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.