RONALD TAKAKI, “THE TEMPEST
IN THE WILDERNESS: THE
RACIALIZATION OF SAVAGERY”
From The Journal of American History, 79.3
(1992): 892-912.
Trinculo: “A strange fish. Were I in England now
(as once I was) and had but this fish painted, not
a holiday fool there but would give a piece of
silver. There would this monster make a man;
any strange beast there makes a man. When they
will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they
will lay out ten to see a dead Indian” (II.ii.26-32).
Stephano: “If I can recover him, and keep him
tame, and get to Naples with him, he’s a present
for any emperor that ever trod on neat’s leather”
(II.ii.65-67).
“The English had seen or read reports about
Indians who had been captured and brought to
London. Beginning with Christopher Columbus,
European visitors to the New World had brought
back Indians. Columbus himself had displayed
Indians. During his first voyage, he wrote:
‘Yesterday came [to] the ship a dugout with six
young men, and five came on board; these I
ordered to be detained and I am bringing them.’
When Columbus was received by the Spanish
court after his triumphal return, he presented a
collection of things he had brought back,
including gold nuggets, parrots in cages, and six
Indians. […] When Columbus set sail with his
fleet to return to Spain, he took 550 Indian
captives with him” (Takaki 896-97).
“English explorers also engaged in the
practice of kidnapping Indians. When Capt.
George Waymouth visited New England in 1605,
he lured some Abenakis to his ship; taking three
of them hostage, he sailed back to England to
display them. An early seventeenth-century
pamphlet stated that a voyage to Virginia was
expected to bring back its quota of captured
Indians. […] In 1611, […] ‘a native of New
England called Epenew was brought to
England… and ‘being a man of so great a stature’
was showed up and down London for money as a
monster’” (897).
Gonzalo:
“When we were boys,
Who would believe that there were mountaineers,
Dewlapped like bulls, whose throats had hanging at ‘em
Wallets of flesh? Or that there were such men
Whose heads stood in their breasts? Which now we find
Each putter-out of five for one will bring us
Good warrant of” (III.iii.43-49).
“The Tempest can be approached as a
fascinating tale about the creation of a new
society in America. Seen in that light, the play
invites us to view English expansion not only as
imperialism but also as a defining moment in the
making of an English-American identity based on
race. For the first time in the English theater, an
Indian character was being presented. What did
Shakespeare and his audience know about the
native peoples of America, and what choices were
they making when they characterized Caliban?
Although they saw him as a ‘savage,’ did they
racialize savagery? Was the play a prologue for
America?” (892).