, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero
, the exiled Duke of Milan
, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place, using illusion and skillful manipulation. The eponymous tempest brings to the island Prospero's usurping brother Antonio and the complicit Alonso, King of Naples
.
I have great comfort from this fellow. Methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. 
A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous,incharitable dog!
All lost! to prayers, to prayers! All lost!
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 would fain die a dry death.
Miranda: You have oftenBegun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd,And left me to a bootless inquisition,Concluding, Stay; not yet.Prospero: The hour's now come;The very minute bids thee ope thine ear.
What see'st thou elseIn the dark backward and abysm of time?
The government I cast upon my brother,And to my state grew stranger, being transportedAnd rapt in secret studies.
I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicatedTo closeness, and the bettering of my mind.