Ariel
a'ri-el, as popularly known, a tricksy spirit in Shakespeare's Tempest. There seem to be several Ariels. In its Hebrew origin, the word signifies Lion of God. In the Old Testament, it is used both as an epithet and as a proper name. In the book of Isaiah, the name is given to Jerusalem. In Milton's Paradise Lost, Ariel is one of the fallen angels. In Pope's Rape of the Lock, Ariel is a sylph, the guardian of Belinda. In medieval legends, Ariel was a spirit of the air, the guardian of innocence. Shakespeare's Ariel is the messenger of Prospero. He becomes invisible at will, or assumes any desired shape in the service of his master. Prospero applies many epithets to him. He calls him "delicate," "dainty," "quaint," "tricksy," a "brave spirit," "my spirit," a "minister of Fate," "my industrious servant." But Ariel loves liberty. "My Liberty, my Liberty," he cries. Being denied he becomes "moody," and Prospero calls him a "malignant thing," though again confessing that he loves him "dearly."
TWO OF ARIEL'S SONGS.
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them,-Ding-dong, bell.
Where the bee sucks, there suck I:
In a cowslip's bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
Ariel is one of the most charming creations in the whole Shakespearian gallery. He is a creature all compact of grace and beauty. He is nimble and agile like the wind. To him, as to Puck, it would be nought "to put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes."--Smeaton.