The Tempest
Act V, Scene 1

Before Prospero’s cell.
- Enter Prospero in his magic robes, and Ariel.
Prospero
1 - 3- Now does my project gather to a head:
- My charms crack not; my spirits obey; and Time
- Goes upright with his carriage. How’s the day?
Ariel
4 - 5- On the sixth hour, at which time, my lord,
- You said our work should cease.
Prospero
6 - 8- I did say so,
- When first I rais’d the tempest. Say, my spirit,
- How fares the King and ’s followers?
Ariel
9 - 21- Confin’d together
- In the same fashion as you gave in charge,
- Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir,
- In the line-grove which weather-fends your cell;
- They cannot budge till your release. The King,
- His brother, and yours, abide all three distracted,
- And the remainder mourning over them,
- Brimful of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly
- Him that you term’d, sir, “the good old Lord Gonzalo,”
- His tears runs down his beard like winter’s drops
- From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works ’em
- That if you now beheld them, your affections
- Would become tender.
Prospero
22- Dost thou think so, spirit?
Ariel
23- Mine would, sir, were I human.
Prospero
24 - 36- And mine shall.
- Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
- Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,
- One of their kind, that relish all as sharply
- Passion as they, be kindlier mov’d than thou art?
- Though with their high wrongs I am struck to th’ quick,
- Yet, with my nobler reason, ’gainst my fury
- Do I take part. The rarer action is
- In virtue than in vengeance. They being penitent,
- The sole drift of my purpose doth extend
- Not a frown further. Go, release them, Ariel.
- My charms I’ll break, their senses I’ll restore,
- And they shall be themselves.
Ariel
37- I’ll fetch them, sir.
- Exit.
- Prospero traces a magic circle with his staff.
Prospero
38 - 92- Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves,
- And ye that on the sands with printless foot
- Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him
- When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
- By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
- Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime
- Is to make midnight mushrumps, that rejoice
- To hear the solemn curfew: by whose aid
- (Weak masters though ye be) I have bedimm’d
- The noontide sun, call’d forth the mutinous winds,
- And ’twixt the green sea and the azur’d vault
- Set roaring war; to the dread rattling thunder
- Have I given fire, and rifted Jove’s stout oak
- With his own bolt; the strong-bas’d promontory
- Have I made shake, and by the spurs pluck’d up
- The pine and cedar. Graves at my command
- Have wak’d their sleepers, op’d, and let ’em forth
- By my so potent art. But this rough magic
- I here abjure; and when I have requir’d
- Some heavenly music (which even now I do)
- To work mine end upon their senses that
- This airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff,
- Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
- And deeper than did ever plummet sound
- I’ll drown my book.
- Solemn music.
- Here enters Ariel before; then Alonso, with a frantic
- gesture, attended by Gonzalo; Sebastian and Antonio in like
- manner, attended by Adrian and Francisco.
- They all enter the circle which Prospero had made, and there
- stand charm’d; which Prospero observing, speaks.
- A solemn air, and the best comforter
- To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains,
- Now useless, boil’d within thy skull! There stand,
- For you are spell-stopp’d.
- Holy Gonzalo, honorable man,
- Mine eyes, ev’n sociable to the show of thine,
- Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace,
- And as the morning steals upon the night,
- Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
- Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
- Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo,
- My true preserver, and a loyal sir
- To him thou follow’st! I will pay thy graces
- Home both in word and deed. Most cruelly
- Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter;
- Thy brother was a furtherer in the act.
- Thou art pinch’d for’t now, Sebastian. Flesh and blood,
- You, brother mine, that entertain’d ambition,
- Expell’d remorse and nature, whom, with Sebastian
- (Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong),
- Would here have kill’d your king, I do forgive thee,
- Unnatural though thou art.—Their understanding
- Begins to swell, and the approaching tide
- Will shortly fill the reasonable shores
- That now lie foul and muddy. Not one of them
- That yet looks on me, or would know me! Ariel,
- Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell.
- Exit Ariel, and returns immediately.
- I will discase me, and myself present
- As I was sometime Milan. Quickly, spirit,
- Thou shalt ere long be free.
- Ariel sings and helps to attire him.
Ariel
93 - 99- Where the bee sucks, there suck I,
- In a cowslip’s bell I lie;
- There I couch when owls do cry.
- On the bat’s back I do fly
- After summer merrily.
- Merrily, merrily shall I live now,
- Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
Prospero
100 - 106- Why, that’s my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee,
- But yet thou shalt have freedom. So, so, so.
- To the King’s ship, invisible as thou art;
- There shalt thou find the mariners asleep
- Under the hatches. The master and the boatswain
- Being awake, enforce them to this place;
- And presently, I prithee.
Ariel
107 - 108- I drink the air before me, and return
- Or ere your pulse twice beat.
- Exit.
Gonzalo
109 - 111- All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement
- Inhabits here. Some heavenly power guide us
- Out of this fearful country!
Prospero
112 - 117- Behold, sir King,
- The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero.
- For more assurance that a living prince
- Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body,
- And to thee and thy company I bid
- A hearty welcome.
Alonso
118 - 127- Whe’er thou beest he or no,
- Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me
- (As late I have been), I not know. Thy pulse
- Beats as of flesh and blood; and since I saw thee,
- Th’ affliction of my mind amends, with which
- I fear a madness held me. This must crave
- (And if this be at all) a most strange story.
- Thy dukedom I resign, and do entreat
- Thou pardon me my wrongs. But how should Prospero
- Be living, and be here?
Prospero
128 - 130- To Gonzalo.
- First, noble friend,
- Let me embrace thine age, whose honor cannot
- Be measur’d or confin’d.
Gonzalo
131 - 132- Whether this be,
- Or be not, I’ll not swear.
Prospero
133 - 139- You do yet taste
- Some subtleties o’ th’ isle, that will not let you
- Believe things certain. Welcome, my friends all!
- Aside to Sebastian and Antonio.
- But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded,
- I here could pluck his Highness’ frown upon you
- And justify you traitors. At this time
- I will tell no tales.
Sebastian
140- Aside.
- The devil speaks in him.
Prospero
141 - 146- No.
- For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother
- Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive
- Thy rankest fault—all of them; and require
- My dukedom of thee, which perforce, I know
- Thou must restore.
Alonso
147 - 152- If thou beest Prospero,
- Give us particulars of thy preservation,
- How thou hast met us here, whom three hours since
- Were wrack’d upon this shore; where I have lost
- (How sharp the point of this remembrance is!)
- My dear son Ferdinand.
Prospero
153- I am woe for’t, sir.
Alonso
154 - 155- Irreparable is the loss, and patience
- Says, it is past her cure.
Prospero
156 - 159- I rather think
- You have not sought her help, of whose soft grace
- For the like loss I have her sovereign aid,
- And rest myself content.
Alonso
160- You the like loss?
Prospero
161 - 164- As great to me as late, and supportable
- To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker
- Than you may call to comfort you; for I
- Have lost my daughter.
Alonso
165 - 169- A daughter?
- O heavens, that they were living both in Naples,
- The King and Queen there! That they were, I wish
- Myself were mudded in that oozy bed
- Where my son lies. When did you lose your daughter?
Prospero
170 - 188- In this last tempest. I perceive these lords
- At this encounter do so much admire
- That they devour their reason, and scarce think
- Their eyes do offices of truth, their words
- Are natural breath; but howsoev’r you have
- Been justled from your senses, know for certain
- That I am Prospero, and that very duke
- Which was thrust forth of Milan, who most strangely
- Upon this shore (where you were wrack’d) was landed,
- To be the lord on’t. No more yet of this,
- For ’tis a chronicle of day by day,
- Not a relation for a breakfast, nor
- Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir;
- This cell’s my court. Here have I few attendants,
- And subjects none abroad. Pray you look in.
- My dukedom since you have given me again,
- I will requite you with as good a thing,
- At least bring forth a wonder, to content ye
- As much as me my dukedom.
- Here Prospero discovers Ferdinand and Miranda playing at
- chess.
Miranda
189- Sweet lord, you play me false.
Ferdinand
190 - 191- No, my dearest love,
- I would not for the world.
Miranda
192 - 193- Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle,
- And I would call it fair play.
Alonso
194 - 196- If this prove
- A vision of the island, one dear son
- Shall I twice lose.
Sebastian
197- A most high miracle!
Ferdinand
198 - 199- Though the seas threaten, they are merciful;
- I have curs’d them without cause.
- Kneels.
Alonso
200 - 202- Now all the blessings
- Of a glad father compass thee about!
- Arise, and say how thou cam’st here.
Miranda
203 - 206- O wonder!
- How many goodly creatures are there here!
- How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
- That has such people in’t!
Prospero
207- ’Tis new to thee.
Alonso
208 - 211- What is this maid with whom thou wast at play?
- Your eld’st acquaintance cannot be three hours.
- Is she the goddess that hath sever’d us,
- And brought us thus together?
Ferdinand
212 - 220- Sir, she is mortal;
- But by immortal Providence she’s mine.
- I chose her when I could not ask my father
- For his advice, nor thought I had one. She
- Is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan,
- Of whom so often I have heard renown,
- But never saw before; of whom I have
- Receiv’d a second life; and second father
- This lady makes him to me.
Alonso
221 - 223- I am hers.
- But O, how oddly will it sound that I
- Must ask my child forgiveness!
Prospero
224 - 226- There, sir, stop.
- Let us not burden our remembrances with
- A heaviness that’s gone.
Gonzalo
227 - 231- I have inly wept,
- Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you gods,
- And on this couple drop a blessed crown!
- For it is you that have chalk’d forth the way
- Which brought us hither.
Alonso
232- I say amen, Gonzalo!
Gonzalo
233 - 241- Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue
- Should become kings of Naples? O, rejoice
- Beyond a common joy, and set it down
- With gold on lasting pillars: in one voyage
- Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis,
- And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife
- Where he himself was lost; Prospero, his dukedom
- In a poor isle; and all of us, ourselves,
- When no man was his own.
Alonso
242 - 244- To Ferdinand and Miranda.
- Give me your hands.
- Let grief and sorrow still embrace his heart
- That doth not wish you joy!
Gonzalo
245 - 250- Be it so, amen!
- Enter Ariel, with the Master and Boatswain amazedly
- following.
- O, look, sir, look, sir, here is more of us.
- I prophesied, if a gallows were on land,
- This fellow could not drown. Now, blasphemy,
- That swear’st grace o’erboard, not an oath on shore?
- Hast thou no mouth by land? What is the news?
Boatswain
251 - 255- The best news is, that we have safely found
- Our king and company; the next, our ship—
- Which, but three glasses since, we gave out split—
- Is tight and yare, and bravely rigg’d as when
- We first put out to sea.
Ariel
256 - 257- Aside to Prospero
- Sir, all this service
- Have I done since I went.
Prospero
258- Aside to Ariel
- My tricksy spirit!
Alonso
259 - 260- These are not natural events, they strengthen
- From strange to stranger. Say, how came you hither?
Boatswain
261 - 272- If I did think, sir, I were well awake,
- I’ld strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep,
- And (how we know not) all clapp’d under hatches,
- Where, but even now, with strange and several noises
- Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains,
- And more diversity of sounds, all horrible,
- We were awak’d; straightway, at liberty;
- Where we, in all our trim, freshly beheld
- Our royal, good, and gallant ship; our master
- Cap’ring to eye her. On a trice, so please you,
- Even in a dream, were we divided from them,
- And were brought moping hither.
Ariel
273- Aside to Prospero
- Was’t well done?
Prospero
274- Aside to Ariel
- Bravely, my diligence. Thou shalt be free.
Alonso
275 - 278- 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
279 - 291- Sir, my liege,
- Do not infest your mind with beating on
- The strangeness of this business. At pick’d leisure,
- Which shall be shortly, single I’ll resolve you
- (Which to you shall seem probable) of every
- These happen’d accidents; till when, be cheerful
- And think of each thing well.
- Aside to Ariel.
- Come hither, spirit.
- Set Caliban and his companions free;
- Untie the spell.
- Exit Ariel.
- 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 stol’n apparel.
Stephano
292 - 294- Every man shift for all the rest, and let no man take care
- for himself; for all is but fortune. Coraggio,
- bully-monster, coraggio!
Trinculo
295 - 296- If these be true spies which I wear in my head, here’s a
- goodly sight.
Caliban
297 - 299- O Setebos, these be brave spirits indeed!
- How fine my master is! I am afraid
- He will chastise me.
Sebastian
300 - 302- Ha, ha!
- What things are these, my Lord Antonio?
- Will money buy ’em?
Antonio
303 - 304- Very like; one of them
- Is a plain fish, and no doubt marketable.
Prospero
305 - 314- 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 robb’d me, and this demi-devil
- (For he’s a bastard one) had plotted with them
- To take my life. Two of these fellows you
- Must know and own, this thing of darkness I
- Acknowledge mine.
Caliban
315- I shall be pinch’d to death.
Alonso
316- Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler?
Sebastian
317- He is drunk now. Where had he wine?
Alonso
318 - 320- And Trinculo is reeling ripe. Where should they
- Find this grand liquor that hath gilded ’em?
- How cam’st thou in this pickle?
Trinculo
321 - 323- I have been in such a pickle since I saw you last that I
- fear me will never out of my bones. I shall not fear
- fly-blowing.
Sebastian
324- Why, how now, Stephano?
Stephano
325- O, touch me not, I am not Stephano, but a cramp.
Prospero
326- You’ld be king o’ the isle, sirrah?
Stephano
327- I should have been a sore one then.
Alonso
328- This is a strange thing as e’er I look’d on.
- Pointing to Caliban.
Prospero
329 - 332- He is as disproportion’d 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
333 - 336- Ay, that I will; and I’ll be wise hereafter,
- And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass
- Was I to take this drunkard for a god,
- And worship this dull fool!
Prospero
337- Go to, away!
Alonso
338- Hence, and bestow your luggage where you found it.
Sebastian
339- Or stole it, rather.
- Exeunt Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo.
Prospero
340 - 351- 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 to this isle. And in the morn
- I’ll bring you to your ship, and so to Naples,
- Where I have hope to see the nuptial
- Of these our dear-belov’d solemnized,
- And thence retire me to my Milan, where
- Every third thought shall be my grave.
Alonso
352 - 354- I long
- To hear the story of your life, which must
- Take the ear strangely.
Prospero
355 - 361- 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 thy charge. Then to the elements
- Be free, and fare thou well!—Please you draw near.
- Exeunt omnes.