Vol. 08 · Shakespeare ·The Tempest, Act IV.i ·Prospero
"Our revels now are ended."
Not quite the line.
How it's usually quoted
"Our revels now are ended."
What Shakespeare actually wrote
"Our revels now are ended. These our actors, / As I foretold you, were all spirits and / Are melted into air, into thin air." Prospero — The Tempest, Act IV.i
Why it matters
The four-word opening is famous; the "into thin air" that comes next is actually Shakespeare's coinage. Truncated quotation gets the drama, loses the phrase that entered the language.
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