GONZALO All torment, trouble, wonder and amazement
Inhabits here. Some heavenly power guide us
Out of this fearful country.
PROSPERO Behold, sir King,
The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero!
For more assurance that a living prince
Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body,
And to thee and thy company I bid
A hearty welcome. (5.1.104-111)
It’s a really interesting choice here to have Gonzalo speak first, out of all the Neapolitans, and for Prospero to ignore him, at least initially. A charitable interpretation: Prospero is so over-wrought by this moment, the culmination and climax of his plan, that he has eyes only for the King, whom he must address first, formally, as part of his reclaiming of his title. But first, Gonzalo is allowed to express his fear and pain at what has assailed them: this island is a place of torment and trouble, as well as one of wonder and amazement (those words which have been so characteristic of the play). (The island sounds, here, very much like a theatre.) And Gonzalo looks for divine aid; is there no way out of this fearful country? But no answer for him yet; instead, Prospero, identifying himself to the king, by name and as the wronged Duke of Milan. Interestingly, he says, in effect, I’m not a ghost (both anticipating what the King might legitimately think, and cuing an amazed, aghast response from the King and courtiers as they imagine that he might be) and he also offers to prove it (and does so) with an implicit stage direction, as he embraces the King. It’s a gesture which demonstrates not only his corporeality and liveliness but is also a formal embrace between equals, and hence an assertion of Prospero’s claim to hold his dukedom in his own right, and not as a client of Naples. And by bidding the King and his company a hearty welcome, he is being wonderfully ironic (given the way they’ve been treated so far, and not least by the last welcome they were offered on the island, in the form of the terrifying harpy and the banquet which disappeared) but also asserting his prerogative as the ruler of the island, and as their host – and therefore, perhaps, reassuring them of their safety as his guests. Reassuring them that everything will be alright. He is, in some respects, the heavenly power longed for by Gonzalo, as he makes Alonso an unwitting Doubting Thomas. I have become much more sympathetic towards Prospero, but he definitely has delusions of divinity… Implicit in what he says, and perhaps especially in answer to Gonzalo, is Be not afeard.
