The Tempest Religion Quotes

O, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer! A brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her,
Dash’d all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished.
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallowed and
The fraughting souls within her.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Miranda is a very empathetic and sympathetic person and feels the suffering of those on board the ship caught in the wild tempest. She believes that they have drowned. But if she were a god with power, she tells her father Prospero, instead of sinking the ship she would sink the seas so that the ship and passengers could be saved.

O, a cherubin
Thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile,
Infusèd with a fortitude from heaven,
When I have decked the sea with drops full salt,
Under my burden groaned, which raised in me
An undergoing stomach, to bear up
Against what should ensue.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Prospero tells Miranda that during his exile from Milan his daughter was an angel who kept him going with her divine strength from heaven while he cried salty tears. Her smile sustained him. Prosper’s bond of love with his daughter is evident in this passage.
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.’"

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.

These be fine things, an if they be not sprites.
That’s a brave god and bears celestial liquor.
I will kneel to him.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 2. Caliban thinks that Stephano and Trinculo are gods after he is given some liquor by Stephano, probably his first experience of alcohol. It is no surprise that Caliban, who feels mistreated and and enslaved by Prospero, would seek to align himself to the first new humans that he meets on the island. This desperation speaks to his desire for revenge against his master. But it is also ironic that he wishes to break away from the power of one master, only to give himself to another.

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.

Sir, she is mortal;
But by immortal Providence she’s mine.
I chose her when I could not ask my father
For his advice, nor thought I had one. She
Is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan,
Of whom so often I have heard renown,
But never saw before; of whom I have
Received a second life; and second father
This lady makes him to me.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1. Ferdinand tells his father Alonso that Miranda is not a goddess but a mortal human being. By the grace of God she is his. He chose her when he could not ask his father Alonso’s permission because he thought he was dead. He tells Alonso that she is daughter to the Duke of Milan Prospero, who gave him a second life and is a second father to him. The irony is that all the others, and the audience, know who Prospero is and how he was cruelly usurped.

I have inly wept,
Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you gods,
And on this couple drop a blessed crown!
For it is you that have chalk’d forth the way
Which brought us hither.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1. Gonzalo speaks these deeply felt words near the end of the play. He admits that he has been crying to himself, and he calls on the gods to look down on Miranda and Ferdinand and place a blessed crown on them. He credits the gods with orchestrating the happy resolution to events in the play, and especially the love union between Miranda and Ferdinand.
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