Eliot's Notes to "The Waste Land" // 1.48

Line 48:

(Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)

Additional info:

Shakespeare's The Tempest tells of the sorceror Prospero, who along with his daughter has been exiled on a remote island for many years. Prospero engineers a shipwreck to reclaim his usurped position as the Duke of Milan. Among the shipwrecked is Ferdinand, prince of Naples and soon-to-be suitor to Propero's daughter, Miranda.

The lines quoted by Eliot are part of song by the spirit Ariel, servant to Prospero, telling Ferdinand that his father died in the shipwreck. Unbeknowst to Ferdinand, the spirit is lying.

From Act 1, Scene 2:

Ariel
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

Eliot returns to The Tempest in lines 125, 192, and 257. In line 218, he links Ferdinand to both the Phoenecian sailor and Fisher King.


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