" 'Now from the deeps for thee let whirl a wind, lass!' " (p. 174)
- whirlwind and windlass.
Jennifer asks, "Who's Caliban?" (p. 176)
Surely she is familiar with the works of the great Historian, as Shakespeare is on this parallel Earth?
The dialogue in this section ends with yet another rhyme that I missed earlier -
Caliban: "Or anything, Miranda. Only tell."
Ariel: "Come...Let us go prepare for her that cell." (p. 178)
Such rhymes, Shakespeare's occasional way of ending a scene, are used quite often, though not consistently, by Anderson in this novel.
Prospero left Ariel and Caliban on his usually invisible island, somewhere between Italy and Spain, which might have been Calypso's or Circe's and might sometimes be sighted, even visited, by sailors who can never find it again. Caliban, of course, has aged:
"The creature's jaw dropped, showing tushes which must once have been fearsome but were now a few yellow snags." (p. 176)
Prospero's daughter, Miranda, is currently, in 1644, Queen Miranda, wife of King Ferdinand of Naples. (Naples had a Viceroy then in our history.) Time has moved on and we are indeed reading a direct sequel to The Tempest. The events of A Midsummer Night's Dream are longer ago and not directly referred to, although Oberon, who was in that play, now wants Rupert to retrieve Prospero's sunken magical equipment...
Thus, Anderson cleverly combines elements of two Shakespearean plays and devises an appropriate account of what happened next.
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