The Tempest — Act 3, Scene 1

original text and modern English, side by side

Before Prospero’s cell · Ferdinand, Miranda, Prospero

Ferdinand carries logs as the punishment Prospero has set him, finding the work light because he is doing it for Miranda. Miranda disobeys her father and comes to help, they confess their love, and she proposes marriage herself. Prospero, watching unseen, is delighted: the match he engineered has taken, and he goes back to his books to prepare the rest of the day's business.

Enter Ferdinand bearing a log.

Ferdinand

There be some sports are painful, and their labour

Delight in them sets off:

Some games are hard work, but the pleasure of them makes the effort worthwhile.

some kinds of baseness

Are nobly undergone;

Some kinds of humiliation can be borne with dignity,

and most poor matters

Point to rich ends.

and the poorest tasks often lead somewhere rich.

This my mean task

Would be as heavy to me as odious, but

The mistress which I serve quickens what’s dead,

And makes my labours pleasures:

This menial job of mine would feel as heavy as it is degrading, except that the woman I'm serving brings dead things to life and turns my work into pleasure.

O, she is

Ten times more gentle than her father’s crabbed,

And he’s compos’d of harshness.

She is ten times as gentle as her father is bad-tempered, and he is made of nothing but harshness.

I must remove

Some thousands of these logs, and pile them up,

Upon a sore injunction:

I have to shift some thousands of these logs and stack them up, under a brutal order.

my sweet mistress

Weeps when she sees me work, and says such baseness

Had never like executor.

My sweet mistress cries when she sees me working and says such lowly labour never had a workman like me.

I forget:

But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours,

Most busy, least when I do it.

I'm losing track of what I'm doing — but these sweet thoughts refresh me even as I work: I'm busiest in my mind exactly when my hands are occupied.

Enter Miranda and Prospero behind.

Miranda

Alas now, pray you,

Work not so hard:

Oh, please don't work so hard.

I would the lightning had

Burnt up those logs that you are enjoin’d to pile!

I wish lightning had burned up those logs you've been ordered to stack.

Pray, set it down and rest you.

Please put that down and rest.

When this burns,

’Twill weep for having wearied you.

When this one burns, it will weep with regret for having tired you.

My father

Is hard at study; pray, now, rest yourself:

My father is deep in his studies — please, rest now.

He’s safe for these three hours.

He's safely occupied for three hours.

Ferdinand

O most dear mistress,

The sun will set, before I shall discharge

What I must strive to do.

Dearest mistress, the sun will go down before I finish what I have to get done.

Miranda

If you’ll sit down,

I’ll bear your logs the while.

If you'll sit down, I'll carry your logs meanwhile.

Pray give me that;

I’ll carry it to the pile.

Please, give me that one — I'll take it to the pile.

Ferdinand

No, precious creature;

No, precious creature.

I had rather crack my sinews, break my back,

Than you should such dishonour undergo,

While I sit lazy by.

I'd rather tear my muscles and break my back than have you demean yourself while I sat idle beside you.

Miranda

It would become me

As well as it does you:

It would suit me as well as it suits you —

and I should do it

With much more ease; for my good will is to it,

And yours it is against.

and I'd find it much easier, because I'd be doing it willingly and you're doing it against your will.

Aside.

Prospero

Poor worm! thou art infected.

Poor creature, you've caught it.

This visitation shows it.

This visit proves it.

Miranda

You look wearily.

You look tired.

Ferdinand

No, noble mistress;

No, noble mistress.

’tis fresh morning with me

When you are by at night.

It's fresh morning to me even at night, as long as you're nearby.

I do beseech you—

Chiefly that I might set it in my prayers—

What is your name?

I beg you — mainly so I can put it in my prayers — what is your name?

Miranda

Miranda—O my father!

Miranda. — Oh, father!

I have broke your hest to say so.

I've broken your order by telling him.

Ferdinand

Admir’d Miranda!

Miranda — to be admired!

Indeed, the top of admiration; worth

What’s dearest to the world!

Truly, the height of everything admirable, worth as much as anything the world holds dear.

Full many a lady

I have ey’d with best regard,

I have looked at plenty of women with real appreciation,

and many a time

Th’ harmony of their tongues hath into bondage

Brought my too diligent ear:

and often the music of their voices has taken my too-willing ear prisoner.

for several virtues

Have I lik’d several women; never any

With so full soul but some defect in her

Did quarrel with the noblest grace she ow’d,

And put it to the foil:

I've liked different women for different qualities, but never one so wholeheartedly that some flaw in her didn't undercut her best grace and spoil it.

but you, O you,

So perfect and so peerless, are created

Of every creature’s best.

But you — you are so perfect and so unmatched, you seem made from the best of every living thing.

Miranda

I do not know

One of my sex;

I don't know a single other woman.

no woman’s face remember,

Save, from my glass, mine own;

I can't remember any woman's face except my own in the mirror.

nor have I seen

More that I may call men than you, good friend,

And my dear father:

And I've seen no more people I could call men than you, good friend, and my dear father.

how features are abroad,

I am skilless of;

I have no idea what people look like elsewhere.

but, by my modesty,

The jewel in my dower, I would not wish

Any companion in the world but you;

Nor can imagination form a shape,

Besides yourself, to like of.

But by my modesty, which is the one jewel in my dowry, I would not want any companion in the world except you, and my imagination can't invent anyone but you to prefer.

But I prattle

Something too wildly, and my father’s precepts

I therein do forget.

But I'm chattering rather wildly, and forgetting my father's instructions while I do it.

Ferdinand

I am, in my condition,

A prince, Miranda; I do think, a King;

I would not so!—

By birth I'm a prince, Miranda — and I think now a king, though I wish I weren't.

and would no more endure

This wooden slavery than to suffer

The flesh-fly blow my mouth.

I would put up with this log-carrying slavery no more willingly than I'd let a fly lay eggs in my mouth.

Hear my soul speak:

The very instant that I saw you, did

My heart fly to your service; there resides,

To make me slave to it;

Hear what my soul is saying: the instant I saw you my heart flew into your service and stayed there, making a slave of me.

and for your sake

Am I this patient log-man.

It's for your sake that I'm this patient woodman.

Miranda

Do you love me?

Ferdinand

O heaven, O earth, bear witness to this sound,

And crown what I profess with kind event,

If I speak true;

Heaven and earth, be witness to what I'm saying, and reward it with a happy outcome if I'm telling the truth.

if hollowly, invert

What best is boded me to mischief!

If I'm speaking falsely, turn whatever good is destined for me into disaster.

Beyond all limit of what else i’ the world,

Do love, prize, honour you.

Beyond every limit of anything else in the world, I love and treasure and honour you.

Miranda

I am a fool

To weep at what I am glad of.

I'm a fool to cry about something that makes me happy.

Aside.

Prospero

Fair encounter

Of two most rare affections!

A beautiful meeting of two rare affections!

Heavens rain grace

On that which breeds between ’em!

Heaven pour down grace on whatever grows between them!

Ferdinand

Wherefore weep you?

Why are you crying?

Miranda

At mine unworthiness, that dare not offer

What I desire to give; and much less take

What I shall die to want.

Because I'm not worthy — I don't dare offer what I want to give, and even less dare take what I'll die without.

But this is trifling;

And all the more it seeks to hide itself,

The bigger bulk it shows.

But this is nonsense: the harder a feeling tries to hide, the more obvious it becomes.

Hence, bashful cunning!

And prompt me, plain and holy innocence!

Away with shy scheming; let plain, honest innocence speak for me.

I am your wife if you will marry me;

I am your wife, if you will marry me.

If not, I’ll die your maid:

If not, I'll die unmarried in your service.

to be your fellow

You may deny me;

You can refuse to have me as your partner,

but I’ll be your servant,

Whether you will or no.

but I'll be your servant whether you like it or not.

Ferdinand

My mistress, dearest;

And I thus humble ever.

My dearest mistress — and I'll always kneel like this.

Miranda

My husband, then?

Ferdinand

Ay, with a heart as willing

As bondage e’er of freedom:

Yes, as gladly as a prisoner ever accepted freedom.

here’s my hand.

Here's my hand.

Miranda

And mine, with my heart in ’t:

And mine, with my heart in it.

and now farewell

Till half an hour hence.

And now goodbye — for half an hour.

Ferdinand

A thousand thousand!

A thousand thousand goodbyes!

Exeunt Ferdinand and Miranda severally.

Prospero

So glad of this as they, I cannot be,

Who are surpris’d withal;

I can't be as pleased about this as they are, taken by surprise as they've been —

but my rejoicing

At nothing can be more.

but nothing could make me happier.

I’ll to my book;

Now, to my book.

For yet, ere supper time, must I perform

Much business appertaining.

Before supper I still have a great deal of business to see to.

Exit.

The Tempest Act 3, Scene 1 summary

Who appears in this scene

Ferdinand, Miranda, Prospero — Before Prospero’s cell.

Famous lines in The Tempest Act 3, Scene 1, explained

“I am your wife if you will marry me; / If not, I’ll die your maid” (line 98): Miranda proposes, plainly and first, which was startling for a young woman on the Jacobean stage and is still the most direct declaration of love Shakespeare ever wrote for one. Having grown up with no social rules about courtship, she simply says what she wants; the honesty is the point, and she has just told herself to drop "bashful cunning" and speak straight.
“There be some sports are painful, and their labour / Delight in them sets off” (line 1): Ferdinand opens the scene reasoning that hard effort is worth it when you enjoy the end — some games hurt, but the pleasure makes the pain worth having. It sets up the scene's argument that love transforms drudgery, and it deliberately contrasts with Caliban carrying the same logs in the previous act: identical work, opposite meaning, because one man chose it.

Keep reading

About this translation: the original text follows the public-domain Project Gutenberg Globe edition; the modern English translation was written in-house for Polytranslator and is reviewed on an ongoing basis (last revised August 2026). Free to print and photocopy for classroom use. Cite as: “The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 1. Polytranslator side-by-side translation, polytranslator.com/shakespeare/the-tempest/act-3-scene-1.”

Studying the language itself? Our Shakespearean English course teaches thou/thee, the verbs, and the meter — free through Unit 2. Or try the Shakespearean English translator.