Left: Prospero and Miranda, by William May Egley, ca. 1850.To mark the month of April, which is: (a) National Poetry Month ; (b) Shakepeare's birthday month, AND (c) the occasion (completely coincidentally) of our discussion of The Tempest (on the 26th), allow me to offer here for your enjoyment a few of the play's more famous lines:
He receives comfort like cold porridge.
(spoken by Sebastian, Act 2, sc. 1)
Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.
(Trinculo, Act 2, sc.2)
The isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.
(Caliban, Act 3, sc.2)
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air;
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
and like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuffAs dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
(Prospero, Act 4, sc.1)
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O, brave new world
That has such people in 't!
(Miranda, Act 5, sc.1)
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