The Tempest Magic Quotes

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 2. This is one of the most poetic passages in The Tempest, spoken by Caliban, and the speech has a haunting and dream-like quality about it. It shows that Caliban is not just all monster and anger but a much more complicated and multi-sided character capable of eloquence and beautiful expression. He describes the magical qualities of his beloved island of which is a native, his deep attachment to it, and his own dreams. In his moving speech Caliban attempts to reassure the others, spooked by the invisible Ariel’s mysterious music resulting from Prospero’s magic, that the island is indeed full of sounds and music that give pleasure but don’t hurt. Does this poetic speech with its powerful imagery and calm and thoughtful language reflect the true nature of Caliban? Is his brutish and monstrous and side then a reaction to the cruel way he has been treated by his slave master Prospero – a case of nurture and not nature? If you treat a person like a monster, do they not sometimes become the monster? The Tempest is often seen as a critique on the cruel treatment of colonized peoples by their European colonizers, as depicted in Prospero’s treatment of Caliban and Ariel.

A living drollery. Now I will believe
That there are unicorns, that in Arabia
There is one tree, the phoenix’ throne, one phoenix
At this hour reigning there.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 3. An invisible Prospero and a group of spirits enter, bringing a banquet of food on a table and dancing around it with gestures of welcome, inviting the royal party to eat. Sebastian calls the spectacle a live puppet show. He cries out that he now believes unicorns exist and there’s a tree in Arabia where the phoenix lives.

You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,
That hath to instrument this lower world
And what is in ‘t, the never-surfeited sea
Hath caused to belch up you; and on this island
Where man doth not inhabit; you ‘mongst men
Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest , Act 3, Scene 3. Ariel terrifies the "three men of sin", Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian, by appearing to them in the form of a harpy. This is a mythological creature with a woman’s head and torso and bird’s claws and wings. As they are unfit to live because of the sin of their betrayal, Ariel drives them mad.

You fools! I and my fellows
Are ministers of Fate: the elements,
Of whom your swords are tempered, may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with bemocked-at stabs
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish
One dowle that’s in my plume: my fellow-ministers
Are like invulnerable.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 3. Ariel calls Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian fools because they think they can attack agents of Fate like him, having drawn their swords. Just as their swords cannot cut the winds or water, Ariel says that they cannot cut off even one of his feathers. He and his fellow spirits are invulnerable, he warns.

O, it is monstrous, monstrous:
Methought the billows spoke and told me of it;
The winds did sing it to me, and the thunder,
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced
The name of Prosper: it did bass my trespass.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 3. Alonso says this in response to the frightening shapes and sounds created by the spirit Ariel, who appeared as a terrifying harpy. Alonso uses a metaphor compares the thunder he heard to the deep and dreadful sound of an organ-pipe. This passage is an example of dramatic irony, as the audience is already in on the act and knows that Ariel was commanded by Prospero to perform his terrifying act to scare away his master’s adverseries. The audience can actually see Prospero watching and Ariel overseeing the whole show. Alonso’s use and repetition of the word "monstrous" to describe what is going on suggests that the conjuror Prospero may himself be monstrous.

I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking;
So fun of valour that they smote the air
For breathing in their faces; beat the ground
For kissing of their feet; yet always bending
Towards their project. Then I beat my tabour;
At which, like unbacked colts, they pricked their ears,
Advanced their eyelids, lifted up their noses
As they smelt music: so I charm’d their ears
That calf-like they my lowing followed through
Toothed briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss and thorns,
Which entered their frail shins.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1. Ariel reports to Prospero that Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo were "red-hot with drinking" – intoxicated – when he left them. So much so that they beat the wind for blowing in their faces and the ground for touching their feet. Ariel said he beat his tabor, cast a spell on their ears and they followed the music through briers and thorns, which entered their frail shins.

[A noise of hunters heard. Enter divers spirits, in shape of dogs and hounds, hunting them about, Prospero and Ariel setting them on.]
PROSPERO: Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints
With dry convulsions, shorten up their sinews
With aged cramps…
Let them be hunted soundly.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1. It’s punishment time for Stephano, Trinculo and Caliban as Prospero lets slip the dogs of vengeance. Spirits, disguised as dogs and hounds, are conjured up by Prospero and Ariel to chase the three about. The hounds are urged on by Prospero and Ariel. As the trio are driven off, Prospero orders Ariel to make sure that the dogs inflict pain and suffering on them.

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.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1. Having decided to set free Alonso and his men, Prospero draws a large circle on the ground with his staff and invokes the different spirits who have aided him. In a speech listing out his accomplishments in the magic arts, he first addresses the elves of the natural environment – the hills, streams, lands and forests.

Though with their high wrongs I am struck to th’ quick,
Yet with my nobler reason ‘gainst my fury
Do I take part. The rarer action is
In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent,
The sole drift of my purpose doth extend
Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel:
My charms I’ll break, their senses I’ll restore,
And they shall be themselves.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1. Prospero is ready to forgive the betrayals of his enemies, and forgoes the infliction of punishment and revenge on those who betrayed him, even though he has been deeply wounded by them. Instead of retaliation he chooses compassion – "the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance." He accepts that those who wronged him are remorseful and bids Ariel to release them from their imprisonment and says that he will break his spell on them and restore their senses. As a deep human emotion is touched in Prospero, prompted by the very human display of compassion by the non-human spirit Ariel, this is an important step in Prospero’s voyage of self-discovery

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.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1. The powerful sorcerer Prospero recalls that he controlled nature when he created a storm at sea and added lightning to the thunder, then took it and used it to split an oak tree. He made the promontory shake, plucked up the pine and cedar, and commanded graves to waken the dead and let them forth. All this he did with his wild magic, which he now rejects.

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, Act 5, Scene 1. Prospero decides to renounce his magical powers, with which he controlled the island. After he has completed his last bit of magic, he will break and bury his staff and "drown" his magic book. In doing so he will return the island to its natural state once more. He realizes that it was his obsession with magic that led to his political downfall and exile.

The charm dissolves apace,
And as the morning steals upon the night,
Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their clearer reason.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5 Scene 1. This is Prospero speaking about the spell he has cast on the shipwrecked passengers gradually breaking, and as the dawn breaks, they will slowly recover their judgment. There is striking use of metaphorical language here: "charm dissolves," "melting the darkess," "ignorant fumes."

Their understanding
Begins to swell, and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shore
That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them
That yet looks on me, or would know me!

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1. Shakespeare uses a brilliant metaphor, through the mouth of Prospero, describing the sorcerer’s spell on the Neopolitans wearing off, and their minds returning to normal. He speaks of their judgment clearing, swelling like the cleansing waves of the approaching tide coming in and filling the shore that is now muddied and fouled. Not one of them would recognize him yet, Prospero notes, something he is about to correct when he dresses in his Duke of Milan clothes.

Where the bee sucks, there suck I;
In a cowslip’s bell I lie;
There I cough where owls do cry.
On the bat’s back I do fly
After summer merrily:
Merrily, merrily shall I live now,
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1. Ariel’s last song, which he sings while helping to attire Prospero, as the sorcerer removes his wizard’s robes and dresses in his city clothes, in preparation for leaving his magic powers behind. Ariel sings of himself as a fairy drinking nector from flowers and creeping into the bell-shaped flowers of the cowslip. He also flies on the back of a bat chasing summer and fleeing winter, to live in perpetual sunshine and warmth. The song evokes a beautiful picture of nature, reflecting Ariel’s dream of freedom from service to Prospero.

If I did think, sir, I were well awake,
I’ld strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep,
And – how we know not – all clapp’d under hatches,
Where, but even now, with strange and several noises
Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains,
And more diversity of sounds, all horrible,
We were awaked; straightway, at liberty;
Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld
Our royal, good and gallant ship.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1. The Boatswain tells what happened to the crew of the ship. They fell asleep below decks and woke to sounds of roaring, shrieking and clinking of chains. They found themselves free and were delighted to see the ship all ready to sail – all brought about by Prospero’s magic.

Sir, my liege,
Do not infest your mind with beating on
The strangeness of this business; at picked leisure
Which shall be shortly, single I’ll resolve you,
Which to you shall seem probable, of every
These happen’d accidents; till when, be cheerful
And think of each thing well.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1. Prospero is speaking to Alonso, who is astonished and upset at the strange and unnatural things that have occurred – much of them brought about by Prospero’s magic. He tells him not to fixate on them, that he will explain everything when the time is right.

Now my charms are all o’erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint: now, ’tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got
And pardoned the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands:
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardoned be,
Let your indulgence set me free.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Epilogue. Prospero’s fascinating and moving soliloquy before he exits the stage in what is thought to be William Shakespeare’s last play, is often taken as Shakespeare’s own farewell to the stage. Speaking to the audience, after the rest of the characters leave the stage, Prospero says that he has given up his magic powers to become an ordinary human being, reclaimed his dukedom and "pardoned the deceiver." He is about to return to the real world in Milan after living on his magical island. He asks his audience to set him free with their applause – "release me from my bands With the help of your good hands." In the final lines two he asks for the audience’s forgiveness for what he has done, to pardon him for his actions on the island which he is now restoring to its natural state, without his magic.
    • 1
    • 2
Close