e s t-To s t

Temp es
Robertson Davi

Ewa Przybyl and Jil Costantini

2022W609113 PS British and/or Postcolonial Literature
 Please write one word that comes up to
your mind when you hear Tempest-Tost

e s t-To s t –
e a r Tem p
You h
hi n k…
you t
 o n W i l l i a m
Roberts
a u t h or a n d
Davies - the
his work
• journalist, writer, professor
(1913 -1995)

• a theater man 5.03 – 6.23

• a trilogy enthusiast
- The Salterton Trilogy
Tempest-Tost (1952)
- The Deptford Trilogy
- The Cornish Trilogy
- The Toronto Trilogy (incomplete)

• old and white, but still beyond

matters of class and ethnicity
Worksheet 1
*Staging is the process of selecting, designing, adapting to, or modifying the
performance space for a play or film.

• If you were to stage one of Shakespeare’s play, which one would you choose? Why?

• Do you believe The Tempest to be a challenging play to be put on stage? Why/ why not?
Which obstacles would you expect to encounter as a director?/ Which role do you think
is the most complex, difficult to interpret for an actor?
 The plot
• Story of an amateur dramatic group, as they prepare to stage an outdoor
production of The Tempest – ‘play within a play’ concept

tle Theatre Movement

*Lit
• Full of eccentric characters, revolving around the central story of a foolish,
love-sick man and the girl he has his eye on - Hector and Griselda

• Illustration of Canada’s cultural development from a relatively homogenous,

monocultural society to a multicultural nation
 P EST-TOST - se tting “Dreamy and old-w

TEM
orld.

m of time.
“Anchor in the stea
n th ey die.
rgymen go whe
Salterton – Kingston (Ontario)
Anglican cle uaint.
place where “Q
“A
 T -T O S T - se tti n g
TEMPES & g a r de n:
e b s t e r ’ s m a ns i on
Mr. W
P r osp e r o ’ s I s l e

became
martyred Roman virgin
St Agnes rls
the patron saint of gi Cornwall
s, Isles of Sc illy /
St Agne
The shed
 The protagonists
(& their meaningful names) fo u r li f e is o f a mingled
“The web o ur
g oo d a n d il l together: o
yarn, u d, if our fau
lts
u ld b e p r o
virtues wo and our crim
es
t h e m n o t ;
whipped ot
they were n
• The Websters: George Webster + Griselda and Fredegone (Freddy)
d e s p a ir, if
Romantic y The Gardner would
o ung schola
• Tom Gwalchmai
is h e d b y o u r virtues."
r cher
• Solomon (Solly) Bridgetower + his mother ds Well
—All’s Well that En

hs t eacher • Hector Mackilwraith

le- ag ed mat • Roger Tasset Womanizer

Midd
• Pearl Vambrace

• Mrs. Nelly Forrester

• Miss Valentine Rich The Director
• Humphrey Cobbler
• Geordie Shortreed
• Walter Vambrace

• Bonnie-Susan ‘The Torso’

Worksheet 2
Try to guess which role they play/have in the
production of
The Tempest
“He [Hector] was strongly conscious
that Griselda was a woman and was
subject to the disabilities which
he believed to be a special and
unjust burden to her sex.
- about Griselda
“He liked to be where people were
gay, but he did not permit an
uncontrolled gaiety in himself.
“He had never, in all his forty
years, kissed any woman but his
mother.
“He was not the kind of
schoolmaster who scribbles on
exercise papers; with a red pencil
as sharp as a needle he would put a
little mark at the point where the
problem had gone wrong, not in such
a way as to assist the erring
student, but merely in order to
show him where he had fallen into
mathematical sin.
- about Hector
“She was not he recognized, like any girl
upon whom he had tried his skill before.
She was wealthy, which meant that he must
be very careful, for one does not lightly
seduce rich girls; they have too many
powerful relatives and are too much
accustomed to getting the better of
things. He seriously questioned whether
he could proceed to the usual conclusion
of his plan with Griselda. Indeed, he
marveled dimly that gold, which could
make an attractive girl so much more
attractive should also protect her
thoroughly. And as well as money,
Griselda had the manners and the
conversation of a well-bred girl who had
read a great many books of the easier
sort, and these qualities Roger mistook
for worldly wisdom and unusual
intelligence. For the first time in his
life Roger had met a girl with whom he
felt that a ‘nice’ – well, fairly nice –
relationship was worth cultivating,
Griselda was capable of giving him
something which he valued even more than
physical satisfaction; she could give him
class. – about Roger
 It’s complicated... Trinitarian Pr
ospero:
Miss Valentine
Rich
Tom Gwalchmai
Humphrey Cobbl
er

More like:
Role: Played by:
Professor Vambrace Antonio
Prospero
-
Miranda Pearl Vambrace
Miranda
Ariel Griselda Webster
Trinculo
Caliban Geordie Shortreed
-
Ferdinand Roger Tasset
Caliban
Gonzalo Hector Mackilwraith

Solly
Bridgetower
Worksheet 3 - extra questions I will try to
answer myself if there is enough time
• *What do we make of the idea of a “Trinitarian” Prospero? Is this possible? Do
the three characters (Valentine, Humphrey, and Tom) possess any agency in the
novel? If so, what do we make of The Shed (Prospero’s hut), which technically
belongs to Mr. Webster and is Tom’s sanctuary? What do we do with Mr. Webster who
owns the entire property where the play is being held? Does he hold any agency?

• *Hector is viewed as the Caliban figure in this text due to his solitary nature
and his inability to express himself through words. Do we agree with this
characterization? What evidence do we see of Hector’s alignment with Caliban?
Shakespeare, Davies and …mommy issues

Shakespeare, The Tempest

The absence of mothers is notable

Miranda & Caliban

Davies in Tempest-Tost fills this
empty maternal space with the witch-like
domineering mother figures, e.g.

BONDAGE
FREEDOM &
Solly’s mother
Hector’s mother
ION
RECONCILIAT

Nelly Forrester
Wrap-up
• The Tempest – touchstone for creative writers

• Robertson Davies – uses intertextual strategy to construct a social satire,

commenting on Canadian provincialism and the respect Canadians have for English
culture

• Tempest-Tost is an enjoyable novel with some good lines and passages:

”It’s a mistake to
see

!
people dressing. O
ne should
see them either dr
essed or
naked; those are t
he only
two decent states.
All else
is shame and disil
lusion.
Thank you J
Sources
• https://canadian-writers.athabascau.ca/english/writers/rdavies.php
• https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/robertson-davies
• Fritsch, Esther. “Tossing the Tempest– American and Canadian Adaptations of
Shakespeare’s.” Trans. Array American and Canadian Literature and Culture: Across a
Latitudinal Line. 1st ed. Saarbrücken: Amarant Presse, 2008, pp. 96-118.
• O’Neill, Kate. “Re-writing the Colonial Experience: Robertson Davies’ Use of Parody
in.” Trans. Array Studies on Themes and Motifs in Literature: Rewriting Text Remaking
Images. 1st ed. Peter Lang, 2010, pp. 121-131.
• Jackson, Sabine. “Robertson Davies’s Cultural Consciousness”. Revue LISA/LISA e-
journal [Online], vol. III, n. 2, 2005. URL:
http://journals.openedition.org/lisa/2645; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/lisa.2645p.
146-159
• Davies, Robertson. Tempest-Tost, in The Salterton Trilogy. Penguin Books, 2011.