Ariel - a "tricksy, delicate and dainty" spirit who, in The Tempest, is tied to the magician, Prospero, though the latter's magical powers.
In the play, Ariel has been confined in a cloven pine for twelve years by Sycorax the witch. The spirit directs a masque of other spirits for Miranda (Prospero's daughter and the name of my old Mitsubishi) and her lover, Ferdinand. Ariel also baits Trinculo, Stephano and Caliban, a savage and deformed slave, and sets spiritual hounds on them.
As Ariel helps Prospero on with his ducal robes, he sings the famous song, Where the bee sucks" in anticipation of his freedom. He also awakes the ship's crew from their entranced sleep and leads them to Prospero's cell. Finally, before being 'released to the elements,' he ensures a calm homeward journey.
Critics have associated the ethereal Ariel with the element, Air, and Caliban with the Earth. He can do everything:
To swim, to dive into the fire: to ride
On the curl'd clouds...(Act I, sc. ii)
The Tempest which was probably WS's penultimate play written in 1610-1611. It also contains WS's 'retirement speech' - "Now my charms are all o'erthrown."
According to Jerry Brotton in the BBC History Magazine (April 2016), the play contains several 'colonial elements which may have been connected with the English fleet being shipwrecked in Bermuda on their way to the new American colony in Jamestown, Virginia.
In 1613, this play was performed in front of King James I, a keen lover of the theatre in connection with his daughter's marriage to Frederick, the Elector of Hanover. This may explain the line when Prospero calls for a "contract of true love to celebrate" the forthcoming nuptials.
Another perhaps less well-known use of the name. Ariel, was for a heavy British motor-bike, the Ariel Square Four. This classic machine was made in Birmingham from 1931-1959 and its 1000 cc engine produced 40 bhp at 5,800 rpm.Unfortunately, due to competition from faster and lighter Japanese bikes and problems with its engine overheating, the Ariel became a historical artefact.
In the play, Ariel has been confined in a cloven pine for twelve years by Sycorax the witch. The spirit directs a masque of other spirits for Miranda (Prospero's daughter and the name of my old Mitsubishi) and her lover, Ferdinand. Ariel also baits Trinculo, Stephano and Caliban, a savage and deformed slave, and sets spiritual hounds on them.
As Ariel helps Prospero on with his ducal robes, he sings the famous song, Where the bee sucks" in anticipation of his freedom. He also awakes the ship's crew from their entranced sleep and leads them to Prospero's cell. Finally, before being 'released to the elements,' he ensures a calm homeward journey.
Critics have associated the ethereal Ariel with the element, Air, and Caliban with the Earth. He can do everything:
To swim, to dive into the fire: to ride
On the curl'd clouds...(Act I, sc. ii)
The Tempest which was probably WS's penultimate play written in 1610-1611. It also contains WS's 'retirement speech' - "Now my charms are all o'erthrown."
According to Jerry Brotton in the BBC History Magazine (April 2016), the play contains several 'colonial elements which may have been connected with the English fleet being shipwrecked in Bermuda on their way to the new American colony in Jamestown, Virginia.
In 1613, this play was performed in front of King James I, a keen lover of the theatre in connection with his daughter's marriage to Frederick, the Elector of Hanover. This may explain the line when Prospero calls for a "contract of true love to celebrate" the forthcoming nuptials.
Another perhaps less well-known use of the name. Ariel, was for a heavy British motor-bike, the Ariel Square Four. This classic machine was made in Birmingham from 1931-1959 and its 1000 cc engine produced 40 bhp at 5,800 rpm.Unfortunately, due to competition from faster and lighter Japanese bikes and problems with its engine overheating, the Ariel became a historical artefact.
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