Aristocratic occultist may have been model for Shakespeare’s Prospero
Stewart was implicated in plots to kill the King and was rumoured to be heavily involved in witchcraft and sorcery. In 1590 he was said to have dressed as the devil during a witches’ sabbath, and cast a spell, summoning up a storm - just as Prospero did - in an attempt to wreck the king’s ship. He failed, and James survived to ascend the English throne as well 13 years later.
Exiled earl may have been the model for Prospero
Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, has always been one of Shakespeare’s most mysterious creations. Part mystic, part wizard, he weaves spells and conjures up storms. At the end of The Tempest he utters one of the great speeches in all the Shakespearian canon - “Now my charms are all o’erthrown; and what strength I have’s mine own.”
No one has ever been able to say with certainty what, or who, inspired the creation of Prospero, though many of Shakespeare’s characters were based on real people and events. Now, however, an amateur historian, rifling through the papers of an eccentric 16th-century Scottish Earl, has uncovered the life of a man he says may have given Shakespeare the idea for the character.
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January 30th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
This is an interesting historical tidbit! Good for Brian Moffat for stumbling across the Earl’s marriage trunk.
Personally, I also like the idea that Prospero can be read as a semi-autobiographical figure who renounces his magic staff at the same time as Shakespeare puts down his pen. (The Tempest was Shakespeare’s last play… Well, the last one he wrote by himself, anyway.) For more on this, check out The Tempest
January 31st, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Hey, this is great: I’m taking Jacobean Lit. right now as a grad class. The professor said discussion of Cabala, Rosicrucianism and Alchemy is discouraged [!]. Have you seen the site masoncode?
February 1st, 2009 at 5:10 pm
“Have you seen the site masoncode?”
Ya. Not sure what to make of it.