The Kingdom of Naples against Prospero
After his return to Naples from that
uncharted island in the Mediterranean, King Alonso dies suddenly of natural causes. His son Ferdinand succeeds to the throne but
soon falls under the malicious influence of Prospero’s brother, the unrepentant
Antonio. He convinces Ferdinand that they
were stranded on the island by the deliberate actions of Prospero and that by sinister
means Prospero bewitched the King's party, specifically entrancing King Alonso to
reinstate his title as Duke of Milan. As
this was done under duress, it was without legal effect, and thus Prospero is
again ousted from office, with Antonio again becoming Duke. Charges are brought against Prospero for
piracy, witchcraft, and false imprisonment.
Under the circumstances, the wedding of Miranda and Ferdinand is
off.
Prosecution Argument: Prospero was responsible for intercepting King
Alonso’s ship, having improperly employed sorcery. And once the innocent seafarers were under
his dominion and control, he proceeded to subject them to mental torture, for
example, permitting them to believe that others of their party had perished,
including the King’s son and heir.
Further, by either magic, mass hypnosis, or other unknown methods, he
caused the King and the members of his party to hallucinate and to lose their
free will. Such actions are of a piece
with his cruel manipulation and mistreatment of Caliban, the aboriginal
inhabitant of the island. Prospero cannot
justify his endangerment of others in order to indulge his revenge and improperly
retrieve his office. He cannot play God.
Defense Argument: Prospero admits to bringing King Alonso’s
ship to the island, but he stands on the defense of the doctrine of necessity. He and his daughter needed to escape the
island, and whatever skills he employed were legitimate means as matters of
science, not sorcery. Likewise, as to
his admittedly firm oversight of Caliban, Prospero needed to impose such discipline
for his own sake but also especially for that of his daughter. After all, Caliban is an admitted predator
and later even conspired to murder Prospero in the most gruesome of ways. And in the end, where is the harm? The ship was repaired, and all whom had been
aboard returned safely home--and with clean clothes.
Preliminary Matters
The
defense will ask the court to decline jurisdiction of this matter as the Kingdom
of Naples has "unclean hands" in being partly responsible for Prospero
and his daughter being stranded on the island in the first place. The prosecution will respond that any
grievances that Prospero may allege against the late King and against his
brother Antonio for past offenses are simply arguments tu quoque,
that is, as you did wrong, I may do wrong.
The motion will be denied.
The
defense will ask the court to dismiss the witchcraft charge as no death resulted
as required by the statute at the time, which will be granted as the court
agrees the prosecution has overcharged.
But the court will not grant a motion in limine by the defense prohibiting
the prosecution from making reference to Prospero’s purported use of black
magic as being unfairly prejudicial.
Prosecution Witnesses
Caliban
Direct Examination: He will relate his background as the son of Sycorax
and his rightful claim to the island. He
will describe his mistreatment, his bondage, at the hands of Prospero, despite
his having taught Prospero and his daughter how to survive on the island. Taking poetic license with the text, Caliban will
explain how he overheard Prospero speaking to Miranda and taking credit for
intercepting King Alonso’s ship (admission of a party opponent).
Cross-Examination: The defense will bluntly ask whether Caliban
attempted to sexually assault Miranda, to which he can claim a misunderstanding
of civilized ways. He will be asked
whether Prospero and Miranda treated him well and, in fact, educated him. He can famously reply that the only benefit
of language is his ability to curse. He
will be asked whether he resents Prospero and whether he indeed conspired with
Stephano to kill him. When the methods
of murder are elicited (Act III), the prosecution may object on grounds of
unfair prejudice.
Antonio
Direct Examination: He will testify as to how the ship was otherwise
sound, certainly "tight and yare," and so it must have been waylaid due
to other evil causes. He will describe
how he and the others were bewitched and how King Alonso was coerced into
reinstating Prospero's dukedom. He will
describe the illusions perpetrated on the King's party and their humiliating
reprimand by Prospero (Act V) while all were charmed. As to his personal knowledge of these latter
events, Antonio will claim "recovered memory."
Cross-Examination: Antonio will be asked about usurping his brother’s
position, to which objections will be made as impeachment on a collateral
matter. Those will be overruled, and he
will explain how Prospero was a neglectful, poor ruler, most content in his
library with his books. He will be asked
about suborning murder and treason by egging on Sebastian to kill his brother
and take his throne. He may respond with
some weak claim of affairs of state.
Ferdinand
Direct Examination: He will describe the trauma of being separated from
the rest of the party after the shipwreck and how Prospero forced him--a
prince!--to perform manual labor. Like
Antonio, he will describe the illusions conjured by Prospero. And he will deny falling in love with
Miranda.
Cross-Examination: The defense will offer up Ferdinand’s tender words
to Miranda to make him uncomfortable and suggest that he is weak-willed.
Defense Witnesses
Sidney St. John
Direct Examination: Professor St. John, a noted scholar, will be called
to give expert testimony in distinguishing white magic, which Prospero
practices, from black magic, which Caliban’s mother Sycorax practiced. The expert will explain how this period constitutes
the transition to modern science.
(Reference will be made to John Dee, Elizabeth’s astrologer, who is
believed to be the model for Prospero, as well as to certain of the inventions of
Archimedes, which may likely have appeared as black magic at the time.) The thrust will be to distance Prospero from the
prejudicial connotations of sorcery.
Cross-Examination: The prosecution will attempt to blur the
lines between the two kinds of magic and develop its argument that Prospero was
in any event acting unjustly as a superman.
Miranda
Direct Examination: She will be called as a character witness for her father
and to describe the circumstances of Caliban’s attempted assault. Also, she will describe their straitened
conditions on the island, thus justifying strong measures to ensure rescue.
Cross-Examination: The prosecution will continue to stress the
line of argument that Caliban may have simply misunderstood civilized
ways. She will be asked whether the
Prince was “out of thy star.”
Prospero
Direct Examination: He will relate his ouster from the Dukedom
and stranding on the island. He will
explain his troubled relationship with Caliban.
He will vaguely explain his "Art" and how he needed to bring
the ship to the island for the rescue of his daughter and himself. He will explain that he forgave King Alonso and
his brother.
Cross-Examination: The thrust will be how Prospero was bent simply on
revenge. The prosecution may seek to
trigger an outburst from him by causing him to relive the twelve years of being
marooned. (This could resemble the Reid
Technique used by police to encourage suspects in justifying their crimes, with
the aim of securing a confession.) And as
to the degree of harm inflicted, what really was the difference between his
library in Milan and the island; after all, he still had his books and magic.
To
highlight Prospero's prejudiced treatment of Caliban, the prosecution may be
guided by Montaigne's essay "Of Cannibals," which was a source for
Shakespeare. Rather than a savage,
Prospero will be asked whether Caliban isn't simply a "natural man,"
unsullied by corrupt civilization. Prospero
will respond, in line with the play's theme, that civilization must build on
nature.
He
will be asked whether that was the only ship to pass by in twelve years’ time,
on a busy sea route. The prosecution may
try to taint Prospero with black magic by inquiring into how he carried out his
"Art." He will refuse to
answer. It will be explained how after
the King’s return, officers of the Neapolitan Navy traveled to the island and
surveyed its coast, finding evidence of an artificial reef designed to function
as a "ship trap," a favorite tactic of pirates, to which Prospero will not respond. Further, it will be explained how hallucinogenic
plants were found strewn about the island.
When Prospero is asked if that is how he charmed the King and his party
or caused Ferdinand to become smitten with Miranda, he will again refuse to
answer as to how he did what he did. The
prosecution will then seek an adverse inference ruling from the court to the
effect that Prospero must have used sinister means in carrying out his devious
plans. The court will deny the request,
as it would be irrelevant since the witchcraft charge was dismissed. The only purpose then would be to inflame the
jury. Further, Prospero may not wish to
answer these questions as they are matters of trade secret.
Prospero
will be asked about his manipulation of Ferdinand to fall in love with Miranda,
and how it might cynically serve the politic end of guaranteeing his
descendants would be royalty.
Finally,
the prosecution will ask about Ariel’s report of the condition of the King’s
party and its effect on Prospero. He will
explain how it made him decide to give up his magic. The question then is, if it is so benign, why
did he have to give it up, to which he does not answer. He will be asked if Ariel’s description
caused him to forgive the King and his brother, which he concedes. Then the question, if Ariel’s chance question
had not pricked his conscience, what had he otherwise planned to do to the King
and his brother. When no response is
forthcoming, the argumentative question could be put, "So you may be no
different from Caliban?"
Closing Arguments
Defense
Prospero
is a decent man of great wisdom who merely needed to protect his daughter and
himself. All the steps that he took were
sensible and in line with science. His
actions are justified by the doctrine of necessity. And he certainly employed no nefarious means
to retrieve his title. If anything, it
was the King’s guilty conscience that caused him to reinstate Prospero as Duke.
Prosecution
The
prosecution will stress how Prospero cannot rely on the doctrine of necessity
as the harm occasioned far exceeded the harm threatened, and he had other means
to attempt rescue, such as simply signaling the King's ship with a fire. Further, he seemed to have Caliban under
control in any event, and any threat from him may have resulted from
cross-cultural misunderstanding.
Prospero was motivated by revenge, and who knows what may have happened
had not Ariel caused him to have a change of heart.
