William Shakespeare's original play, rewritten as an easy-to-read book.
This is meant for students who have to read the book for school but don't want to read the original text.
After a mysterious ship wreck, The King of Naples and his noblemen are...
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The sound of thunder cracked the sky, which was black as ink.
A strike of lightning would brighten up the sky, showing the thunderous clouds in all their magnificence.
Hearing the roars outside, the Master (Captain) climbed to the deck, already feeling the rain pick up speed and force.
"Boatswain!" He yelled, trying to see through the heavy rain.
"I'm here, sir!" the Boatswain replied through the thick rain, "How can I help you?"
Walking to the voice, the Master yelled, "My good boy, give the other sailors a pep talk- and do it fast before we are ship wrecked! Hurry, hurry!"
The other sailors, who were busy at work trying to keep the ship running, watched as the Master-- or the silhouette of the Master-- make his way to the front of the ship and begin to shout orders.
"Come on, men! That's the way to do it! Quickly! Quickly! Take in the upper sail. Listen to the master's orders. —Blow your heart out, storm! So long as we have enough room to avoid running aground!" the Boatswain yelled, which caught the attention of the noblemen in the cabins below.
The King and his men climbed up to the flooded deck, the taste of salt in the air.
Alonso, the King, looked up at the terrifyingly close sky, yelling "Be careful good Boatswain! Where is the Master? Make these men work!"
The Boatswain, who was too frustrated to care, yelled in reply, "Please, stay below deck, sir!"
Antonio, the easily angered Duke, yelled at the Boatswain, "Where's the Master, Boatswain!?"
The Boatswain, who was really mad now, yelled back at him, "He's busy, can't you hear him giving orders? You're getting in the way of our work! Stay in your cabins! You're helping the storm, not us!"
Gonzalo, an old and talkative councilor, responded to this with "Don't get wound up, my good man!"
"I'm only wound up because the sea's wound up. Now get out of here! Do you think these waves care anything about kings and officials? Go to your cabins and be quiet! Don't bother us up here." He replied, the rain beating down even harder now.
"Just remember who you've got on board with you, good man!" Gonzalo replied, but the wind carried some of his words away from the ears of the Boatswain.
"Nobody I care about more than myself. You're a king's advisor. If you can order the storm to calm down, we can all put down our ropes and rest. Go ahead, use your authority. If you can't do it, be grateful you've lived this long and go wait to die in your cabin, if it comes to that.—Harder, men!—Now get out of our way, I'm telling you." The Boatswain yelled as he walked away from the noble men, wanting to get away from their nagging and try to save the ship.
The Noblemen watched the men working and yelling orders to each other, every gust of wind bring the rain down on them harder.
Gonzalo, straightening his spectacles, pointed out, "I feel a lot better after talking to this guy. He doesn't look like a person who would drown—he looks like he was born to be hanged. I hope he lives long enough to be hanged. The rope that hangs him will do more good than all the ropes on this ship, since it'll guarantee he stays alive through this storm. But if he's not destined to die by hanging, then our chances don't look too good."
The other men sighed and rolled their eyes, then walked in a line back down to the cabins below.
The Boatswain, who was now fully occupied by his work, yelled his orders, "Bring down that top sail! Fast! Lower, lower! Let the ship sail close to the wind!"
The men in the cabins yelled in reply, and the Boatswain replied, "Damn those men shouting down there! They're louder than the storm or us sailors!"
Antonio, Gonzalo and Sebastian, the Kings brother, walked upon the deck again to the dismay of the Boatswain, who yelled, "Oh, not you again! What do you want!? Should we all give up and drown!? Do you want to sink!?"
"Oh, go to hell, you loud-mouthed bastard!" Sebastian yelled, as he began pulling on the rope which helped control the sails.
"Well, get to work, then!" the angry Boatswain answered.
"Just die, you lowlife! Go ahead and die, you nasty, rude bastard! You're more scared of drowning than we are!" Antonio yelled, joining Sebastian with controlling the sails.
"Yes, I guarantee he won't drown—even if this ship were as fragile as an eggshell and as leaky as a menstruating woman." Gonzalo said with a hand up, too weak to work and on the deck for no reason but to get wet.
The Boatswain, ignoring Gonzalo's odd comment, yelled to the other men, "Turn the ship to the wind! Set the sails and let her go out to sea again!"
Just then, a huge wave threw the boat back, causing some of the sailors to be tossed on their backs onto the deck or thrown overboard. "It's no use!" They yelled, "Pray for your lives! We're done for!"
"What, we're going to die!?" The Boatswain yelled at the knocked-down sailors.
"The king and the prince are praying. Let's go join them, since whatever happens to them happens to us too!" Gonzalo yelled, pointing towards the cabin door.
Sebastian let go and braced through the rain to the door yelling, "I'm out of patience!"
"Yes, we've been cheated out of our lives by a bunch of drunken, incompetent sailors. This bigmouth jerk here," he pointed to the Boatswain, "I hope you drown ten times over!"
Gonzalo, pointing at the Boatswain disapprovingly, yelled, "He'll still die by hanging, not drowning, even if every drop of water in the sea tries to swallow him!"
When they got through the door and closed it, they heard a noise which sounded like an explosion, then voices yelling, "God have mercy on us!—The ship's breaking up!—Goodbye, wife and kids!—Goodbye, brother!—We're breaking up, we're breaking up!"
"Let's all sink with the King." Antonio said, walking to the Kings cabin.
"Let's say goodbye with him." Sebastian said in agreement.
"Right now I'd give a thousand furlongs of sea for one little acre of dry ground: barren weed patch, anything at all. What's destined to happen will happen, but I'd give anything to be dry when I die." Gonzalo muttered as he followed the two men.
