Brick Shakespeare: The Comedies—A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Taming of the Shrew by John McCann, Monica Sweeney, Becky Thomas Read Free Book Online

disappear into thin air.
    There are also interesting themes of colonization in The Tempest . The play was written during a time of busy exploration, when European sailors were visiting faraway lands, like the many islands around the Americas, and encountering people and cultures that had never been heard of before. For this reason many people have called it the “New World Play,” both because they believe it is set on an island in the New World and because it deals with themes of power and colonization. Regardless of Shakespeare’s original intent, many aspects of the play have resonated with people from cultures that have been colonized, and this particular reading of the play has become popular. The character of Caliban, specifically, serves to represent colonized people. Caliban had been master of the island before Prospero and Miranda arrived, and when they landed, he graciously shared all of the secrets of the island so they could survive and prosper. But at the time that the play is set, Caliban acts as Prospero’s servant because he had tried to rape young Miranda.
    The Tempest is a fascinating play, filled with existential meditations and hilarious drunken rambles, as well as insightful reflections on global politics that echo in a world many hundreds of years beyond that in which it was written.

D RAMATIS P ERSONAE

    ALONSO, King of Naples

    SEBASTIAN, his brother

    PROSPERO, the right Duke of Milan

    ANTONIO, his brother, the usurping Duke of Milan

    FERDINAND, son to the King of Naples

    GONZALO, an honest old Counsellor

    ADRIAN, a Lord

    FRANCISCO, a Lord

    CALIBAN, a savage and deformed Slave

    TRINCULO, a Jester

    STEPHANO, a drunken Butler

    MASTER of a Ship

    BOATSWAIN

    MIRANDA, daughter to Prospero

    ARIEL, an airy Spirit
    Not Pictured
    MARINERS
    IRIS, presented by Spirits
    CERES, presented by Spirits
    JUNO, presented by Spirits
    NYMPHS, presented by Spirits
    REAPERS, presented by Spirits
    Other SPIRITS attending on Prospero

ACT I. Scene I (1–64).

MASTER
    Boatswain!
    BOATSWAIN
    Here, master: what cheer?

    MASTER
    Good, speak to the mariners: fall to’t, yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir.

    BOATSWAIN
    Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to the master’s whistle. Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!

    ALONSO
    Good boatswain, have care. Where’s the master?
    Play the men!

    BOATSWAIN
    I pray now, keep below.
    ANTONIO
    Where is the master, boatswain?

    BOATSWAIN
    Do you not hear him? You mar our labour: keep your cabins: you do assist the storm.
    GONZALO
    Nay, good, be patient.

    BOATSWAIN
    When the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence! trouble us not.
    GONZALO
    Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard.

    BOATSWAIN
    None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap. Cheerly, good hearts! Out of our way, I say.

    GONZALO
    I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging: make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage. If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable.

    BOATSWAIN
    Down with the topmast! yare! lower, lower! Bring her to try with main-course.

    BOATSWAIN (cont.)
    A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather or our office.
    Yet again! what do you here? Shall we give o’er and drown? Have you a mind to sink?

    SEBASTIAN
    A pox o’ your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!

    BOATSWAIN
    Work you then.

    ANTONIO
    Hang, cur! hang, you whoreson, insolent noisemaker!
    We are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.

    GONZALO
    I’ll warrant