The Tempest Ferdinand Quotes

hell and devils image quote from William Shakespeare In Devils

Hell is empty,
And all the devils are here.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Ariel to Prospero, relating what Ferdinand cried out as he plunged into the water from the shipwreck. Ferdinand recognizes the true and evil nature of his father King Alonso and the royal party with whom he traveled. In the full quote, Ariel uses a simile to compare Ferdinand’s hair to reeds: "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.’"

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.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. In reply to Prospero, Ariel assures that the shipwreck passengers are all safe, not a hair on their head was harmed and there was not even a blemish on their garments. In keeping with Prospero’s orders, they were scattered over the island, Ariel himself brought the king’s son Ferdinand to safety and he was sitting in a corner of the island feeling sad.

Sitting on a bank,
Weeping again the king my father’s wreck,
This music crept by me upon the waters,
Allaying both their fury and my passion
With its sweet air.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Ferdinand, son of Alonso the King of Naples, sits on a bank after surviving the shipwreck and weeps for his father whom he believes is lost. This is dramatic irony, as the audience already knows that all the ship’s passengers including Alonso are safe. Ferdinand hears a beautiful song sung by Prospero’s invisible spirit Ariel and is enchanted by it and finds comfort in it.

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them, ding-dong, bell.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Ariel sings a song to Ferdinand about his father Alonso and how death is part of the natural process. He uses an extended metaphor in commenting on Alonso’s death, or the appearance of it, as something positive in the cycle of life. Ferdinand thinks his father has drowned, but the audience already knows that he safely washed up on the island, so this is an example of the use of dramatic irony. Ferdinand is confused, as Ariel is invisible and he doesn’t know where the music is coming from. He is also sad, as the song convinces him that his father is indeed drowned.

Most sure, the goddess
On whom these airs attend! Vouchsafe my prayer
May know if you remain upon this island;
And that you will some good instruction give
How I may bear me here: my prime request,
Which I do last pronounce, is, O you wonder!
If you be maid or no?

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. When Ferdinand first sees Miranda, he views her as a goddess. He asks her if she lives on what he had thought to be an uninhabited island and if she can help him to survive there. And in the first signs of his love interest, he asks her if she is a maid.

PROSPERO: [to Ferdinand] Follow me.
[To Miranda.] Speak not you for him. He’s a traitor.
[To Ferdinand.] Come,
I’ll manacle thy neck and feet together.
Sea-water shalt thou drink; thy food shall be
The fresh-brook muscles, withered roots, and husks
Wherein the acorn cradled. Follow.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Prospero’s imperialistic nature comes to the fore as he threatens to take Ferdinand into captivity, manacle his neck and feet together, give him sea water to drink, and mussels, old roots and empty acorn shells for food. He tells Miranda not to speak for him as he is a traitor. There is a certain dramatic irony here, as the audience is aware that Prospero is in favor of the love union between Ferdinand and Miranda and actually set it up, but he doesn’t want Ferdinand to feel that he has won his daughter too easily.

What, I say,
My foot my tutor? – Put thy sword up, traitor,
Who mak’st a show, but dar’st not strike, thy conscience
Is so possessed with guilt. Come from thy ward,
For I can here disarm thee with this stick
And make thy weapon drop.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. After Ferdinand draws his sword and says he will resist Prospero’s threats to manacle and enslave him, Prospero puts a magic spell on Ferdinand that stops him from moving. Once again Prospero shows the considerable powers that he has when he uses his magic to protect himself.

You cram these words into mine ears against
The stomach of my sense.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1. Alonso tells Gonzalo that he keeps pushing words into his ears that he doesn’t want to hear. Gonzalo is upbeat about how they have come out of the shipwreck alive with their garments as fresh as the day of the Alonso’s daughter’s marriage. But Alonso regrets that he took a ship to marry off his daughter in Tunis because his son Ferdinand is now dead as a result, he believes.

Sir, he may live:
I saw him beat the surges under him,
And ride upon their backs; he trod the water,
Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted
The surge most swoll’n that met him; his bold head
‘Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oared
Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke
To the shore, that o’er his wave-worn basis bowed,
As stooping to relieve him: I not doubt
He came alive to land.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1. Francisco tells Alonso that he saw his son Ferdinand swim strongly over the waves, keeping his head above them, heading towards the shore. He has no doubt that he got ashore alive.

There be some sports are painful, and their labour
Delight in them sets off. Some kinds of baseness
Are nobly undergone, and most poor matters
Point to rich ends. This my mean task
Would be as heavy to me as odious, but
The mistress which I serve quickens what’s dead
And makes my labours pleasures. O, she is
Ten times more gentle than her father’s crabbed,
And he’s composed of harshness.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 1. Having been enslaved by and put to work by Prospero, Ferdinand walks on stage carrying a heavy log. At first he complaints about the pain of his labor, but then says that some forms of work are "nobly undergone," and reveals that his love for Miranda is what drives him and makes his work pleasurable. She is ten times more gentle than her father, he says.

I do not know
One of my sex; no woman’s face remember,
Save, from my glass, mine own; nor have I seen
More that I may call men than you, good friend,
And my dear father: how features are abroad,
I am skilless of; but, by my modesty,
The jewel in my dower, I would not wish
Any companion in the world but you,
Nor can imagination form a shape,
Besides yourself, to like of.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 1. Miranda did not see many faces of people during her life on the island, as she was living there alone with her father and Caliban since she was a little girl. She swears by her virginity – "the jewel in my dower" – that she does not wish for any other companion in the world than Ferdinand.

O heaven, O earth, bear witness to this sound
And crown what I profess with kind event
If I speak true! if hollowly, invert
What best is boded me to mischief! I
Beyond all limit of what else i’ the world
Do love, prize, honour you.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 1. This is Ferdinand’s reply when Miranda asks simply: "Do you love me?" Completely smitten, he asks heaven and earth to bear witness to his declaration that he loves, prizes and honors her more than anything else in the world.

I prattle
Something too wildly and my father’s precepts
I therein do forget.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 1. Miranda confesses that she is babbling on and on, forgetting her father’s wish that she should be modest in her speech. Nevertheless, she has disobeyed her father’s wishes by confessing her attraction for Ferdinand. This is an ironic moment, as the audience is already aware that her father Prospero who is listening to the lovers’ exchanges approves of her disobedience.

FERDINAND: Wherefore weep you?
MIRANDA: At mine unworthiness, that dare not offer
What I desire to give, and much less take
What I shall die to want. But this is trifling,
And all the more it seeks to hide itself
The bigger bulk it shows. Hence, bashful cunning,
And prompt me, plain and holy innocence.
I am your wife, if you will marry me.
If not, I’ll die your maid. To be your fellow
You may deny me, but I’ll be your servant
Whether you will or no.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 1. A very strong and independent Miranda is shown here as she abandons shyness and proposes marriage to Ferdinand, declaring her undying love for him. She is practically insisting that Ferdinand marry her, if he does not she says she will be his servant anyway. Using a metaphor, she says that the more she tries to hide her feelings the "bigger bulk it shows." There is a sexual suggestiveness to that phrase, which makes Miranda’s speech a declaration of her sexual independence.

FERDINAND: Ay, with a heart as willing
As bondage e’er of freedom. Here’s my hand.
MIRANDA: And mine.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 1. The kneeling Ferdinand’s offers his hand to Miranda, after she says she is his wife if he will marry her and asks if he will be her husband. She does likewise, as they affirm their love for one another. Since the audience already knew that Prospero had planned the marriage of the young couple before they ever pledged themselves to each other, this is an example of dramatic irony.
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