The Tempest: Act 1, Scene 1 Translation

A side-by-side translation of Act 1, Scene 1 of The Tempest from the original Shakespeare into modern English.

Original Text	Translated Text
Source: Folger Shakespeare Library
A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard. Enter a Shipmaster and a Boatswain. MASTER Boatswain! BOATSWAIN Here, master. What cheer? MASTER Good, speak to th’ mariners. Fall to ’t yarely, or we run ourselves aground. Bestir, bestir! He exits. Enter Mariners. BOATSWAIN Heigh, my hearts! Cheerly, cheerly, my 5 hearts! Yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to th’ Master’s whistle.—Blow till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!	A ship is being bombarded by thunder, lightning and rain—in short—a tempest (surprise!) that seems worse than the big storm in King Lear.
Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and others. ALONSO Good boatswain, have care. Where’s the Master? Play the men. 10 BOATSWAIN I pray now, keep below. ANTONIO Where is the Master, boatswain? BOATSWAIN Do you not hear him? You mar our labor. Keep your cabins. You do assist the storm. GONZALO Nay, good, be patient. 15 BOATSWAIN When the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin! Silence! Trouble us not. GONZALO Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard. 20 BOATSWAIN None that I more love than myself. You are a councillor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more. Use your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and 25 make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap.—Cheerly, good hearts!—Out of our way, I say! He exits.	Boat crew members are working hard to keep everything afloat for their passengers, who include a bunch of VIPs from the Italian court: Alonso (the King of Naples), Sebastian (his brother), Antonio (the Duke of Milan), Ferdinand (the King's son), and Gonzalo (an honest old councilor). Unfortunately, the VIPs aren't very good at taking direction from the Boatswain, who keeps telling them to go below decks and stay out of the way.
GONZALO I have great comfort from this fellow. Methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him. His 30 complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging. Make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage. If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable. He exits with Alonso, Sebastian, and the other courtiers.	Gonzalo says he knows they'll survive the storm because the Boatswain, who has just spoken pretty harshly to a bunch of important people, is clearly going to die by hanging, not drowning.
Enter Boatswain. BOATSWAIN Down with the topmast! Yare! Lower, lower! 35 Bring her to try wi’ th’ main course. (A cry within.) A plague upon this howling! They are louder than the weather or our office. Enter Sebastian, Antonio, and Gonzalo. Yet again? What do you here? Shall we give o’er and drown? Have you a mind to sink? 40 SEBASTIAN A pox o’ your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog! BOATSWAIN Work you, then. ANTONIO Hang, cur, hang, you whoreson, insolent noisemaker! We are less afraid to be drowned than 45 thou art. GONZALO I’ll warrant him for drowning, though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell and as leaky as an unstanched wench. BOATSWAIN Lay her ahold, ahold! Set her two courses. 50 Off to sea again! Lay her off!	The Boatswain continues to bark orders, trying to save the ship, and the royals continue to plague him. When he snaps at them to at least do some work if they're going to insist on being on deck, Antonio calls him a whoreson, among other things, and Gonzalo again says that it's clear the Boatswain isn't going to drown. In fact, Gonzalo doesn't think he would drown even if the boat were as leaky as a menstruating woman. (What?! We thought courtly people were supposed to speak in slightly more refined terms...)
Enter more Mariners, wet. MARINERS All lost! To prayers, to prayers! All lost! Mariners exit. BOATSWAIN What, must our mouths be cold? GONZALO The King and Prince at prayers. Let’s assist them, for our case is as theirs. 55 SEBASTIAN I am out of patience. ANTONIO We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards. This wide-chopped rascal—would thou mightst lie drowning the washing of ten tides! Boatswain exits. GONZALO He’ll be hanged yet, though every drop of 60 water swear against it and gape at wid’st to glut him. A confused noise within: “Mercy on us!”—“We split, we split!”—“Farewell, my wife and children!”— “Farewell, brother!”—“We split, we split, we split!” 65 ANTONIO Let’s all sink wi’ th’ King. SEBASTIAN Let’s take leave of him. He exits with Antonio. GONZALO Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground: long heath, brown furze, anything. The wills above be done, but I 70 would fain die a dry death. He exits.	While everyone's busy being friendly, a mariner demands that everyone should get busy and pray because "all's lost!" And then, sure enought, the boat splits (just like the ships in The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night) and everyone seems to go their separate ways into the water. Brain Snack: Shakespeare has always liked to insert a good shipwreck into his plays but the wreck in The Tempest may have been inspired by a real-life accident at sea. In 1609, the Sea Venture was on its way from England to Jamestown when it wrecked in the Bermudas. The crew was thought to be lost forever but managed to survive on an uninhabited island for about nine months—to everyone's shock and dismay, the crew built two new ships and sailed on to Jamestown. (Learn more about the Sea Venture shipwreck here.)