anda. To hiscredit, Prospero also critiques his own direction, apologizing to Ferdinand for inflicting punishments upon him that may have seemed too austere (IV, i., ll.1-2). Like Shakespeare, then, Prospero's relation to the theater is multi-dimensional; he is an actor in the play, he is the creator of itsmost spectacular scenes and its over-arching dramatic lines, he is the director of others, and, lastly, he acts as critic of the performances turned in by his actors and his own part in the play.Shakespeare's plays were performed on an outdoor stage without lighting.Starting in the early afternoon, they had to be completed before sundownand many of theme require temporal precision in the entrances and exits ofcast members and the use of special effects, e.g., the moaning of the ghost in Hamlet. That being so, both the amount of time elapsed and the occurrenceof narrative events was crucial to the success of the performance. In his capacity as stage manager, Prospero is continuously concerned with time.At the very start of the play, Prospero says to Miranda that "The hour is now come/The very minute bids thee ope ear" (I, ii., ll.37-38) to the story ofhow they were shipwrecked together on the island a dozen years or morebeforehand. The reason that it is time for Miranda to learn of herbackground (and it is remarkable that she has not asked about it sooner)lies in dramatic circumstance: it is time for Miranda to be told who sheis because the miscreants who wronged her and her father are now in lace to repent of their misdeeds. Prospero repeatedly alludes to the need to keephis plans on schedule, uses the word "now" more than forty times a salientinstances coming at the start of Act V, when he proclaims to Ariel and hisaudience, "Now does my project gather to a head," (V, i., l.1). Like an Elizabethan stage manager, Prospero controls the pace and flow of events,making sure that the proceedings occur within the allotted time period, inpro...
