Quote 1
GONZALO
I' th' commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things, for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
And use of service, none; contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
No occupation; all men idle, all,
And women too, but innocent and pure;
No sovereignty—
SEBASTIAN
Yet he would be king on 't.
ANTONIO
The latter end of his commonwealth forgets
the beginning. (2.1.162-174)
Gonzalo has hit upon the primary problem with egalitarian rule: If it is based on egalitarian standards and rules that originate by nature, not law, then there can be no ruler who sets such laws.
Quote 2
GONZALO
Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue
Should become kings of Naples? O, rejoice
Beyond a common joy, and set it down
With gold on lasting pillars: in one voyage
Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis,
And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife
Where he himself was lost; Prospero his dukedom
In a poor isle and all of us ourselves
When no man was his own. (5.1.246-254)
Will the changes that have occurred outside of the court still hold once everyone has reached the court again? Why did a courtly problem need to be solved in a pastoral setting?
Quote 3
GONZALO
I' th' commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
And use of service, none; contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
No occupation; all men idle, all,
And women too, but innocent and pure;
No sovereignty—
SEBASTIAN
Yet he would be king on 't.
ANTONIO
The latter end of his commonwealth forgets
the beginning.
GONZALO
All things in common nature should produce
Without sweat or endeavor; treason, felony,
Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine
Would I not have; but nature should bring forth
Of its own kind, all foison, all abundance,
To feed my innocent people. (2.1.162-180)
Gonzalo's speech about how he'd rule the island is taken from Montaigne's famous essay "Of Cannibals" (1580), where the Brazilian Indians are described as living at one with nature. Montaigne writes they have "no kind of traffic, no knowledge of letters, no intelligence of numbers, no name of magistrate or politic superiority, no use of service, of riches or of poverty, no contracts, no successions... no occupation but idle, no respect of kindred but common, no apparel but natural, no manuring of lands, no use of wine, corn, or metal" (from John Florio's 1603 English translation).
This liberal concept is a pretty big deal, especially since at a time when Europeans were running around calling natives in the Americas "savages," Montaigne suggests that the Brazilian Indians live a utopian lifestyle while European colonizers are the real barbarians. (This essay, by the way, is where the concept of the "noble savage" comes from.)
What's interesting is that Shakespeare puts this speech in the mouth of one of his characters. Is Shakespeare endorsing Montaigne's ideas? Maybe. Gonzalo, after all, is the play's ultimate good guy. On the other hand, Caliban, who is a kind of exotic "other," is portrayed as a complete savage in this play.
Quote 4
GONZALO
Now, good angels preserve the
King! (2.1.351-352)
Gonzalo is loyal to a fault. On hearing that big monsters are running around the island, he calls upon the angels to protect not all of them, or just him, but the king. Is this a hint that Gonzalo suspects Sebastian and Antonio are plotting to betray Alonso?
Quote 5
GONZALO [to Alonso]
Beseech you, sir, be merry. You have cause,
So have we all—of joy, for our escape
Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe
Is common; every day some sailor's wife,
The masters of some merchant and the merchant
Have just our theme of woe; but for the miracle—
I mean our preservation—few in millions
Can speak like us. Then wisely, good sir, weigh
Our sorrow with our comfort. (2.1.1-9)
Gonzalo speaks of their preservation as a miracle, which would be the realm of the divine. Again, the divide between divinity and magic is highlighted, as it was not a miracle, but Prospero's magical instruction that preserved those aboard the ship.
Quote 6
GONZALO
I have inly wept,
Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you
gods,
And on this couple drop a blessèd crown,
For it is you that have chalked forth the way
Which brought us hither. (5.1.239-244)
Gonzalo credits God for paving the way for the two lovers to be together. Does this mean divine providence is ultimately guiding Prospero's magic, or does Gonzalo just not understand the full depth of the magic being worked here?
Quote 7
ADRIAN
The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.
SEBASTIAN
As if it had lungs and rotten ones.
ANTONIO
Or as 'twere perfumed by a fen.
GONZALO
Here is everything advantageous to life.
ANTONIO
True, save means to live.
SEBASTIAN
Of that there's none, or little.
GONZALO
How lush and lusty the grass looks! How
green!
ANTONIO
The ground indeed is tawny.
SEBASTIAN
With an eye of green in 't.
ANTONIO
He misses not much.
SEBASTIAN
No, he doth but mistake the truth totally. (2.1.49-60)
Reality reflects the nature of the speaker. This is not because reality is false, but because perspective is paramount.
Quote 8
SEBASTIAN
A living drollery! Now I will believe
That there are unicorns, that in Arabia
There is one tree, the phoenix' throne, one phoenix
At this hour reigning there.
ANTONIO
I'll believe both;
And what does else want credit, come to me
And I'll be sworn 'tis true. Travellers ne'er did lie,
Though fools at home condemn 'em.
GONZALO
If in Naples
I should report this now, would they believe me?
If I should say, I saw such islanders—
For, certes, these are people of the island—
Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet note
Their manners are more gentle, kind, than of
Our human generation you shall find
Many, nay, almost any. (3.3.26-41)
Once one fantasy is proven true, the seer can no longer trust what he believes to be reality.