Home
log out

The Tempest: Act 4, Scene 1

Sign in with Google to add your annotations.

The Tempest
Act 4, Scene 1

Scene 1

Before Prospero’s cell.

  1. Enter Prospero, Ferdinand, and Miranda.

Prospero

2 - 12
  1. If I have too austerely punish’d you,
  2. Your compensation makes amends, for I
  3. Have given you here a third of mine own life,
  4. Or that for which I live; who once again
  5. I tender to thy hand. All thy vexations
  6. Were but my trials of thy love, and thou
  7. Hast strangely stood the test. Here, afore heaven,
  8. I ratify this my rich gift. O Ferdinand,
  9. Do not smile at me that I boast her off,
  10. For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise
  11. And make it halt behind her.

Ferdinand

13 - 14
  1.                              I do believe it
  2. Against an oracle.

Prospero

15 - 25
  1. Then, as my gift, and thine own acquisition
  2. Worthily purchas’d, take my daughter. But
  3. If thou dost break her virgin-knot before
  4. All sanctimonious ceremonies may
  5. With full and holy rite be minist’red,
  6. No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall
  7. To make this contract grow; but barren hate,
  8. Sour-ey’d disdain, and discord shall bestrew
  9. The union of your bed with weeds so loathly
  10. That you shall hate it both. Therefore take heed,
  11. As Hymen’s lamps shall light you.

Ferdinand

26 - 34
  1.                                   As I hope
  2. For quiet days, fair issue, and long life,
  3. With such love as ’tis now, the murkiest den,
  4. The most opportune place, the strong’st suggestion
  5. Our worser genius can, shall never melt
  6. Mine honor into lust, to take away
  7. The edge of that day’s celebration,
  8. When I shall think or Phoebus’ steeds are founder’d
  9. Or Night kept chain’d below.

Prospero

35 - 37
  1.                              Fairly spoke.
  2. Sit then and talk with her, she is thine own.
  3. What, Ariel! My industrious servant, Ariel!
  1. Enter Ariel.

Ariel

39
  1. What would my potent master? Here I am.

Prospero

40 - 47
  1. Thou and thy meaner fellows your last service
  2. Did worthily perform; and I must use you
  3. In such another trick. Go bring the rabble
  4. ( o’er whom I give thee pow’r) here to this place.
  5. Incite them to quick motion, for I must
  6. Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple
  7. Some vanity of mine art. It is my promise,
  8. And they expect it from me.

Ariel

48
  1.                             Presently?

Prospero

49
  1. Ay, with a twink.

Ariel

50 - 54
  1. Before you can say “come” and “go,”
  2. And breathe twice, and cry “so, so,”
  3. Each one, tripping on his toe,
  4. Will be here with mop and mow.
  5. Do you love me, master? No?

Prospero

55 - 56
  1. Dearly, my delicate Ariel. Do not approach
  2. Till thou dost hear me call.

Ariel

57
  1.                              Well; I conceive.
  1. Exit.

Prospero

59 - 62
  1. Look thou be true; do not give dalliance
  2. Too much the rein. The strongest oaths are straw
  3. To th’ fire i’ th’ blood. Be more abstenious,
  4. Or else good night your vow!
Trinculo

Trinculo

Robert Anning Bell, circa 1900

Ferdinand

63 - 65
  1.                              I warrant you, sir,
  2. The white cold virgin snow upon my heart
  3. Abates the ardor of my liver.

Prospero

66 - 69
  1.                               Well.
  2. Now come, my Ariel, bring a corollary,
  3. Rather than want a spirit. Appear, and pertly!
  4. No tongue! All eyes! Be silent.
  1. Soft music.
  1. Enter Iris.

Iris

72 - 88
  1. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas
  2. Of wheat, rye, barley, fetches, oats, and pease;
  3. Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep,
  4. And flat meads thatch’d with stover, them to keep;
  5. Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims,
  6. Which spungy April at thy hest betrims,
  7. To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy broom-groves,
  8. Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,
  9. Being lass-lorn; thy pole-clipt vineyard,
  10. And thy sea-marge, sterile and rocky-hard,
  11. Where thou thyself dost air—the Queen o’ th’ sky,
  12. Whose wat’ry arch and messenger am I,
  13. Bids thee leave these, and with her sovereign Grace,
  14. Here on this grass-plot, in this very place,
  15. To come and sport. Her peacocks fly amain.
  16. Juno descends slowly in her car.
  17. Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain.
  1. Enter Ceres.

Ceres

90 - 97
  1. Hail, many-colored messenger, that ne’er
  2. Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter;
  3. Who with thy saffron wings upon my flow’rs
  4. Diffusest honey-drops, refreshing show’rs,
  5. And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown
  6. My bosky acres and my unshrubb’d down,
  7. Rich scarf to my proud earth—why hath thy Queen
  8. Summon’d me hither, to this short-grass’d green?

Iris

98 - 100
  1. A contract of true love to celebrate,
  2. And some donation freely to estate
  3. On the bless’d lovers.

Ceres

101 - 106
  1.                        Tell me, heavenly bow,
  2. If Venus or her son, as thou dost know,
  3. Do now attend the Queen? Since they did plot
  4. The means that dusky Dis my daughter got,
  5. Her and her blind boy’s scandall’d company
  6. I have forsworn.

Iris

107 - 117
  1.                  Of her society
  2. Be not afraid. I met her Deity
  3. Cutting the clouds towards Paphos; and her son
  4. Dove-drawn with her. Here thought they to have done
  5. Some wanton charm upon this man and maid,
  6. Whose vows are, that no bed-right shall be paid
  7. Till Hymen’s torch be lighted; but in vain,
  8. Mars’s hot minion is return’d again;
  9. Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows,
  10. Swears he will shoot no more, but play with sparrows,
  11. And be a boy right out.
  1. Juno alights.

Ceres

119 - 120
  1.                         Highest Queen of state,
  2. Great Juno, comes, I know her by her gait.

Juno

121 - 123
  1. How does my bounteous sister? Go with me
  2. To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be,
  3. And honor’d in their issue.
  1. They sing.

Juno

125 - 128
  1. Honor, riches, marriage-blessing,
  2. Long continuance, and increasing,
  3. Hourly joys be still upon you!
  4. Juno sings her blessings on you.
The Tempest, arranged for representation at the Princess's Theatre

From: The Tempest, arranged for representation at the Princess's Theatre

First performed on Wednesday, July 1, 1857

John K. Chapman and Co., 1857

Ceres

129 - 136
  1. Earth’s increase, foison plenty,
  2. Barns and garners never empty;
  3. Vines with clust’ring bunches growing,
  4. Plants with goodly burden bowing;
  5. Spring come to you at the farthest
  6. In the very end of harvest!
  7. Scarcity and want shall shun you,
  8. Ceres’ blessing so is on you.

Ferdinand

137 - 139
  1. This is a most majestic vision, and
  2. Harmonious charmingly. May I be bold
  3. To think these spirits?

Prospero

140 - 142
  1.                         Spirits, which by mine art
  2. I have from their confines call’d to enact
  3. My present fancies.

Ferdinand

143 - 145
  1.                     Let me live here ever;
  2. So rare a wond’red father and a wise
  3. Makes this place Paradise.
  1. Juno and Ceres whisper, and send Iris on employment.

Prospero

147 - 150
  1.                            Sweet now, silence!
  2. Juno and Ceres whisper seriously;
  3. There’s something else to do. Hush and be mute,
  4. Or else our spell is marr’d.

Iris

151 - 162
  1. You nymphs, call’d Naiades, of the windring brooks,
  2. With your sedg’d crowns and ever-harmless looks,
  3. Leave your crisp channels, and on this green land
  4. Answer your summons; Juno does command.
  5. Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate
  6. A contract of true love; be not too late.
  7. Enter certain Nymphs.
  8. You sunburn’d sicklemen, of August weary,
  9. Come hither from the furrow and be merry.
  10. Make holiday; your rye-straw hats put on,
  11. And these fresh nymphs encounter every one
  12. In country footing.
  1. Enter certain Reapers, properly habited: they join with the
  2. Nymphs in a graceful dance, towards the end whereof Prospero
  3. starts suddenly, and speaks; after which, to a strange,
  4. hollow, and confused noise, they heavily vanish.

Prospero

167 - 173
  1. Aside.
  2. I had forgot that foul conspiracy
  3. Of the beast Caliban and his confederates
  4. Against my life. The minute of their plot
  5. Is almost come.
  6. To the Spirits.
  7.                 Well done, avoid; no more.

Ferdinand

174 - 175
  1. This is strange. Your father’s in some passion
  2. That works him strongly.

Miranda

176 - 177
  1.                          Never till this day
  2. Saw I him touch’d with anger, so distemper’d.

Prospero

178 - 195
  1. You do look, my son, in a mov’d sort,
  2. As if you were dismay’d; be cheerful, sir.
  3. Our revels now are ended. These our actors
  4. (As I foretold you) were all spirits, and
  5. Are melted into air, into thin air,
  6. And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
  7. The cloud-capp’d tow’rs, the gorgeous palaces,
  8. The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
  9. Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
  10. And like this insubstantial pageant faded
  11. Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
  12. As dreams are made on; and our little life
  13. Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex’d;
  14. Bear with my weakness, my old brain is troubled.
  15. Be not disturb’d with my infirmity.
  16. If you be pleas’d, retire into my cell,
  17. And there repose. A turn or two I’ll walk
  18. To still my beating mind.
Enter certain Reapers, properly habited

Enter certain Reapers, properly habited: they join with the Nymphs in a graceful dance

Enter certain Reapers, properly habited

Arthur Rackham, circa 1926

Both Ferdinand and Miranda

196
  1.                           We wish your peace.

Prospero

197 - 202
  1. To Ariel.
  2. Come with a thought.
  3. To Ferdinand and Miranda.
  4.                      I thank thee.
  5. Exeunt Ferdinand and Miranda.
  6.               Ariel! Come.
  1. Enter Ariel.

Ariel

204
  1. Thy thoughts I cleave to. What’s thy pleasure?

Prospero

205 - 206
  1.                                                Spirit,
  2. We must prepare to meet with Caliban.

Ariel

207 - 209
  1. Ay, my commander. When I presented Ceres,
  2. I thought to have told thee of it, but I fear’d
  3. Lest I might anger thee.

Prospero

210
  1. Say again, where didst thou leave these varlots?

Ariel

211 - 224
  1. I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking,
  2. So full of valor that they smote the air
  3. For breathing in their faces; beat the ground
  4. For kissing of their feet; yet always bending
  5. Towards their project. Then I beat my tabor,
  6. At which like unback’d colts they prick’d their ears,
  7. Advanc’d their eyelids, lifted up their noses
  8. As they smelt music. So I charm’d their ears
  9. That calf-like they my lowing follow’d through
  10. Tooth’d briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss, and thorns,
  11. Which ent’red their frail shins. At last I left them
  12. I’ th’ filthy-mantled pool beyond your cell,
  13. There dancing up to th’ chins, that the foul lake
  14. O’erstunk their feet.

Prospero

225 - 228
  1.                       This was well done, my bird.
  2. Thy shape invisible retain thou still.
  3. The trumpery in my house, go bring it hither,
  4. For stale to catch these thieves.

Ariel

229
  1.                                   I go, I go.
  1. Exit.

Prospero

231 - 238
  1. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
  2. Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,
  3. Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost;
  4. And as with age his body uglier grows,
  5. So his mind cankers. I will plague them all,
  6. Even to roaring.
  7. Enter Ariel, loaden with glistering apparel, etc.
  8. Come, hang them on this line.
  1. Prospero and Ariel remain, invisible.
  1. Enter Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo, all wet.

Caliban

241 - 242
  1. Pray you tread softly, that the blind mole may not
  2. Hear a foot fall; we now are near his cell.

Stephano

243 - 244
  1. Monster, your fairy, which you say is a harmless fairy, has
  2. done little better than play’d the Jack with us.

Trinculo

245 - 246
  1. Monster, I do smell all horse-piss, at which my nose is in
  2. great indignation.

Stephano

247 - 248
  1. So is mine. Do you hear, monster? If I should take a
  2. displeasure against you, look you—

Trinculo

249
  1. Thou wert but a lost monster.

Caliban

250 - 253
  1. Good my lord, give me thy favor still.
  2. Be patient, for the prize I’ll bring thee to
  3. Shall hoodwink this mischance; therefore speak softly,
  4. All’s hush’d as midnight yet.
The Tempest - 2007 Pendley Shakespeare Festival

The Tempest - 2007 Pendley Shakespeare Festival

Tom Attwood, 2007

Trinculo

254
  1. Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool—

Stephano

255 - 256
  1. There is not only disgrace and dishonor in that, monster,
  2. but an infinite loss.

Trinculo

257 - 258
  1. That’s more to me than my wetting; yet this is your harmless
  2. fairy, monster!

Stephano

259 - 260
  1. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o’er ears for my
  2. labor.

Caliban

261 - 265
  1. Prithee, my king, be quiet. Seest thou here,
  2. This is the mouth o’ th’ cell. No noise, and enter.
  3. Do that good mischief which may make this island
  4. Thine own forever, and I, thy Caliban,
  5. For aye thy foot-licker.

Stephano

266
  1. Give me thy hand. I do begin to have bloody thoughts.

Trinculo

267 - 268
  1. O King Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano! Look what a
  2. wardrobe here is for thee!

Caliban

269
  1. Let it alone, thou fool, it is but trash.

Trinculo

270 - 271
  1. O, ho, monster! We know what belongs to a frippery. O King
  2. Stephano!

Stephano

272 - 273
  1. Put off that gown, Trinculo. By this hand, I’ll have that
  2. gown.

Trinculo

274
  1. Thy Grace shall have it.

Caliban

275 - 279
  1. The dropsy drown this fool! What do you mean
  2. To dote thus on such luggage? Let’t alone
  3. And do the murder first. If he awake,
  4. From toe to crown he’ll fill our skins with pinches,
  5. Make us strange stuff.

Stephano

280 - 282
  1. Be you quiet, monster. Mistress line, is not this my jerkin?
  2. Now is the jerkin under the line. Now, jerkin, you are like
  3. to lose your hair, and prove a bald jerkin.

Trinculo

283
  1. Do, do; we steal by line and level, and’t like your Grace.

Stephano

284 - 287
  1. I thank thee for that jest; here’s a garment for’t. Wit
  2. shall not go unrewarded while I am king of this country.
  3. ’Steal by line and level’ is an excellent pass of pate;
  4. there’s another garment for’t.

Trinculo

288 - 289
  1. Monster, come put some lime upon your fingers, and away with
  2. the rest.

Caliban

290 - 292
  1. I will have none on’t. We shall lose our time,
  2. And all be turn’d to barnacles, or to apes
  3. With foreheads villainous low.

Stephano

293 - 295
  1. Monster, lay-to your fingers. Help to bear this away where
  2. my hogshead of wine is, or I’ll turn you out of my kingdom.
  3. Go to, carry this.

Trinculo

296
  1. And this.

Stephano

297
  1. Ay, and this.
  1. A noise of hunters heard. Enter divers Spirits in shape of
  2. dogs and hounds, hunting them about; Prospero and Ariel
  3. setting them on.

Prospero

301
  1. Hey, Mountain, hey!

Ariel

302
  1. Silver! There it goes, Silver!

Prospero

303 - 308
  1. Fury, Fury! There, Tyrant, there! Hark, hark!
  2. Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo are driven out.
  3. Go, charge my goblins that they grind their joints
  4. With dry convulsions, shorten up their sinews
  5. With aged cramps, and more pinch-spotted make them
  6. Than pard or cat o’ mountain.

Ariel

309
  1.                               Hark, they roar!

Prospero

310 - 314
  1. Let them be hunted soundly. At this hour
  2. Lies at my mercy all mine enemies.
  3. Shortly shall all my labors end, and thou
  4. Shalt have the air at freedom. For a little
  5. Follow, and do me service.
  1. Exeunt.
Costume design for Juno

Costume design for Juno

19th century

© 2019 Unotate.com • contact • privacy policy • Creative Commons text from PlayShakespeare.com • All illustrations are public domain or Creative Commons • Header illustration by Byam Shaw