, for he is accomplishing such wonder-
ful things here in Italy!

Caliban: Ah! as to that, it is all one to me!

Ariel; But they greatly excel all those which he
did in the island.

Caliban. Yes, that was charming work! The
cramps, the horrible wrenchings to and fro, the ser-
pents, the spikes under one’s feet, the saws, the rasps,
the larding needles, the pincers which stretched and
tortured one, making in all a hell for each and every
day. And it is that which should give him shame,
Ariel. Ah! thou, thou dost not feel it for thou art
religious and submissive, thou acceptest thy lot as
providential, but indeed Prospero has reigned over us
by means of false ideas. He has deceived us, and of
20 Caliban.

all humiliations deception is the most irritating, since
it implies a weakness on the side of the deceived.
Those little devils which made me fall into fits in the
thunder, those little apes which tantalized me by their
grimaces, those mad cats which gnawed my legs—that
was all horrible, but what is worse, it was not true.
Ah! villain, that injury I will never forgive thee—
never. When the people perceive that the superior
classes have led them by means of superstition, thou
shalt see what-a~ doom it will bring down upon their
old time masters. “That hell, by which they terrified
us, never existed. Those monsters on which Prospero’s
prestige rested were all imaginary, but they tormented
me as greatly as if they had been real. Prestige! wait
a little, and you will soon see that it has vanished into
thin air.

Ariel: Thou servest by fear, while I serve through
love. That thing which he seeks is so alluring that I
am happy to contribute to it by obedience. Truly, I
have a feeling for him at least of deep reverence. He.

_is not God, but he works for God. He believes that

God is reason, and that one should work towards the
means by which God, who is reason, governs the world
more and more. Thus he seeks the power to most
“effectually arm reason for its just rule.

Caliban: Idle stories! Setebos, my mother’s god
was a much more valorous being than that intangible
God about whom thou art ceaselessly prating to me.
Setebos showed his power by visible effects. Each
morning his cave was full of freshly cut heads, each
with a sharp knife thrust through its jaws. As for the
God of the Christians, he is only the God of the feeble
minded and of women. It should be seen how I would
Caliban. 21

treat the feeble minded! and as to the women! ah!
mesdames, Setebos kept himself in awe by a hatchet,
and that is a gallant god. Ah! knave of a Prospero,
thou wilt understand it all if it is once possible to re-
duce thee to that state of vassalage in which the sons
of toil are held.

Ariel: Farewell! between thee and me there is no
possible exchange of ideas. Remain as thou art, a
stranded whale, a porpoise exhausted of breath. As
for me, I return through the pure air to await the
orders of the spirit who has done me the honor to take
me to be the executor of his will.

(Ariel flies away, making harmonious sounds.)

Caliban: Oh! I am in hell! my bones are cracking,
my nerves tortured, my muscles stretched as the
strings of a violin are, by the tuning key. Every fiber
of my body is strained by little levers to the point of
snapping asunder. My knees are pierced by a nail,
but still I must walk, and to crown my torture an in-
fernal fiddle stick plays over it all. Mercy! mercy!
my lord Prospero! I will obey.

Scene II.

Prospero, Ariel, afterwards a Guard,

(ln Prospero’s laboratory—furnaces, alembics, retoris,
receivers plunged in mercury baths, from each of which a
slight crackling is heard.)

Prospero: So, my Ariel, thou wilt be always faithful
to me? Twenty times I have said to thee, ‘* Thou art
going to be free, Ariel,” yet I still hold thee in my
service.
Se.

22 Caliban.

Ariel (visible): That is as you please, my lord. And
what, pray, should I do with my liberty if it ends in
my being absorbed by the elements from which you
drew me? It is through you that I now exist, and I
love you and your studies, my master.

(Zhe trembling of the gases in the receivers gives out an
almost imperceptible harmony. The air to be composed by
Gounod.)

Prospero. 1 ignore what I do myself, my gentle
friend, but I am sure of being the instrument of a will
which seeks expression. Nature does not comprehend
itself, my Ariel. For instance, thou little bird of the
blue, what didst thou realize of thyself before I drew
thee from the great universal chaos in which thou wast
lost, by summoning, gathering and massing together in
diaphanous mould thy scattered elements? Salt is in
all the wide sea and it is incessantly striving to set it-
self free. Life is in every atom of air and the smallest
leaf on the tree, in its dim consciousness, is eagerly
drinking it in. We work as they do by an analysis and
synthesis, tearing asunder and building together.
That is science. I wish to be master of the spirits of 7]
nature and to give a distinct personality to each. |
Such is the aim and desire of all my investigations.

Ariel: Those spirits, then, are forces lost in nature,
existences which one cannot see in the pane state un-
less science extract them.

Prospero: Perfectly correct. All that which strives,
but has not hitherto realized itself by expression—
what certain of my fellow workers call gas. Each of
the receivers there is the prison house of a gas, for as
almost all of them seek to rise, the little dome above
becomes a veritable prison to the expanding force.
Caltban, 23

This one here comes from water and during one day
will give out light. That other is the essence of life
and heat.
(Harmony proceeding from the vibration of the gas.)

Ariel: O celestial sounds, brothers of mine! What
happiness in serving such sublime creations, my master!
Doubtless thou hast obtained thy power over them by
the help of one who is thy god as thou art mine.

Prospero: No, Ariel, the eternal God does not re-
veal Himself face to face, neither does He appear in
material substance. All that has been told of His in-
carnation is most doubtful. It is He who is the genius
of the man of genius, the virtue of the virtuous man,
the sweetness of the gentle soul, the universal effort of
expression in all times and places, We define Him
most truly when we say, He is love. Itis by His grace,
that nothing is unfruitful, that each world draws into \
its breast all that proceeds out of it. It is He who will ©
have become most fully realized, when science will
diadem the crowned monarch, and reign without a rival.
Then, reason will restore the lost beauty of the world.
What a triumphant edict for the sovereigns of that time
to issue:

   

At Paestum strew with roses,
Plant the cedars of Lebanon.

(A guard enters.)
The Guard: Your highness is perhaps aware that
every thing is ready at the palace in Milan for to-
night’s fete. The sun is already sinking and it takes
three hours to go from here to Milan.
(Ariel disappears, Prospero goes out.)
Act II.
(The palace garden at Milan).

Scene I.

Caliban (concealed), Gonzalo, Orlando, Ercole, Griffon-
etto, Ruggiero, Rinaldo, Balducct, Bevilacqua, Wagner,
Simplicon, Lionardo, Trinculo, Jacinto, Gasparone,
Imperia, Zitella, Angiolino, Jacomino, Buttadeo; ( young
men, noblemen, musicians, messengers, citizens of Milan,
courtesans.)

(The palace ts brilliantly illuminated. The steps are
decorated with giant forms which disengage themselves at
night and form fireworks. By high open windows one
sees the chandeliers of the interior and long galleries dec-
orated with exotic plants. Troupes of musicians are seated
under the trees, Companies of gentlemen coming and going.
Several courtesans forming the center of a group of ad-
mirers. The citizens of Milan promenading in very simple
costumes. Orlando and Ercole passing arm in arm.)

Orlando: I tell you, my Lord Ercole, that the duke
is lost and we, too, are lost with him.

£rcole: For four or five thousand years, and possibly
much longer, it has been prophesied that the world is
going to destruction, and yet somehow it always seems
to swing on in the same old way.

Everything here declines and revives again, for the
wheel of fate has the trick of turning ceaselessly.

Orlando : Yes, but how many have been ruined there-
Caliban. 25

on! The duke is a philosopher, a savant, and those
people yonder were better resting in their closets. I
fear that we are going to see a revolution of contempt
and outlawry. =

Ercole: Ah! not so bad as that! but in reality men
only respect those who grind them into the dust and
kill them, When fortune has given them a sage for
their ruler they cry out, ‘‘Fie on it! what a humili- |
ation!”

(They pass on. Griffonetto, Ruggiero and several others
enter on the scene.)

Griffonetto: We shall see monsters springing out of
the mire, as one has never known it heretofore.

Ruggiero: 1 do not believe in monsters. I have
never seen one.

Griffonetto: What was Caliban ?

Ruggiero: Oh! well, Caliban was a monster while
he was in the island of magic, but the great school of
the popular rabble, which calls itself Milan, has quite
reformed him. He is now only drunk and idle, and
with a pot of wine one can content thenisél¢s very
easily from day to day. Ah! but they civilize the
monsters upon right good methods nowadays.

(Lrcole and Orlando have rejoined the group.)

Orlando: And what of the villains of society ? You
seem to take no account of them whatever.

Ruggiero: There are no villains.

(All burst into laughter.)

Orlando: And what do you call those whom the
gallows punish ? :

Ruggiero: It is exceedingly rare to find such
people as those out yonder, on the road thither.

(The group disperses.)
26 Cahban.

(Rinaldo, Balducct and others enter on the scene.) ~

Rinaldo: To succeed is, according to my ideas, the
whole of life.

Balducci: To succeed in what? One passes one’s
life in the pursuit of an object, and when it is attained
one finds it is nothing after all.

(The different groups reunite.).

Ercole: In serving any cause it is much better in
the end to have that cause outlive you. os

Balducci: Away with hope, then ! as the cause will
die before us. For, no matter how passionately they
hope for success, we see only the defeats of all people
of one idea. One is disgusted with their narrowness
and intensity, and the succeeding generation religiously
sets itself to obliterate all that they have accomplished
with so much conviction. The method, I believe, is
everything. ere as

Orlando: Attachment to one’s race corrects oe
individual tendency towards savage uselessness, I
believe. :

Ruggiero: Oh, yes, in the eyes of those who are not
philosophical. In order to include himself in the
confines of his own race he must be persuaded that
his race is better than all others. But the others
being equally positive on their side of the same fact,
there is no possible chance that both can be right.
Ah! prejudice and vanity are the foundations of life,
and whatever philosophy destroys prejudice uproots
the very basis of our being.

Orlando: Love of one’s country is more powerful
than prejudice.

Ruggiero: I will answer your argument at once.
Can you believe that your country has a particular ex-
Caliban, 27

cellence, when all the patriots of whatever nation in
the world are just as blindly convinced that their
country has the same advantage? But what is patriot-
ism in you, you term prejudice and bigotry in the
others. You must be blind as a mole not to see that
they will pass the same judgment upon you.

Trinculo (running here and there with his fool’s wand):
I never saw a fete which resembled a funeral so much
as this. Everybody is so distressingly philosophical
that I dare not hazard the least foolishness. Prospero
has not the least taste for nonsense, and all the rest
of the gentlemen this evening are much too intent on
their heavy philosophies to pay attention to a poor
fool. But the fools, however, are oftentimes the
wisest, frivolous though they are.

(Lmperia’s group approaches.)

Jacinto: Yes, that ideal head will be stamped some
day with death’s likeness.

Imperia: Oh! what a charming compliment, Jacinto!
Since you pretend to so much philosophy you should
turn monk. You should not look either so near or so
faraway. You falsify equally either vision of your eye
and placing the object thus upon your retina you have
set it outside a true judgment. Because a thing is
ephemeral there is no reason for calling it useless.
All is ephemeral, and the ephemeral is oftentimes
divine. Take the butterfly, for example, which is less
an animal of itself than it is the blossom of another
animal. The butterfly is the highest expression of the
worm, as the flower is the perfect fulfillment of the
plant. Apparently it is a creature but little endowed.
It is feeble of life and consciousness and condemned,
you would say, to represent only an ugly and wan
28 Caliban.

existence in nature, to simply multiply numbers, and
fill one of the vacuums in the infinite scale of being.
But watch! suddenly the crawling, stupid creature has
become winged and ideal and possessed of a purely
aerial life. A creature of the earth composed of all its
grosser elements, it has become an inhabitant of the
air and a child of the day.

What has worked this miracle? Love. The butter-
fly is the period of love. Do you not admire the ex-
pansion of its wings, its caresses to every flower, the
pursuit hither and thither of its joyous fancy? All is
gold in its eyes, everything made for it in that embrac-
ing atmosphere which beautifies the lowliest of earth’s
productions. Happy creature! It brightens itself for
its hour, flings aside its heavy envelope of clay, in-
toxicates itself with delight, leads a most perfect life
for several moments, then it dies. It does not weep
for death. As soon as it has assuaged its thirst and
drunk its fill of joy it withers. Most happy. For it
to love is life; to have loved is death. ~~

Ido not doubt that during that short space it con-
denses in its little being so much ecstasy that its fugi-
tive life outweighs that of the most powerful creatures,
and greatly surpasses in true worth that of the great
majority of men. Short but brilliant light, flower of a
day, I salute thee, O well beloved of God! thee, whose
life includes in several short hours those three divine
instants—to bloom, to love, to die,

Orlando, Ercole, Ruggiero, (together): Bravo, Im-
peria!

Imperia: Do not think me frivolous. Woman’s chief
duty is to be beautiful. But beauty is such a difficult
art. It should be cultivated very exclusively. That
(CCQ

Caliban. 29

which would injure its preservation must be shunned,
for all passion, all prejudice, is harmful to it. The
dwarf, above everything else, makes one ugly because
he provokes grimacing.

(She passes on. Jacinto and Ercole remain in the mid-
dle of the scene).

Lrcole: You know the secret of her beauty. It is
from the fact that her body gives in effect the sesqui-
lateral proportion. =

Jacinto: What devil did you employ for the measure-
ment? =

(He passes on. Litella, surrounded by many young men,
enters). oe:

Zitella: My God, what men you are! All that you
say is true, but what good is there in telling it? It is
much wiser to amuse one’s self than to analyze the pro-
cess of amusement.

Balducci: She is right. Thinking causes a bad
headache,

Zitella: And more than that, it affects the heart.
Certainly there are enough sad things about us, but it is
very easy not to think of them. When one has a taste
for those subjects, one should turn hermit at once.
What amuses, does not also torment us at the same
time. It is only when we are weary of life, that we
turn philosopher. That belongs to the old duke, since
what can delight an old man who is devoid of all sen-
sation ? Always with his books and incantations.

(The wines are served, the music swells higher).

Balducci: Fashionable pleasure is indeed the only
real and desirable thing.

Bevilacqua: Then the simple aim of life is enjoyment?

Balducct:; Without doubt.
30 Caliban.

Bevilacqua: But everybody can beguile themselves
with similar reasoning, and the result would be that all
classes would care only for amusements. What then?
for the world does not contain sufficient pleasure for
all.

' Balducct: We will repress the troublesome and give
/é& them labor instead.

Bevilacqua: Repress them by what means?

Balducci: The force of arms.

Bevilacgua : But where could you get the soldiers?

Balducci: Oh! everywhere; money will always com-

mand a body of troops.
. Bevilacqua : And what if your hirelings should find it
to their advantage to strangle you and sieze the city ?
The mercenary generally ends by becoming master of
those who hire him.

Balducci: Yes, that is a possible danger, I admit.

Bevilacqua: It is wiser to depend upon the nation
instead.

Balducci; What is the nation, pray?

Bevilacqua : Italy, of course.

Orlando: No, Milan is the nation.

Lrcole: That is of slight importance. The nation
however you may conceive it, will never respond to the
interests of a small number, as then the great majority
would be sacrificed. Why make people fight and kill
each other for a state of things, which would only
benefit a few of the privileged classes.

-Simplicon : They should be instructed and enlightened
instead.

Orlando: What is it yousay? Warfare is a glorious
recreation, for nothing has more value than the life of
an individual. To be no more, is the worst thing that
 

Caliban, 3h

can happen to a person. The most brilliant victory
never can recompense the dead, who, being killed,
though on the victorious side, are yet certainly van-
quished.

A clear, reflecting, self-loving consciousness would
say to itself that the essential thing in a battle is not
to be killed.

It is, therefore, necessary to maintain a vast reserve
of ignorance and stupidity, a mass of people so simple
that they can be taught to believe that if they are
killed they will either go to heaven or that their lot is
to be envied by the living. They make their armies
of such creatures as those and not out of the intelligent
classes, for if all were people of sense, nobody would

; be .sacrificed, as each would say, ‘‘My life is worth
/ more to me than anything else.” Asa rule, all hero-

ism is due toa lack of reflection and thus it is necessay
to maintain a mass of imbeciles.
If they once understand themselves the ruling men

will be lost. A man rules by employing one-half of
_ these animals to conquer the other half. In the same

way the art of politics lies in dividing the people and .
controlling each section by means of the other. Todo

' that, one of these halves must be brutalized so that the

| rest may be more easily separated from them, for if

the armed and unarmed once realize their position the
very structure of society will be wrecked.

Ruggiero: That is truly spoken. There is one thing
which always fills me with uncontrollable laughter,
and that is when Turks and Christians go to war.
Each fights without nourishment or pay, and each
buoys up his heart with the assurance that if the for-
tune of battle decrees his death he will go henceforth
32 Caliban,

to paradise. Now, either the Turk or the Christian
must be deceived, for if the Christian’s heaven exists
it precludes that of the Turk, on the ground of total
unlikeness. Neither sophistry nor example can counter-
act such contradictions for me, and so I believe in
neither. X\It is impossible that each of the enraged
combatants can be right at the same time, although
they may be mutually wrong upon the same point.
But in either case they are paid and drawn into combat
with false letters of credit on the future life. Then
it became necessary to defend the idea with their lives,
as it caused other nations who did not have faith in
their creed to look upon them as weak and inferior
beings. :

It is exactly as if a nation issued false duplicates of
base money at the expense of other states. Our hire-
lings demand their reward in this world, and they ridi-
cule those, who defer the payment of their soldiers to
paradise.

Orlando: It is an amazing thing, that any one has
the power to summon millions of men together, and
make them fight, to the death, on acconnt of several
persons, who are practically nobodies.

Ruggiero: After all it is fate which rules them, for if
the same people died in their beds, they would be just
as surely dead as if they were killed in battle.

Orlando: Yes, all is fruitless save the delight of the
present hour, and devotion to one’s self is the most
profitable pursuit of all.

Balducci: The order of the world rests upon seem-
ingly flimsy laws. I have often made the peculiar re-
flection, that a nation is at its best when engaged in
war, as then the government is gracious, the attendants

Ny
Caliban. 33

polite, the princes amiable; it is just the time to carry
out reforms, for one can then introduce and establish
needed measures as at no other period.

(A peculiar agitation runs over the assembly, Lrcole
and Jacinto pass, talking together.)

Ercole: There are things true theologically which
are not true philosophically. All the doctors of Padua
agree upon that point to-day.

Jacinto: Then you do not believe, that the bones of
Saint Antony of Padua work miracles?

Ercole: Excuse me; theologically speaking they of
course do, but philosophically speaking they are carry-
ing around the bones of a dead dog (o0ssa carnis mortut,
so says my master) about as much, if they imagine
those to be Saint Antony's bones.

Jacinto: 1 acknowledge that, but I am superstitious,
and it is impossible for me not to imagine that a superior
being would not choose to interest himself about us.

(Messengers from outside enter the garden and speak
guardedly to several guests.)

Bevilacqua : Instead of dancing, it would be more to
the purpose if we were arming ourselves.

Orlando: Prospero in all probability will be the last
one advised.

Lrcole: That is ordinarily the case in such situations.

Ruggiero: There is no use in getting excited. One
catches the spirit of the multitude as one takes a fever.
The exhausted systems will go safe through the greatest
ills, owing to the debility of their constitution, just the
same as enfeebled people resist a poisonous atmosphere
better than more robust ones, from having already ac-
customed themselves to a partial respiration.

(A group of artists enters.)
34 Caliban,

Angiolino: I have told you before this that artists
and all others, who delight and refine the hearts of
humanity are living upon alms. ‘Their sphere is the
very highest, but their work brings no remuneration.

Jacomino: A little money is certainly a very agree-
able possession. ~

Jacinto: You do not take the fact into account that
we amuse ourselves at the same time we work, or
that the labor for which they pay us so little, we would
do for our own pleasure alone. send

JSacomino: Then I am of the true craft, for I have
been living for months in a servant's loft.

Anstolino: What I have done is infinitely droller.
I have slept the past year in a coffin, —

Jacinto. That is only as it should be, for it is just
as necessary that artists be poor as that they educate
the people by their work. The wealthy amateur never
produces a good thing.

Gasparone: We all belong to the infirm class, the
vines needing the support of a trellis and existing
simply to produce fruit, not the true trees of indepen-
dent growth. As for me, my enormous head and tre-
‘mendous biceps have always hurt me and been a cause
of embarassment when I tried to enter society. My
great head has made me always appear awkward and
by means of it no woman has ever consented to love
me.

Lionardo: Bravo, my comrade, that is my case
exactly.

Wagner (who listens with a saturnine air): As for me,
I maintain that with your faulty education you cannot
be artists. You do not understand the esthetic, which
is only taught in the universities of our country,
Caliban. 35

All together : What is that he said?

Wagner: Then another is pedagogy, both of which
sciences the other. nations do not yet understand.
Our German superiority lies in the fact that those sub-
jects are taught in our universities.

Jacinto: We do not understand. In his country do
they make the artists in the universities and from such
processes expect to grow great men?

Jacomino: So it appears. s

Angiolino: For my part, I believe that great men |

come without teaching in a country where the grain is

native to the soil, and that they cannot be produced

in any land which does not grow them spontaneously.

As beauty is created, not taught, so no mere master '
can teach creation. The artist, therefore, who solves

the difficult problem without giving much thought to

his methods is the true esthetic.

Lionardo. You are right. But there is nothing so
grand as science, for it alone, responding to reality,
will never pass out of fashion. Knowledge confers
greatness, and Prospero, who aspires to command the
forces of nature, is the grandest man among us.

(The groups mingle together.)

Caliban (hidden behind a thicket assists at the fete.
Aside): I have no place in that fete and I cannot say
that I regret it very much. Sauntering backwards and
forwards is not very amusing. Were I in their place, I
would prefer to pass the time lying stretched out in a
fresh cellar near an open wine cask. Is it just, how-
ever, that I am not among them? All men have the
same rights and since it is a privilege it must also be
an advantage. And when, likewise, it would not be an
advantage, according to my ideas it is well that they

pe
36 Caliban,

look upon it thus. For that I am thankful. Here at
Milan I feel myself more and more worthy of the
dignity of a citizen.

Trinculo (running here and there): So not the least.
foolishness is possible? O soiree of the end of the
world! From the trend of everything here to-night I
believe that Caliban himself would be a philosopher.

(ln ferreting about, he discovers Caliban behind the
thicket.)

Oh, the lucky chance! This is my opportunity!

(Zo Caliban.)

Ah my friend bear, here is the occasion for present-
ing yourself to the company.

(He seizes Caliban, throws a cord about his neck and
drags him along, striking him with his wand.)

See, my lords, here is the creature; look, look! As
you please, bear or whale. Dance, my friend!

Bevilacqua: That is not prudent, for in the changes
of fortune Caliban, may be, will have the next turn.

(A great movement in the assembly. Prospero appears
on the palace steps.)

Scene II.

The same people; Prospero.

Prospero: Arrange yourselves, my lords, to assist at
the fete which my art has permitted me to give you.
Approach Ariel.

(Exquisite music announces the approach of Ariel, who
zs invisible.)

And now, my Ariel, present what I have made for an
illusion of the senses. The illustrious company as-
Caliban. 37

sembled here would, perhaps, like to see first the
ancient gods, their nature just as it was in bright
Olympus, as gods of flesh, thinking and feeling like
ourselves.

(Lhe sky opens, a grand aurora borealis starts to the
zenith ; a vast multitude of gods, genntt, nymphs, demi-
gods, ascend and descend in the rays of light; then a tempest
confuses all these divine beings in an immense, ever-whirl-
ing circle, Order ts insensibly restored, and little by little
all the gods appear seated about the table of a feast.)

Be present now, my lords, at the supper of the gods.
In the center is Jupiter, become for the time optimus
maximus,

(In the lower part of the spectacle are seen the heads of
an innumerable multitude of mortals.)

Voice heard from the multitude : It is right to worship
a good and pitiful god. It is necessary to pray.

Buttadeo, (The Wandering Jew, standing out from the
host, his forehead covered with a wing stamped with the
name of Jehovah): Error! Error! I protest. Your
God can not know either justice or pity. Mine has
made the heavens and the earth and everything in and
upon them. He is righteous and merciful.

Voice of the Multitude: If He made the world such
as itis, how is He just? The world is neither just nor
good.

Buttadeo: The evil comes to those who do not
observe the law. If the law was obeyed the world
would be perfect.

( Smiles.)

Prospero: You smile, gentlemen, but take care!
The law is an attempt to realize an upright society,
The attempt, as you know, was imperfect, but all the
'

38 Caliban.

efforts of reform for the world in the name of justice
have grouped themselves about that idea.
(Zo Ariel).

Ariel, it is now time to show us the gods of the
future.

(A clumsy multitude of giants, with enormous legs and
arms covered with polished stecl, appears. Their joints
move by the aid of powerful eccentric articulations. Over
each joint is a cup of oil for lubricating it and arranged
in such a way as never to spill its contents; over that ts an
incandescent tube which is their soul. They appear to eat
carbon, The gods of steel throw themselves upon the table
of the gods of flesh, breaking, killing and destroying. Most
frightful disorder ensues; nymphs, dryads, and all the en-
chanted nature flee away terrified and distracted.)

Voice of the Multitude of Mortals: What is become of
the gods of flesh? We will see the reign of the gods of
steel. May be they will be good and just.

Buttadeo: Believe it not. There is only one just,
that is my God, who made the heavens and the earth.
There is no other god beside Him. (After having put
the gods of flesh to flight, the gods of steel fight among them-
selves. The air is filled witha frightful din of ringing
metal.)

Voice of the Mortals: We thought that science was

'| peaceful, and that when the day came for the sky to
have no god, or the earth a king, there would be no
more fighting.

(A great burst of laughter followed by a blast of icy
wind, darkness and chaos. Diasyrmos with a discordant
violin alone survives, and plays while the apparition melts
into nothingness, a snatch of a grotesque rhythm.)

Prospero (standing upon the palace steps) : Be thanked,
Caliban. 39

my lords, for having assisted in this fete, where your
presence has added to the evening’s pleasure. Your
old duke will never see another. Remain always young
at heart, and may God give you joy. I leave for my
retreat at Pavia, where I shall habitually give two out
of three thoughts to death and its lessons.

Gonzalo (approaching, says to the duke in a low voice) :
My lord, if you wish to sleep well this evening in your
palace at Milan, your books should only receive a little
of your time, and possibly the public good would find
much profit by it. The city has all the symptoms of a
sick man, It has the fever, The chiefs of the camp
call the people to arms. Everywhere is heard the
most seditious propositions.

Prospero: 1 shall have far more power in my cabinet,
Gonzalo, than in my palace of Milan.
Act III.—Scene I.

Caliban, Simplicon, A Clerk, Plebeians.

(The scene takes place in a public square of Milan. A
great multitude in animated conversation. Caltban ts going
and coming through the mass of people and speaking with
spirit.)

First Plebeian: It is beyond doubt, that a prince
never deserved the anger of his people so much, as this
one.

A Clerk: Rex est qui regit. Ergo non est rex quit non
regit. Down with the idler!

Second Plebeian: That is the argument of our foes.
Oh! if they would listen to me, there would no longer
be a class of people, who enrich themselves by the
fruits of our labor.

Another Plebetan: And by means of us, they live a life
of ease and pleasure, and with that their amusements
are so ridiculous. In their place, I would find myself
something different, in the way of enjoyment.

Caliban: And the most exasperating thing is, that we
are simple tools to their will.

First Plebeian: What did he say?

Second Plebeian: What he said is very clear. You
are your master’s workman, to whom you have been
bound, and he lives by your sweat.

First Plebeian: That is true enough; he does.

Second Plebetan - Is it right to be so?

First Plebeian: Evidently not, for it is I who toil
and he who grows wealthy by it.
Caliban. 41

Third Plebeian: There is no doubt but we are tools.

Caliban: And whose is the fault ?

First Plebetan: He is ugly as a beast, but he reasons
well.

Caliban : Whose fault is it, I ask ?

A Plebeian: Very well, it is ours.

Caliban: As to the government—Zounds!

Another Plebeian: Oh! in some measure that is right.
The government has charge of everything, so when
affairs go ill it must be set down to its mismanagement.

Another Plebeian: This is evident at sight.

Simplicon: The great evil is that the common people
are not educated as they should be.

Caliban : Cease, fool! I tell you the wrong is in the
ruler.

A Plebeian: Well said; he is right.

Numerous voices - Long live Caliban! Caliban, leader
of the people!

Caliban: But few words will answer for the time.
The man who has made all of you suffer such wrongs
is crafty, wicked and incredibly base. He should be
seized and prevented from reigning any longer. But
you must not suppose that that will be easily done.
He has in his service spirits just as wicked as he is
himself, and above all, a damned fiddler whose tricks
are simply incredible. I would have killed him before
now; once I even had the time set for driving a nail
into his head, and was already exulting over the pleas-
ure of my deed, when—puff! all was baffled. To defy
him is much more difficult than you can imagine; but
trust the order and arrangement of the affair to me.
He is very absorbed at times, and in one of those
moments, when he is thinking of nothing about him,
42 Caliban.

we must surprise and overcome him. I will lead you
by doors and passages, which I know well, to his
apartments.

But the most essential thing is to seize upon his
books at once. Those books of hell—ugh! how I hate
them. They have been the instruments of my slavery.
We must snatch and burn them instantly. No other
method will serve but this. War tothe books! They
are our worst enemies, and those who possess them
will have power over all their fellows. The man who
knows Latin can control and command people to his
service. Downwith Latin! Therefore, first of all seize
his books, for there lies the secret of his power. It is
by them that he reigns over the inferior spirits. Break,
also, the glass retorts and all the materials of his labor-
atory. Without his books and the tools of his craft he
will be the same as we are. Then, when he has been
made powerless through losing his force, the rest of
the work will be easily accomplished. He is old and
feeble and his guards will make no resistance, for the
money which he should have given them he has spent
for books and retorts to help on his deviltries. You
can easily strangle him or shut him up in a cage to
starve to death, or compel him to turn monk. I tell
you that when you have burnt his books you can be
generous; but thither, no further of compassion.

(Universal Applause.)
~ A Clerk; Each revolution produces a grand man and
| one of this revolution is Caliban, the grand citizen,
Caliban.

A Plebeian: Courage, Caliban! You can achieve
success for us all.

Caliban: A little later. The thing to do now, believe
Caliban. 43

me, is the destruction of his books, and no time must
be lost.

A Plebeian: What good sense that Caliban has; but
whence does he come? It is very certain that what
he says is true—he loves the common people.

All together - Long live Caliban!

(They conduct him in triumph to the palace.)

Scene II.

(In the grand hall of the palace.)

Caliban, Plebeians. (The hall ts compactly filled with
the multitude. Tremendous excitement. People are stand-
‘ing on the tables and fiercely haranguing the crowd about
them. Caliban is standing upon a stage at the foot of the
hall surrounded by captains of the populace, and everybody
is shouting and gesticulating wildly.)

A Plebeian: At last we are going to see the suppres-
sion of abuses.

Another Plebeian: What is an abuse.

First Plebetan: Whatever is an injustice is an abuse.
All men are equal, and whatever is done to benefit one
at the expense of another should be prohibited.

Second Plebetan: But are there not some who are
born stronger and more intelligent than their fellows es
Is it right to rank them with their inferiors ?

First Plebeian: Yes, and so much the worse for them.

Another : But are not some women born feebler than
others, and is it not just that they should be protected ?

Another; No; so much the worse forthem. But the
greatest abuse of all is that God makes so much for
some and so little for others. His preferences must
be amended and reparation made for His injustices.
44 Caliban.

Another: But who will regulate all this? Who will
comprise the government?

Another ; Nobody! Nobody! We are all going to be
free.

Another: I cannot see very well how, if all are equal,
they are yet going to be perfectly free. The strongest
will demand and take their part by force. Who will
have power to control them ?

Another: The people in the name of fraternity will
do it.

Another: And what will be done with those who
care nothing about this fraternity?

‘Another: For them? Death!

(A long procession of a body of tradesmen, preceded by
their banners, each bearing a petition.)

A Plebeian: And what will support the people?

Another : Their work will provide for that, as it always
has.

Another: And who will give work to them? ;

Another: The wealthy, of course. Ah! when they
have determined to forego luxurious living they will
see

Another: But there will be no wealthy class then.
You told me but a moment since that all would be
equal.

 

(Mew procession.)

Another : The impost will be only employed to assist
poor citizens.

Another: 1 understand that there will not be any
more taxation, and, if so, may I ask how are you going
to defend Milan against its enemies?

Another: Leave all that alone. When we are free
all the world will fear us.
Caliban. 45

Another: Yes; long live Milan! War to Como, Ver-
ona, Vercelli and Novara.

_ Another: What do you say? To make war you must
have money and soldiers. You have suppressed the
impost, and again, if you have an army it will be your
master,

Another; Away with you! Down with the detractors
of the people! Down with taxes! Down with aris-
tocracy! Long live Milan, victorious and great!

Another : Long live the patriots!

(A redoubling of petitions and processions.)

Caliban (shouting): Citizens, attention! Give us a
little silence. Place your interests in our hands.
Investigations are going to be made by properly nom-
inated commissions and satisfaction will be given to
all. Coming from your ranks, we are of you and for
you. The sole aim and occupation of the government
shall be the welfare of its people. But, citizens, order
is necessary. Put down your arms, return to your
houses, and crown your victory by moderation and a
respect for propriety. Long live Milan!

Voice of the crowd: Bravo! Bravo! Long live Milan!

(Sudden quiet.)
_ A Plebeian: But just now he preached the revolution
at the sword’s point. I doubt if it is ended so soon.

Another Plebeian. What would you have! A revo-
lution uses itself up very quickly.

(The great hall empties itself gradually.)

Scene III.
(The scene ts in an ancient chamber where is seen Pros-
pero’s couch, Lt is midnight and there ts profound silence
everywhere. The room is lighted by the refiections of a
46 Caliban.

lamp suspended from the ceiling, and whose fret work cuts
upon the walls in stthouette the combat of a Griffin and an
Arimasp.*

(The ceiling ts a thoroughly intense blue, upon which is
painted the signs of the Zodiac in colossal figures, The bed
ts sorrounded by pictures representing the loves of Jupiter.)

Caliban (alone, lying on the bed): I would not have
believed it was so sweet to be in power, nor, above all,
that one could so quickly mature in perception and
feeling through sovereignty alone. In the short pass-
age from the square to the palace I have changed more
than in all the rest of my life. But ten hours have
passed since the people brought me here upon their
arms, and I cannot recognize my old self in the new.
I was very unjust to Prospero, and I suppose my slavery
embittered me, but now that I lie in his bed I can
judge him as brothers judge between themselves. He
had splendid qualities, and in many things I am dis-
posed to imitate his example.

What could be more odious, for instance, than those
inopportune frenzies of the people, with their defiles of
impossible petitions in overwhelming numbers! What
frantic eagerness for pleasure! What destructive pre-
tensions! What they asked of me was similar to deriv-
ing nourishment for ten thousand men from one hogs-
head of wheat, or to find in a one gallon measure five
hundred pots of wine. And the others—comrades!
phew! As for me, my part is taken. I will not suffer

 

*The word used by the author is ‘‘ Vouivre,”’ which is not to be
found in the French dictionaries. I conclude that it must be one of
the Arimaspians, the natural foes of the Griffin in mythology, and
often represented in combat with him by the Greeks in their archi-
tecture.—Translator.
Caliban. 47

myself to be invaded by those people who imagine that '

by demanding more than is in my power to give, they
will drag me along with them to destruction. A
government should be masterful—I will be. After all,
the aristocrats and I have common interests. I am
established like them, and it is necessary to be endur-
ing. Property is really the ballast of society, and I
already feel myself in strong sympathy with the landed
classes.

Then in addition to the power there is the glory of
the position. Pomp and glory are necessary adjuncts
to it, I find. Ah! I have had wrongs, and I will make
amends for them in this life of blaze and dominion. At
the fete yesterday evening I was jealous, for I was not
then of them. Well! Well! the fetes, the beautiful
arts, the palaces, the courts, all, are the ornaments of
life. I will give my patronage to the artists, and as
literary men shed glory alike on a kingdom and king,
I will not neglect them. Who was the center of that
brilliant assembly last night? It was the beautiful Im-
peria. I will become her suitor, and I will make her
the supreme aim of my life. And, if, happily, I may
succeed in pleasing her?—Oh! no, that is too much,
too much—but who knows, after all? May be

(He sighs.)

Ah! if I.could be loved I should be good and happy.
Now that a new world is opening to me and the good
does exist, it will not be forbidden-to me. I shall see
it for the first time. Prospero always talked of doing
good to humanity, and it seems that he was not
destined to accomplish it. If, by chance, it should be
I (He falls asleep).

 

 
Act IV.—Scene I.

Gonzalo, Prospero.

(At the monastery of Pavia, in Prospero’s chamber.
Prospero seated at a table. Gonzalo enters.)

Gonzalo: My lord, your city of Milan is lost. The
people are in revolt on all sides. Caliban is chief of
the people, and here are his proclamations. He has
already announced himself as very moderate. The
orderly people, who were at first frightened, have
gathered around him, and they call him the savior of

society. He is called, unanimously, the grand citizen.

Prospero: Whom didst thou say is the grand citizen?

Gonzalo: Why, it is Caliban, your brute, whom you
have kept here near you at Milan, and who intoxicated
himself on your wine, without rendering you one single-
other service.

fi Prospero (like one awakening from a dream) : Caliban!

Ah! I cannot believe that human beings are such base
things. I understand, Caliban succeeds me. (He
bursts into laughter). O, Dukes of Milan, my noble an-
cestors, the farce is ended. We will see, however.
(He goes out.)

Scene II.
Prospero, Artel.
(In Prospero’s cabinet. Prospero dressed in his magic
robe.)
Prospero: The time has come, my dear Ariel, to
Caliban. 49

demonstrate what we know and can do. This is our
last fight; then will come repose and definite triumph.
What I have accomplished heretofore, is nothing com-
pared with what I wish to do now. The researches
that I have begun upon the science called euthanasie
will place man beyond that most grievous servitude—
the fear of death. Man will never be immortal, but
to end a life is nothing, when one is sure, that the work
to which one has earnestly devoted one’s energies will
be continued. That which is hideous is the suffering,
the baseness, the feeble succession, the cowardice
_ which disputes to the death at the end of the light
when one has been a torch amongst others. I will
find means, however, to make death accompanied by
delight.

But we must rid ourselves of this Caliban. Caliban
reigns in my stead at Milan. Go, stamp out that piece
of infamy by assembling all our spirits again. What
thou didst against Alonzo was much more difficult. To
disperse the first fleet of the world or to put to flight a
pack of howling dogs—how can those two things be
compared? But depart. —

Ariel: I go, my master. With the spirits which you
have in your control I hope soon to have the best of
those miserable rebels.

Prospero: Depart, spirits, and maintain my supe-
riority over an imbecile people. Crush out the brute
who abuses, I will not say my goodness, but my forget-
fulness. Miscreant! he has always insulted me! Such
horrible ingratitude! Son of the devil and the most
hateful sorceress, whom I found an animal, with no
semblance to man. Imade hima partaker of language
and reason and in return I never drew from him one
5° Caliban.

good word. To-day it is he who incites my subjects
against me. Leave! reduce him, the infamous!
Remember the tempest.
(A distinct sound of trumpets tin the air.)

Scene III. ~

Prospero, Gonzalo,

(lu Prospero’s chamber.)

Prospero: Ah, well, Gonzalo, to-day I am going for
the third time to be Duke of Milan.

Gonzalo: My lord, I have never said that to your
highness. J am full of fear and I cannot possibly tell
the reason of it. I know that each man advances to
his great hour of success, and that each remedy heals
for a certain time. Nothing ever occurs twice in suc-
cession in just the same way. Things which succeed:
at the commencement, when the disorder of the first
creation prevails, totally miscarry when one brings the
means best adapted to them. It is true, your spirits
had power against the princes, but perhaps they will
not avail against the people. Indeed, it is difficult to
triumph over the people.

‘Prospero: You do not recognize, then, the supe-
riority of my forces. My vapors, gases, and spirits, my
powders also, will assure to me, or to the inheritors of
my secrets, the entire domination over an unarmed '
multitude led by a miserable brute. :

Gonzalo: Not so much as you judge. The people
will manufacture your powders, and employ them in-
self defence. Besides, many of the rebels have been

our soldiers, and understand the management of arms,
Caliban. 51

Prospero: \ will invent engines which they cannot
possibly make for themselves.

Gonzalo: Success to the day! but you have not yet
constructed those engines, my lord.

Prospero: Whence, then, is drawn the principal of
a power which sustains the rights of reason over the
people?

Gonzalo: Your power lies in the fact that you are
more intelligent than they. Unhappily the people can
establish nothing, and in time your throne will return
either to you orto your inheritors. (After a moment's
silence.) There is also a deception which is the out-
come of power.

Prospero: I need some time to accustom myself to
that idea. It will take several generations still for me
and my equals to become charlatans.

Gonzalo; Let nothing hasten it, my lord.

ScENE IV.

Prospero, Orlando, Ercole, Lionardo, Artel, Bonac-
corso, Bevilacqua, Simplicon, Angtolino, Jacomino, a
Valet.

(in the cloister reserved to Prospero. The people who
have come from Milan are gathered there talking of
recent events.)

Orlando: We predicted this business, but foresight
is of no earthly use in politics.

Ercole: The duke should appeal to his nobles, and
not abdicate.

Ltonardo.: 1 would like well to know what his nobles
could do for him.
52 Caliban.

Orlando: It is impossible to practice, with Caliban
as leader. :

Lionardo: Ah! watch well those protectors who
bring ruin to the princes by exasperating the people,
then say, ‘‘Salvation lies in us alone.” By what right
do you speak thus, narrow spirits, who in a revolution
count only the broken squares, and refuse the help of
allies because they do not have hands as white as your
own? Incritical times one must combine most opposite
kinds of men, I have always thought that amongst the
ten thousand Greeks led by Xenophon there must have
been nine thousand fools. But who knows how much
good will date from Caliban’s government ?

(Prospero enters.)

Prospero (with a calm and suiling air): I thank
you, gentlemen, for having come to witness, in spite of
appearances, that you make fidelity an honor, and that
I am still your sovereign. I hope to return it in kind,
and draw you together once more to a fete at Milan.
Afterward I will yield my place to another, for I am
old, and my sole occupation henceforth shall be to fur-
nish my mind with the objects which will fill it during
all eternity.

(A raucous sound, such as comes from a harp with
several broken strings, or a violin patched up with
twine, 1s heard in the air. Ariel falls in the yard of
the cloister heavy as a bird which has crossed the sea.
Little by little he becomes visible, and 1s seen to be de-
jected, disordered, and blackened with powder.)

Ariel: O my master, our art is vanquished. It is
impossible to prevail against the people. There is
surely something mysterious and profound in them, for
all our phantasmagoria is deranged. With them there
Caliban. 53

is wonderful strength, for the spirits which were so
terrible against Alonzo’s fleet could do nothing against
the people. In vain I rode upon the clouds, I flamed
hither and thither, striving to stir up the fires latent
inall things, but nothing responded. Imagine to your-
self the clocks of a belfry suddenly changed to lead
while in the midst of a beautiful chime. And from the
start my music seemed to have lost its old power. I
sang, but no one heard me. I filled all the functions
of an obedient spirit with the plenitude of thy power,
but I felt myself in a great void. That void, my lord,
was in the very thick of the fight. Then we had to
change our tactics, but where Caliban could do every-
thing we could do nothing. Our arms had no more
power. It was as useless to play my lyre to those ob-
durate senses as to speak Latin to a stone.

Prospero: What thou sayest is so marvellous that the
knowledge is worth a lost throne.

Ariel; This ismy explanation. Whence did it come
that our magic prevailed so easily over our adversaries
in the enchanted island? It lay in the fact that Alonzo
and those minds who were so accessible to it perceived
and believed in it. When Alonzo saw the tempest he
heard the waves speaking, the winds groaning, the
storm howling, and the thunder, that profound and
terrible force, reproaching him in its deep tones with
the crime he had committed against you. The people
do not admit anything of all that, and the winds and
tempests can roar altogether, without producing any
effect. Our magic is of no more use: | The revolution
is a realism; and all that is evident to the finer senses\
all that is ideal and unsubstantial, does not exist for
the people. }] They admit only the real. When it is
54 Caliban.

said, ‘‘The ideal does not exist,” all is finished. I
tremble for the time when that terrible fashion of
reasoning will touch God. They will ask Him to man-
ifest Himself, and then, if the Eternal stands upon His
dignity and remains behind the clouds, they will strike
Him from the catalogue of entities. As for the rights
of kings and dukes, I do not know what is going to be-
come of them. The people are positive and self-as-
sertive. If one must have faith in our terrors to be
susceptible to them, then what can be done with the
people when they have become so terribly realistic and
positive?

Prospero: Then the imaginative must be made real.
Our spirits must be transformed into powder and gas.
Is it not so, Lionardo?

Lionardo: Yes, my master.

Simplecon (to himself) - An entire and compulsory
system of education would remedy it all.

Bevilacqua: But, my lord, the supreme need of the
present time is our self-defence.

Orlando: One should arouse oneself to protect the
rights of noble and beautiful creatures. There is Im-
peria, for example, whose legitimate social condition is
one which lays pearls, diamonds and gold at her feet,
since only those precious substances have no other use
than to be her adornment, What will that beauty en-
joy of all those privileges under the reign of Caliban?

Prospero: Weave Imperia to care for herself. As
for you, gentlemen, defend yourselves. The superi-
ority of man over man is ended while waiting a fresh
accession of its power. Our old prestige is dead. My
science, or in other words, my power, no longer controls
the people. Let each seek first his own welfare. In
Caliban, 55

time it will all change, but just now our means of domi-
nation are shattered in our hands, and we must set
ourselves steadfastly to the invention of others which
the populace cannot apply.

(Bonaccorso and several good and true men arrive
From Mulan).

Bonaccorso: Our reverence to your highness. We
have never wished you other than good, and thus we
do still to-day, but it is wise to cede your dukedom.
The new government appears well intentioned and
Caliban is already the head of a moderate party.

Prospero: Iwill yield everything except the right to
laugh.

Bonaccorso: Oh! beware, my lord! Of all the human
things fallen to the common people, that of ridicule
superabounds very eminently, and, besides, laughter is
no proof in an argument. In democratic times, too, it
is a reasoning which has entirely lost all its cutting
edge.

Prospero: I have great difficulty in listening to you
while you speak of the capacity and moderation of Cal-
iban,

Bonaccorso: Great heavens! all is relative. Men

‘fare valued by their situation, not by themselves, Cal-

iban is the man of this situation, and has saved us.
Should we hazard any resistance, it would only end in
exasperating him beyond mercy.
Prospero: Ah! very well; be thou saved, then.
Orlando and Ercole: Resist him with us, my lord.
(Angiolino, Jacomino and Jacinto approach him).
Angiolino: My lord, will you listen to your humble
servants? Give it up. Why sacrifice yourself for
those imbeciles who, ‘after all, save in appearance, are
56 Caliban.

not one whit better than Caliban? Go, my lord, we
know them.

Jacomino: Yes, we do know them well. Not one
solitary soul among them would wish to nourish me for
the delight that I, could have given him through my
art. I only ask sustenance and a lodging, and would
be content with any kind of a shelter.

Angtolino: Those people only live through us.
Neither thought nor feeling would bless their being if
we had not first led them into it. Wecan make the
infinite for them, we represent and sell to them the
ideal, and then they throw us two sous with a mighty
air of condescending superiority. Without us they
would know neither joy nor diversion, and after teach.
ing them what life means, and how to live it, they coolly
despise us. Caliban has done no different. Oh! yes,
my lord! he is eminently worthy of a Castiglione or a
del Dongo.

Bonaccorso.: I maintain that Caliban has talent after
its kind.

Prospero: 1 will exercise my liberty of laughing im-
moderately when I hear you speak so seriously of that
drunkard.

Bonaccorso: Drunkard he is, my lord, but that does
not define a man. A man never succeeds unless he
has some power or fitness to warrant it. Any cause
whatever is easily belittled, if from no other reason
than its success alone.

Prospero: Let us proceed! You have extolled the
capacity, moderation and talent of Caliban. Very
soon you will tell me of his wonderful generosity.

Bonaccorso: It is just that point upon which I desire
to speak. Your Highness must choose between exile
Caliban. 57

and a peaceful sojourn in the monastery where prepar-
ation is made for eternity. The people are already
disarmed by their victory, and among them all Your
Highness has no personal enemies.

Prospero: Ah! pardon me, but I have Caliban, the
creature who owes me everything. When I first took
him into my service I taught him the language created
by God, and he has only used it as a means to outrage
me. The Aryan tongue is only an instrument of fraud
and false principles for him. | He hated my books be-
cause he knew that they were the secret of my supe-
riority, and he even went so far as to show my enemies
the best way to kill me. Enlightened, little by little,
through living in my house, he at last came to the
power of thought and reflection, but all his thought
was employed to plan my ruin. He has practiced all
religious emonies as an ape would imitate his
- superiors, but at heart he has always remained a
worshipper of Setebos. Offal! he was only sensible to
blows, and what fatigues I have given myself just to
make something better out of his filthy nature and
to set the light of reason in his heavy sensualism. -
He knows no other will of mine than that. Oh! what
a mistake it was to educate a brute who would turn’
my very instruction into a weapon against me.

Gonzalo: Caliban is a fair illustration of the lower
classes. All civilization springs from the aristocrats,
and when the people become educated and civilized
they turn, in-almost “every case, against their su superiors.
When you look too closely at all details of progress in
nature you hazard seeing some wicked things.

Bonaccorso: One is never right in saying, ‘That
creature has been base, therefore he must always be

 

 

 
58 Caliban,

equally low;” for absolute judgments are false,
whether they are passed upon Caliban or matters in
general. Caliban is vain, but who knows whether that
vanity may not become a virtue? His triumph, which
has passed all hope, must have quite satisfied his am-
bition, and, although he was mean, hateful and jealous
when humble, now, that he is master, he may prove
most generous. He will forget his hatred of your
books, since they have no further power over him, nor
will he dream of destroying what is now no longer used
as instruments of torture in his master’s hands.

Prospero (remains thoughtful and silent for some
t¢me): I will confess that the continuation of my re-
searches upon euthanasie draws me most powerfully.

(The door opens.)

A valet: My lord, one of those white and black
monks who burn the heretics is coming to speak with
Your Highness.

ScENE V.

(The same.) Fr. Augustin of Ferrara.

Fr, Augustin of Ferrara (enters, carrying a roll of
parchment. The others step aside while he seats him-
self before Prospero and reads) - The most holy inqui-
sition, formed by special delegation of the apostolic
Holy See, for preserving the integrity of faith and the
pursuit of perverse heretics, informed of the errors
which thou professest, insinuatest and wickedly sowest
against God, the creation, the incarnation, the resur-
rection of the flesh, and other dogmas fundamental to
the Christian belief, summons and commands thee to
its tribunal, from which you have heretofore perfidiously
Caliban. 59

escaped only through the temporal power, or rather
tyranny, which God in His wisdom has seen fit to take
away from thee. Thy sins are the very gravest that a
Christian can commit, as errors of physics and meta-
physics, of morals and faith, are almost the same as
infidelity. In fact, thou hast distilled, by the most
various ways and with a perfidy only equalled by the
father of all lies himself, the idea that man can, through
Nature, achieve that which will make him a participant
in Creative power, thus making what has been created
equal to the Creator. Now, it is written, ‘‘ God has
created the heavens and the earth.”’ God alone, do
you understand? God, consequently, will permit no
one either to retouch His work or to perfect it. Thou
hast, therefore, spoken and taught most wickedly in
pretending to change the nature of the body, which is
fixed and limited by God in the measure and quantity
according to His will. If He had seen fit to make the
body of more or other mixtures, it had been done.
Whence it follows, if thy damnable theory of the
composition and decomposition of the body were
true, man would become God and could repeat the
crime of Satan, who wished to make himself equal
to God.

That which proves beyond all else that each body
has a distinct character which cannot be changed, is
the dogma of resurrection, for if it were decomposed,
as thou assertest, no man would have an individual
body to himself; indeed, he would have several of
them in the course of his life, and that which he last
had would disappear entirely at his death. If that
were true, the body of our Lord Jesus Christ would
not be in the heavens at the right hand of His Father,
60 Caliban.

since it would be gradually dispersed throughout nature,
and the particles of the body, conceived in the heart
of the Virgin Mary by the operation of the Holy
Spirit, and to which divinity is joined, would be borne
about in all the water, the wood, the air, the waves
and the oceans of our earth.

I overlook what thou hast declared, after many
worthy witnesses of the faith whom thy impiety hast
caused to revolt against us, that man can and should
die without grief or pain—a statement absolutely con-
trary to the sentence pronounced by God that all men
should suffer. Now, if he did not suffer, then, in
effect, there would be no sin,which would completely
destroy the essential “ogmas of hell, purgatory and
original sin. But, as thou hast maintained this error
less obstinately than the others, the most holy inquisi-
tion can well set it aside, to pursue the chief, requiring
thee, amongst many othe~s, to follow me and be made
a prisoner in the prisons of the Holy Office, that thou
mayst there be most rigorously examined.

Prospero (after a moment of general silence): This
. most clearly shows me that I am vanquished!

Bonaccorso: Prince, the people have defeated you
as aruler, but they made you at the same time a free
man. This monk will not be allowed to do you
harm. (He turns toward the monk.) All that you
have said, monk, is null and void. It will never hap-
pen, for the new Republic of Milan forbids your in-
famous tribunal. Your like burned our mothers and
grandmothers. As sons of the heretics, we hate and
defy you. Dare to go to Milan if you wish to swell
the number of those whom you call martyred saints.
Down with the inquisition !
Caliban, 61

All the Milanese (together) - Down with the inqui-
sition!
Gonzalo: Ah, well! my lord, you see Caliban has
, “yet another merit—he is anticlerical.
” Prospero: That is true. (After a moment's hest-
tation.) In exile I shall find the monk everywhere.
My faith! long live Caliban!
Act V.—SceEneE I,

Caliban, The Legate, Gonzalo, The Prior of the
Monastery, Zitella, Plebetans,

(In the church of the monastery at Pavia. A great
multitude. Far away the sound of trumpets.)

A Plebetan : What is all this hubbub for?

Another Plebeian: Oh! it is the new duke of Milan,
the protector of this abbey, who comes to visit and to
celebrate in it the joyful event of his coming into
power,

First Plebeian: It was thus they celebrated the
ancient and legitimate dukes, but this one!—how can
the church rejoice at sight of him who it was announced
would not resemble any of the others?

Second Plebetan: Let us go, then! What difference
does that make?

First Plebian: We believe that the world changes, |
but it is always the same thing.

Second Plebetan: An! yes.

(The cortege enters. The sound of trumpets bursts
out under the arches. The train advances towards the
choir. Caliban ts seated upon a chair, over which ts
written SEDES DucIs. The trumpets cease, while the
organ bursts forth like atempest. Caliban recetves the
homage of the assembly. The organ alone beseeches.)

Organ chant: O Eternal, Thou who hast neither
sorrow, nor trouble, nor anger, nor consolation; a
Being pure and holy, crystalline light which passes
without stain through the world of flesh, and helpest
base mortality to the life everlasting, we praise Thee
Caliban, 63

with all our breath, we proclaim Thee just, perfect,
and good. All those who believe, all those who hope,
all those who love, are the souls which will never be
deceived.

The appearances of the world are vain. Thou hatest
the wicked and that is his chastisement. Thou seest
the tears of Thy servants, Thou countest them, and
that suffices; for there is nothing real save the joy which
Thou hast in those things. In Thy vast heart, O depth
divine, all is embraced and harmonized. ‘Thou art
harmony, joy, peace, reason and bliss during all eter-
nity. Happy those who sing Thy praises throughout
an infinite length of days.

The Pope’s Legate (approaches Caliban): The
common father of all the faithful, paternally compli-
ments Your Highness. Your Highness surely knows
that the Holy Roman Church, always tried during its
life militant and exposed to the assaults of hell, suffers
greatly at this moment from the most perverse efforts
which the Saracens of Lucera are making, to hinder
the peaceful singing of the hymns of the Lord. The
divine spouse of Christ is at your knees and asks the
assistance of your most glorious sword. The first duty
of Princes is to defend the apostolic Holy See against
the abominable rage of its enemies.

Caliban. Yes, the Pope is prince, and I am his
natural protector.

The Legate: And in your states, there are most
obstinate enemies of God, who, with a frightful degree
of audacity, blaspheme continually against Him by
Whose pleasure all princes reign.

(The organ ceases. The choir tintones the chant,
“Te Deum Laudamus te Doninum confitemur.”)
64 Caliban.

The first duty of those who command is to avenge
the honor of the One by whom they do command.

Caliban: Yes, I hope that God will be good to me
after all I shall do for Him. |

The Legate: Amongst the most wicked and daring
of those miscreants is one, far more culpable than the
others, and whose chastisement would be a great joy
to your God, to His angels, and all the saints of the
church militant and triumphant. That one is Prospero,
who is also the enemy to Your Highness. He isa
dangerous man, inasmuch as he is an adversary of
established order. Permit us to put him in the prison
of the inquisition, where he will be able to work no
more mischief. God will perhaps secure the salvation
of his soul through the affliction of his body.

Caliban: Ah! no. Cease there! Do not recall to
me those memories. That which once was is now no
more. JI am the inheritor of his rights and I should
defend him. No; Prospero is my protégé, and he
_ shall work at his ease along with all the philosophers
and artists under my patronage. Their work shall be
the glory of my reign and I will have my share of it,
for I will make them the instruments of my will.
That is the law of the world.

(He perceives Gonzalo).

(Zo himself.) I cannot govern unless I call around
me those who know the laws of government. (fe turns
to Gonzalo.) My Lord Gonzalo, salutation, I appoint
you a member of my state council.

The Choir: Te prophetarum laudabilis numerus.

Gonzalo: My lord, I have counselled all my. life,
and, nothing more fit, I will die in the office of coun-
sellor. Ithank Your Highness. (Aszde.) That devil
Caliban. 65

nan completely baffles me. But this sort of thing
however, run a long time before becoming insup-
tble.

1¢ Choir: Te martyrum candidatus laudat exer-

‘tnculo (hidden tn a corner): All the world makes
for itself. Heavens! what an idiot I have been
ake such blunders! There is Caliban, whom I
ridiculed hopelessly, now become the all-powerful.
seforth I will ridicule nobody, as one never knows
is going to happen in the near future. We will
>atonce. My occupation has this good about it,
native and genuine talent is always successful. I
find service elsewhere.
tella: Ah! I am going to dance gloriously under
‘ule of that delightful Caliban!
he Choir: Judex crederis esse venturus.
‘eflections of the Prior of the Monastery as he sits
stall, reciting his breviary): The world, which I
done well to quit forever, is an eternal illusion, a
2dy composed of acts without end. That which

‘ome to nass nroves what T have maintained acaincet
66 Caliban,

them as tyrants, impostors and exploiters of man-
kind.

The narrow conservatives of the aristocrats dream
of again seizing the power which has escaped them,
while the more liberal accept the new régzme without
reserving any other right than that of making harmless
pleasantries upon the situation. At bottom, eternal
justice makes itself manifest by apparently the most
opposite means, The budget of Caliban will positively
prove better for people of spirit than that of Mecaenas.
Well washed and combed, Caliban will be quite pre-
sentable. He will possibly have struck, some future
day, these medals: ‘‘To Caliban, protector of sciences,
arts and letters.” Prospero can live, some time at
least, under such a rule, and he has the same chance
of again seizing the direction of the dukedom. But he
must be wise and prudent, for a democracy is jealous
and suspicious minded. However, in being modest
and concealing your plans you can succeed in whatever
you will. As for the tender and loyal hearted, whose
extreme delicacy of sentiment and personal fidelity
make them dumb and helpless, there is no longer any
place for-them in the present conditions of the world.
Death alone is their only hope and refuge.

A grand old pope said, ‘‘I have loved justice and
hated iniquity.” Now one can always love justice, but
to hate iniquity is far more easily said than done.
And where is iniquity? The best and wisest souls have
searched strenuously to find it, but are deeply embar-
rassed in attempting its definition.

(The cortege withdraws to the sound of trumpets).
Caliban. 67

Scene II.

(dn Prospero’s cabinet.)
Prospero, Artel, Gonzalo.

Gonzalo (entering): The ceremony is completed.
Your Highness has done well to yield upon the matters
for which you have the least regard, and in order to save
the essential points have wisely flung from you a little
temporal power. Ido not see Ariel, who has so ob-
stinately refused to return to his native skies, here
with Your Highness now.

(A sort of dying melody 1s heard very like a distant
notse growing fainter and fainter. One distinguishes
these words tn the melody: ‘‘Prius mort quam foedart,”
Spoken by a woman's voice, in a sweet, touching tone. It
zs Ariel, who 1s vanishing.)

Prospero: Ariel, my dear Ariel, come back to me.
In a short space thou wilt be free, and the liberty I have
promised thee so many times will be thy possession
forever.

Ariel: It is my death thou art saying, my master.
Prius mort quam foedari. It is not in my nature to
conceive good in two different masters. Already the
air has summoned from me that which it claims, and
the light ether which unites with it is striving to escape
and mingle itself chastely with the absolute cold of
space. The old elements will lose themselves in the
long tresses of the seaweed which mirror themselves
upon the shining sides of the sable zebra as he stands
silent by the waves. Sometimes in infinite space,
sometimes at the summits of the mountains, sometimes
at the bottom of wide, lonely bays, flying now like
light, resting again like the brooding power of the uni-
68 Caliban.

verse, I shall be the intermittent spirit of nature. I
shall be the azure of the sea, the life of the plant, the
perfume of the flower, the snowy blue of the glacier.
It will be my sorrow to mingle no more in the life of
man; but, although strong and vigorous, it is very
wicked, and I must have purer caresses than those it
gives, All idealism shall be my love, and each pure
heart shall be my sister. I shall be the virgin purity
of the young girl’s heart, and the blond of her golden
hair. I shall flourish with the rose, I shall be green
with the myrtle, odorous with the violet, pale with the
olive. Farewell, my master, farewell. Think thou at
times of thy little Ariel.

(Ariel disappears, exhaling a pure, fine harmony,
and Prospero falls dead.)

[THE END. |