CLASSICAL COMICS STUDY GUIDE

Making Shakespeare accessible for teachers and students

Suitable for KS2 and KS3

Written by: Karen Wenborn
CLASSICAL COMICS STUDY GUIDE
The Tempest

First UK Edition

Copyright ©2007 Classical Comics Ltd.

All rights reserved.

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Written by: Karen Wenborn

Design/Layout by: Jo Wheeler
Character designs & original artwork by: Jon Haward
Inked by: Gary Erskine
Lettering: Clive Bryant

Rights: The rights of Jon Haward, Gary Erskine and Clive Bryant
to be identified as artists of this work have been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
sections 77 and 78.

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copyright holders of material reproduced in this book. Any rights
not acknowledged here will be acknowledged in subsequent
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Classical Comics Study Guide: The Tempest

CONTENTS

LANGUAGE
Metaphors & Similes ....................................................................................................................4
Missing Words ................................................................................................................................5
How Insulting! ................................................................................................................................6
Connect the Quotes ......................................................................................................................8
Word Search ................................................................................................................................10

PERFORMANCE
Performing the Play ....................................................................................................................11

UNDERSTANDING THE PLAY

Character & Motivation ..............................................................................................................13
Ideas, Themes & Issues ............................................................................................................14

ANSWERS
Word Search Solution ................................................................................................................15
Classical Comics Study Guide: The Tempest Language

METAPHORS AND SIMILES

WORKSHEET 1

Re-read the text looking for examples of metaphor

and simile.

If possible, underline or highlight them when you

find them. Put ‘M’ or ‘S’ in the margin next to each
one. If you have time, look for other examples of
metaphor and simile in the play.

TASK:
Discuss this as a group. Have you identified them
correctly?

Look again at the following images from the Explain what is being said in these
speeches and from other parts of the play. speeches.

“Nor go neither – but you’ll lie like dogs, and yet say
nothing neither.”

“What a pied ninny’s this!”

“We are such stuff

As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.”

“This was well done, my bird!

Thy shape invisible retain thou still.
The trumpery in my house, go bring it hither,
For stale to catch these thieves.”

“A devil, a born devil, on whose nature

Nurture can never stick – on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost!
And as with age his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers. I will plague them all,
Even to roaring.”

“Monster, come, put some lime upon your fingers, and

away with the rest.”

“Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints

With dry convulsions; shorten up their sinews
With aged cramps – and more pinch-spotted make them
Than pard or cat-o’-mountain!”

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Classical Comics Study Guide: The Tempest Language

MISSING WORDS

WORKSHEET 2

MISSING WORDS
To complete the sentences below, underline the correct word in the box, and then write it in the gap.
Be careful – there are some traps in the box!

1. Let them be soundly. At this hour

hunted remorse
Lies at my mercy all mine enemies.
Shortly shall all my -------- end, and thou gown apes
Shalt have the air at freedom. For a little smoking part bad
Follow, and do me service.
passion deformity

2. Monster, lay-to your fingers! Help to bear this away man undo good
where my of wine is, or I’ll turn you out of my horse-piss word
kingdom. Go to, carry this!
knife hearing

3. I will have none on’t! We shall lose our time, bind wert spurn
And all be turned to , or to punishments spear
With foreheads villainous low.
kindness dignity

4. Put off that , Trinculo. By this hand, I’ll have that turn kill brave
gown! mock barnacles
blood wits tie
5. Let it alone, thou fool! It is but .
words trash beggar
6. Thou but a lost monster. hang sword
hogshead kind
7. Monster, I do smell all – at which my nose
is in great indignation. honour forgiveness
virtuous state good
8. This is strange. Your father’s in some
tease confuse
That works him strongly.
staff labours
9. I did not give the lie! Out o’your , and mood head senses
too?
state manure stink
A pox o’your bottle! This can sack and drinking do.

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Classical Comics Study Guide: The Tempest Language

SHAKESPEARE’S INSULTS!

WORKSHEET 3

Shakespeare often made up his own words, especially when he wanted to create strong images. Many of
these were used by characters to insult each other. Can you work out which words are still used today?
Match one word from Column 1 with one word from Column 2 and one from Column 3. Cut them out and
shuffle them around. Try different combinations to see who can produce the most offensive insult!
Put the word ‘thou’ (you) at the beginning and you have a sentence.

Words made from putting two words together are called compound words. Can you work out what some
of them might mean?

Column 1: Column 2: Column 3:

Adjective Compound Adjective Nouns and Compound Nouns
artless base-court apple-john
bawdy bat-fowling baggage
beslubbering beef-witted barnacle
bootless beetle-headed basket-cockle
burly-boned boil-brained bladder
caluminous brazen-faced blind-worm
churlish bunch-back’d boar-pig
cockered clapper-clawed braggart
clouted clay-brained bugbear
craven common-kissing canker-blossom
cullionly crook-pated clotpole
currish dismal-dreaming coxcomb
dankish dizzy-eyed codpiece
dissembling doghearted cur
droning dread-bolted death-token
errant earth-vexing devil-monk
fawning elf-skinned dewberry
fishified fat-kidneyed flap-dragon
fobbing fen-sucked flax-wench
frothy flap-mouthed flirt-gill
fusty fly-bitten foot-licker
gleeking folly-fallen fustilarian
goatish fool-born giglet
gorbellied full-gorged gudgeon
impertinent guts-griping haggard
infectious half-faced harpy
jarring hasty-witted hedge-pig
loggerheaded hedge-born horn-beast
lumpish hell-hated hugger-mugger
mammering idle-headed jolt-head
mangled ill-breeding lewdster
misbegotten ill-nurtured lout
mewling knotty-pated malcontent
odiferous leaden-footed maggot-pie

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Classical Comics Study Guide: The Tempest Language

Column 1: Column 2: Column 3:

Adjective Compound Adjective Nouns and Compound Nouns

paunchy lily-livered malt-worm

poisonous malmsey-nosed mammet
pribbling milk-livered measle
puking motley-minded minnow
puny muddy-mettled miscreant
qualling onion-eyed mouldwarp
rampallian pigeon-liver’d mumble-news
rank plume-plucked nut-hook
reeky pottle-deep pigeon-egg
roguish pox-marked pignut
ruttish reeling-ripe popinjay
saucy rough-hewn puttock
spleeny rude-growing pumpion
spongy rump-fed rascal
surly scale-sided ratsbane
tottering scurvy-valiant scullion
unmuzzled shard-borne scut
unwash’d sheep-biting skainsmate
venomed spur-galled strumpet
villainous swag-bellied toad
warped tardy-gaited varlot
wart-necked tickle-brained vassal
wayward toad-spotted whey-face
weedy unchin-snouted wagtail
whoreson weather-bitten yoke-devil

GAME:
Divide the class into two. Line up the two halves facing each other, making Line 1 and Line 2. This may be
best done outside! Take turns to shout out words from the list as follows:
1. The first person in Line 1 calls out a word of his or her choice from Column 1.
2. The first person in Line 2 has to respond with a word starting with the same letter from Column 2.
3. The second person in Line 1 then completes the insult with any word from Column 3.
4. The process starts again with the second person in Line 2,
and so on.

Optional extra rule:

Everyone must listen and try to avoid repeating
words that have already been called out.
Anyone who repeats a word is ‘out’ and has to
leave the line.
The game continues until only a few people are
left or the words have all been used up.

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Classical Comics Study Guide: The Tempest Language

CONNECT THE QUOTES

WORKSHEET 4

Connect the Quotes - who said what?

A game played in pairs.

Cut out and use the quotations suggested here, and why not select and add more of your own in the
blank squares.

Drink, servant- Moon-calf, speak Trinculo, run into Is it so brave a Lead, monster. I will fetch off my
monster, when I once in thy life, no further lass? We’ll follow. I bottle, though I
danger! Interrupt
bid thee! if thou beest a the monster one would I could be o’er ears for
Thy eyes are good moon-calf. word further, and, see this my labour.
almost set in thy by this hand, I’ll taborer: he lays
head. turn my mercy it on.
out o’doors, and
make a stockfish
of thee.

Silver! There it I go, I go. Thou liest. Thy thoughts I This will I tell my Monster, come,
goes, Silver! cleave to. What’s master. put some lime
thy pleasure? upon your
fingers, and
away with the
rest.

Thou wert but a Do, do! We steal O King Pray you, tread Say again, where This is strange.
lost monster. by line and level, Stephano! O softly, that the didst thou leave Your father’s in
an it like your peer! O worthy blind mole may these varlets? some passion
grace. Stephano! not hear a foot That works him
Look what
fall. We now are strongly.
wardrobe here is
for thee! near his cell.

Give me thy Monster, I will kill I did not give the

this man. His lie! Out o’your
hand. I am sorry
daughter and I wits, and hearing
I beat thee: but, will be king and too? A pox o’your
while queen – save our bottle! This can
thou liv’st, keep a graces! – and sack and drinking
good tongue in Trinculo and do. A murrain on
thy head. thyself shall be your monster, and
viceroys. Dost the devil take your
thou like the plot, fingers!

Each student draws one quote out of the bag at a time, and links it to the correct character. The first to
get a line of four ‘wins’. You can use the grid on the next page.

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Classical Comics Study Guide: The Tempest Language

CONNECT THE QUOTES

CALIBAN STEPHANO TRINCULO ARIAL PROSPERO FERDINAND MIRANDA

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Classical Comics Study Guide: The Tempest Language

WORD SEARCH

WORKSHEET 5

Find each of the following words. They could run in any direction, including backwards!

SORCERER BEAST INSUBSTANTIAL REVENGE

TYRANT MUTINEER JOCUND SUPPLANT
SYCORAX CALIBAN BETRAYAL DEBAUCHED
MONSTER CONSPIRACY PAGEANT NONPAREIL
PROSPERO MIRANDA STOCKFISH
VALIANT VICEROYS STEPHANO

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Classical Comics Study Guide: The Tempest Performance

PERFORMING THE PLAY

WORKSHEET 6

TASK:

Divide Prospero’s speech in Act 4 scene 1 into whole sentences or phrases.

Each member of the class has one sentence or phrase. Memorise it!
You will need plenty of room for this.

• Practice saying the sentence or phrase in as many different ways as possible:

- Shout it!
- Whisper it.
- Say it in a pleading tone.
- Sing it!
- Say it in a persuading tone.
- Say it quickly!
- Say it slowly.
- Say it angrily!
- Say it as if you are apologising.
- Say it sarcastically.

• Choose a way to say it that you think fits what Prospero is saying in that part of the speech.

• Everyone form a circle, standing in the order of the speech. In your circle, decide what you’re going to
do when you say your line. You could step forward, shake your fist, raise your arms etc. You decide.

• Go around the circle in order, each person saying his or her sentence in turn.

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Classical Comics Study Guide: The Tempest Performance

PERFORMING THE PLAY

PROSPERO:
You do look, my son, in a mov’d sort,
As if you were dismay’d. Be cheerful, sir.
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-capped 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 disturbed 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.

Now do the same with Caliban’s speech from Act 3 scene 2.

CALIBAN:
Why, as I told thee, ’tis a custom with him
I’ th’afternoon to sleep. There thou may’st brain him,
Having first seiz’d his books – or with a log
Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake,
Or cut his wezand with thy knife. Remember
First to possess his books – for without them
He’s but a sot, as I am, nor hath not
One spirit to command. They all do hate him
As rootedly as I. Burn but his books.
He has brave utensils – for so he calls them –
Which, when he has a house, he’ll deck withal.
And that most deeply to consider is
The beauty of his daughter. He himself
Calls her a nonpareil. I never saw a woman
But only Sycorax my dam and she –
But she as far surpasseth Sycorax
As great’st does least.

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Classical Comics Study Guide: The Tempest Understanding the Play

CHARACTER AND MOTIVATION

WORKSHEET 7

Here we explore links and relationships between the key characters, although the mind map can be used
in many ways to explore other themes within the play, such as motivation.

TASK:

Draw a mind map linking Prospero, Antonio and Stephano.

Explain the connections, using quotes where you can. Below is an example of a mind map.

5. The structure that 1. Start at the centre

should develop will be a of a blank, landscape
‘radiant hierarchy’, with page, ideally with a
ideas radiating out from colourful image to
your central themes and represent your
main branches. subject.

2. Use words and

4. Experiment pictures
with different throughout your
ways of linking map. Wherever
and emphasizing possible use
different aspects. single KEY
Use highlighters, words, printed
codes and along a line. Each
arrows as word or picture
necessary. sits on its own
line.

3. The lines make the association between ideas as clear as

possible. Make them flowing and organic and make each
line the same length as the word or image. Always ensure
that lines connect to the end of the line at the previous
level. Typically lines will be thicker at the centre and thinner
further out.

Use one of the images from the book in the centre of the page to start you off.

Now draw lines to each character showing who betrays whom, how they are connected and any other
‘joining’ threads you can think of.

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Classical Comics Study Guide: The Tempest Understanding the Play

IDEAS, THEMES AND ISSUES

WORKSHEET 8

GROUP WORK AND DISCUSSION:

1. In groups, create a mind map of all the words and phrases that you can think of that are to do with
civilisation.

2. Then, divide them into ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ halves. Does every group have the same number of
negative or positive terms? Do different groups have different ideas about civilisation?

3. Use another map to examine the different roles and morals regarding slavery as portrayed in the
play.

4. How do they differ from the views on slavery today?

Here is an example of a mind map based on William Shakespeare:

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Classical Comics Study Guide: The Tempest Answers

WORD SEARCH SOLUTION

WORKSHEET 5

SORCERER BEAST INSUBSTANTIAL REVENGE

TYRANT MUTINEER JOCUND SUPPLANT
SYCORAX CALIBAN BETRAYAL DEBAUCHED
MONSTER CONSPIRACY PAGEANT NONPAREIL
PROSPERO MIRANDA STOCKFISH
VALIANT VICEROYS STEPHANO

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