ADRIAN          Tunis was never graced before with such a paragon to their queen. GONZALO       Not since widow Dido’s time. ANTONIO       Widow? A pox o’that. How came that widow in? Widow Dido! SEBASTIAN    What if he had said widower Aeneas too? Good lord, how you take it! ADRIAN          Widow Dido, said you? You make me study […]

GONZALO       But the rarity of it is, which is indeed almost beyond credit— SEBASTIAN    As many vouched rarities are. GONZALO       That our garments being, as they were, drenched in the sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness and gloss, being rather new-dyed than stained with salt water. ANTONIO       If but one of his pockets could speak, would […]

ADRIAN          The air breathes upon us here most sweetly. SEBASTIAN    As if it had lungs, and rotten ones. ANTONIO       Or, as ’twere perfumed by a fen. GONZALO       Here is everything advantageous to life. ANTONIO       True, save means to live. SEBASTIAN    Of that there’s none, or little. GONZALO       How lush and lusty the grass looks! How […]

ANTONIO       Which, of he or Adrian, for a good wager, first begins to crow? SEBASTIAN    The old cock. ANTONIO       The cockerel. SEBASTIAN    Done! The wager? ANTONIO       A laughter. SEBASTIAN    A match! ADRIAN          Though this island seem to be desert— ANTONIO       Ha, ha, ha. SEBASTIAN    So, you’re paid. ADRIAN          Uninhabitable and almost inaccessible— SEBASTIAN    Yet— ADRIAN          […]

SEBASTIAN    Look, he’s winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike— GONZALO       [to Alonso] Sir— SEBASTIAN    One. Tell. GONZALO       When every grief is entertained that’s offered, comes to th’entertainer— SEBASTIAN    A dollar. GONZALO       Dolour comes to him, indeed. You have spoken truer than you purposed. SEBASTIAN    You have taken it […]

EnterALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO and others.   GONZALO       Beseech you, sir, be merry. You have cause (So have we all) of joy, for our escape Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe Is common: every day some sailor’s wife, The masters of some merchant, and the merchant, Have just our theme […]

  PROSPERO                             [to Ferdinand] Come on.— Thou hast done well, fine Ariel. – Follow me;– Hark what else thou shalt do me. MIRANDA                              [to Ferdinand] Be of comfort; My father’s of a better nature, sir, Than he appears by speech. This is unwonted Which now comes from him. PROSPERO                                         [to Ariel] Thou shalt be as […]

PROSPERO     [to Ferdinand] Come on, obey: Thy nerves are in their infancy again And have no vigour in them. FERDINAND                                                   So they are! My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up. My father’s loss, the weakness which I feel, The wreck of all my friends, nor this man’s threats (To whom I am […]

PROSPERO                             Silence! One word more Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What, An advocate for an impostor? Hush. Thou think’st there is no more such shapes as he, Having seen but him and Caliban. Foolish wench, To th’ most of men, this is a Caliban, And they to him are angels. MIRANDA                                                      […]

MIRANDA                              O dear father, Make not too rash a trial of him, for He’s gentle and not fearful. PROSPERO                                                     What, I say, My foot my tutor? Put thy sword up, traitor, Who mak’st a show but dar’st not strike, thy conscience Is so possessed with guilt. Come from thy ward, For I can here disarm […]