African Prince: Is Shakespeare's Caliban Based On Real London Visitor?

LONDON - Shakespeare's Caliban may have been modeled after a West African prince who was sent to London to be baptized a Christian.

A U.S. scholar has tracked down the story of a young Guinean prince who she believes could have inspired the fictional savage in "The Tempest."

In the play, Caliban is the witch's son who serves Prospero on a deserted island. Most scholars believe Shakespeare named Caliban by making an anagram of the word "cannibal."

However, Professor Rosyln Knutson, a Shakespeare expert at the University of Arkansas, has a different theory. She believes she may have tracked down "Caliban" to the church of St. Mildred Poultry, in the City of London, where an unusual baptism is recorded.

"The baptismal entry is bursting with provocative details," she said.

On Jan. 1, 1611, the baptism took place of "Dedery Jaquoah, about the age of 20 years, the son of Caddi-biah, king of the river of Cetras in the country of Guinea."

The entry reports how the young man's father had sent him to London on the ship Abigail so he could become a Christian. The poignant baptismal entry records that the young prince "repeated the Lord's Prayer in English at the font."

He was then baptized John.

The baptism of an African prince was clearly an unusual event in London: Most entries in the baptismal register of St. Mildred Poultry were just a few lines, but Caddi-biah's son's baptism merited a full page. Knutson said she was struck by the similarities in the names of Caddi-biah and Caliban. Shakespeare was writing "The Tempest" in London at the beginning of 1611, and she believes he may have heard about the baptism at St. Mildred Poultry.

"London was a small place, particularly for the middle class, and it is quite possible that Shakespeare heard about the unusual baptism of the Guinean," she said. "Caddi-biah could have been the inspiration for Caliban."

Knutson also has tracked down the next part of the story. The son of Caddi-biah, now christened John, returned to West Africa on the Abigail. On the journey the ship was attacked by Dutch pirates. Six men were taken in April 1611, plus a youth named John.

Knutson hopes there was a happy ending: "It is possible that something terrible happened to John Caddi-biah. But I chose to imagine a happy ending, in which he, too, escaped from the pirates in Barbary and found passage home, where he served his countrymen as king of the river."