Prospero: “Our revels now are ended”

What is happening, what every line means, how to perform it, and how to use it in an audition, with the full text.

The Offbook team

Oct 8, 2026

What is happening

This is Act 4, Scene 1 of The Tempest. Twelve years ago Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, was overthrown by his brother Antonio and set adrift with his small daughter, Miranda. They have lived ever since on an island, where Prospero has mastered magic and commands spirits, chief among them Ariel. He has used a storm to bring his enemies’ ship to the island, and Miranda has fallen in love with Ferdinand, son of the King of Naples. At the start of this scene Prospero gives the couple his blessing.

To celebrate, he has his spirits perform a masque, a show with music and dancing: the goddesses Iris, Ceres and Juno bless the engagement, and nymphs and reapers dance. Ferdinand is amazed and says he would like to live there forever. In the middle of the dance Prospero suddenly remembers that Caliban and two drunken sailors are on their way to murder him. He stops the show, and the spirits vanish. Ferdinand and Miranda have never seen him so angry.

Prospero tells Ferdinand that he looks upset and should cheer up, and then speaks this speech to him, with Miranda there. It begins as reassurance, grows into a vision of the whole world dissolving, and ends with an old man admitting he is shaken and sending the couple off to rest. As soon as they go, he calls Ariel to deal with the plotters.

Lines: 16
Words: 121
At 150 wpm: 48 sec
Form: Verse

The speech, beat by beat

The full text in 4 beats. Under each beat: what it means in plain English, and a note for playing it.

Lines 1–3 · The show is over

1Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:

In plain English Our entertainment is over. These actors of ours, as I told you, were all spirits, and they have melted into air, into thin air.

Acting note He is calming Ferdinand, who has just seen the vision vanish. The repeated “into air, into thin air” can be him watching the last of them go.

Lines 4–8 · Everything will dissolve

4And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
5The 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,

In plain English And just like the vision you saw, which had no real foundation, the towers that reach the clouds, the splendid palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, and everyone living on it, will all dissolve, and, like this unreal show that has faded,

Acting note The thought grows from the masque to the whole world, one item at a time. Each thing in the list should be bigger than the last, until the whole globe goes.

Lines 9–11 · Such stuff as dreams

9Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
10As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex’d;

In plain English leave not even a wisp of cloud behind. We are made of the same stuff as dreams, and our little life is rounded off with a sleep. Then, in the middle of line 11, he breaks off: Sir, I am upset.

Acting note The best-known lines in the speech come in the middle of a verse line, not at the start of one. Say them plainly. The sudden “Sir, I am vex’d” is the jolt from the whole universe back to one troubled man.

Lines 12–16 · My old brain is troubled

12Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled:
Be not disturb’d with my infirmity:
If you be pleased, retire into my cell
15And there repose: a turn or two I’ll walk,
To still my beating mind.

In plain English Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled. Don’t be alarmed by my frailty. If you like, go into my cell and rest there. I will walk up and down a little to calm my racing mind.

Acting note This is a powerful magician apologising to the young man who is about to marry his daughter. The plot against his life has not gone away; he needs to be alone to master his anger before he deals with it.

Hard words

Word	Line	Meaning
revels	1	entertainment, festivities (here, the masque)
baseless fabric	4	a structure with no foundation
cloud-capp’d	5	so tall their tops are in the clouds
the great globe itself	6	the whole earth
all which it inherit	7	everyone and everything that lives on it
insubstantial pageant	8	unreal show
rack	9	a wisp of cloud
made on	10	made of
rounded with a sleep	11	surrounded, rounded off, by sleep
vex’d	11	troubled, upset
infirmity	13	weakness, frailty
cell	14	his small, simple dwelling
beating mind	16	agitated, racing mind

How to perform it

Know why he is speaking. Ferdinand looks dismayed, and Prospero has just snapped at the spirits in front of him. The objective is to calm the young man, and at the same time to calm himself. The speech is comfort that keeps growing beyond comfort.
Keep the anger underneath. LitCharts suggests that at this moment Prospero almost loses control, having been so caught up in his art that he forgot real life. Caliban’s plot is still coming. If you play only serene wisdom, the last five lines make no sense.
Handle the late verse. StageMilk notes that by the time of The Tempest Shakespeare was breaking the metre more and more, so the text can feel abrupt. Here the big thoughts end in the middle of lines 1, 9 and 11. Let those mid-line stops land, especially the turn at “Sir, I am vex’d.”
Breathe before line 4. Lines 4 to 9 are one sentence and a list; build through towers, palaces, temples and globe, and keep enough breath to finish on “Leave not a rack behind.” Then let the famous lines come simply, not sung.
Don’t play Shakespeare’s farewell. Wikipedia notes that critics have heard this as Shakespeare’s own retirement speech, and LitCharts says many critics read it as being about his craft. StageMilk points out that there is no evidence for the idea that Prospero stands for Shakespeare. Play Prospero’s situation instead: a father, a ruler and an old man interrupted.
Common mistakes: making it slow, dreamy and beautiful from start to finish; cutting the last five lines because they seem less poetic; and forgetting that someone is there to be comforted.

Using it in an audition

This is a short piece: about 0.8 minutes at 150 words a minute, so under a minute and too short for most two-minute slots on its own. No cut is needed. If you need a little more, start two lines earlier with “You do look, my son, in a moved sort, / As if you were dismay’d: be cheerful, sir,” which open the same speech. For a longer Prospero, StageMilk also recommends his Act 5 speech, “Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves.” Prospero calls himself old (“my old brain is troubled”) and has a daughter who is about to marry, so the speech suits mature actors. Productions have also cast women in the part, as “Prospera,” as Wikipedia records. The middle lines are very well known, so a panel will listen for whether you are really speaking to Ferdinand. Pair it with something quick and comic, such as Benedick’s “This can be no trick” from Much Ado About Nothing.

Prospero, The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1. William Shakespeare. Public domain text.

How long it runs

Pace	Words a minute	Run time
Deliberate	130	54 seconds
Conversational	150	48 seconds
Brisk	170	42 seconds

These are speech times before pauses. To time your own run, paste the text into the monologue timer.

Practice it: first-letter version

Each word is cut to its first letter. Say the whole line from the letters, then check the text. Make cues from any script with the first-letter memorizer.

O r n a e. T o a,

A I f y, w a s a

A m i a, i t a:

A, l t b f o t v,

T c-c t, t g p,

T s t, t g g i,

Y, a w i i, s d

A, l t i p f,

L n a r b. W a s s

A d a m o, a o l l

I r w a s. S, I a v;

B w m w; m o b i t:

B n d w m i:

I y b p, r i m c

A t r: a t o t I w,

T s m b m.

More from The Tempest

More lists: Shakespeare monologues, Monologues for men, Comedic monologues, Short monologues, one minute or less.

Sources

Questions actors ask

How long is Prospero’s Our revels now are ended speech?

16 lines and 121 words. At 150 words a minute it runs about 48 seconds; a slower, more deliberate delivery at 130 takes about 54 seconds. Pauses add time, so time a full run out loud.

Is it a good audition monologue?

What is the fastest way to memorize it?

Learn it in sense units, not line by line: say each thought out loud until you can do it without looking, then add the next. The first-letter version below keeps the shape of every line in view while you test yourself.