Sycorax - Sycorax in Later Versions of The Play

Sycorax in Later Versions of The Play

Sycorax has been conceptualized in a variety ways by adapters and directors of The Tempest. In John Dryden and William Davenant's version of The Tempest (1670), Sycorax is survived by two children, Caliban and a daughter also named Sycorax. This second Sycorax makes sexual advances toward Trinculo, the drunken sailor, and (according to Trinculo) also has incestuous relations with her brother Caliban. Die Geisterinsel, a 1778 version of the play in German, includes a living Sycorax, a witch who has full power during the night, while Prospero rules the day. In this play, she is the one who causes the tempest and shipwreck, not Prospero; Prospero is extremely wary of her actions as each night approaches, as she has power over those who sleep. Several times he struggles to keep Miranda awake to protect her from Sycorax's power. In Eugène Scribe's French 1846 version, Sycorax is alive but imprisoned behind some rocks out of sight. She spends most of the play trying to convince her son, Caliban, to free her. Peter Brook's 1968 British version of the play portrays Sycorax as an ugly witch, including her in a birth scene in which the equally ugly Caliban is born.

Film versions of The Tempest have portrayed Sycorax in flashbacks of the island's history. In Derek Jarman's 1979 version, Sycorax is shown leading Ariel around by a chain and breast feeding an adult Caliban. Peter Greenaway borrowed from Jarman's portrayals in his 1991 film version, Prospero's Books.