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The Tempest · William Shakespeare · c. 1611
PROSPERO
A magician and former duke, near the end of his powers, watching a beautiful illusion he made vanish on cue.
The speech85 words · 3 beats
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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-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind.turn
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
- Speaking to
- Ferdinand and Miranda — and himself, thinking past them.
- What just happened
- He has conjured a wedding masque to celebrate the young lovers, then suddenly remembered a plot against his life and broken the spell off mid-scene.
- Objective
- To make peace, out loud, with the fact that nothing he has made will last — including him.
- The turn
- ‘We are such stuff’ — the thought turns from the vanished show to himself and everyone listening.
- Watch out for
- The trap is grandeur. It is not a set-piece about theatre; it is a tired man realising his own ending and finding it bearable.