Prospero’s Magic: Shakespeare’s Tempest in the Light of Contemporary Accounts of Natural Magic and Marvellous Effects

Speaker: Charles Burnett

Venue: Room 201, No 5. East Teaching Building, Zijingang Campus

Abstract: In the Tempest Prospero is the magus, the magician, who commands the spirit Ariel, who has other spirits under his control. He is recognizable as a particular kind of magician, whose actions are described in works preceding and contemporary with Shakespeare, such as Agrippa’s Occult Philosophy. Two kinds of magic can be recognized: effects achieved through the agency of spirits, and those brought about by ‘heavenly music’.