Modern English
Selected quotes from "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare.
Shakespeare's English
Heigh, my hearts! Cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! Yare! Yare!
Take in the topsail.—Tend to th' master’s whistle.—Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!
-Boatswain
None that I more love than myself. You are a councilor.
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.
- Boatswain
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.
- Gonzala
A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!
- Sebastian
Hang, cur! Hang, you whoreson insolent noisemaker! We are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.
- Antonio
We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards. This wide-chopped rascal—would thou mightst lie drowning the washing of ten tides!
- Antonio
Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground: long heath, brown furze, anything. The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death.
- Gonzala
If by your art, my dearest (mother), 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.
Oh, 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.
Oh, 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 within the earth or ere it should the good ship so have swallowed and the fraughting souls within her.
- Miranda
My brother and thy uncle, called Antonio—
I pray thee, mark me (that a brother should
Be so perfidious!)—he whom next thyself of all the world I loved and to him put the manage of my state, as at that time through all the signories it was the first, and Prospera the prime (duchess), being so reputed iIn dignity, and for the liberal arts
Without a parallel.
Those being all my study, the government I cast upon my brother and to my state grew stranger, being transported and rapt in secret studies.
Thy false uncle — Dost thou attend me?
- Prospera
Being once perfected how to grant suits, how to deny them, who t' advance and who to trash for overtopping, new created the creatures that were mine, I say—or changed 'em, or else new formed 'em—having both the key of officer and office, set all hearts i' th' state to what tune pleased his ear, that now he was the ivy which had hid my princely trunk, and sucked my verdure out on ’t.
Thou attend’st not.
- Prospera
I pray thee, mark me.
I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated to closeness and the bettering of my mind with that which, but by being so retired, o'erprized all popular rate, in my false brother awaked an evil nature.
And my trust, like a good parent, did beget of him
a falsehood in its contrary as great as my trust was, which had indeed no limit, a confidence sans bound.
He being thus lorded, not only with what my revenue yielded but what my power might else exact, like one who having into truth, by telling of it, made such a sinner of his memory to credit his own lie—he did believe he was indeed the duke, out o' th' substitution and executing th' outward face of royalty, with all prerogative.
Hence his ambition growing —
Dost thou hear?
- Prospera
To have no screen between this part he played and him he played it for, he needs will be absolute Milan.
Me, poor man, my library was dukedom large enough.
Of temporal royalties he thinks me now incapable, confederates— so dry he was for sway—wi' th' King of Naples to give him annual tribute, do him homage, subject his coronet to his crown and bend
the dukedom yet unbowed — alas, poor Milan! — to most ignoble stooping.
- Prospera
Now the condition.
The King of Naples, being an enemy to me inveterate, hearkens my brother’s suit, which was that he, in lieu o' th' premises of homage and I know not how much tribute, should presently extirpate me and mine out of the dukedom, and confer fair Milan with all the honors on my brother. Whereon, a treacherous army levied, one midnight fated to th' purpose did Antonio open the gates of Milan, and, i' th' dead of darkness, the ministers for th' purpose hurried thence me and thy crying self.
- Prospera
Wherefore did they not that hour destroy us?
- Miranda
Well demanded, wench.
My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not, so dear the love my people bore me, nor set
a mark so bloody on the business, but with colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark, bore us some leagues to sea, where they prepared a rotten carcass of a butt, not rigged, nor tackle, sail, nor mast.
The very rats instinctively had quit it.
There they hoist us to cry to th' sea that roared to us, to sigh to th' winds whose pity, sighing back again, did us but loving wrong.
- Prospera
Oh, a cherubim thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile infusèd with a fortitude from heaven, when I have decked the sea with drops full salt, under my burthen groaned; which raised in me
an undergoing stomach to bear up against what should ensue.
- Prospera
By providence divine.
Some food we had and some fresh water that
a noble Neapolitan, Gonzala, out of (her) charity, who being then appointed master of this design, did give us, with rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries, which since have steaded much.
So, of (her) gentleness, knowing I loved my books, (she) furnished me from mine own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom.
- Prospera
Know thus far forth: by accident most strange, bountiful Fortune (now my dear lady) hath mine enemies brought to this shore.
And by my prescience I find my zenith doth depend upon a most auspicious star, whose influence if now I court not but omit, my fortunes will ever after droop.
Here cease more questions.
- Prospera
All hail, great master!
Grave sir, hail! I come to answer thy best pleasure, be ’t to fly, to swim, to dive into the fire, to ride on the curled clouds.
To thy strong bidding, task Ariel and all his quality.
- Ariel
To every article.
I boarded the king’s ship. Now on the beak, now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, I flamed amazement.
Sometime I’d divide, and burn in many places.
On the topmast, the yards, and bowsprit would I flame distinctly, then meet and join.
Jove’s lightning, the precursors o' th' dreadful thunderclaps, more momentary and sight -outrunning were not.
The fire and cracks of sulfurous roaring the most mighty Neptune seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble, yea, his dread trident shake.
- Ariel
Not a soul but felt a fever of the mad and played
some tricks of desperation.
All but mariners plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel, then all afire with me.
The king’s son, Ferdinand, with hair up-staring—then, like reeds, not hair— was the first man that leaped, cried, “Hell is empty And all the devils are here.”
- Ariel
But are they, Ariel, safe?
- Prospera
Not a hair perished.
On their sustaining garments not a blemish, but fresher than before.
And, as thou badest me, in troops I have dispersed them 'bout the isle.
The king’s son have I landed by himself, whom I left cooling of the air with sighs in an odd angle of the isle, and sitting, his arms in this sad knot.
- Ariel
Pardon, master.
I will be correspondent to command and do my spiriting gently.
- Ariel
Modern English
Come on, my mateys! That’s the way to do it! Quickly! Quickly!
Take in the upper sail. Listen to the master’s orders.
Blow your heart out, storm! So long as we have enough room to avoid running aground!
- Boatswain
Nobody I care about more than myself. You’re a king’s advisor. If you can order the storm to calm down, we can all put down our ropes and rest.
Go ahead, use your authority.
If you can’t do it, be grateful you’ve lived this long and go wait to die in your cabin, if it comes to that.—Harder, men!—Now get out of our way, I’m telling you.
- Boatswain
I feel a lot better after talking to this guy.
He doesn’t look like a person who would drown—he looks like he was born to be hanged.
I hope he lives long enough to be hanged.
The rope that hangs him will do more good than all the ropes on this ship, since it’ll guarantee he stays alive through this storm. But if he’s not destined to die by hanging, then our chances don’t look too good.
- Gonzala
Oh, go to hell, you loud-mouthed bastard!
- Sebastian
Just die, you lowlife! Go ahead and die, you nasty, rude bastard! You’re more scared of drowning than we are.
- Antonio
Yes, we’ve been cheated out of our lives by a bunch of drunken, incompetent sailors. This bigmouth jerk here— I hope you drown ten times over!
- Antonio
Right now I’d give a thousand furlongs of sea for one little acre of dry ground: barren weed patch, anything at all. What’s destined to happen will happen, but I’d give anything to be dry when I die.
- Gonzala
Dear (mother), if you caused this terrible storm with your magic powers, please put an end to it. The sky’s so dark it looks like it would rain down boiling hot tar if the sea weren’t swelling up to the sky to put its fire out.
Oh, I suffered along with all the men I watched suffer! A fine ship, with some good people in it, I’m sure, smashed to pieces.
Their dying shouts broke my heart!
The poor people died.
If I’d been a god I would’ve let the sea sink inside the earth before it had a chance to swallow up that ship and all the people it was carrying.
- Miranda
My brother, your uncle Antonio — just listen to this (I still can’t believe a brother could be so disloyal!)— My brother whom — aside from you — I loved more than anyone else in the world, I trusted to run my state, which at that time was the strongest in the land, and Prospera the number one (duchess), famous for my dignity and my education.
Since I was so drawn to studying things like logic, grammar, geometry, and astronomy, I let my control of the government slide a bit, being too wrapped up in my occult books.
Your disloyal uncle — are you paying attention?
- Prospera
Once Antonio got the knack of granting certain requests, denying others, promoting some officials and keeping down those who were getting too ambitious, he won over the people who used to be mine, or changed them—remade them, you might say.
Since he had control over the whole government and everyone in it, he soon made everyone sing his own song — whichever song he happened to like. He became like the ivy that sticks to the side of the tree, and sucked my vitality out of me.
—You’re not paying attention.
-Prospera
Please listen to me carefully.
As I neglected practical matters, being totally dedicated to solitude and to improving my mind with subjects more valuable than most people imagine, I was so shut away from the world that I unwittingly stirred up evil wishes in my disloyal brother.
My deep trust in him made him deeply untrustworthy, arousing in him a treachery as big as my trust was—my trust which had no limit, an infinite confidence.
With Antonio possessing such powers and wealth, coming not only from my income but also from his ability to take whatever my authority allowed him to take, Antonio started to believe that he was the duke, like some liar who begins to believe in his own lie.
He put on the face of royalty, with all the rights that go along with it.
With his ambition growing like this—do you hear what I’m saying?
- Prospera
To make his political performance absolutely perfect, he simply had to become the Duke of Milan himself. My library was a large enough dukedom for me. So, now Antonio judges me incapable of carrying out my duties. He’s so power-hungry that he allies himself with the King of Naples, agreeing to pay him a regular annual sum, swear subservience to him, and put the dukedom of Milan—never subservient to anyone before!—under the humiliating control of Naples.
- Prospera
Now listen to the agreement they made.
The king of Naples, my arch-enemy, listened to my brother’s request, which was that the king, in exchange for the respect and money paid to him, would get rid of me and make my brother Duke of Milan instead.
A treacherous army was gathered, and one fateful night at midnight, Antonio opened the gates of Milan, and in the pitch black had his officers rush out me and you, my dear daughter.
You were crying.
- Prospera
Why didn’t they just kill us that night?
- Miranda
Good question, my girl.
My story does raise that question.
The answer, my dear, is that they didn’t dare because the people of Milan loved me too much.
They had to disguise their bloody intentions.
So, to make a long story short, they hurried us onto a ship and carried us a number of miles out to sea, where they prepared a rotten carcass of a boat, with no sails or masts or ropes, which even the rats had abandoned.
They tossed us in the water to cry to the sea that roared back at us, to sigh into the winds that sighed right back at us in pity.
- Prospera
No, my dear, you were a little angel who kept me going.
You smiled with a strength you must have gotten from heaven, while I cried salty tears into the salty sea, and groaned at our situation.
Your smile sustained my spirits against whatever would come our way.
- Prospera
With God’s help.
We had a little food and fresh water that a noble(wo)man from Naples, Gonzala, had given us out of the kindness of (her) heart. (She) had been chosen to carry out the plan of putting us to sea. (She) also gave us clothes, linen, and other necessities that have been of great help. Knowing how much I loved my books, (she) gave me some books from my library that I value more than my dukedom.
-Prospera
You should know this: much luck is on my side, and my enemies have happened to wreck their ship on this island.
As I see it, my fate hangs on this lucky event, and if I handle it wrong, I’ll suffer for the rest of my life. Now, no more questions.
- Prospera
Humble greetings, great master! Worthy sir, greetings!
Your wish is my command, whatever you want.
If you want me to fly, to swim, to jump into fire, to ride the clouds in the sky, Ariel will get right to the task.
- Ariel
Down to the last detail.
I boarded the king’s ship, and in every corner of it, from the deck to the cabins, I made everyone astonished and terrified.
Sometimes I appeared in many places at once.
On the top sail and main mast I flamed in different spots, then I came together into a single flame.
I flashed about faster than lightning.
The fire and deafening cracks seemed to overwhelm even the god of the sea himself, making him tremble underwater.
- Ariel
Everyone there got a little crazy and pulled some desperate stunts.
Everyone except the sailors dove into the sea, leaving behind the ship that I had set on fire.
The king’s son, Ferdinand, with his hair standing straight up—it looked like reeds, not hair—was the first person to jump, shouting, “Hell is empty, and all the devils are here!”
- Ariel
Nobody was hurt in the slightest.
Even their clothes are unstained, and look fresher than before the storm.
And just as you ordered I’ve separated them into groups around the island,
I landed the king’s son by himself to a faraway nook on the island, where he’s sitting now sighing, with his arms crossed like this.
- Ariel
Please forgive me, master. I’ll be obedient and do all my tasks without complaining.
- Ariel