232 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



times. But, as Theodore Vischer has said, Shakespeare is not inclined 

 to this kind of seK-pi tying tenderness; even at his finest and gentlest 

 he is strong and robust. In this play there is no desire to appeal to any 

 but the largest, strongest emotions. And yet, when these by prolonged 

 reading are discovered to be repressed and impUed, they break upon us 

 with tenfold force. 



What sorrows of Werther, or of the In Memoriam, or of any modem 

 pathetic writing, are comparable to the sorrows of Prospero ? All 

 losses have been his. His kingdom is lost ; his wife is dead ; his loneli- 

 ness, materially, intellectually, socially, are complete; his sensitiveness 

 and imagination are infinite. His love and desire for love can be meas- 

 ured by his labors for others, his persistent obstinacy in a hopelessly 

 unworldly ambition, his actual sacrifice of all that others put first. 

 Only the greatest have been wanderers in exile in the entire sense of this 

 situation ; but how many of these ? This is the situation of all who are 

 misunderstood in the sincere sense of the phrase. And the group con- 

 cerned is not made up only of the most gifted, but of all who in fainter 

 rolors resemble them. 



4. The Power Motif. — There is a striking likeness between the aims 

 of Prospero and the aims of Bacon. The New Atlantis might have been 

 suggested by the island and cell of Prospero. Bacon would restore 

 and multiply the power which the Greek world had achieved by an 

 increase of real knowledge — the knowledge that is workable, and that 

 controls and ehminates chance and superstition. Prospero had lost 

 his kingdom, famed for the liberal arts; he regains it by a study of 

 natural forces. His very name suggests Bacon's favorite dream. If 

 there is too much of the supernatural element in the island, this is owing 

 to the poetic fancy of Shakespeare; and it must not be forgotten that 

 Bacon was far from emancipated from similar ideas even in his most 

 scientific works. Modem science freed itself very gradually from the 

 penchant for magic; indeed, is not entirely free yet, as the teleological 

 remarks in our textbooks, and the belief in spiritualism, testify. And, 

 then, is there not more of the marvelous in vaHd science than we need 

 to justify the feats of Prospero ? Would not the dramatic strokes of 

 Marconi and Rontgen and others have been too great a tax on the imagi- 



