Editing Setebos (section)

====''Caliban by the Yellow Sands''====

To commemorate the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 1916, New York City commissioned [[Percy MacKaye]] to create a theatrical experience for the community based on Shakespeare's work. The result, ''[[Caliban by the Yellow Sands]]'', required about 30 professional actors for the speaking roles and about 2500 mute participants for the pantomimes.<ref>The play's title comes from the first lines of a song sung by Ariel in ''The Tempest'', I.II.425: "Come unto these yellow sands, / And then take hands". The same lines were set to music in an Act I song of [[Arthur Sullivan|Arthur Sullivan's]] [[The Tempest (Sullivan)|incidental music to ''The Tempest'']].</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Vaughan |first=Virginia Mason |date=2011 |title=The Tempest |url= |location=Manchester |publisher=Manchester University Press |page=65 |isbn=9780719073120}}</ref>

MacKaye described the opening scene:<ref name=MacKaye1916>{{cite book |last=MacKaye |first=Percy |date=1916 |title= Caliban by the yellow sands |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/16009151/ |location=Garden City, New York |publisher=[[Doubleday, Page & Company]] |page=3}}</ref> 
<blockquote>
The scene is the cave of SETEBOS, whose stark-colored idol — half tiger and half toad — colossal and primitive — rises at centre above a stone altar.

On the right, the cave leads inward to the abode of SYCORAX; on the left, it leads outward to the sea, a  blue-green glimpse of which is vaguely visible.

High in the tiger-jaws of the idol, ARIEL — a slim, winged figure, half nude — is held fettered.
</blockquote>
Miranda discovers the imprisoned Ariel; Prospero releases Ariel and his spirits, and together with Prospero they convert Setebos's cave into a theater and perform a pageant consisting of scenes from Shakespeare. The dramatic tension consists of a struggle for Caliban's soul, between the forces of darkness, represented by Setebos and his "priests" Lust, War and Death, and the forces of light, i.e. Prospero, Ariel and Miranda.<ref name=Cartelli>{{cite book |last=Cartelli |first=Thomas |date=1999 |title=Repositioning Shakespeare: National Formations, Postcolonial Appropriations |publisher=Routledge}}</ref>
 
Judging from the program of the second (Boston) set of performances in 1917,<ref name=MacKaye1917>{{cite book |last=Mackaye |first=Percy |date=1917 |title=Program of the performances of "Caliban by the yellow sands" a community drama |url=https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:433044996$49b |location=Boston |publisher=Atlantic Printing Company}}</ref> as well as other contemporary accounts,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Collier |first=John |date=1 July 1916 |title=Caliban of the Yellow Sands |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6qEqAAAAMAAJ |journal=The Survey |volume=XXXVI |issue=14 |publisher=Survey Associated, Inc. |pages=343–350}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite journal |date=June 1916 |title=The Shakespeare Masque |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g5VRAQAAMAAJ&q=setebos |journal=The Theatre |volume=XXIII |issue=184 |pages=386}}</ref> the role of Setebos was not a speaking one and Setebos was not portrayed via an actor. Rather, the "middle stage" (where the characters of ''The Tempest'' interacted) was dominated by a two-headed idol, "half tiger, half toad," representing Setebos. The frontispiece of MacKaye's ''Program'', shown here in Figure 2, displays an image of Setebos created by [[Joseph Urban]] for the New York performances; the caption is "The Cave of Setebos."