No Fear Shakespeare

The Tempest

William Shakespeare

Get this No Fear to go!

Act 3, Scene 3, Page 2

Original Text

Modern Text


20
SEBASTIAN
(aside to ANTONIO) I say, tonight. No more.
SEBASTIAN
(speaking so that only ANTONIO can hear) Yes, tonight. No more talking about this now.

ALONSO
What harmony is this? My good friends, hark!
ALONSO
What’s that music? My friends, listen.

GONZALO
Marvelous sweet music!
GONZALO
What marvelous music!
Enter several strange shapes, bringing in a banquet They dance about it with gentle actions of salutations, and, inviting the king and the others to eat, they depart
Several strange shapes enter, bringing in a banquet table and dancing around it with graceful, welcoming movements. After inviting the king and the others to eat, they leave.

ALONSO
Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these?
ALONSO
Heaven help us! What were those things?


25

SEBASTIAN
A living drollery. Now I will believe
That there are unicorns, that in Arabia
There is one tree, the phoenix' throne, one phoenix
At this hour reigning there.
SEBASTIAN
A puppet show in real life. Now I’ll believe that unicorns exist, and that there’s a tree in Arabia where the phoenix lives.




30
ANTONIO
     I’ll believe both
And what does else want credit, come to me,
And I’ll be sworn ’tis true. Travelers ne'er did lie,
Though fools at home condemn 'em.
ANTONIO
Me too. And anything else that’s hard to believe, just ask me and I’ll swear it’s true. Travelers have never told lies, no matter what the fools at home accuse them of.






35

GONZALO
      If in Naples
I should report this now, would they believe me?
If I should say, I saw such islanders—
For, certes, these are people of the island—
Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet note,
Their manners are more gentle-kind than of
Our human generation you shall find
Many—nay, almost any.
GONZALO
If I told them about this back in Naples, would they believe me? I’d tell them that I saw natives like these—since they must be natives—who are graceful and well-mannered even if they’re monstrous to look at, kinder than most human beings you might find— kinder than almost any human.



PROSPERO
(aside)  Honest lord,
Thou hast said well, for some of you there present
Are worse than devils.
PROSPERO
(to himself) My good lord, you’re absolutely right, since some of you are worse than devils.

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