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The Tempest

Written: 1611; Texts: First Folio 1623 (Comedy), no quarto editions
Source: Strachey, William (c.1567-c.1634) (dated 15.Jul.1610, printed 1625); Jourdain, Sylvester (?-1650). A Discovery of the Bermudas (1610); Jourdain, Sylvester (?-1650) The True Declaration of the Estate of Colonie in Virginia (1610)
Characters: Prospero, Ariel, Caliban, Miranda, Ferdinand, Antonio, Gonzalo, Sebastian, Alonso, Stephano
Setting: An Island Perhaps Near America
Time: Undetermined

Xxx xxx

Town and Country

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In Cymbeline, Belarius advises his two adoptive sons to embrace the idyllic life in the country rather than the political life at court:

“O, this life
Is nobler than attending for a check;
Richer than doing nothing for a bable;
Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk:
Such gain the cap of him that makes him fine,
… continue reading this note

Caves, Temples & Palaces

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Juliet’s biting reference to Romeo as “a gorgeous palace,” when she hears that Romeo has killed her cousin, contrasts with Romeo’s earlier reference to Juliet as “this holy shrine.” Both metaphors are echoed about fifteen years later near the end of Shakespeare’s career when Miranda in The Tempest speaks of Ferdinand in a similar figure of speech.
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Sonnets in Romeo and Juliet

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Shakespeare, who had begun writing his sonnets sometime in the 1590’s, decided that the form would be useful in Romeo and Juliet. In fact, he wrote four sonnets in the play. The first, spoken by a chorus, opens Act 1. The second appears in Act 1, Scene 5, and it is dialogue spoken by Romeo and Juliet.
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Boatswain!

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 A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.
 Enter a Shipmaster and a Boatswain.
Master
Boatswain!
Boatswain
Here, master. What cheer?

Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea
for an acre of barren ground: long heath, brown
furze, anything.

Master
Good,
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Act 1
Scene 1
Line 1

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If by your art, my dearest father

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Miranda 
If by your art, my dearest father, 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.

O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished.

O,
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Act 1
Scene 2
Line 1

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Sit down, For thou must now know farther.

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Prospero
Sit down,
For thou must now know farther.
 They sit.
Miranda
You have often
Begun to tell me what I am, but stopped
And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding “Stay. Not yet.”

What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?

Prospero
The hour’s now come.
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Act 1
Scene 2
Line 39

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I, thus neglecting worldly ends

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Prospero
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,
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Act 1
Scene 2
Line 109

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Mark his condition and th’ event

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Prospero
Mark his condition and th’ event. Then tell me
If this might be a brother.
Miranda
I should sin
To think but nobly of my grandmother.
Good wombs have borne bad sons.

Good wombs have borne bad sons.

Prospero
Now the condition.
This King of Naples,
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Act 1
Scene 2
Line 139

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Come away, servant, come. I am ready now

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Prospero Prospero puts on his cloak.
Come away, servant, come. I am ready now.
Approach, my Ariel. Come.
 Enter Ariel.
Ariel
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,
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Act 1
Scene 2
Line 222

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Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself

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Prospero, to Caliban
Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself
Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!
 Enter Caliban.
Caliban
As wicked dew as e’er my mother brushed
With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen
Drop on you both. A southwest blow on you
And blister you all o’er.
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Act 1
Scene 2
Line 283

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What is the time o’ th’ day?

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Prospero
What is the time o’ th’ day?
Ariel
Past the mid season.
Prospero
At least two glasses. The time ’twixt six and now
Must by us both be spent most preciously.
Ariel
Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains,
Let me remember thee what thou hast promised,
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Act 1
Scene 2
Line 283

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Come unto these yellow sands

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Ariel
Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands.
Curtsied when you have, and kissed
The wild waves whist.
Foot it featly here and there,
And sweet sprites bear
The burden. Hark, hark!
Burden dispersedly, within: Bow-wow.
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Act 1
Scene 2
Line 452

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Figures of Speech:

Come unto these yellow sands

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Arielinvisible, playing and singing.

Come unto these yellow sands,
 And then take hands.
Curtsied when you have, and kissed
 The wild waves whist.
Foot it featly here and there,
 And sweet sprites bear
The burden. Hark,
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 2
Line 452

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