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The human imagination can take flight with Shakespeare's The Tempest for any number of reasons, not the least of which is the physical ambiguity of two whimsical characters: Ariel and Caliban. On stage, and surely in the mind's eye as well, the bodily forms of these two have been imagined and re-imagined ad infinitum.

How exactly might this spirit Ariel look, flying on errands at the behest of Prospero? Or this fish-like Caliban, so odoriferous to the finely-tuned nose of Trinculo? An artist can slam into a wall here: ambiguity has to be set aside and a specific look assigned to a given character. It's a book illustrator's job and it is often not an easy one.

When illustrating Shakespeare's scenes, artists have frequently latched onto a play's most whimsical moments as a source of inspiration; The Tempest has those in great abundance.

"On the bat's back I do fly" Shakespeare has Ariel sing (Act V, Scene 1). That flight of fancy is captured in this late nineteenth-century illustration (above) by an artist identified in the lower left corner as "Chadon" or "C. Hadon." It is frustrating that the Cassell, Petter & Gilpin edition (London, New York) in which it appears includes no more specific information about this particular artist/engraver.

Depicting the earth-bound Caliban inevitably seems to be more problematic with a great many artists. Since Shakespeare has the character described as "fish-like," that raises the question of how such a creature can be so depicted yet nevertheless be able to converse with humans.

Pictured below is one solution frequently resorted to: Caliban (seen to have thrown himself on the ground to the right of the dog-fleeing Trinculo and Stephano) is given webbed, frog-like hands and outlandish ears but for the most part seems recognizably human. Prospero and Ariel have an ethereal presence in the upper background, in keeping with the magical atmosphere of the entire play.

Perhaps this chaotic scene (from Act 4, Scene 1) with snarling mongrels hot on the heels of the comic trio, was almost as much fun to illustrate as it was for Shakespeare to write.

The initials "HSC" appear in the lower left corner and "JQ" in the lower right, evidently indicating the artist and the engraver, respectively. No further information about them was published in any of the three volumes of the set. They will sadly have to remain anonymous, at least for the time being.