THE TEMPEST

• Now does my project gather to a head.

  My charms crack not, my spirits obey, and Time

  Goes upright with his carriage.
• - How fares the King and's followers?

  In the same fashion as you gave in charge,

  Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir,

  In the line-grove which weather-fends your cell;

  They cannot budge till your release. The king,

  His brother, and yours, abide all three distracted,

  And the remainder mourning over them,

  Brimful of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly

  Him that you termed, sir, the good old Lord Gonzalo,

  His tears runs down his beard like winter's drops

  From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works 'em

  That if you now beheld them, your affections

  Would become tender.
• Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling

  Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,

  One of their kind, that relish all as sharply

  Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art?

  Through with their high wrongs I am struck to th' quick,

  Yet with nobler reason 'against my fury

  Do i take part. The rarer action is

  In virtue than in vengeance. They being penitent,

  The sole drift of my purpose doth extend

  Not a frown further. Go, release them, Ariel.

  My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore,

  And they shall be themselves.
• Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves,

  And ye that on the sands with printless foot

  Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him

  When he comes back; you demi-puppets that

  By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,

  Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime

  Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice

  To hear the solemn curfew by whose aid -

  Weak masters though ye be
• I have bedimm'd

  The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,

  And 'twixt the green sea and azur'd vault

  Set roaring war; to the dread rattling thunder

  Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak

  With his own bolt; the strong bas'd promontory

  Have I made shake, and by the spurs pluck'd up

  The pine and cedar. Graves at my command

  Have wak'd their sleepers, op'd, and let 'em forth

  By my so potent art.
• I'll break my staff,

  Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,

  And deeper than did ever plummet sound

  I'll drown my book
• Holy Gonzalo, honorable man,

  Mine eyes, ev'n sociable to the show of thine,

  Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace,

  And as the morning steals upon the night,

  Melting the darkness, so their rising senses

  Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle

  Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo,

  My true preserver and a loyal sir

  To him you follow’st, I will pay thy graces

  Home both in word and deed.
• Most cruelly

  Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter.

  Thy brother was a furtherer in the act.

  Thou art pinched for ’t now, Sebastian. Flesh and

  blood, You brother mine, that entertained ambition,

  Expelled remorse and nature, whom, with Sebastian,

  Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,

  Would here have killed your king—I do forgive thee,

  Unnatural though thou art.
• All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement

  Inhabits here. Some heavenly power guide us

  Out of this fearful country!
• If this prove

  A vision of the Island, one dear son

  Shall I twice lose.
• Sir, she is mortal.

  But by immortal providence, she’s mine.

  I chose her when I could not ask my father

  For his advice, nor thought I had one. She

  Is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan,

  Of whom so often I have heard renown

  But never saw before, of whom I have

  Received a second life. And second father

  This lady makes him to me.
• O, rejoice

  Beyond a common joy, and set it down

  With gold on lasting pillars. In one voyage

  Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis

  And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife

  Where he himself was lost; Prospero, his dukedom

  In a poor isle; and all of us, ourselves

  When no man was his own.
• The best news is that we have safely found

  Our king and company. The next, our ship—

  Which, but three glasses since, we gave out split—

  Is tight and yare and bravely rigged as when

  We first put out to sea.
• We were dead of sleep

  And—how, we know not—

  all clapped under hatches,

  Where but even now with strange and several noises

  Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains,

  And more diversity of sounds, all horrible,

  We were awaked, straightway at liberty,

  Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld

  Our royal, good, and gallant ship, our Master

  Capering to eye her. On a trice, so please you,

  Even in a dream were we divided from them

  And were brought moping hither.
• This misshapen knave,

  His mother was a witch, and one so strong

  That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs,

  And deal in her command without her power.

  These three have robbed me, and this demi-devil—

  For he’s a bastard one—had plotted with them

  To take my life. Two of these fellows you

  Must know and own. This thing of darkness I

  Acknowledge mine.
• Now my charms are all o'erthrown,

  And what strength I have’s mine own,

  Which is most faint. Now, ’tis true,

  I must be here confined by you,

  Or sent to Naples. Let me not,

  Since I have my dukedom got

  And pardoned the deceiver, dwell

  In this bare island by your spell,

  But release me from my bands

  With the help of your good hands.
• Gentle breath of yours my sails

  Must fill, or else my project fails,

  Which was to please. Now I want

  Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,

  And my ending is despair,

  Unless I be relieved by prayer,

  Which pierces so that it assaults

  Mercy itself and frees all faults.

  As you from crimes would pardoned be,

  Let your indulgence set me free.
• If I have too austerely punished you,

  Your compensation makes amends, for I

  Have given you here a third of mine own life—

  Or that for which I live— who once again

  I tender to thy hand. All thy vexations

  Were but my trials of thy love and thou

  Hast strangely stood the test. Here, afore heaven,

  I ratify this my rich gift. O Ferdinand,

  Do not smile at me that I boast of her,

  For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise

  And make it halt behind her.
• If thou dost break her virgin knot before

  All sanctimonious ceremonies may

  With full and holy rite be ministered,

  No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall

  To make this contract grow, but barren hate,

  Sour-eyed disdain, and discord shall bestrew

  The union of your bed with weeds so loathly

  That you shall hate it both. Therefore take heed,

  As Hymen’s lamps shall light you.
• Look thou be true. Do not give dalliance

  Too much the rein. The strongest oaths are straw

  To th' fire i' th' blood. Be more abstemious,

  Or else, goodnight your vow
• I warrant you, sir,

  The white cold virgin snow upon my heart

  Abates the ardor of my liver.
• Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas

  Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, and peas;

  Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep,

  And flat meads thatched with stover, them to keep;

  Thy banks with pionèd and twillèd brims,

  Which spongy April at thy hest betrims

  To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy broom groves,

  Whose shadow the dismissèd bachelor loves,

  Being lass-lorn; thy pole-clipped vineyard;

  And thy sea-marge, sterile and rocky hard,

  Where thou thyself dost air— 
• Hail, many-colored messenger, that ne'er

  Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter;

  Who with thy saffron wings upon my flowers

  Diffusest honey drops, refreshing showers;

  And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown

  My bosky acres and my unshrubbed down,

  Rich scarf to my proud earth. Why hath thy queen

  Summoned me hither to this short-grassed green?
• Tell me, heavenly bow,

  If Venus or her son, as thou dost know,

  Do now attend the queen? Since they did plot

  The means that dusky Dis my daughter got,

  Her and her blind boy’s scandaled company

  I have forsworn.
• Of her society

  Be not afraid. I met her deity

  Cutting the clouds towards Paphos, and her son

  Dove-drawn with her. Here thought they to have done

  Some wanton charm upon this man and maid,

  Whose vows are that no bed-right shall be paid

  Till Hymen’s torch be lighted—but in vain.

  Mars’s hot minion is returned again.

  Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows,

  Swears he will shoot no more, but play with sparrows

  And be a boy right out
• Honor, riches, marriage, blessing,

  Long continuance, and increasing,

  Hourly joys be still upon you.

  Juno sings her blessings on you.
• Earth’s increase, foison plenty,

  Barns and garners never empty,

  Vines and clustering bunches growing,

  Plants with goodly burden bowing—

  Spring come to you at the farthest

  In the very end of harvest.

  Scarcity and want shall shun you.

  Ceres' blessing so is on you.
• You nymphs, called Naiads of the windring brooks,

  With your sedged crowns and ever-harmless looks,

  Leave your crisp channels and on this green land

  Answer your summons, Juno does command.

  Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate

  A contract of true love. Be not too late.
• You sunburnt sicklemen of August weary,

  Come hither from the furrow and be merry.

  Make holiday. Your rye-straw hats put on,

  And these fresh nymphs encounter every one

  In country footing.
• These our actors,

  As I foretold you, were all spirits and

  Are melted into air, into thin air.

  And like the baseless fabric of this vision,

  The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,

  The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

  Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve,

  And like this insubstantial pageant faded,

  Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

  As dreams are made on, and our little life

  Is rounded with a sleep.
• I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking,

  So full of valor that they smote the air

  For breathing in their faces, beat the ground

  For kissing of their feet; yet always bending

  Towards their project. Then I beat my tabor,

  At which, like unbacked colts, they pricked their ears,

  Advanced their eyelids, lifted up their noses

  As they smelt music. 
• So I charmed their ears

  That, calflike, they my lowing followed through

  Toothed briers, sharp furzes, pricking gorse, and

  thorns, Which entered their frail shins. At last I left them

  I' th' filthy-mantled pool beyond your cell,

  There dancing up to th' chins, that the foul lake

  O'erstunk their feet.
• A devil, a born devil on whose nature

  Nurture can never stick, on whom my pains,

  Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost.

  And as with age his body uglier grows,

  So his mind cankers. I will plague them all,

  Even to roaring.
• Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints

  With dry convulsions, shorten up their sinews

  With agèd cramps, and more pinch-spotted make them

  Than pard or cat o' mountain.
• There be some sports are painful, and their labor

  Delight in them sets off. Some kinds of baseness

  Are nobly undergone. And most poor matters

  Point to rich ends. This my mean task

  Would be as heavy to me as odious, but

  The mistress which I serve quickens what’s dead

  And makes my labors pleasures. 
• Oh, she is

  Ten times more gentle than her father’s crabbed,

  And he’s composed of harshness. I must remove

  Some thousands of these logs and pile them up,

  Upon a sore injunction. My sweet mistress

  Weeps when she sees me work, and says such baseness

  Had never like executor. I forget,

  But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labors,

  Most busiest when I do it.
• Alas now, pray you,

  Work not so hard. I would the lightning had

  Burnt up those logs that you are enjoined to pile!

  Pray, set it down and rest you. When this burns,

  'Twill weep for having wearied you. My father

  Is hard at study. Pray now, rest yourself.

  He’s safe for these three hours.
• I had rather crack my sinews, break my back,

  Than you should such dishonor undergo

  While I sit lazy by.
• Admired Miranda!

  Indeed the top of admiration, worth

  What’s dearest to th' world! Full many a lady

  I have eyed with best regard and many a time

  Th' harmony of their tongues hath into bondage

  Brought my too diligent ear. For several virtues

  Have I liked several women. Never any

  With so full soul but some defect in her

  Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed

  And put it to the foil. But you, O you,

  So perfect and so peerless, are created

  Of every creature’s best.
• At mine unworthiness, that dare not offer

  What I desire to give, and much less take

  What I shall die to want. But this is trifling,

  And all the more it seeks to hide itself

  The bigger bulk it shows. Hence, bashful cunning,

  And prompt me, plain and holy innocence!

  I am your wife if you will marry me.

  If not, I’ll die your maid. To be your fellow

  You may deny me, but I’ll be your servant

  Whether you will or no.