The Tempest; Act III, Scene iii

This speech is used in our interview with Erin Partin

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53  You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,—
54  That hath to instrument this lower world
55  And what is in’t,—the never-surfeited sea
56  Hath caused to belch up you; and on this island,
57  Where man doth not inhabit,—you ’mongst men
58  Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad;
59  And even with such-like valour men hang and drown
60  Their proper selves. You fools! I and my fellows.
61  Are ministers of Fate: the elements,
62  Of whom your swords are temper’d, may as well
63  Wound the loud winds, or with bemock’d-at stabs
64  Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish
65  One dowle that’s in my plume: my fellow-ministers
66  Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt,
67  Your swords are now too massy for your strengths,
68  And will not be uplifted. But remember,—
69  For that’s my business to you,—that you three
70  From Milan did supplant good Prospero;
71  Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit it,
72  Him and his innocent child: for which foul deed
73  The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
74  Incensed the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,
75  Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso,
76  They have bereft; and do pronounce by me:
77  Lingering perdition—worse than any death
78  Can be at once—shall step by step attend
79  You and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from,—
80  Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls
81  Upon your heads,—is nothing but heart-sorrow
82  And a clear life ensuing.