The Tempest

The Tempest

By William Shakespeare.

Table of Contents

1. Titlepage
2. Imprint
3. Dramatis Personae
4. The Tempest
   1. Act I
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
   2. Act II
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
   3. Act III
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
   4. Act IV
      1. Scene I
   5. Act V
      1. Scene I
   6. Epilogue
5. Colophon
6. Uncopyright

Imprint

This ebook is the product of many hours of hard work by volunteers for Standard Ebooks, and builds on the hard work of other literature lovers made possible by the public domain.

This particular ebook is based on a transcription produced for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on digital scans available at the HathiTrust Digital Library.

The writing and artwork within are believed to be in the U.S. public domain, and Standard Ebooks releases this ebook edition under the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. For full license information, see the Uncopyright at the end of this ebook.

Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces ebook editions of public domain literature using modern typography, technology, and editorial standards, and distributes them free of cost. You can download this and other ebooks carefully produced for true book lovers at standardebooks.org.

Dramatis Personae

• Alonso, King of Naples

• Sebastian, his brother

• Prospero, the right Duke of Milan

• Antonio, his brother, the usurping Duke of Milan

• Ferdinand, son to the King of Naples

• Gonzalo, an honest old counsellor

• Adrian, lord

• Francisco, lord

• Caliban, a savage and deformed slave

• Trinculo, a jester

• Stephano, a drunken butler

• Master of a ship

• Boatswain

• Mariners

• Miranda, daughter to Prospero

• Ariel, an airy spirit

• Iris, presented by spirits

• Ceres, presented by spirits

• Juno, presented by spirits

• Nymphs, presented by spirits

• Reapers, presented by spirits

• Other spirits attending on Prospero

Scene: A ship at sea: an island.

The Tempest

Act I

Scene I

On a ship at sea: a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.

	Enter a Ship-Master and a Boatswain.
Master	Boatswain!
Boatswain	Here, master: what cheer?
Master	Good, speak to the 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 whistle. Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!
	Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and others.
Alonso	Good boatswain, have 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 the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence! trouble us not.
Gonzalo	Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard.
Boatswain	None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; 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, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap. Cheerly, good hearts! Out of our way, I say. Exit.
Gonzalo	I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging: make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage. If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable. Exeunt.
	Re-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.
	Re-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	A pox o’ your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!
Boatswain	Work you then.
Antonio	Hang, cur! hang, you whoreson, insolent noisemaker! We are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.
Gonzalo	I’ll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell and as leaky as an unstanched wench.
Boatswain	Lay her a-hold, a-hold! set her two courses off to sea again; lay her off.
	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-chapp’d rascal⁠—would thou mightst lie drowning The washing of ten tides!
Gonzalo	He’ll be hang’d yet, Though every drop of water swear against it And gape at widest to glut him.
	A confused noise within: “Mercy on us!” “We split, we split!”⁠—“Farewell, my wife and children!”⁠— “Farewell, brother!”⁠—“We split, we split, we split!”
Antonio	Let’s all sink with the king.
Sebastian	Let’s take leave of him. Exeunt Antonio and Sebastian.
Gonzalo	Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any thing. The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. Exeunt.

Scene II

The island. Before Prospero’s cell.

	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 the welkin’s cheek, Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel, Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her, Dash’d all to pieces. O, the cry did knock Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perish’d. Had I been any god of power, I would Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere It should the good ship so have swallow’d and The fraughting souls within her.
Prospero	Be collected: No