Shakespeare and the Spectacles of Strangeness: The Tempest and the Transformation of Renaissance Theatrical Forms by John G. Demaray (review)

REVIEWS John G. Demaray. Shakespeare and the Spectacles ofStrangeness: The Tempest and the Transformation ofRenaissance TheatricalForms. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1998. 174p. Jeanie Grant Moore University of Wisconsin Oshkosh John G. Demaray's vast research on the masque has once more engendered a significantwork . Readers ofhis earlier study ofComus in Milton andtheMasque Tradition (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), will not be disappointed, for again he provides rich historical background for a drama in relation to the masque genre. Scholars have long noted the masque-like elements in The Tempest, but in Shakespeare and the Spectacles ofStrangeness, Demaray convincingly argues that, while notoutside the tradition ofpopular theater, the playas awhole can be viewed as deriving from die masque. Demaray also sees The Tempest emerging from a variety ofconventions at a time when theatrical forms were in transition: the pastoral , the romance, classical drama, and continental spectacles, such as the French baletde cour. It is the masque, however, diat Demaray regards as most significant, offering the reader an impressive assemblage of research on Jacobean court performance and its shaping influence, including textual scholarship, InigoJones' set designs, and odier masques and plays. Demaray's consideration ofstructural and generic elements in the play create a strong case for The Tempest as masque. While the betrothal banquet and the descent of classical gods are frequently observed masque elements, odier masque characteristics in The Tempest have escaped notice. For instance, many masques have a figure called a "presenter," who releases performers from the masque world into die actual world of die audience. The presenter, then, stands ambiguously within and without the masque. According to Demaray, Prospero fulfills this function , as he releases Alonzo, Antonio, and Ariel near the end of die play, and also in the "Epilogue" as he addresses the audience, acting both within and without the play. "Unmasking," another masque element, occurs throughout The Tempest; Prospero again provides the example, when he reveals his true identity to his daughter and, at the end of the play, to his enemies. Most important are the recurring moments ofmagic and strangeness that create a sense ofwonder for the viewer, for these, Demaray suggests, occur at moments ofchange and function as "dramatic fulcrums" to shift the drama into new action. Demaray provides a table FALL 1999 * ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW Hr 7S that charts these visual moments in relation to dramatic shifts in the plot and subplots. He also provides extensive discussion ofmany examples: one is Prospero's use of"Spirits in Shape ofDogs and Hounds" to drive offCaliban, Trinculo, and Stephano — a "magical, iconographie punishment" (60). Spectacle, more so than dramatic dialogue, thus directs the action oftheplay, and this phenomenon, above all, is what earns The Tempest a place in the masque genre. In one ofhis most interesting discussions ofgenre, Demaray categorizes The Tempest within a new form of the masque, one that was moving away from the Jonsonian classical masque to a spectaclewith more open symbolism. Still encompassing classical ingredients through figures like Ceres and Iris, The Tempest also presents other "spectacles of strangeness," such as the exotic island, magic, and Prospero as Magus; these visual elements create a more general sense ofmasquelike wonder that dominates the play. Another distinctive pattern in Jonson's masques is an "antic" episode and a character that form an "anti-masque," which acts as a foil to later harmonious visions in the masque. Although the anti-masque is reflected in the opening chaotic storm at sea and in the figure ofCaliban, these same elements also function as "visionary shows" that affect the spectator through their very strangeness. Shakespeare joins theatrical writers likeThomas Campion and Samuel Daniel in creating visual images that have no classical associations and that, therefore, evince awider response. Usingwhat Demaray calls a "looser hinge" to join magical episodes and more original "hieroglyphics," as Daniel called the visual images, these writers create inventive masques that allow a greater scope of purpose. In The Tempest, for example, Shakespeare uses the element ofwonder, not only to show magical transformations of characters and events, but also to demarcate the illusionary masque world from the actual world and its imperfections ; in contrast, the typical masque melds the magic world and the aristocratic world...