PROSPERO

A magician and former duke, near the end of his powers, watching a beautiful illusion he made vanish on cue.

0:55Dramatic35–60Advanced

The speech85 words · 3 beats

0:00 / 0:55

Off-book

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-capp’d 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.turn

We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.

✦ AIStudy this passageplain English

Three ways in, all in plain English. Side by side pairs the original with a modern rendering, line by line. In contexttells you what’s happening and what the character wants. Glossary unpacks the tricky words. Pick a lens above.

AI-generated study aid — trust the original text first; treat this as a gloss.

Takes

No takes yet — be the first to log how you’d play it.

Speaking to: Ferdinand and Miranda — and himself, thinking past them.
What just happened: He has conjured a wedding masque to celebrate the young lovers, then suddenly remembered a plot against his life and broken the spell off mid-scene.
Objective: To make peace, out loud, with the fact that nothing he has made will last — including him.
The turn: ‘We are such stuff’ — the thought turns from the vanished show to himself and everyone listening.
Watch out for: The trap is grandeur. It is not a set-piece about theatre; it is a tired man realising his own ending and finding it bearable.

Full work: The Tempest New to the vocabulary? What’s a beat? →