The Tempest — Act 3, Scene 3

original text and modern English, side by side

Another part of the island · Gonzalo, Alonso, Antonio, Sebastian, Prospero, Francisco, Ariel, Adrian

Exhausted from searching the island for Ferdinand, Alonso gives up hope while Antonio and Sebastian quietly agree to murder him that night. Strange spirits set out a banquet and vanish; as the men move to eat, Ariel appears as a Harpy, makes the food disappear, and accuses Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian of the crime against Prospero, telling Alonso that the loss of Ferdinand is his punishment and that only genuine repentance can save them. Prospero, watching from above, is satisfied: his enemies are now helpless with guilt and madness.

Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, Francisco, &c.

Gonzalo

By ’r lakin, I can go no further, sir;

By our Lady, I can't go any further, sir.

My old bones ache:

My old bones ache.

here’s a maze trod, indeed,

Through forth-rights and meanders!

This has been a proper maze, in straight lines and winding ones.

By your patience,

I needs must rest me.

With your permission, I have to rest.

Alonso

Old lord, I cannot blame thee,

Old friend, I can't blame you.

Who am myself attach’d with weariness

To th’ dulling of my spirits:

I'm so worn out myself that my mind has gone dull.

sit down, and rest.

Sit down and rest.

Even here I will put off my hope, and keep it

No longer for my flatterer:

Right here I'm going to put down my hope and stop letting it flatter me.

he is drown’d

Whom thus we stray to find;

The man we're wandering about trying to find is drowned,

and the sea mocks

Our frustrate search on land.

and the sea is laughing at our pointless search on land.

Well, let him go.

Well — let him go.

Aside to Sebastian.

Antonio

I am right glad that he’s

so out of hope.

I'm very glad he's given up hope.

Do not, for one repulse, forgo the purpose

That you resolv’d to effect.

Don't abandon the plan you decided on just because of one setback.

Aside to Antonio.

Sebastian

The next advantage

Will we take throughly.

We'll take the next opportunity thoroughly.

Aside to Sebastian.

Antonio

Let it be tonight;

Make it tonight.

For, now they are oppress’d with travel, they

Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance

As when they are fresh.

Now that they're worn out with travelling, they won't and can't stay as alert as they would if they were fresh.

Aside to Antonio.

Sebastian

I say, tonight:

Tonight, I say.

no more.

No more talk.

Solemn and strange music: and Prospero above, invisible.

Solemn and strange music; and Prospero above, invisible.

Enter several

strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet:

Several strange Shapes enter carrying a banquet.

they dance about it with gentle

actions of salutation; and inviting the King &c., to eat, they depart.

They dance around it with gentle gestures of greeting, invite the King and the others to eat, and leave.

Alonso

What harmony is this?

What music is this?

My good friends, hark!

Listen, my friends!

Gonzalo

Marvellous sweet music!

Marvellously sweet music!

Alonso

Give us kind keepers, heavens!

Heaven send us good protectors!

What were these?

What were those?

Sebastian

A living drollery.

A living puppet-show.

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.

Now I'll believe there really are unicorns, and that in Arabia there's a single tree that serves as the phoenix's throne, with one phoenix reigning there this very hour.

Antonio

I’ll believe both;

I'll believe both.

And what does else want credit, come to me,

And I’ll be sworn ’tis true:

And whatever else is hard to credit, bring it to me and I'll swear it's true.

travellers ne’er did lie,

Though fools at home condemn them.

Travellers never lied — whatever fools at home may say about them.

Gonzalo

If in Naples

I should report this now, would they believe me?

If I reported this in Naples, would anyone 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.

If I said I saw islanders like that — and these are surely the island's people — who, though they're monstrously shaped, still, notice, have gentler and kinder manners than you'll find in many of our own species, indeed almost any of them.

Aside.

Prospero

Honest lord,

Thou hast said well;

Honest lord, you're right —

for some of you there present

Are worse than devils.

because some of the men standing there are worse than devils.

Alonso

I cannot too much muse

Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing—

Although they want the use of tongue—a kind

Of excellent dumb discourse.

I can't get over it: such shapes, such gestures, such sounds, expressing a kind of excellent silent conversation, even without the use of speech.

Aside.

Prospero

Praise in departing.

Save your praise for the end.

Francisco

They vanish’d strangely.

They vanished very strangely.

Sebastian

No matter, since

They have left their viands behind; for we have stomachs.—

No matter, since they've left their food behind and we're hungry.

Will’t please you taste of what is here?

Would you care to taste what's here?

Alonso

Not I.

Not me.

Gonzalo

Faith, sir, you need not fear.

Honestly, sir, there's nothing to fear.

When we were boys,

Who would believe that there were mountaineers

Dewlapp’d like bulls, whose throats had hanging at ’em

Wallets of flesh?

When we were boys, who would have believed there were mountain people with throats like bulls, hung with pouches of flesh?

Or that there were such men

Whose heads stood in their breasts?

Or men whose heads grew in their chests?

which now we find

Each putter-out of five for one will bring us

Good warrant of.

And now every traveller who insures his journey at five-to-one comes back with proof of it.

Alonso

I will stand to, and feed,

Although my last, no matter, since I feel

The best is past.

I'll go up and eat, even if it's my last meal. It hardly matters, since I feel the best of my life is behind me.

Brother, my lord the duke,

Stand to, and do as we.

Brother, my lord duke, come up and do as we do.

Thunder and lightning.

the table; and, with a quaint device, the banquet vanishes.

Thunder and lightning.

Enter Ariel like a Harpy; claps his wings upon

Ariel enters as a Harpy, claps his wings over the table, and by a clever device the banquet vanishes.

Ariel

You are three men of sin,

You are three sinful men.

whom Destiny,

That hath to instrument this lower world

And what is in’t,—the never-surfeited sea

Hath caused to belch up you; and on this island

Where man doth not inhabit; you ’mongst men

Being most unfit to live.

Destiny, which uses this lower world and everything in it as its instrument, has made the ever-hungry sea vomit you up onto this island, where nobody lives — because you are the least fit of all men to live among people.

I have made you mad;

I have driven you mad;

And even with such-like valour men hang and drown

Their proper selves.

it is exactly this kind of courage that makes men hang and drown themselves.

Seeing Alonso, Sebastian &c., draw their swords.

Ariel

You fools!

I and my fellows

Are ministers of Fate:

My companions and I are agents of Fate.

the elements

Of whom your swords are temper’d may as well

Wound the loud winds, or with bemock’d-at stabs

Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish

One dowle that’s in my plume.

The elements your swords are forged from could as easily wound the howling wind, or kill the water that closes behind every ridiculous stab, as damage a single strand of my feathers.

My fellow-ministers

Are like invulnerable.

My fellow spirits are just as untouchable.

If you could hurt,

Your swords are now too massy for your strengths,

And will not be uplifted.

And even if you could do harm, your swords are now too heavy for your strength and won't lift.

But, remember—

For that’s my business to you,—that you three

From Milan did supplant good Prospero;

Expos’d unto the sea, which hath requit it,

Him and his innocent child:

But remember this — that's my errand to you — that the three of you drove good Prospero out of Milan and abandoned him and his innocent child to the sea, which has now paid you back for it.

for which foul deed

The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have

Incens’d the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,

Against your peace.

For that foul act the powers above, who delay but never forget, have set the seas and shores and every living creature against your peace.

Thee of thy son, Alonso,

They have bereft;

They have taken your son from you, Alonso,

and do pronounce, by me

Ling’ring perdition,—worse than any death

Can be at once,—shall step by step attend

You and your ways;

and through me they declare that a slow ruin — worse than any death that comes all at once — will follow you and your affairs at every step.

whose wraths to guard you from—

Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls

Upon your heads,—is nothing but heart-sorrow,

And a clear life ensuing.

Nothing can guard you from their anger, which will otherwise fall on your heads here on this desolate island, except heartfelt sorrow and a blameless life from now on.

He vanishes in thunder: then, to soft music, enter the Shapes again, and dance, with mocks and mows, and carry out the table.

Aside.

Prospero

Bravely the figure of this Harpy hast thou

Perform’d, my Ariel;

You played the Harpy magnificently, my Ariel.

a grace it had, devouring.

It had real grace, even as it devoured.

Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated

In what thou hadst to say:

You left out nothing of what I told you to say.

so, with good life

And observation strange, my meaner ministers

Their several kinds have done.

And my lesser spirits have played their parts too, with vivid life and remarkable attention.

My high charms work,

And these mine enemies are all knit up

In their distractions;

My great spells are working, and my enemies are now all tangled up in their own confusion.

they now are in my power;

They're in my power.

And in these fits I leave them, while I visit

Young Ferdinand,—whom they suppose is drown’d,—

And his and mine lov’d darling.

I'll leave them in these fits while I go and see young Ferdinand, whom they think is drowned, and the girl he and I both love.

Exit above.

Gonzalo

I’ the name of something holy, sir, why stand you

In this strange stare?

In the name of all that's holy, sir, why are you standing there with that strange look?

Alonso

O, it is monstrous! monstrous!

Oh, it's monstrous, monstrous!

Methought the billows spoke, and told me of it;

I thought the waves spoke and told me about it.

The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder,

That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc’d

The name of Prosper: it did bass my trespass.

The winds sang it to me, and the thunder — that deep, dreadful organ pipe — spoke Prospero's name and boomed out my crime beneath it.

Therefore my son i’ th’ ooze is bedded;

That is why my son is bedded in the mud.

and

I’ll seek him deeper than e’er plummet sounded,

And with him there lie mudded.

I'll go looking for him deeper than any sounding-line has ever reached, and lie buried in the silt beside him.

Exit.

Sebastian

But one fiend at a time,

I’ll fight their legions o’er.

Let them come one devil at a time and I'll fight whole legions of them.

Antonio

I’ll be thy second.

I'll be your second.

Exeunt Sebastian and Antonio.

Gonzalo

All three of them are desperate:

All three of them are desperate.

their great guilt,

Like poison given to work a great time after,

Now ’gins to bite the spirits.

Their great guilt, like a poison designed to act long after it's swallowed, is only now starting to eat at their minds.

I do beseech you

That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly

And hinder them from what this ecstasy

May now provoke them to.

I beg you, those of you with younger joints, follow them quickly and stop them doing whatever this madness may drive them to.

Adrian

Follow, I pray you.

Come on, please — after them.

Exeunt.

The Tempest Act 3, Scene 3 summary

Who appears in this scene

Gonzalo, Alonso, Antonio, Sebastian, Prospero, Francisco, Ariel, Adrian — Another part of the island.

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

“You are three men of sin, whom Destiny, / That hath to instrument this lower world / And what is in’t,—the never-surfeited sea / Hath caused to belch up you” (line 71): Ariel, in the form of a Harpy, names Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian as guilty men and tells them the sea itself spat them onto this island because they were unfit to live among people. It is the moment the play's magic turns to judgement — the storm was never random weather but a summons — and it is deliberately terrifying rather than charming, the one point where Ariel is frightening.
“Their manners are more gentle, kind, than of / Our human generation you shall find / Many, nay, almost any.” (line 42): Gonzalo, watching the monstrous-looking spirits bow and serve, remarks that they behave better than most human beings. Coming immediately after Antonio and Sebastian have finalised a murder plot in whispers, the observation is exactly right, and Prospero says so from above: some of the men standing there are worse than devils.
“I’ll seek him deeper than e’er plummet sounded, / And with him there lie mudded.” (line 121): Alonso, told by the Harpy that his son's death is payment for what he did to Prospero, resolves to drown himself and lie in the mud beside Ferdinand. It marks the moment his guilt becomes real remorse rather than mere grief — the change that makes Act 5's forgiveness possible — and Shakespeare gives Prospero an echo of the phrase when he later vows to drown his book deeper than any sounding line has reached.

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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 3. Polytranslator side-by-side translation, polytranslator.com/shakespeare/the-tempest/act-3-scene-3.”

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