William Shakespeare

William Hershaw

"The Tempest" by William Shakespeare, translated into Scots by William Hershaw. Prize-winning poet William Hershaw has written a compelling Scots language version of William Shakespeare's last play "The Tempest." It is set in Scotland during a regency period where powerful nobles form alliances to win power. Prospero, the book obsessed Earl of Fife, is usurped by his treacherous brother Antonio who has made a pact with the Duke of Argylle. Prospero and his young daughter Miranda are cast adrift and left for dead in the North Sea but they find refuge on a remote enchanted island. Here Prospero perfects his sorcerer's powers to such an extent that twelve years later he is able to summon a storm that shipwrecks his enemies and leaves them at his mercy. From this choice between revenge and reconciliation a wonderful love story grows ... William Hershaw's play will fascinate anyone who is interested in Shakespeare, Scots language or simply who loves a good story well told. It is a play that will go down particularly well in the classroom at Higher and National 5 level where the range of characters (including the reluctant coal miner Caliban and the freedom seeking spirit Ariel) and range of engaging themes make it a text that will tick many teacher's boxes. Hershaw's presentation of the Scots language is readable and accessible. Included with William Hershaw's "Tempest" is "The Voices O The Abbey Waas," a play set in haunted Dunfermline Abbey where the troubled consciences of Andrew Carnegie and a mine explosion survivor from Valleyfield colliery are brought together in the afterlife by the medieval poet Robert Henryson to settle their differences.

And Voices O the Abbey Waas

The Tempest

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Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepared 

Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats 

Instinctively had quit it: there they hoist us, 

To cry to the sea that roar'd to us; to sigh 

To the winds, whose pity, sighing back again,

As I foretold you, were all spirits, and 

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, 

The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 

The solemn temples, the great globe itselt, 

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 

The Tempest quotes

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