One victim of the condition may have been Katharine Hepburn, who boasted of eating a pound of chocolates a day but kept her sylph-like figure to her death.

ECONOMIST: History of chocolate

Prospera has two minions at her disposal the sylph Ariel (Ben Whishaw), a translucent pale hermaphrodite who digitally skitters through the air, and the very earthbound and lustful slave Caliban (Djimon Hounsou), an African man covered with mud.

NEWYORKER: The Tempest