Caliban

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

kal'l-ban, the deformed and repulsive slave of Prospero, in Shakespeare's Tempest. Caliban is the opposite of Ariel in the same play. As Ariel is a spirit of the air, Caliban is a spirit of the earth. He is a sort of man-beast, brutal, coarse, malicious, devoid of moral sense; but he is not vulgar. The difference between Caliban and depraved human nature is clearly seen when he is associated with the drunken and vulgar characters, Stephano and Trinculo. The character of Caliban has furnished material for much learned discussion; possibly, however, not enough to warrant the statement made in the following quotation from Furness: If the depth of an impression made by an imaginary character may be gauged by the literature which that character calls forth, then must Hamlet and Falstaff admit Caliban to a place between them. An eminent professor (Wilson) has devoted a stout octavo volume to the proof that in Caliban we find the exact "link" which, in any scheme of evolution, is "missing" between man and the anthropoids; the late and honored Mr. Robert Browning has given utterance to the theological speculations which he imagined might have visited Caliban's darkened and lonely soul; and a brilliant member of the French Institute, of world-wide fame, has written a philosophical drama bearing the name of Caliban. No other unreal character, except the two I have mentioned, Hamlet and Falstaff, has called forth such noteworthy or such voluminous tributes. As Schlegel says, "The delineation of this man monster is throughout marvellously profound and consistent," and, notwithstanding all, "the modesty of nature" is not outraged.--Smeaton.