Anyone familiar with Charles and Mary Lamb’s 1807 classic, Tales From Shakespeare, will appreciate the motive behind Peter and William Blagys’s new 11- by 17-inch illustrated edition, The Rarer Action: Shakespeare’s The Tempest Retold. As those who tend to be skittish about reading Shakespeare’s plays will discover, this wry, charming retelling of the bard’s most popular romance is much more zany and whimsical than Mary Lamb’s earnest prose adaptation of The Tempest (also adorned by vivid color plates).
Both works, however, share an important and practical aim—to recount the adventures of an exiled duke and his young daughter in an entertaining and accessible manner. The Rarer Action is a collaboration between two brothers—writer Peter W. Blagys and illustrator William A. Blagys—and it is a novel retelling of The Tempest with verse reminiscent of Dr. Seuss. The tale also takes poetic inspiration from J.R.R. Tolkien, and includes some well-chosen expressions from The Godfather.
An Adaptation in Rhyme
In lieu of Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter, The Rarer Action employs anapestic tetrameter, a tri-syllabic meter, with short and long stanzas that contain a consistent aa-bb-cc rhyme scheme. In the book’s 45-page large-format presentation, the authors succinctly narrate the densely plotted story of Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, who has been exiled on an uninhabited Mediterranean island with his daughter Miranda, after he survives the ordeal of being stripped of his dukedom by his scheming brother Antonio.
Prospero’s challenge
Benign and benevolent, Prospero has acquired his “rough” magic from his books. He is supported by Ariel, a mercurial spirit who manipulates people and events at the behest of his master. All powerful, the Duke orchestrates the attraction between his daughter and Ferdinand, the Neapolitan King Alonso’s son. Here’s a taste of how Peter Blagys introduces the adventures of the Duke and his daughter:
So old Prospero (that’s the Duke’s name) and Miranda,
His daughter (a wee tot), were left quite abandoned,
Alone and adrift out at sea in a boat,
Neither sail nor a rudder, just left there to float.
The tears of a father expecting the end,
But the smile of a child gave him strength until when
A small island they found, and it’s there that they’re stuck,
For now ten years plus two while Miranda grows up.
In Shakespeare’s tale, Prospero deliberately wrecks the ship of Antonio and his team of usurpers, forcing it to wash up on his deserted island to teach them a few lessons and force them to repent. The book’s title and epigraph are taken from Prospero’s reflection to Ariel (in Act five) that the “rarer action is/In virtue than in vengeance,” spoken before the Duke decides to release his enemies from the spell he has put them under.
Thematic Focus
In his effort to make Shakespeare accessible, Peter Blagys takes pains to ensure that the play’s exploration of differing degrees of servitude come through. His narrative cleverly outlines the ways in which Prospero exerts control over Ariel, the slave Caliban, and Miranda. Within this adaptation, when Prospero allows Miranda to wed Ferdinand, and when he finally sets Ariel free, Shakespeare’s implicit contrasts between the states of freedom and servitude are retained.
Elegant Epilogue
One of the book’s most elegant features is the Epilogue, illustrated with a gorgeous scene from the Globe theatre. It features groundlings who stand, surrounding the stage, and Shakespeare’s face superimposed within the tableau of seated patrons in the upper tiers. Here the authors wax eloquently about the end of Prospero’s tale and how the Duke might comport himself as he recites the play’s culminating scene to a live audience.
Realistic Fantasy Evokes the Supernatural
Large-scale, highly stylized pen and ink drawings by William Blagys appear on nearly every page, depicting the challenges facing Prospero using norms of realistic fantasy. This style offers elegant visual echoes of the play’s supernatural elements. The story contains at least a half-dozen illustrations that span both pages of the folio, and several full-page and three-quarter-page drawings. To ensure that readers remain mindful of Shakespeare’s verse, the authors have inserted short quotations from The Tempest underneath each drawing.
In the Afterword Blagys also takes the opportunity to remind his readers that his modern tale is best appreciated when read aloud. Not unlike connoisseurs who remind us that The Tempest should be savored through live performance rather than through slow reading in solitude.
Since King Charles II reopened London’s theatres in 1660 following the restoration of the monarchy, impresarios have adapted Shakespeare onstage to suit the tastes of their own generation. Charles and Mary Lamb chose the prose form in Tales from Shakespeare for early nineteenth-century readers. With The Rarer Action: Shakespeare’s The Tempest Retold, Peter and William Blagys offer an adaptation that entertains through drawings and an original poetic form, while also meeting the needs of today’s readers by translating a difficult Shakespearean text into something accessible.
This review was originally published on PlayShakespeare.com at https://playshakespeare.com/the-tempest-reviews/book-reviews/15650-the-rarer-action-reimagines-the-tempest-in-verse-with-larger-than-life-illustrations
Consider me a professional interpreter of William Shakespeare for intelligent readers who never warmed up to the world’s greatest playwright in high school or college. I delight in helping modern readers and audiences translate iconic texts, especially antiquated dramatic works that were meant to be experienced inside the theatre.
