The Old and the New:

Learning in The Tempest

Stephen L. Cain

November 28, 1995

Engl-321-010

Madame, learning is a great ornament and a wonderfully serviceable tool, notably for people raised to such a degree of fortune as you are. In truth, it does not receive its proper use in mean and lowborn hands [Italics mine]. It is much prouder to lend its resources to conducting a war or governing a people than to constructing a dialectical argument, pleading an appeal or prescribing a mass of pills. . . .

. . . For a child of a noble family who seeks learning not for gain (for such an abject goal is unworthy of the graces and favor of the Muses, and besides it looks to others and depends on them), or so much for external advantages as for his own, and to enrich and furnish himself inwardly, since I would rather make of him an able man than a learned man, I would also urge that care be taken to chose a guide with a well-made rather than well-filled head; that both these qualities should be required of him, but more particularly character and understanding than learning; and that he should go about his job in a novel way.

(Montaigne 11-12)

These are Montaigne's views on educating a noble child. The purpose of humanist education is to improve the high aristocracy and thus influence the class that the monarch depends on, if not the monarch himself (Crowley 9/13/95). Some of these ideas bear fruit in The Tempest and its views on learning. There are two truly powerful foci for Humanist learning in The Tempest: Prospero and Caliban. They themselves are not always the examples, but archetypes. Prospero is the aristocratic example and Caliban is the vulgar. I think that The Tempest treats the learning as a good humanist should. It stays in line with Montaigne. Moreover, Shakespeare's play shows the defects in the old generation of Prospero and Alonso and evidences hope for the new generation, Miranda and Ferdinand.

First, lets look at old Prospero. He is flawed humanist learning at the beginning. Prospero abandoned his estate's duty for the seclusion of a contemplative life; "liberal arts" and "secret studies" consumed his time and he left the duties of state to his unscrupulous brother (I.ii 66-77). According to Montaigne, one of the proper uses of humanist education is assistance in governing a people (Montaigne, 11). Prospero says to Miranda, "I, thus neglecting all worldly ends, all dedicated / To closeness and the bettering of my mind" (I.ii.89-90). By his own admission, Prospero is a poor example of the proper use of humanist learning. He spent too much time on contemplating his "dukedom" (I.ii.109-110) and left the active governance of his people to his brother. Prospero abuses the proper scope of learning and he is deposed by Gonzalo and his brother. Once he and his daughter were set adrift, he began his climb from the contemplative to the active and turned his arts to a practical end: he schooled his daughter.

Next, let us consider the court-in-exile of Alonso, King of Naples. They are a motley bunch, and they represent varying degrees of success of the New Learning. According to Crowley, Humanist learning attempts to instill virtue, as well as an idea of putting the virtues into community service (9/6/95). Thus, evident virtue is an expression of the effectiveness of Humanist New Learning. Montaigne says that learning most befits those who are doing important things: governing and conducting war (11). Further, he says that using learning solely for gain is "unworthy" (11).

All of the courtiers, show some degree of a lack of virtue in their actions. Take Old Gonzalo first. He was both the architect of Prospero's exile and his savior:

Some food we had, and some fresh water, that

A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,

Out of his charity , who being then appointed

Master of this design, did give us. . .

(I.ii.163)

Gonzalo also supplied him with clothing and necessities and a few books. However, the word "appointed" is used to describe his role in the untimely departure of Prospero and Miranda, as if he was selected for the job rather than volunteering himself for it. Prospero commends him for his role as a "true preserver" and promises rewards (V.i.62-71). Gonzalo has virtue by way of his compassion and thus the New Learning accomplished its end with him.

Sebastian and Antonio are low and base despite being siblings to the rulers of Milan and Naples. Little virtue was implanted in them by the New Learning; perhaps they didn't pay much attention. At any rate, Antonio usurped Prospero's throne with help from the King of Naples and, except for Gonzalo's aid, the true duke and his daughter would have died of starvation or exposure. Antonio puts similar notions into Sebastian's head and the dastardly duo would have killed Alonso and Gonzalo but for Ariel's intervention. They are certainly not satisfied with their lot and use "Wall Street" virtue to gain their ends. Montaigne frowns on their type; learning for gain is and unworthy goal (11).

Not only are they greedy, but also cowardly. Antonio needed a foreign army to do his dirty work:

whereon,

A treacherous army levied, one midnight

Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open

the gates of Milan;

(I.ii.127-130)

Then Antonio suggests to Sebastian that they slay Gonzalo and Alonso in their sleep (II.i.287-291). They are both rats on which the New Learning failed to instill any virtue.

Alonso is also a man lacking in virtue. He financed Antonio's overthrow of Prospero. There is a touchstone where virtue is tested, including Alonso's. A phantom banquet is brought out (III.iii stage directions after l. 17) and, according to Hollander and Kermode, represents allegorically all voluptuous temptation and that which a virtuous man would shun (486). Sebastian, unsurprisingly, suggests this course of action: "They have left their viands behind; for we have stomachs.-- / Will it please you taste of what is here?" (III.iii.41-42). Alonso refuses at first, showing a shred of his virtue, but then recants:

I will stand to, and feed,

Although my last: no matter, since I feel

The best is past. Brother, my lord the duke,

Stand to, and do as we.

(III.iii.49-52)

He relaxes his virtue because he sees himself ailing and believes that his son is lost to the sea.

The second focus of our theme is Caliban: the "bane of beauty" (Berger 157). Miranda discourses on the baseness he shows, even during attempts at education. Caliban is a low creature. According to "conventional neoplatonic doctrine" and a footnote on I.ii.460, Caliban and his mother both are ugly and therefore possess ugly souls (Hollander and Kermode 465). Any learning given to him is wasted on him, as he himself says:

You taught me language; and my profit on it

Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you

For learning me your language!

(I.ii.365-367)

Clearly, the point of education and the time taken for instruction are wasted on Caliban. He is like a young boy given an unabridged dictionary: he can't help but look up the vulgar synonyms for bodily functions. Montaigne insists that the purpose of learning is not to throw pearls to the swine, but to assist the gentry in the duties of their estate (11). Prospero further condemns attempts at educating Caliban:

A devil, a born devil, on whose nature

Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,

Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost;

And as with age his body uglier grows,

So his mind cankers.

(IV.i.188-192)

This quote shows the waste of giving education to a brute. Further, Prospero tells us of the waste of giving kindness to the beast:

Abhorred slave,

Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have used thee,

Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodged thee

In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate

The honour of my child.

(I.ii.346-350)

Caliban lives up to his name: the bane of beauty. Kindness and betterment are wasted on him.

Caliban's other friends are also paragons of virtue's lack it follows that they are also poorly educated; either that or they took poorly to education. Stephano and Trinculo are drunks and little better than Caliban; all that separates the monster from them is that the butler and jester know where the wine-barrel is. They steal Prospero's clothes (IV.i.220 ff) and plot to kill him in his sleep (III.ii.87 ff), much as Sebastian and Antonio do. They are also not nobility, and consequently little is expected of them in the education department and therefore deficiency in the virtue department follows.

Those men are the old school. Prospero, Alonso's court-in-distress, Caliban and his men are all part of an education that did not succeed, the old and failed generation. Miranda is the new hope and Prospero does his best to ensure a fresh start for his line and his kingdom. He educates her and makes Ferdinand work to attain her, thus ensuring that she is cherished (IV.i.1-7).

Miranda is close to the more noble of the two foci; she is his only progeny. Since his daughter is a captive audience, Prospero had more time to devote to her studies rather than the mindless follies concomitant with a courtly life:

...and here

Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit

Than other princess' can, that have more time

For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.

(I.ii.171-174)

Prospero fulfilled one of the goals of the New Learning: he carefully educated his only descendent, part of the future ruling class of Milan. He imbued her with what virtue and learning he retained from his library, providing her education commensurate with her state. Then he passes her along to Ferdinand as his treasure from his generation to the next, like the crown and rulership is also passed from one generation to the next.

So, the older generation is a flawed product of the New Learning. Their virtue is lacking, and since the Humanist learning is designed to imbue that very virtue with a sense of community service, it has not completed its task. The Neapolitans and Milanese, along with Caliban, are, to varying degrees Humanist New Learning that has corrupted. Prospero takes efforts to preserve the next generation, namely Miranda, by educating her properly and giving her to a worthy and reverent young man, who, incidentally, is heir to his rival's throne. The Tempest shows us many examples of how Humanism can fall short in producing the pinnacle of aristocratic virtue. It shows that man can reach for the pinnacle and aspire, but it can't quite reach. The Tempest also shows us that there is hope for a new generation that can be directed more properly in light of the mistakes of its elders.

Works Cited

Berger, Harry Jr. Second World and Green World. Los Angeles, University of California Press: 1988.

Crowley, James. Lecture. Renaissance Literature. University of Delaware. Newark, 6 September 1995.

---. Lecture. Renaissance Literature. University of Delaware. Newark, 13 September 1995.

Hollander, John and Frank Kermode. The Literature of Renaissance England. New York, Oxford University Press: 1973.