The Tempest Quotes

“To think but nobly of my grandmother: Good wombs have borne bad sons.”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

“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 mushrooms, 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 azured 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-based promontory
Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck’d up
The pine and cedar: graves at my command
Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let ‘em forth
By my so potent art. But this rough magic
I here abjure, and, when I have required
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.”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

“Years and years ago, there was a production of The Tempest, out of doors, at an Oxford college on a lawn, which was the stage, and the lawn went back towards the lake in the grounds of the college, and the play began in natural light. But as it developed, and as it became time for Ariel to say his farewell to the world of The Tempest, the evening had started to close in and there was some artificial lighting coming on. And as Ariel uttered his last speech, he turned and he ran across the grass, and he got to the edge of the lake and he just kept running across the top of the water — the producer having thoughtfully provided a kind of walkway an inch beneath the water. And you could see and you could hear the plish, plash as he ran away from you across the top of the lake, until the gloom enveloped him and he disappeared from your view.
And as he did so, from the further shore, a firework rocket was ignited, and it went whoosh into the air, and high up there it burst into lots of sparks, and all the sparks went out, and he had gone.

When you look up the stage directions, it says, ‘Exit Ariel.”
― Tom Stoppard

“What, all so soon asleep! I wish mine eyes
Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts...”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

“Prospero, you are the master of illusion.
Lying is your trademark.
And you have lied so much to me
(Lied about the world, lied about me)
That you have ended by imposing on me
An image of myself.
Underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior,
That s the way you have forced me to see myself
I detest that image! What’s more, it’s a lie!
But now I know you, you old cancer,
And I know myself as well.”
― Aimé Césaire, A Tempest: Based on Shakespeare's 'The Tempest;' Adaptation for a Black Theatre

“The very instant I saw you, did
My heart fly to your service; there resides
To make me slave to it.

...mine unworthiness, that dare not offer
What I desire to give, and much less take
What I shall die to want.”
― William Shakespeare

“A southwest blow on ye and blister you all o'er!'
'The red plague rid you!'
'Toads, beetles, bats, light on you!'
'As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed with raven's feather from unwholesome fen drop on you.'
'Strange stuff'
'Thou jesting monkey thou'
'Apes with foreheads villainous low'
'Pied ninny'
'Blind mole...'
-The Caliban Curses”
― Gary D. Schmidt, The Wednesday Wars: A Newbery Honor Award Winner

“And by that destiny to perform an act Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come In yours and my discharge.”
― William Shakespeare

“For this, be sure, tonight thou shalt have cramps,
Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up. Urchins
Shall forth at vast of night that they may work
All exercise on thee. Thou shalt be pinched
As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging
Than bees that made 'em.”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

“Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself
Upon thy wicked dam”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

“As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed
With raven's feather from unwholesom fen
Drop on you both! A southwest blow on ye
And blister you all o'er!”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

“Thou most lying slave,
Whom stripes may move, not kindness!”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

“Then to the elements be free...”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

“Caliban: As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island.”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

“There's meaning in thy snores.”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

“Come, thou tortoise!”
― William Shakespeare

“We can rape, but we can also sing.”
― A.R. Braunmuller

“You mar our labour: keep your cabins:you do assist the storm[...] What cares these roarers for the name of king?”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

“You tell me the dead are coming through a crack in my barn, but I shouldn’t worry?”
― Kathy Bryson, Restless Spirits

“Hell is empty, And all the devils are here”
― Shakespeare William, The Tempest - The Temple Shakespeare

“A main thing it says to our age ought to be plain. Its great opposed symbols are the tempest of Prospero, which Ariel made as Prospero’s slave, and Ariel’s music, which Ariel made of his own free will. The former is the result of necromantic science or theurgy. The latter is a spontaneous overflow of joy in life. The one creates an opportunity for revenge. The other resolves the situation thus created. What that says to a generation that has used its own science to make an atomic bomb is as illuminating as a flash of lightning by night.”
― Harold Clarke Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare

“Maelstrom Rock by Stewart Stafford

O, obsidian jagged island,
This playground of the gods,
Distant white novice waves,
In warhorse slam into rock.

Be this witchcraft or wit's raft?
Conducting the vast elements,
With lava-hot passion mustered,
Spinning whirlpool shipwreck tales.

A walker between the winds comes,
Both Nature and shaman within it,
Of coral and shell and weed growth,
Compassion at flaying whip's end.

Bid goodbye to the demi-paradise!
On the gloomy prow, watch it flee,
An aria's dreams of magic ebbing,
Freed thralls clasp earthly chains.

© Stewart Stafford, 2024. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford