Editing Caliban upon Setebos

{{short description|1864 poem by Robert Browning}}
'''''Caliban upon Setebos''''' is a [[poetry|poem]] written by the [[United Kingdom|British]] poet [[Robert Browning]] and published in his 1864 ''[[Dramatis Personæ (poetry collection)|Dramatis Personae]]'' collection.<ref>Tracy 1938, p. 487</ref> It deals with [[Caliban (character)|Caliban]], a character from [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare's]] ''[[The Tempest (play)|The Tempest]]'', and his reflections on [[Setebos]], the brutal god believed in by himself and his late mother [[Sycorax]]. Some scholars see Browning as being of the belief that [[God]] is in the eye of the beholder, and this is emphasized by a barbaric character believing in a barbaric god.<ref>Tebbetts 1984, p. 366</ref> An offshoot of this interpretation is the argument that Browning is applying evolutionary theory to religious development.<ref>Tebbetts 1984, p. 367</ref> Others feel that he was [[satire|satirizing]] [[theology|theologians]] of his time, who attempted to understand God as a reflection of themselves; this theory is supported by the [[epigraph (literature)|epigraph]], [[Psalm]] 50:21, "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself." This could be taken as God mocking Caliban (and Browning's contemporaries) for their methods of attempting to understand Him.{{efn|See note at the bottom of {{Cite web|url=http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/caliban-upon-setebos|title=Caliban upon Setebos {{!}} Representative Poetry Online|website=rpo.library.utoronto.ca|access-date=2016-07-21}}}}

==Excerpt==
The poem begins (text in [brackets]) with a brief narration, but quickly moves to Caliban's monologue, in which he contemplates his god:
{{quote|<poem>
['Will sprawl, now that the heat of day is best,
Flat on his belly in the pit's much mire,
With elbows wide, fists clenched to prop his chin.
...
And talks to his own self, howe'er he please,
Touching that other, whom his dam called God.]
...
Setebos, Setebos, and Setebos!
'Thinketh, He dwelleth i' the cold o' the moon.

'Thinketh He made it, with the sun to match,
But not the stars; the stars came otherwise;
Only made clouds, winds, meteors, such as that:
Also this isle, what lives and grows thereon,
And snaky sea which rounds and ends the same.{{sfn|Browning|1897|pp=[https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksofr00browuoft/page/n611 593–594]}}</poem>
|source=Lines 1-3, 15-16, 24-30}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

==Citations==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book |last=Browning |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Browning |title=The Poetical Works |date=1897 |volume=1 |publisher=Smith Elder and Co. |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksofr00browuoft}}
* {{cite journal | last=Tracy | first=C. R. | date=1938 | jstor=4172415 | title=Caliban Upon Setebos | work=Studies in Philology | volume=35 | number=3 | pages=487–499}}
* {{cite journal | last=Tebbetts | first=T. L. | date=1984 | jstor=40003012 | title=The Question of Satire in 'Caliban Upon Setebos' | work=Victorian Poetry | volume=22 | number=4 | pages=365–381}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|Dramatis Personæ/Caliban Upon Setebos; or, Natural Theology in the Island|Caliban Upon Setebos}}
* [http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/browning/section12.rhtml Sparknote's study guide of the poem]
* [http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/caliban-upon-setebos The text of the poem at Representative Poetry Online]

{{Robert Browning}}
{{The Tempest}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Poetry by Robert Browning]]
[[Category:1864 poems]]
[[Category:Works based on The Tempest]]