PROSPERO                                         Be collected; No more amazement. Tell your piteous heart There’s no harm done. MIRANDA                                          O woe the day. PROSPERO                                                                 No harm! (1.2.13-15) Just a little fragment, this, Prospero’s first words in the play. The stichomythia, the line sharing, is important: yes, Prospero’s interrupting Miranda’s anguished response to the spectacle of the storm […]

MIRANDA                                          O, I have suffered With those that I saw suffer – a brave vessel (Who had no doubt some noble creature in her) Dashed all to pieces. O, the cry did knock Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished. Had I been any god of power, I would Have sunk the sea […]

Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA. MIRANDA      If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch But that the sea, mounting to th’welkin’s cheek, Dashes the fire out. (1.2.1-5) This is a stunning transition; on the page, it’s a shift from […]

Enter Mariners, wet. MARINERS     All lost! To prayers, to prayers! All lost! BOATSWAIN  What, must our mouths be cold? GONZALO       The King and prince at prayers, let’s assist them, for our case is as theirs. SEBASTIAN    I’m out of patience. ANTONIO       We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards. This wide-chopped rascal – would thou […]

Enter Boatswain. BOATSWAIN  Down with the topmast! Yare! Lower, lower! Bring her to try with main course. (A cry within.) A plague upon this howling! They are louder than the weather or our office. Enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO and GONZALO Yet again? What do you here? Shall we give o’er and drown? Have you a mind to sink? SEBASTIAN    […]

GONZALO       Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard. BOATSWAIN  None that I more love than myself. You are a councillor; if you can command these elements to silence and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more! Use your authority! If you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long […]

Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO and others. ALONSO         Good boatswain, take care. Where’s the master? Play the men! BOATSWAIN  I pray now, keep below! ANTONIO       Where is the master, boatswain? BOATSWAIN  Do you not hear him? You mar our labour. Keep your cabins! You do assist the storm. GONZALO       Nay, good, be patient. BOATSWAIN  When […]

A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard; enter a Shipmaster and a Boatswain. MASTER         Boatswain! BOATSWAIN  Here master. What cheer? MASTER         Good, speak to th’mariners. Fall to’t yarely or we run ourselves aground. Bestir, bestir!                                                                                 Exit. Enter Mariners. BOATSWAIN  Heigh, my hearts; cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! Yare! Yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to the master’s […]

Starting on 1 October 2019, I am writing about Shakespeare’s great, late play The Tempest every day, beginning at the beginning and writing about 5-10 lines of the text at a time. My focus is mostly on language and sometimes on performance, and  just seeing where it takes me! Follow @starcrossed2018 for new posts; most […]