PROSPERO     If thou more murmur’st, I will rend an oak

And peg thee in his knotty entails till

Thou hast howled away twelve winters.

ARIEL                                                                         Pardon, master,

I will be correspondent to command

And do my spriting gently.

PROSPERO     Do so, and after two days

I will discharge thee.

ARIEL                                                 That’s my noble master.

What shall I do? Say what? What shall I do?

PROSPERO     Go make thyself like a nymph o’th’ sea;

Be subject to no sight but thine and mine, invisible

To every eyeball else. Go take this shape

And hither come in’t. Go! Hence with diligence.

Exit [Ariel] (1.2.294-305)

Am I being unfair to Prospero, seeing him above all as an angry bully? Here, the fight’s about to go out of him, and it would be possible to play the whole exchange with Ariel as a well-rehearsed, familiar routine, knowing, even playful, Ariel indulging their irascible old master, whose bark is worse than his bite. Possible. But I do think that Prospero’s damaged; just because his temper is quick to flare up and, apparently, to subside doesn’t wholly take the sting out of his threats. The promise to rend an oak, to shut up Ariel in its knotty entrails for yet another twelve years could be made ridiculous, but we have already had made clear what Prospero is capable of, the extent of his power. If he can raise a storm, he can certainly split trees. Ariel’s response could be slightly tongue in cheek – I’ll do as I’m told, be correspondent to command (the alliteration lightens it) – and the idea of doing spriting gently is lovely, although gently here mostly means submissively, quietly, politely – not the sight-outrunning, sea-diving exuberance they have earlier asserted. And then a promise from Prospero, still the one who commands and marks out time: if you do as you’re told, you’ll have your freedom in two days. Ariel’s response could be gleeful, or it could be reluctant, dogged, resigned: what shall I do? What do you want me to do now? So there’s a theatrical challenge, starting small – make thyself like a nymph o’th’ sea – such nymphs would be familiar to at least some in the audience from masques and entertainments; civic and royal pageants often included elaborate processions on the Thames with maritime themes, for instance. But also be invisible. An invisible sea-nymph. Invisible to everyone except Ariel and Prospero. And the audience, presumably. For better or worse, we share Prospero’s privileged perspective. Jump to it!