Prospero — “Our Revels Now Are Ended”
Prospero has conjured a spirit-masque to celebrate his daughter's betrothal, then suddenly breaks it off, remembering a plot against his life. To calm his startled son-in-law, he explains that the vision has vanished — and, carried by his own image, that everything, the whole world, will dissolve the same way. He wants to reassure Ferdinand and to master the dark mood rising in himself.
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. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex’d:
Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled.
Be not disturb’d with my infirmity.
If you be pleas’d, retire into my cell
And there repose: a turn or two I’ll walk,
To still my beating mind.
How to Play It
The active need is to soothe Ferdinand — but Prospero gets carried past reassurance into a vision of everything ending, and has to pull himself back ('Sir, I am vex'd'). Play the pivot: it starts as comfort, opens into awe, then returns, shaken, to the present. Don't deliver it as a detached poem about mortality.
The trap is 'beautiful and sad,' floated on a pleasant vocal cushion. Ground it: he's an old man frightened by his own thought and covering for it. The final lines are him steadying himself in real time.
Underdone, elegiac, and mature — a fine contrast piece when everyone else is bringing rage. It rewards restraint and the 'stillness' casting directors keep asking for.
Best for older or gravitas-carrying adult actors. Short, self-contained, and a real showcase for control and thought over volume.
Want Will to Coach You Through It?
A monologue is a two-person scene where the other person never speaks. Working it 1-on-1 with a working actor is the fastest way to make it land.