The Enchanted Island – John Dryden

In Dryden’s version of The Tempest, the comedic return and coupling off is made more prominent in the addition of a sister, Dorinda, and another male child, Hippolito. Even Ariel, the spirit, is paired off in the end with Milcha. The plot follows the same sequence as The Tempest, but there are some interesting additions. The conversations between Dorinda and Miranda are interesting, and by contrast, Dorinda seems more wanton in her desire for men because Miranda’s courtship with Ferdinando is supervised by Prospero, whereas in Dorinda and Hippolito’s case, Prospero stays away.

There is less talk about Sycorax the mother because of the addition of Sycorax the sister of Caliban. I’m not sure why there’s a sister, except that it provides a female coupling for the clownish troupe of Trinculo and company.

One thing that seems like a significant change is how nature is used in the play. In Shakespeare, there’s a strong division between the natural and unnatural (meaning monsters and spirits). But in Dryden, there’s a triple division between natural, unnatural, and supernatural. Sometimes the unnatural and natural become overlapped in the case of Caliban, and sometimes the supernatural and natural become overlapped, in the case of Prospero. This type of fluidity makes for an interesting play and world. There’s also a question about knowledge and knowledge production in Dorinda and Miranda. In spite of all of Prospero’s old world knowledge and his books, Dorinda and Miranda compare everything to the natural world. Comparison is their main method of understanding, and so men are often seen as types of animals, potentially dangerous as lions and bears. Prospero enhances these thoughts, in order to work out his plots, but if we think of the text (Dryden and Shakespeare) as New World oriented and Prospero as a type of colonizer, what do we make of his teaching Caliban language etc. but in neglecting his daughter’s education? Caliban seems to know more about the outside world than Prospero’s own daughters. Is this merely a gender bias or can we think about it as something more political?

Men and women coupling off is also presented as natural, and much like other plays in the Restoration seen as a way to promote good “breeding”. How can we think about breeding in an ecocritical way? Does this change our idea of marriage? There’s definitely still a religious understanding of marriage in the play, but the concept of “peopling” an island seems more like a natural desire than a religious one.