PROSPERO                             Then was this island (Save for the son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp, hag-born) not honoured with A human shape. ARIEL                                     Yes, Caliban, her son. PROSPERO     Dull thing, I say so—he, that Caliban, Whom now I keep in service. Thou best knowest What torment I did find thee in: thy groans […]

PROSPERO     This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with child, And here was left by th’sailors. Thou, my slave, As thou report’st thyself, was then her servant, And – for thou was a spirit too delicate To act her earthy and abhorred commands, Refusing her grand hests – she did confine thee, By help of her […]

PROSPERO     Thou liest, malignant thing; hast thou forgot The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy Was grown into a hoop? Hast thou forgot her? ARIEL             No, sir. PROSPERO                 Thou hast! Where was she born? Speak; tell me. ARIEL             Sir, in Algiers. PROSPERO                             O, was she so? I must Once in a month recount […]

ARIEL                                                 I prithee Remember I have done thee worthy service, Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, served Without or grudge or grumblings. Thou did promise To bate me a full year. PROSPERO                                         Dost thou forget From what a torment I did free thee? ARIEL                                                                         No. PROSPERO     Thou dost, and think’st it much […]

PROSPERO                             Ariel, thy charge Exactly is performed; but there’s more work. What is the time o’th’ day? ARIEL                                                 Past the mid-season. PROSPERO     At least two glasses. The time ’twixt six and now Must by us both be spent most preciously. ARIEL             Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains, Let me remember thee […]

PROSPERO                                         Of the King’s ship, The mariners, say how thou hast disposed, And all the rest o’th’ fleet? ARIEL                                                             Safely in harbour Is the King’s ship, in the deep nook where once Thou call’st me up at midnight to fetch dew From the still-vexed Bermudas; there she’s hid, The mariners all under hatches stowed, Who, […]

PROSPERO                                         Why, that’s my spirit! But was not this nigh shore? ARIEL                                                             Close by, my master. PROSPERO     But are they, Ariel, safe? ARIEL                                                 Not a hair perished; On their sustaining garments not a blemish, But fresher than before; and, as thou bad’st me, In troops I have dispersed them ’bout the isle. The King’s son […]

PROSPERO                                         My brave spirit, Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil Would not infect his reason? ARIEL                                                             Not a soul But felt a fever of the mad and played Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel; Then all afire with me, the King’s son […]

ARIEL             I boarded the King’s ship: now on the beak, Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin I flamed amazement. Sometime I’d divide And burn in many places—on the topmast, The yards and bowsprit would I flame distinctly, Then meet and join. Jove’s lightning, the precursors O’th’ dreadful thunderclaps, more momentary And sight-outrunning […]

Enter ARIEL. ARIEL             All hail, great master; grave sir, hail! I come To answer thy best pleasure, be’t to fly, To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride On the curled clouds. To thy strong bidding, task Ariel and all his quality. PROSPERO                                         Hast thou, spirit, Performed to point the tempest that I bade thee? […]