This is Miranda’s speech from The Tempest (Act III, Scene 1), where she’s speaking to Ferdinand. Here’s a line-by-line paraphrase at a high school reading level:

Original: “I do not know / One of my sex; no woman’s face remember,”
Modern: I don’t know any other women; I can’t remember seeing another woman’s face,

Original: “Save, from my glass, mine own; nor have I seen”
Modern: except for my own reflection in the mirror. I also haven’t seen

Original: “More that I may call men than you, good friend,”
Modern: any other men besides you, dear friend,

Original: “And my dear father: how features are abroad,”
Modern: and my father. I have no idea what people look like in the outside world—

Original: “I am skilless of; but, by my modesty,”
Modern: I’m completely ignorant about that. But I swear by my purity,

Original: “The jewel in my dower, I would not wish”
Modern: which is the most precious thing I can offer as a bride, that I wouldn’t want

Original: “Any companion in the world but you,”
Modern: any other companion in the world except you.

Original: “Nor can imagination form a shape, / Besides yourself, to like of.”
Modern: I can’t even imagine another person I could fall in love with.

Original: “But I prattle / Something too wildly and my father’s precepts / I therein do forget.”
Modern: But I’m talking too boldly and forgetting the proper behavior my father taught me.

Performance Note: Miranda is both innocent and passionate here—she’s declaring her love while simultaneously worrying she’s being too forward. The actor should balance her wonder and desire with her concern about propriety.

The Tempest, Act III, Scene i

In this scene, Ferdinand is discovered carrying logs, a laborious task assigned to him by Prospero. Ferdinand reflects aloud on his toil, acknowledging that the work is hard and unpleasant, yet he finds it bearable because his thoughts continually turn to Miranda. He speaks of her as a person of such rare excellence that she refreshes his spirit and makes even the most difficult labor feel light. Prospero, unseen, observes Ferdinand at work and expresses his quiet approval of the young man, though he continues to maintain the appearance of severity toward him.

Miranda then enters and urges Ferdinand to rest from his work, expressing her distress at seeing him labor so hard. She offers to carry the logs herself so that he might have relief. Ferdinand refuses, and the two exchange declarations of love, with Miranda confessing her feelings for him openly and without pretense, and Ferdinand responding with equal sincerity and devotion. Ferdinand formally proposes to Miranda, asking if she will be his wife, and she accepts with wholehearted joy. Throughout their exchange, Prospero continues to observe from a distance, expressing his gladness at the union being formed between the two young people, before quietly withdrawing so the lovers may have their moment.

The Tempest opens with a violent storm at sea that shipwrecks a vessel carrying Alonso, King of Naples, his son Ferdinand, his brother Sebastian, Antonio (the usurping Duke of Milan), the counselor Gonzalo, and others. The tempest has been conjured by Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, who lives in exile on an island with his daughter Miranda. Twelve years earlier, Prospero was overthrown by his brother Antonio with the help of Alonso, and set adrift at sea with the infant Miranda. They survived and reached this island, where Prospero has spent years studying magic and commanding the spirit Ariel, whom he freed from imprisonment in a tree.

The shipwreck separates the survivors into different groups across the island. Ferdinand becomes separated from the others and encounters Miranda, with whom he immediately falls in love, though Prospero tests the young man by enslaving him temporarily. Meanwhile, Antonio and Sebastian plot to murder Alonso and Gonzalo while they sleep, but Ariel awakens Gonzalo just in time. Another group, including the drunken butler Stephano and jester Trinculo, meets Caliban, Prospero’s reluctant servant who is the island’s original inhabitant. Caliban persuades them to help him kill Prospero and take control of the island.

Prospero orchestrates a series of magical interventions: he presents a banquet to Alonso’s group that vanishes when they try to eat, and Ariel appears as a harpy to remind them of their crimes against Prospero. Ariel also disrupts Caliban’s murder plot by leading the conspirators into a stinking pond and then tormenting them with spirits disguised as hunting dogs. Ferdinand proves his love for Miranda by completing the tasks Prospero sets him, and Prospero gives his blessing to their betrothal, celebrating with a masque of spirits.

In the final act, Prospero reveals himself to all the castaways, forgives his enemies, and renounces his magic, breaking his staff and freeing Ariel. Alonso repents his past actions and restores Prospero to his dukedom. Ferdinand and Miranda’s engagement is celebrated, Caliban acknowledges Prospero’s authority and promises to be wise hereafter, and Prospero prepares to return to Milan. The play concludes with Prospero’s epilogue, in which he asks the audience to free him with their applause, as he has freed Ariel.