"The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
"The solemn empires, the great globe itself..." (p. 480)
In Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest, Prince Rupert quotes:
" '...the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself...' " (p. 185)
I think that "...solemn temples..." sounds righter than "...solemn empires..."?
It is confirmed that Jennifer's education/indoctrination did not include Shakespeare, even though in this timeline he is the great Historian, not a playwright. She had to ask who Caliban was and does not recognise Prospero's words as quoted by Rupert.
There is an ingenious sequel to The Tempest:
Prospero's magic book could not be destroyed by ordinary means so he disposed of it at sea where it sank to the seabed but was unharmed by the water;
he did not sail far because he feared theft en route so the book is close to shore where Rupert retrieves it in a diving bell;
Rupert suffers from the change of pressure when he returns too quickly to the surface but Ariel, a spirit of the air, fixes that;
an incantation from the book raises supernatural forces that help the Cavaliers to win the English Civil War.
Before Rupert descends, Ariel warns:
" '...I've no eye to scan the future...' " (p. 186)
Earlier, I thought he had displayed knowledge of the future when he said:
" '...names can be important. They should have called him Ernest.' " (p. 172)
But this is, on his part, an unintended pun. The only knowledge that there will later be a playwright called Oscar Wilde is the author's.
While Rupert is below, Will Fairweather comments that he has:
"...naught zave tha bell, that book, an' his life's one candle -' " (p. 188)
Thus, Will lists the bell, book and candle used in exorcisms.
When healing Rupert, Ariel names the play in which he had appeared:
" '...he'll need but a few days' rest to raise the tempest of his health.' " (p. 189)
A Puritan describes Oberon and Titania as "...woodland demons..." (p. 194) The Fair Folk are not demons but a Puritan necessarily sees them as such. That explained (to me) something in Anderson's Three Hearts And Three Lions. There, both Faerie and Hell are with Chaos against Law. I commented earlier that Faerie twilight is not demonic darkness - even if both are distinct from divine light. However, Three Hearts... is set in a timeline where the Carolingian myths are true. It follows that, if those myths share the Puritan confusion of Faerie with darker forces, then that must be how it is in that timeline.
Rupert, Will and Jennifer fly magically back to England in a boat, as shown on one book cover. Rupert recognises the land below from much map-reading but comments that there are no borders. Will remarks:
" 'I'll buss tha swile...' " (p. 202)
Although I am Will's fellow Englishman, this statement was completely opaque to me. However, I am informed that "buss" can mean "kiss." From this and the context, I deduce that Will means that he will kiss the soil. He also comments:
" '...this messin' around in boats just ben't for me. Oh, nothin' liake it, true!' " (p. 202)
Thus, he quotes The Wind In The Willows.
Our heroes rout five Roundheads but why is one of the five described as "The man of the book..."? (p. 206)
Is the final battle something of an anti-climax? Sure, the Wild Hunter, King Arthur and the knights of Avalon and even a moving forest overwhelm the Roundheads but we know something like that must happen so we read it without much surprise. Near the end, there are more passages of dialogue that are really powerful blank verse.
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