The Tempest (I) (2010)

Helen Mirren: Prospera

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Quotes 

• Prospera : We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little lives are rounded with a sleep.

• Prospera : Be cheerful sir, our revels now are ended.

• Prospera : I will plague them all, even to roaring!

• Prospera : I charge thee that thou attend me! Thou dost here usurp the name thou owest not and have put thyself upon this island as a spy, to win it from me, the sovereign on't.

  Prince Ferdinand : No, as I am a man.

  Miranda : There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple.

  Prospera : Follow me. Speak not you for him, he's a traitor. Come, I'll manacle thy neck and feet together. Seawater shalt thou drink. Follow.

  Prince Ferdinand : No, I will resist such entertainment till mine enemy has more power.

  Miranda : O, dear mother, make not too rash a trial of him, for he's gentle and not fearful.

  Prospera : What? I say, my foot my tutor? Put thy sword up, traitor, for I can here disarm thee with this stick and make thy weapon drop.

  Miranda : Beseech you, mother.

  Prospera : Hang not upon my garment.

  Miranda : Ma'am, have pity. I'll be his surety.

  Prospera : Silence! One word more shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. Thou think'st there is no more such shapes as he, having seen but him and Caliban. Foolish child. To the most of men, this is a Caliban and they to him are angels.

  Miranda : My affections are then most humble. I have no ambition to see a goodlier man.

  Prospera : Come on. Obey. Thy nerves are in their infancy again and have no vigor in them.

  Prince Ferdinand : So they are. My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up. My father's loss, the weakness which I feel, the wreck of all my friends, nor this dame's threats, to whom I am subdued, are but light to me. Might I but through my prison once a day behold this maid. All corners else o' the earth let liberty make use of, space enough have I in such a prison.

• Caliban : When thou camest first, thou strokedst me and made 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' the 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' the island.

  Prospera : Thou most lying slave, whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have used thee with humane care, lodged thee in mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate the honor of my child.

  Caliban : Oh, ho. Would it had been done. Thou didst prevent me, I had peopled else this isle with Calibans.

  Miranda : Abhorred slave, which any print of goodness wilt not take. I pitied thee, took pains to make thee speak!

  Caliban : You taught me language, and my profit on't is I know how to curse! The red plague rid you for learning me your language!

  Prospera : Hag-seed, hence! Fetch us in fuel. Shrug'st thou, malice? If thou neglect'st or dost unwillingly what I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps, fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar that beasts shall tremble at thy din.

• Prospera : Hast thou, spirit, perform'd to the point the tempest that I bade thee?

  Ariel : To every article. I boarded the king's ship. Now on the beak, now on the waist, the deck, in every cabin, I flamed amazement! Sometime I'd divide and burn in many places. The fire and cracks of sulfurous roaring the most mighty Neptune seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble, yea, his dread trident shake!

  Prospera : My brave spirit! Who was so firm, so constant that this coil could not infect his reason?

  Ariel : Not a soul but felt a fever of the mad and play'd some tricks of desperation. The king's son, Ferdinand, with hair up-staring, was the first man that leap'd, cried, "Hell is empty and all the devils are here!"

  Prospera : Why, that's my spirit! But was not this nigh shore?

  Ariel : Close by, my master.

  Prospera : But are they, Ariel, safe?

  Ariel : Not a hair perish'd. On their sustaining garments, not a blemish, but fresher than before. And, as thou badest me, in troops I have dispersed them 'bout the isle. The king's son have I landed by himself, whom I left cooling of the air with sighs in an odd angle of the isle and sitting, his arms in this sad knot.

  Prospera : Of the king's ship, the mariners, say how thou has disposed.

  Ariel : Safely in harbor is the king's ship, in the deep nook, there she's hid. The mariners all under hatches stow'd, who with a charm I have left asleep.

• Miranda : If by your art, my dearest mother, you have put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. 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. Poor souls, they perish'd.

  Prospera : [stopping the storm]  Be collected. No more amazement. Tell thy piteous heart there's no harm done.

  Miranda : O, woe the day.

  Prospera : No harm. I have done nothing but in care of thee. Of thee, my dear one, thee, my daughter, who art ignorant of what thou art, naught knowing of whence I am, nor that I am more better than Prospera, master of a full poor cell, and thy no greater mother.

  Miranda : More to know did never meddle with my thoughts.

  Prospera : 'Tis time I should inform thee further.

• Caliban : As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd with raven's feather from unwholesome fen dop on you both! A south-west blow on ye and blister you all o'er!

  Prospera : For this, be sure, tonight thou shalt have cramps, side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up. Urchins shall work all exercise on thee. Thou shalt be pinch'd as thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging than bees that made 'em.

• Prince Ferdinand : Most sure, the goddess on whom these airs attend. Vouchsafe my prayer may know if you remain upon this island, 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?

  Miranda : No wonder, sir, but certainly a maid.

  Prince Ferdinand : My language! Heavens! I am the best of them that speak this speech, were I but where 'tis spoken.

  Prospera : How, the best? What wert thou, if the King of Naples heard thee?

  Prince Ferdinand : A single thing, as I am now, that wonders to hear thee speak of Naples. He does hear me, and that he does I weep. Myself am Naples, who with mine eyes, never since at ebb, beheld the king, my father, wreck'd.

  Miranda : Alack, for mercy!

  Prince Ferdinand : Yes, faith, and all his lords.

  Prospera : At first sight they have changed eyes. O delicate Ariel, I will set thee free for this. A word, good sir. I fear you have done yourself some wrong. A word!

  Miranda : Why speaks my mother so ungently? This is the second man that e'er I saw, the first that e'er I sighed for.

  Prospera : They are both in either's powers, but this swift business I must uneasy make, lest too light winning make the prize light.

• Ariel : Since thou dost give me pains, let me remember thee what thou hast promised, which is not yet perform'd me.

  Prospera : How now? Moody? What is't thou canst demand?

  Ariel : My liberty!

  Prospera : Before the time be out? No more!

  Ariel : I prithee, remember I have done thee worthy service. Thou didst promise to bate me a full year.

  Prospera : Dost thou forget from what a torment I did free thee?

  Ariel : No.

  Prospera : Thou dost.

  Ariel : I do not, ma'am.

  Prospera : Thou liest, malignant thing. Hast thou forgot the foul witch Sycorax? Hast thou forgot her?

  Ariel : No, ma'am.

  Prospera : Thou hast. Where was she born? Speak. Tell me.

  Ariel : Ma'am, in Algiers.

  Prospera : O, was she so? I must once in a month recount what thou hast been, which thou forget'st. This dam'd witch Sycorax, for mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible to enter human hearing, from Algiers, thou know'st, was banish'd. Is not this true?

  Ariel : Aye, ma'am.

  Prospera : This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with child and here was left by the sailors. Thou, my slave, as thou report'st thyself, was then her servant, but for thou wast a spirit too delicate to act her earthy and abhorr'd commands, she did confine thee into a cloven pine, within which imprison'd thou didst painfully remain a dozen years, within which space she died and left thee there. Thou best know'st what a torment I did find thee in. Thy groans did make wolves howl and penetrate the breasts of ever angry bears. It was mine art, when I arrived and heard thee, that made gape the pine and let thee out.

  Ariel : I thank thee, master.

  Prospera : If thou more murmurest, I will rend an oak and peg thee in his knotty entrails 'til thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.

  Ariel : Pardon, master. I will be correspondent to command and do my spiriting gently.

  Prospera : Do so. And after two days I will discharge thee.

• Prospera : The King of Naples, being an enemy to me inveterate, hearkens to my brother's suit, which was that he should presently eradicate me and mine out of the dukedom and confer fair Milan with all its honors upon my brother. Whereon, one midnight did Antonio open the gates of Milan. Into the dead of darkness, his ministers for the purpose hurried thence me and thy crying self.

  Miranda : Wherefore did they not that hour destroy us?

  Prospera : Dear, they durst not, so dear the love my people bore me. In few, they hurried us aboard a bark, bore us some leagues to sea, where they'd prepared a rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd, nor tackle, sail, nor mast. The very rats instinctively had quit it. And there they hoist us, to cry to the seas that roar'd to us, to sigh to the winds whose pity, sighing back again, did us but loving wrong.

  Miranda : Alack, what trouble was I then to you.

  Prospera : O, a cherubim thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile, infused with a fortitude from heaven that raised in me an undergoing stomach to bear up against what should ensue.

  Miranda : How came we ashore?

  Prospera : By providence divine. Some food we had and some fresh water that a noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo, out of his charity did give us, with rich garments, stuffs and necessaries, which since have steaded much. Of his gentleness, knowing I loved my books, he furnish'd me from mine own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom.

• Prospera : Canst thou remember a time before we came unto this cell? I do not think thou canst, for then thou was not out three years old.

  Miranda : Certainly, ma'am, I can.

  Prospera : By what? By any other house or person? Of anything the image tell me that hath kept with thy remembrance.

  Miranda : 'Tis far off and rather like a dream. Had I not four or five women once that tended me?

  Prospera : Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. Twelve years since, Miranda, twelve years since, thy mother held the dukedom of Milan and its princely power.

  Miranda : But are not you my mother?

  Prospera : The very same. Who, long ago, was wife to him who ruled Milan most liberally. Who, with as tolerant a hand toward me, gave license to my long hours in pursuit of hidden truths, of coiled powers contained within some elements to harm or heal. I brooked no interruption but your squalling, for thou, child, art a princess born.

  Miranda : O heavens! What foul play had we that we came from thence?

  Prospera : Upon thy father's death, authority was conferred, as was his will, to me alone, thereby awakening the ambition of my brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio. Thou attendest not!

  Miranda : Good madam, I do.

  Prospera : I pray thee, mark me, that a brother should be so perfidious! He whom I did charge to execute express commands as to the prudent governing of fair Milan, instead undid, subverted... dost thou attend me?

  Miranda : Ma'am, most heedfully.

  Prospera : Perverting my upstanding studies, now his slandering and bile-dipped brush did paint a faithless portrait. His sister, a practicer of the black arts! A demon, not a woman, nay, a witch! And he full knowing that others of my sex have burned for no less. The flames now fanned, my counselors turned against me. Dost thou hear?

  Miranda : Your tale, ma'am, would cure deafness.

• Prospera : The fringed curtains of thine eye advance and say, say what thou seest yond.

  Miranda : [seeing Ferdinand]  What is't? A spirit?

  Prospera : No, child. It eats and sleeps and hath such senses as we have, such. This gallant which thou seest was in the wreck.

  Miranda : I might call him a thing divine, for nothing natural I ever saw so noble.