Enter IRIS. IRIS                 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 pioned and twilled brims, Which spongy April at thy hest betrims To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy […]

PROSPERO     [to Ferdinand] 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 good night your vow! FERDINAND                                       I warrant you, sir, The white cold virgin snow upon my heart Abates the ardour of my liver. PROSPERO                                         Well!— […]

Enter ARIEL. ARIEL             What would my potent master? Here I am. PROSPERO     Thou and thy meaner fellows your last service Did worthily perform, and I must use you In such another trick. Go bring the rabble (O’er whom I give thee power) here to this place. Incite them to quick motion, for I must Bestow upon […]

FERDINAND                           As I hope For quiet days, fair issue and long life, With such love as ’tis now, the murkiest den, The most opportune place, the strong’st suggestion Our worser genius can, shall never melt Mine honour into lust to take away The edge of that day’s celebration, When I shall think or Phoebus’ steeds […]

PROSPERO     Then as my gift and thine own acquisition Worthily purchased, take my daughter. But 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 […]

Enter PROSPERO, FERDINAND and MIRANDA PROSPERO     [to Ferdinand] 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 […]

GONZALO       I’th’ name of something holy, sir, why stand you In this strange stare? ALONSO                                             O, it is monstrous, monstrous! Methought the billows spoke and told me of it; The winds did sing it to me, and the thunder— That deep and dreadful organpipe—pronounced The name of Prosper. It did bass my trespass. Therefore my […]

PROSPERO     Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou Performed, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring. Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated In what thou hadst to say. So, with good life And observation strange, my meaner ministers Their several kinds have done. My high charms work, And these, mine enemies, are all […]

ARIEL                                     But remember (For that’s my business to you) that you three From Milan did supplant good Prospero, Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit it, Him and his innocent child; for which foul deed, The powers delaying, not forgetting, have Incensed the seas and shores—yea, all the creatures— Against your peace. Thee of thy […]

ARIEL                                     You fools! I and my fellows Are ministers of fate. The elements Of whom your swords are tempered may as well Wound the loud winds, or with bemocked-at stabs Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish One dowl that’s in my plume. My fellow ministers Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt, Your swords are […]