“Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open, and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked,
I cried to dream again.”
We are a couple of hours from the Mediterrenean here, so this is no island paradise; but Caliban’s friendly welcome to Ferdinand in Shakespeare’s Tempest flooded into my mind as I set off on my walk at 7.30 this morning.
The birds had been up betimes–taking over from the cicadas we heard last night.
Cicadas in April..?, we asked ourselves.
The golden oriole scolded me for being late, but the rest were happy talking among themselves, sounding like:
“a thousand twangling instruments–hum{ing} about mine ears!”.
Things get going early here–a few neighbours had dropped by already.
Early callers!
They seemed a little nervous when I appeared and moved on to a quieter part of the meadow.
The pheasant hopped into the undergrowth when he spotted me–his squawk sounding like an steam train on its last journey to the breakers’ yard.
I played Ferdinand in 1965 at Salisbury Repertory Theatre–my first professional Shakespeare.
I’d been Prospero too, the exiled Duke of Milan, in a school production a few years earlier and seen John Gielgud play it at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The play is an old friend.
Ferdinand is hardly one of the great parts in the repertoire–his main job being to look convincingly awed throughout. Awed by the island, awed by Prospero’s daughter, Miranda–well and truly AWED!
As I descended into the little valley, surrounded by these magical sounds, I felt a touch of Ferdinand’s awe rising unashamedly in me!
Robin Ellis 