Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour! keep your cabins: you do assist the storm. Gon. Nay, good, be patient. Boats. When the sea is. Hence! What care these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence: trouble us not. Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard. Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap.-Cheerly, good hearts.-Out of our way, I say. [Exit. Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow : methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good fate, to his hanging! make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage! If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable. [Exeunt. Re-enter Boatswain. Boats. Down with the top-mast; yare; lower, lower; bring her to try with main course. [A Cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather, or our office. Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO. Yet again? what do you here? Shall we give o'er, and drown? Have you a mind to sink? Seb. A pox o'your throat! you bawling, blasphemous, uncharitable dog! Boats. Work you, then. Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent noisemaker, we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art. Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nut-shell, and as leaky as an unstaunched wench. Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; set her two courses; off to sea again, lay her off. Enter Mariners, wet. Mar. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost! Boats. What, must our mouths be cold? [Exeunt. Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let us assist For our case is as theirs. Seb. I am out of patience. [them, Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunk ards. [drowning, This wide-chapped rascal ;-'Would, thou might'st lie The washing of ten tides! Gon. And gape at wid'st to glut him. [A confused Noise within.] Mercy on us!-We split, we split!-Farewell, my wife and children!-Farewell, brother!--We split, we split, we split. Ant. Let's all sink with the king. Seb. Let's take leave of him. [Exit. Exit. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of 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. Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you have Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er Pro. Be collected; No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, There's no harm done. Mira. Pro. O, woe the day! No harm. I have done nothing but in care of thee, Mira. More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts. I should inform thee further. "Tis time Lend thy hand, And pluck my magic garment from me.-So; [Lays down his Mantle. I have with such provision in mine art " Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit For thou must now know further. Mira. [down; You have often Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd Pro. The hour's now come; The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; Obey, and be attentive. Can'st thou remember I do not think thou can'st; for then thou wast not Mira. Certainly, sir, I can. Hath kept with thy remembrance. Mira. "Tis far off; And rather like a dream than an assurance Pro. Thou had'st, and more, Miranda: but how is it, If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here, Mira. Pro. Twelve years since, But that I do not. Miranda, twelve years since, thy father was Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and 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. By foul play, as thou say'st, Both, both, my girl: were we heav'd thence; O, my heart bleeds To think o'the teen that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance! Please you further. I pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should Without a parallel; those being all my study, And to my state grew stranger, being transported, Mira. Sir, most heedfully. Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, The creatures that were mine; I say, or chang'd them, To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was And suck'd my verdure out on't.-Thou attend'st not: Mira. O good sir, I do. Pro. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit, But what my power might else exact,-like one, To credit his own lie,-he did believe 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 homage; Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend The dukedom, yet unbow'd (alas, poor Milan !) |