"The murkiest den, the most opportune place, the strongest suggestion / our worser genius can, shall never melt mine honour into lust. John of course agrees, which is why he cites these lines as the reason for not untying (unzipping?) anything of Lenina's before marriage.
"If thou dost break her virgin knot before all sanctimonious ceremonies may with full and holy rite"(13.63) These are the lines of Prospero, who tells Ferdinand that he can marry Miranda but that he'd better not go untying her clothes or her virgin knot before they get married. In this dialogue, Ferdinand tells Miranda that all the women he's known until now have been seriously flawed. This is some great role-reversal, since until now John has been equated with Miranda (he keeps repeating her line about the "brave new world," and he's the virginal one).
Here are the actual words from the play: "There be some sports are painful, and their labour / Delight in them sets off: some kinds of baseness / Are nobly undergone and most poor matters / Point to rich ends." "Oh, you so perfect" (she was leaning towards him with parted lips), "so perfect and so peerless are created" (nearer and nearer) "of every creature's best." (13.41) John recites to Lenina the same words that Ferdinand (the young hunky man of The Tempest) recites to Miranda. This particular line comes from Ferdinand, who himself is undergoing "baseness," namely carrying lots of wood, to prove himself worthy of Miranda. He gets this idea in part from the traditions of the Reservation, but he also gets it from Shakespeare. (Check out our discussion of A Midsummer Night's Dream below.) "But some kinds of baseness are nobly undergone." (12.47) John tries to explain to Lenina that he wants to undergo something horrible to prove himself worthy to her. Unfortunately, either John or Huxley got his Shakespeare mixed up, because Ariel is NOT the tricky little spirit who can put a girdle around the earth in forty minutes. He basically just goes around performing tasks for his master. "Still," he said, "Ariel could put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes." (11.31) Ariel is one of two "spirits" in The Tempest who act as servants to this powerful guy Prospero (Miranda's father, if you're following along). Finally, though, John interprets the quote as "a challenge, a command." It is this line that spurs him to the act of throwing soma boxes out of the window. The third time he is fully aware of the irony, and "the words him derisively" as he leaves the hospital after Linda's death. Of course, the second time, he's violently retching behind the bushes with disgust.
When he first speaks the line it is with all the awe and amazement of Miranda's original utterance. O brave new world that has such people in it!" (8.84-.90, 11.40, 15.4, 15.10) Aside from the meaning of the quote, which we talk about in "What's Up with the Title?," the repeated occurrences of this line are a great way to trace John's evolving opinion of the World State. William Shakespeare, The Tempest "O wonder! How many goodly creatures there are here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world.