The Tempest

O, wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,

That has such people in't!

Believed to be Shakespeare's last solo-written play.

Thoughts

A little bit on the shorter side of Shakespeare's plays, but I think that works just fine.

The plot itself is setup quite simply: Prospero, the duke of Milan, got kicked out of his seat by his traitorous brother and is now stuck with his daughter Miranda and the king of Naples' son, Ferdinand, on a random island. He swears revenge and enlists the aid of a spirit (named Ariel) to help him.

So yeah, it's a short little play about revenge, and the duke, after setting up his revenge, eventually gets talked out of it by Ariel, and eventually everything becomes sugar and rainbows in the ending. Not the most interesting story, from modern eyes, but at least it keeps itself subtle.

And about Miranda's little speech above - what do you think it could mean?