Ariel
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Ariel. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
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. Full fathom five thy father lies; 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.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the name of several personages mentioned in the Old Testament; in the demonology of the later Jews a spirit of the waters. In Shakespeare's "Tempest," Ariel was the "tricksy spirit" whom Prospero had in his service.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
As a guide to Shakespeare's spirit, Aiton's 1910 entry still serves: the epithets, the two songs and the longing for liberty are exactly as the text has them. What has moved is what readers do with Ariel. Since the mid-20th century the play has been read as a colonial fable, with Ariel the compliant servant set against Caliban the rebel — a reading crystallised in Aimé Césaire's rewriting Une Tempête (1969) — and the part, once a boy's or a soprano's, is now cast across genders as a matter of course. The name has also travelled: Sylvia Plath's posthumous collection Ariel (1965), and the Uranian moon Ariel, known since 1851 but first seen close up when Voyager 2 passed in January 1986.
Written for this edition, 2026.