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Caliban upon the demiurge: gnosticism on the island in "Caliban upon Setebos".

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From: Victorian Newsletter
Date: 20080322
Author:Fry, Carrol L.

In a seminal article on Robert Browning's "Caliban upon Setebos: Natural Theology on the Island," C. R. Tracy summarizes various interpretations of the poem. One is to see it as a play on the argument by design. In Natural Theology (1802), William Paley proposed a metaphor that explains this concept. He describes a watch designed by a craftsman to perform its task: "It requires indeed an examination of the instrument, and perhaps some previous knowledge of the subject, to perceive and understand it, but being, as we have said, observed and understood, the evidence, we think is ...

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