PROSPERO                                         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.                 Exit. (Epilogue, 13-20) It’s still an epilogue, and conventional […]

PROSPERO     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 […]

ALONSO                                             I long To hear the story of your life, which must Take the ear strangely. PROSPERO                                         I’ll deliver all, And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales And sail so expeditious that shall catch Your royal fleet far off. [aside to Ariel] My Ariel, chick, That is your charge. Then to the elements Be free, […]

PROSPERO     Sir, I invite your highness and your train To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest For this one night, which (part of it) I’ll waste With such discourse as, I not doubt, shall make it Go quick away—the story of my life, And the particular accidents gone by Since I came […]

ALONSO         This is a strange thing as e’er I looked on. PROSPERO     He is as disproportioned in his manners As in his shape. Go, sirrah, to my cell; Take with you your companions. As you look To have my pardon, trim it handsomely. CALIBAN        Ay, that I will; and I’ll be wise hereafter And seek […]

ALONSO         Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler? SEBASTIAN    He is drunk now. Where had he wine? ALONSO         And Trinculo is reeling ripe! Where should they Find this grand liquor that hath gilded ’em? How cam’st thou in this pickle? TRINCULO      I have been in such a pickle since I saw you last, that I […]

PROSPERO     Mark but the badges of these men, my lords, Then say if they be true. 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 […]

PROSPERO     [to Alonso]      How fares my gracious sir? There are yet missing of your company Some few odd lads that you remember not. Enter ARIEL, driving in CALIBAN, STEPHANO and TRINCULO in their stolen apparel. STEPHANO    Every man shift for all the rest, and let no man take care for himself, for all is but fortune. Coraggio, […]

ALONSO         This is as strange a maze as e’er men trod, And there is in this business more than nature Was ever conduct of. Some oracle Must rectify our knowledge. PROSPERO                                                     Sir, my liege, Do not infest your mind with beating on The strangeness of this business. At picked leisure, Which shall be shortly, single […]

ALONSO         These are not natural events; they strengthen From strange to stranger. Say, how came you thither? BOATSWAIN  If I did think, sir, I were well awake, I’d strive to tell you. 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, […]