Important Quotations Explained
1. You
taught me language, and my profit on’t
Is
I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For
learning me your language! (I.ii.
366–368)
2. There
be some sports are painful, and their labour
Delight
in them sets off. Some kinds of baseness
Are
nobly undergone, and most poor matters
Point
to rich ends. 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. (III.i.1-7)
3. [I
weep] at mine unworthiness, that dare not offer
What
I desire to give, and much less take
What
I shall die to want. But this is trifling,
And
all the more it seeks to hide itself
The bigger
bulk it shows. Hence, bashful cunning,
And
prompt me, plain and holy innocence.
I am
your wife, if you will marry me.
If not, I’ll
die your maid. To be your fellow
You may deny
me, but I’ll be your servant
Whether you will
or no (III.i.
77–86)
4. Be
not afeard. The isle is full of noises,
Sounds,
and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes
a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum
about mine ears, and sometime voices
That,
if I then had waked after long sleep
Will
make me sleep again; and then in dreaming
The
clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready
to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried
to dream again (III.ii.
130–138).
5. Our
revels now are ended. These our actors,
As
I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are
melted into air, into thin air;
And, like
the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped
towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples,
the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it
inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial
pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We
are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and
our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. (IV.i.
148–158)
