The Tempest Famous Quotes

We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.

Prospero ending the masque he has summoned for Ferdinand and Miranda in Act 4, Scene 1 — the actors dissolve, and he uses it to describe the human condition. Everything, including people, will eventually vanish without trace.

O brave new world, That has such people in't!

Miranda in Act 5, Scene 1 seeing Europeans for the first time — she has grown up with only her father, Caliban, and Ariel, so the sight of ordinary courtiers reads as wonder. Prospero's reply ('Tis new to thee') contains the irony.

Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come In yours and my discharge.

Antonio to Sebastian in Act 2, Scene 1, persuading him to murder Alonso and seize the throne of Naples — 'what's past is prologue' is his way of saying the old world is preamble, and what matters is what they do next.

Hell is empty And all the devils are here.

Ariel reporting to Prospero in Act 1, Scene 2 what the sailors cried during the shipwreck — the line is delivered as reported speech, but it gives the play its atmosphere before we have met any of the passengers.

Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes.

Ariel's song to Ferdinand in Act 1, Scene 2 — singing (falsely) that his father drowned. The song describes transformation rather than death, which is a precise analogy for what the island does to everyone on it.

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

Caliban to Stephano and Trinculo in Act 3, Scene 2, describing the island's music — the play's enslaved villain delivers its most lyrical lines, which says something about how much has been taken from him.

Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air.

Prospero breaking off the wedding masque in Act 4, Scene 1 after remembering Caliban's plot — but his description of the spirits dissolving becomes something larger: a meditation on how everything built by human hands eventually disappears.

You taught me language; and my profit on't Is, I know how to curse.

Caliban to Prospero in Act 1, Scene 2, after being called ungrateful — his argument is that the coloniser's gift of language gave him only the tools to express his own captivity.

This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou takest from me.

Caliban to Prospero in Act 1, Scene 2 — Caliban's inheritance was the whole island, and Prospero arrived, was welcomed, and then enslaved him. His claim is straightforward, and the play does not dismiss it.

I am your wife, if you will marry me; If not, I'll die your maid.

Miranda proposing to Ferdinand in Act 3, Scene 1 — she does the asking, not him, which surprised Shakespeare's original audience and still catches readers off guard. She has grown up without models for how courtship is supposed to work.

Now my charms are all o'erthrown, And what strength I have's mine own, Which is most faint.

Prospero's epilogue in Act 5 — he has surrendered his magic and stands before the audience as an ordinary man, asking them to release him with applause. It reads as a farewell from Shakespeare himself.

But this rough magic I here abjure.

Prospero renouncing his magic in Act 5, Scene 1 before the play ends — 'rough' here means 'powerful' rather than 'crude.' The speech that precedes this line lists everything his magic could do; the line announces he is done with all of it.

I'll break my staff, Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, And deeper than did ever plummet sound I'll drown my book.

Prospero's formal renunciation in Act 5, Scene 1 — the staff and the book are the instruments of his power. Breaking and drowning them mirrors the destruction of his library when he was usurped twelve years before.

Good wombs have borne bad sons.

Miranda in Act 1, Scene 2 as Prospero explains the treachery of his brother Antonio — she is trying to comfort him by noting that bad character is not inherited. The observation is sharper than anything else she says in the play.

No more dams I'll make for fish Nor fetch in firing At requiring.

Caliban's freedom song in Act 2, Scene 2, drunk on Stephano's wine and convinced he has found a new master who will free him from Prospero — his list of refused chores is his version of liberty.