Miranda, daughter to Prospero,
Óther spirits attending on Prospero.
Scene, the sea, with a ship; afterwards an uninhabited island.
fate, to his hanging! make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage! If he SCENE I.-On a ship at sea. A storm, with be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable. thunder and lightning. Enter a Ship-master and a Boatswain.
Boals. Heigh, my hearts; cheerly, cheerly, my hearts; yare, yare: take in the top-sail: tend to the master's whistle.-Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!
Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and others.
Alon. Good boatswain, have a care. Where's the master? Play the men.
Boats. I pray now, keep below.
Ant. Where is the master, boastwain? Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our la- bour! keep your cabins: you do assist the storm. Gon. Nay, good, be patient.
Boats. When the sea is. Hence! What care thesc roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence: trouble us not.
Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard.
Boals. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these ele
ments to silence, and work the peace of the present, 2 This wide-chapped rascal;-'Would, thou might'st
we will not hand a rope more; use your authority.
If you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, The washing of ten tides! and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mis- Gon. He'll be hanged yet; chance of the hour, if it so hap.-Cheerly, good Though every drop of water swear against it,' hearts.-Out of our way, I say. [Exit. And gape at wid'st to glut him.
Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow: me- [A confused noise within.] Mercy on us!-We thinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his split, we split! Farewell, my wife and children!complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Farewell, brother!-We split, we split, we split.
Ant. Let's all sink with the king. [Exit. In the dark backward and abysm3 of time? Seb. Let's take leave of him. Exit. If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here, Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of How thou cam'st here, thou may'st. sea for an acre of barren ground; long heath, brown furze, any thing: the wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. [Exit. SCENE II.-The island: before the cell of Prospero. Enter Prospero and Miranda.
Mir. If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them: The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek, Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel, Who had no doubt some noble creatures in her, Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock Against my very heart! Poor souls! they perish'd. Had I been any god of power, I would Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er' It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and The freighting souls within her. Pro.
Be collected; No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, There's no harm done.
Did never meddle with my thoughts. Pro.
I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand, And pluck my magic garment from me.-So; [Lays down his mantle. Lie there my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort.
The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd The very virtue of compassion in thee, I have with such provision in mine art So safely order'd, that there is no soul- No, not so much perdition as a hair, Betid to any creature in the vessel
Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down;
For thou must now know further.
You have often Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd And left me to a bootless inquisition; Concluding, Stay, not yet.—
The hour's now come; The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; Obey, and be attentive. Canst thou remember A time before we came unto this cell?
I do not think thou canst; for then thou wast not Out2 three years old.
Certainly, sir, I can. Pro. By what? by any other house, or person? Of any thing the image tell me, that Hath kept with thy remembrance. Mira. 'Tis far off; And rather like a dream than an assurance That my remembrance warrants: had I not Four or five women once, that tended me?
Pro. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda: but how is it,
That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else (2) Quitc. (3) Abyss.
Pro. Twelve years since, Miranda, twelve years since, thy father was The duke of Milan, and a prince of power. Mira. Sir, are not you my father.
Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She said-thou wast my daughter; and thy father Was duke of Milan; and his only heir A princess;-no worse issued.
Mira. O, the heavens ! What foul play had we, that we came from thence? Or blessed was't we did? Pro.
Both, both, my girl: By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence; But blessedly holp hither.
Mira. O, my heart bleeds To think o' the teen' that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance! Please you further.
Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio,- I pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should Be so perfidious!-he whom, next thyself, Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put The manage of my state; as, at that time, Through all the signiories it was the first, And Prospero the prime duke; being so reputed In dignity, and, for the liberal arts, Without a parallel; those being all my study, The government I cast upon my brother, And to my state grew stranger, being transported, And wrapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle- Dost thou attend me?
Mira. Sir, most heedfully. Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom To trash' for over-topping; new created The creatures that were mine; I say or chang'd them,
Or else new form'd them: having both the key Of officer and office, set all hearts To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was The ivy, which had my princely trunk, And suck'd my verdure out on't. Thou attend'st
O good sir, I do. Pro. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate To closeness, and the bettering of my mind With that, which, but by being so retir'd, O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother, Awak'd an evil nature: and my trust, Like a good parent, did beget of him A falsehood, in its contrary as great As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit,, A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded, Not only with what my revenue yielded,. But what my power might else exact,-like one, Who having, unto truth, by telling of it, Made such a sinner of his memory, To credit his own lie,-he did believe He was the duke; out of the substitution, And executing the outward face of royalty, With all prerogative :-Hence his ambition Growing,-Dost hear?
Mira. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness Pro. To have no screen between this part he play'd,
And him he play'd it for, he needs will be Absolute Milan: me, poor man!-- my library
Was dukedom large enough; of temporal royalties He thinks me now incapable: confederates (So dry he was for sway) with the king of Naples, To give him annual tribute, do him hoinage; Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend The dukedom, yet unbow'd (alas, poor Milan!) To most ignoble stooping.
"Would I might
Now I arise:
Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow. Here in this island we arriv'd; and here Have I, thy school-master, made thee more profit
Pro. Mark his condition, and the event; then Than other princes can, that have more time
If this might be a brother.
To think but nobly of my grandmother: Good wombs have born bad sons. Pro.
Now the condition. This king of Naples, being an enemy To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit; Which was, that he in lieu2 o' the premises, Of homage, and I know not how much tribute, Should presently extirpate me and mine Out of the dukedom; and confer fair Milan, With all the honours, on my brother: whereon, A treacherous army levied, one midnight Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open
The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of darkness, The ministers for the purpose hurried thence Me, and thy crying self.
I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then,
Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint,'
That wrings mine eyes.
And then I'll bring thee to the present business Which now's upon us; without the which, this story Were most impertinent.
Wherefore did they not
Well demanded, wench;
My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst
(So dear the love my people bore me) nor set A mark so bloody on the business; but With colours fairer painted their foul ends. In few, they hurried us aboard a bark; Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepar'd A rotten carcase of a boat, not rigg'd, 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, Did us but loving wrong. Mira.
For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful. Mira. Heavens thank you for't! And now, I pray you, sir,
(For still tis beating in my mind,) your reason For raising this sea-storm?
Pro. Know thus far forth. By accident most strange, bountiful fortune, Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies Brought to this shore: and by my prescience I find my zenith doth depend upon
A most auspicious star; whose influence If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes Will ever after droop.-Here ccase more questions; Thou art inclin'd to sleep; 'tis a good dulness, And give it way;-I know thou canst not choose.- [Miranda sleeps. Come away, servant, come: I am ready now; Approach, iny Ariel; come.
Pro. But are they, Ariel, safe? Ari.
Not a hair perish'd; On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
Which since have steaded much; so, of his gentle-But fresher than before: and, as thou had'st me,
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me,
Thirsty. (2) Consideration. (3) Suggestion. (4) Sprinkled. (5) Stubborn resolution.
Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs, In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting, His arms in this sad knot."
Of the king's ship, The mariners, say, how thou hast dispos'd," And all the rest of the fleet?
Safely in harbour Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew From the still-vex'd Bermoothes,' there she's hid: The mariners all under hatches stowed; Whom, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd la- bour,
I have left asleep and for the rest o' the fleet, Which I dispers'd, they all have met again; And are upon the Mediterranean flote,2 Bound sadly home for Naples;
Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd, And his great person perish. Pro. Ariel, thy charge Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work: What is the time o' the day? Ari. Past the mid season. Pro. At least two glasses: the time 'twixt six and now,
Must by us both be spent most preciously.
Ari. Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains,
Let me remember thee what thou hast promis'd, Which is not yet perform'd me.
What is't thou canst demand? Ari.
My liberty. Pro. Before the time be out? no more. Ari. I pray thee Remember, I have done thee worthy service; Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, serv'd Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst pro-
Dost thou forget From what a torment I did free thee? Ari.
Pro. Thou dost; and think'st
It much, to tread the ooze of the salt deep; To run upon the sharp wind of the north; To do me business in the veins o' the earth, When it is bak'd with frost.
Ari. Pro. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou forgot
The foul witch Sycorax, who, with age, and envy, Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her? Ari. No, sir. Pro. Thou hast: where was she born? speak; tell me. Ari. Sir, in Argier.' Pro.
O, was she so? I must, Once in a month, recount what thou hast been,
To act her earthly and abhorr'd commands, Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee, By help of her more potent ministers, And in her most unmitigable rage, Into a cloven pine; within which rift Imprison'd, thou didst painfully remain A dozen years; within which space she died, And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy groans,
As fast as mill-wheels strike: then was this island (Save for the son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp, hag-born,) not honoured with A human shape.
Pro. Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban, Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st What torment I did find thee in: thy groans Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts Of ever angry bears: it was a torment To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax Could not again undo; it was mine art, When I arriv'd, and heard thee, that made gape The pine, and let thee out. Ari. I thank thee, master. Pro. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak, And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters. Ari.
will be correspondent to command, And do my spiriting gently. Pro.
I will discharge thee.
Do so; and after two days
Ari. That's my noble master! What shall I do? say what: what shall I do? Pro. Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea; Be subject to no sight but mine; invisible To every eye-ball else. Go, take this shape, And hither come in't: hence, with diligence.
Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well; Awake!
Mira. The strangeness of your story put Heaviness in me.
We'll visit Caliban, my Yields us kind answer.
Shake it off; come on; slave, who never
I do not love to look on. Pro. We cannot miss him: he does make our fire, Fetch in our wood; and serves in offices That profit us. What, ho! slave! Caliban! Thou earth, thou! speak.
Cal. [Within.] There's wood enough within. Pro. Come forth, I say; there's other business for thee;
Come forth, thou tortoise! when?
Re-enter Ariel, like a water-nymph.
Which thou forget st. This damn'd witch, Sycorax, Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel, For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible To enter human hearing, from Argier,
Thou know'st, was banished; for one thing she did,
They would not take her life. Is not this truc? Ari. Ay, sir.
Pro. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought
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