1. William Shakespeare, The Tempest

2. If we look at those princes who have lost their states in Italy in our times, such as the King of Naples, the Duke of Milan, and others, there will be found in them, firstly, one common problem… Our princes should not accuse fortune for the loss of their principalities after so many years’ possession, but rather their own laziness. In quiet times they never thought there could be change (it is a common weakness in people not to make any provision in the calm against the storm). (Machiavelli, The Prince, XXIV)

3. … those [the liberal arts] being all my study,
The government I cast upon my brother
And to my state grew stranger, being transported
And rapt in secret studies.
(…)
Hence his ambition growing …
To have no screen between this part he played
And him he played it for, he needs will be
Absolute Milan. Me, poor man, my library
Was dukedom large enough.
( , )

4. When we look into [the] actions and lives [of exemplary leaders], we will find that fortune provided nothing for them but an opportunity; that gave them the material, on which they could impose whatever form they chose. Without that opportunity their strength [virtù] of mind would have been vain, and without that strength [virtù] the opportunity would have been lost. (…) Specific opportunities brought these happy men to power, and their unusual abilities [virtù] enabled them to seize the occasion and so to make their countries noble and prosperous. (Machiavelli, The Prince, VI)

5. By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune
(Now my dear Lady) hath mine enemies
Brought to this shore; and by my prescience
I find my zenith doth depend upon
A most auspicious star, whose influence
If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes
Will ever after droop. ( )

6. If we look at those princes who have lost their states in Italy in our times, such as the King of Naples, the Duke of Milan, and others, there will be found in them, firstly, one common problem… Our princes should not accuse fortune for the loss of their principalities after so many years’ possession, but rather their own laziness. In quiet times they never thought there could be change (it is a common weakness in people not to make any provision in the calm against the storm). (Machiavelli, The Prince, XXIV)

7. This island’s mine by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou tak’st from me. When thou cam’s first
Thou strok’st me and made much of me; wouldst give me
Water with berries in’t; and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night. And then I loved thee
And showed thee all the qualities o’ th’ isle,
The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile.

8. Cursèd be I that did so! All the charms
Of Sycorax — toads, beetles, bats — light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have,
Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest o’ th’ island. ( )

9. PROSPERO Thou most lying slave,
Whom stripes may move, not kindness. I have used thee,
Filth as thou art, with humane care, and lodged thee
In mine own cell till thou didst seek to violate
The honor of my child.
CALIBAN O ho, O ho! Would’t had been done!
Thou didst prevent me. I had peopled else
This isle with Calibans. ( )

10. MIRANDA Abhorrèd slave,
Which any print of goodness wilt not take,
Being capable of all ill. I pitied thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other. When thou didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes
With words that made them known. But thy vile race,
Though thou didst learn, had that in’t which good natures
Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou
Deservedly confined into this rock,
Who hadst deserved more than a prison.
CALIBAN You taught me language, and my profit on’t
Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For learning me your language! ( )

11. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains, Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost. ( )

12. PROSPERO He is as disproportioned in his manners
As in his shape. Go, sirrah, to my cell;
Take with you your companions. As you look
To have my pardon, trim it handsomely.
CALIBAN Ay, that I will; and I’ll be wise hereafter,
And seek for grace. ( )