The Tempest Nature Quotes

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

What cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence! trouble us not.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 1. The Boatswain tells the passengers, members of the nobility, that the roaring waves do not respect kings. He makes it clear that the fearsome storm is not going to calm down because Alonso, the King of Naples, is on board the ship. Caring little for the rank of the king, he orders the royal party below decks. This is something that they don’t like as they are used to giving the orders. The storm is a metaphor for a disturbance in the social order, and also for Prospero’s anger – he is responsible for the storm and bringing his enemies to his island. The reversal of the social order on the stricken ship, with the Boatswain telling the royal party what to do, also foreshadows the disruptions to and upheavens in the social hierarchies that are about to take place on the island.
If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them - William Shakespeare

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 the welkin’s cheek,
Dashes the fire out.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Miranda is a very gentle and compassionate young teenager and on witnessing the shipwreck on the island she appeals to her father Prospero to allay the storm if he is the cause. She is aware of Prospero’s magic powers and knows that he can control nature. She is suspicious that he conjured the storm and wild waters and caused the shipwreck.

I pray thee, mark me.
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, which had indeed no limit,
A confidence sans bound.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Prospero doesn’t think his young teen daughter Miranda is paying enough attention to his tale of betrayal by brother Antonio, as he keeps saying "mark me." He tells her that while he neglected practical matters as Duke of Milan and bettered his mind with studies, this awakened an evil nature in Antonio. His trust in his brother was so strong that he didn’t see his treachery coming.

For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps,
Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up. Urchins
Shall, for that 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, Act 1, Scene 2. Just after Caliban showers curses on him and his daughter, Prospero issues this threat to his unruly and disobedient slave. Prospero is a sorcerer and his powerful magic can indeed inflict this kind of physical pain that he describes on Caliban in order to control him. He uses nature as a threat to cause him pain, urchins being spirits in the form of hedgehogs. There is an unforgiving relationship between the master and servant. The deformed Caliban is usually seen as the monster in the play, but Prospero could also be seen as part monster in the things he does to control and manipulate the other characters.

This island’s mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou tak’st from me. When thou cam’st first,
Thou strok’st me and mad’st much of me, wouldst give me
Water with berries in ‘t, and teach me how
To name the bigger light and how the less,
That burn by day and night. And then I loved thee,
And show’d thee all the qualities o’ th’ isle,
The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile.
Cursed be I that did so! All the charms
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you,
For I am all the subjects that you have,
Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest o’ th’ island.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Caliban asserts his rights through his mother to the island, which he claims Prospero took from him by flattering him, giving him berries, teaching him about the sun and stars and then betraying him. He admits that he loved Prospero at first. He showed the magician all the qualities of the island with its freshwater springs and saltwater pits, Caliban being a native inhabitant and close to nature. But he curses himself for doing so, and Prospero as well, who now confines him in a cave on the island. Invoking the name of his witch mother Sycorax, Caliban once again calls on her wicked magic charms to curse his captor. He is unforgiving about how Prospero has mistreated and enslaved him. All of this raises the question of who is the monster here – Caliban or Prospero? Perhaps both!

Abhorred slave,
Which any print of goodness wilt not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other. When thou didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes
With words that made them known. But thy vile race,
Though thou didst learn, had that in ‘t which good natures
Could not abide to be with. Therefore wast thou
Deservedly confined into this rock,
Who hadst deserved more than a prison.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Miranda tells Caliban that he has such an evil nature he cannot be shaped into anything good. Taking pity on him at first, she said that she spent much time educating him and teaching him to speak, but because of his evil nature no good person could abide to be with him. So he deserves to be confined to this rock prison, she believes. Prospero’s colonizer attitude to the "savage" slave who needs to be rescued from his "brutish" nature comes across loud and clear in Miranda’s words about Caliban. He is depicted as sub-human, a monster.

All things in common nature should produce
Without sweat or endeavour. Treason, felony,
Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine
Would I not have; but nature should bring forth
Of it own kind, all foison, all abundance
To feed my innocent people.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1. Gonzalo is describing the perfect world that he would create in his plantation on the island ruled by him. He personifies nature as he dreams of the bounty it would produce to feed everyone. There would be no treason, crime or weapons on his fantasy island.

I’ll show thee the best springs; I’ll pluck thee berries;
I’ll fish for thee and get thee wood enough.
A plague upon the tyrant that I serve!
I’ll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee,
Thou wondrous man.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 2. In this humorous scene, Caliban promises to follow his new "god" and master, the drunken Stephano. He will show him the best springs, pick berries, fish and fetch wood for him – being a native inhabitant, Caliban knows the island well and is close to nature. There is an irony in Caliban cursing his enslaver Prospero with plague, while switching allegience to Stephano who has branded him a monster and is hardly going to treat him much better.

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.

Hail, many-colour’d messenger, that ne’er
Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter;
Who with thy saffron wings upon my flowers
Diffusest honey-drops, refreshing showers,
And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown
My bosky acres and my unshrubb’d down,
Rich scarf to my proud earth; why hath thy queen
Summoned me hither, to this short-grass’d green?

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1. These are the words of Ceres, goddess of agriculture. She been summoned by goddess of the rainbow Iris at the order of Juno to assist in the entertainment in honour of the marriage of Ferdinand and Miranda. Ceres says that Iris drops water on the flowers to refresh them. She crowns the earth with her rich scarf.

You nymphs, called Naiads, of the windring brooks,
With your sedged crowns and ever-harmless looks,
Leave your crisp channels and on this green land
Answer your summons; Juno does command:
Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate
A contract of true love; be not too late.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1. The messenger goddess Iris asks the Naiads, or water spirits, to leave their rippling brooks and be present on the green land to celebrate the union of true lovers Miranda and Ferdinand.

A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost;
And as with age his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers. I will plague them all,
Even to roaring.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1. Prospero calls Caliban a born devil and no amount of education or nurture can change his basic nature. And as he grows older, his body as well as his mind grows uglier. This speaks to the colonizer mentality Prospero holds in that he sees creatures like Caliban as inferior beings who need to be civilized. Prospero vows to put Caliban and his fellow plotters Stephano and Trinculo in agony until they roar in pain.

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.

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.

Flesh and blood,
You, brother mine, that entertain’d ambition,
Expell’d remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian,
Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,
Would here have kill’d your king; I do forgive thee,
Unnatural though thou art.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5 Scene 1. Prospero excoriates his brother Antonio, saying that he followed his ambition and lost compassion and their natural bond as brothers. With Sebastian he was ready to kill his king Alonso. However, despite the fact that Prospero brands Antonio as "unnatural" – i.e. a monster – he decides to forgive him.

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.

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.
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