The Tempest (AQA GCSE English Literature): Exam Questions

PROSPERO 

Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves, 

And ye that on the sands with printless foot 

Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him 

When he comes back; you demi-puppets, that 

By moon-shine do the green sour ringlets make, 

Whereof the ewe not bites; and you, whose pastime 

Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice 

To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid – 

Weak masters though ye be – I have bedimmed 

The noontide sun, called forth the mutinous winds, 

And ’twixt the green sea and the azured vault

Set roaring war. To the dread rattling thunder 

Have I given fire, and rifted Jove’s stout oak 

With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory 

Have I made shake, and by the spurs plucked up 

The pine and cedar; graves at my command 

Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let ’em forth 

By my so potent art. But this rough magic 

I here abjure. And when I have required 

Some heavenly music – which even now I do – 

To work mine end upon their senses that 

This airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff, 

Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, 

And deeper than did ever plummet sound

I’ll drown my book.

MIRANDA 

’Tis a villain, sir, 

I do not love to look on. 

PROSPERO 

But as ’tis 

We cannot miss him. He does make our fire, 

Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices 

That profit us. What ho! Slave! Caliban! 

Thou earth, thou! Speak! 

CALIBAN 

(Within) 

There’s wood enough within. 

PROSPERO 

Come forth, I say; there’s other business for thee. 

Come, thou tortoise, when?

Enter ARIEL like a water-nymph 

Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel, 

Hark in thine ear. 

[Whispers to Ariel ] 

ARIEL 

My lord, it shall be done. 

Exit 

PROSPERO 

Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself 

Upon thy wicked dam, come forth. 

Enter CALIBAN 

CALIBAN

As wicked dew as e’er my mother brushed 

With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen 

Drop on you both! A south-west blow on ye, 

And blister you all o’er! 

PROSPERO 

For this, be sure, tonight thou shalt have cramps, 

Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins 

Shall, for that vast of night that they may work, 

All exercise on thee; thou shalt be pinched 

As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging 

Than bees that made ’em.

PROSPERO

A solemn air, and the best comforter 

To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains, 

Now useless, boiled within thy skull. There stand, 

For you are spell-stopped. 

Holy Gonzalo, honourable man, 

Mine eyes, ev’n sociable to the show of thine, 

Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace, 

And as the morning steals upon the night, 

Melting the darkness, so their rising senses 

Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle 

Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo – 

My true preserver, and a loyal sir 

To him thou follow’st – I will pay thy graces 

Home both in word and deed. Most cruelly 

Didst thou, Alonso, use me, and my daughter. 

Thy brother was a furtherer in the act – 

Th’art pinched for’t now, Sebastian. Flesh and blood, 

You, brother mine, that entertained ambition, 

Expelled remorse and nature, who, with Sebastian – 

Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong – 

Would here have killed your king; I do forgive thee, 

Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding 

Begins to swell, and the approaching tide 

Will shortly fill the reasonable shore 

That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them 

That yet looks on me, or would know me. Ariel, 

Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell.

[Exit Ariel] 

I will discase me, and myself present 

As I was sometime Milan. Quickly, spirit, 

Thou shalt ere long be free.

PROSPERO 

Ariel, thy charge 

Exactly is performed; but there’s more work. 

What is the time o’th’day? 

ARIEL 

Past the mid-season. 

PROSPERO 

At least two glasses. The time ’twixt six and now 

Must by us both be spent most preciously. 

ARIEL

Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains,

Let me remember thee what thou hast promised, 

Which is not yet performed me. 

PROSPERO

How now? Moody? 

What is’t thou canst demand? 

ARIEL 

My liberty. 

PROSPERO 

Before the time be out? No more. 

ARIEL 

I prithee, 

Remember I have done thee worthy service, 

Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, served 

Without or grudge or grumblings. Thou didst promise 

To bate me a full year. 

PROSPERO 

Dost thou forget 

From what a torment I did free thee? 

ARIEL 

No. 

PROSPERO 

Thou dost! And think’st it much to tread the ooze 

Of the salt deep, 

To run upon the sharp wind of the north, 

To do me business in the veins o’th’earth 

When it is baked with frost. 

ARIEL 

I do not, sir. 

PROSPERO 

Thou liest, malignant thing. Hast thou forgot 

The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy 

Was grown into a hoop? Hast thou forgot her? 

ARIEL 

No, sir. 

PROSPERO 

Thou hast. Where was she born? Speak. Tell me.

Thunder and lightning. Enter Ariel, like a Harpy, claps his wings upon the table, and with quaint device the banquet vanishes.

ARIEL [as Harpy] 

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, and on this island,

Where man doth not inhabit, you ’mongst men

Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad;

And even with such-like valor, men hang and drown

Their proper selves.

Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio draw their swords.

You fools, I and my fellows

Are ministers of Fate. The elements

Of whom your swords are tempered may as well

Wound the loud winds or with bemocked-at stabs

Kill the still-closing waters as diminish

One dowl that’s in my plume. My fellow ministers

Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt,

Your swords are now too massy for your strengths

And will not be uplifted. But remember —

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

From Milan did supplant good Prospero,

Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit it,

Him and his innocent child, for which foul deed,

The powers — delaying, not forgetting — have

Incensed the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures

Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso,

They have bereft; 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, whose wraths to guard you

From —

Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls

Upon your heads — is nothing but heart’s sorrow

And a clear life ensuing.

He vanishes in thunder.

PROPERO
But this rough magic

I here abjure, and when I have required

Some heavenly music, which even now I do,

Prospero gestures with his staff.

To work mine end upon their senses that

This airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff,

Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,

And deeper than did ever plummet sound

I’ll drown my book.

Solemn music.

Here enters Ariel before; then Alonso with a frantic gesture, attended by Gonzalo; Sebastian and Antonio in like manner attended by Adrian and Francisco. They all enter the circle which Prospero had made, and there stand charmed; which Prospero observing, speaks.

A solemn air, and the best comforter

To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains,

Now useless, boiled within thy skull. There stand,

For you are spell-stopped. —

Holy Gonzalo, honorable man,

Mine eyes, e’en sociable to the show of thine,

Fall fellowly drops. — The charm dissolves apace,

And as the morning steals upon the night,

Melting the darkness, so their rising senses

Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle

Their clearer reason. — O good Gonzalo,

My true preserver and a loyal sir

To him thou follow’st, I will pay thy graces

Home, both in word and deed. — Most cruelly

Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter.

Thy brother was a furtherer in the act. —

Thou art pinched for ’t now, Sebastian. — Flesh and

blood,

You, brother mine, that entertained ambition,

Expelled remorse and nature, whom, with Sebastian,

Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,

Would here have killed your king, I do forgive thee,

Unnatural though thou art.

SEBASTIAN

I remember

You did supplant your brother Prospero.

ANTONIO

True,

And look how well my garments sit upon me,

Much feater than before. My brother’s servants

Were then my fellows; now they are my men.

SEBASTIAN

But, for your conscience?

ANTONIO

Ay, sir, where lies that? If ’twere a kibe,

’Twould put me to my slipper, but I feel not

This deity in my bosom. Twenty consciences

That stand ’twixt me and Milan, candied be they

And melt ere they molest! Here lies your brother,

No better than the earth he lies upon.

If he were that which now he’s like—that’s dead—

Whom I with this obedient steel, three inches of it,

Can lay to bed forever; whiles you, doing thus,

To the perpetual wink for aye might put

This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence, who

Should not upbraid our course. For all the rest,

They’ll take suggestion as a cat laps milk.

They’ll tell the clock to any business that

We say befits the hour.

SEBASTIAN

Thy case, dear friend,

Shall be my precedent: as thou got’st Milan,

I’ll come by Naples. Draw thy sword. One stroke

Shall free thee from the tribute which thou payest,

And I the King shall love thee.

MIRANDA

O, I have suffered

With those that I saw suffer! A brave vessel,

Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her,

Dashed all to pieces. O, the cry did knock

Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished.

Had I been any god of power, I would

Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere

It should the good ship so have swallowed, and

The fraughting souls within her.

PROSPERO

Be collected.

No more amazement. Tell your piteous heart

There’s no harm done.

MIRANDA

O, woe the day!

PROSPERO

No harm.

I have done nothing but in care of thee,

Of thee, my dear one, thee, my daughter, who

Art ignorant of what thou art, naught knowing

Of whence I am, nor that I am more better

Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell,

And thy no greater father.

MIRANDA

More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.