SHAKESPEARE AND PSYCHOGNOSIS 77 



comes her, but expresses his embarrassment at the obh'gation his noble manners 

 put upon him of asking her forgiveness for his cruelty to her in her childhood. 

 He says " Amen " to Gonzalo's pious wishes for the success of the young couple : 

 " On this couple drop a blessed crown." He finds it difl&cult to accept what he 

 now sees and hears as "natural events." CaUban amazes him, "This is as strange 

 a thing as e'er I looked on." Caliban surely cannot be " natural." 



He is on good terms with Prospero as the play ends, and desires to learn his 

 whole story. These are all the chief facts narrated concerning Alonso. In no 

 case does he fail in dignity of language or bearing. His constant references to his 

 children suggest paternal love, but mingled with this is the love of making them 

 powerful sovereigns who will perpetuate the greatness of his rule. He was willing 

 to part with Claribel, and commanded her obedience in spite of her loathing, that 

 she might marry a powerful barbarian. It is less his son than the heir of Naples 

 and of Milan that he mourns. And it was through his intense pride of power and 

 place that he took part in the cruel plot that won Milan for this heir ; a dukedom 

 which Ferdinand eventually inherits through his love for the princess so basely 

 set adrift. A state such as Gonzalo dreams of with " no sovereignty " is repulsive 

 to him. The world must offer kingdoms for himself and his children to rule. Noth- 

 ing seems of so great consequence to him as the perpetuation of his royal dynasty ; 

 hence there is no misfortune equal to the loss of his heir. He desires to be royal 

 in his graceful language, in his manners, in his courage, in his respect for religion, 

 and he succeeds so far as external forms reveal him. But when Ariel shows him 

 his real worth and makes him the most prominent of the " three men of sin," his 

 forms crumble into nothing and his convention is not a rock of strength. Here 

 it is seen that he is rather here ditarily and passively bad, than black-hearted. And 

 his nobility and severity, mingled with repentance and remorse, lend him a true 

 royalty of character which quite reconcile us to him as the father of the hero. 



Alonso is a faultless example of that form of pride and selfishness which is most 

 consistent with dignity and a code of honor, formal and somewhat superficial, how- 

 ever bracing and constraining. He is the incarnation of respectable, conventional 

 selfishness and formahty. 



Stephano and Trincxjlo : Two Types of Degeneration 



" T the commonwealth," says Gonzalo in Scene 3, " I would by contraries 

 execute all things .... 



No occupation ; all men idle, all." 

 In the fourth scene we find two men idle, Stephano, the king's butler, and Trinculo, 

 the king's fool. They had accompanied the king and the court to Africa, where 

 it may be supposed their humor had increased the gayety of the wedding-feast. 

 They do not appear in the shipwreck scene. In the dispersion following they are 

 separated, to be reunited in Sc. 4. Prospero in Sc. 2 has insisted upon the necessity 

 of active service, and the idleness of these renegades heightens the effect of his words. 



