To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly,
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride

On the curl'd clouds; to thy strong bidding task Ariel, and all his quality.

Pro.

Hast thou, spirit,

Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee?
Ari. To every article.

I boarded the king's ship: now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin
I flamed amazement: sometime I'd divide
And burn in many places; on the topmast,
The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame dis-
tinctly,

Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors

O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary And sight-outrunning were not the fire, and cracks

Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune Seem to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble,

Yea, his dread trident shake.

Pro.

My brave spirit! Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil Would not infect his reason?

Ari.

Not a soul But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd Some tricks of desperation. All, but mariners, Plunged in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel,

Then all a-fire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand,

With hair up-staring, then like reeds, not

hair,

Was the first man that leap'd; cried, Hell is empty, And all the devils are here

Pro.

Why, that's my spirit !

Close by, my master.

Not a hair perish'd;

But was not this nigh shore?

Ari.

Pro. But are they, Ariel, safe?

Ari. On their sustaining garments not a blemish, But fresher than before: and, as thou bad'st me, In troops I have dispersed them 'bout the isle. The king's son have I landed by himself; Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs, In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting, His arms in this sad knot.

Pro.

Of the king's ship,

The mariners, say, how thou hast disposed,
And all the rest o' the fleet.

Ari.
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 stow'd;

Whom, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour,

I have left asleep and for the rest o' the fleet,
Which I dispersed, they all have met again,
And are upon the Mediterranean flote,
Bound sadly home for Naples ;

Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd,
And his great person perish.

Pro.

Ariel, thy charge

Past the mid season.

Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work: What is the time o' the day?

Ari.

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 promised, Which is not yet perform'd me.

Pro.

How now ? moody?

My liberty.

What is't thou canst demand?

Ari.

Pro. Before the time be out? no more! Ari. I pr'ythee Remember, I have done thee worthy service; Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, served Without or grudge, or grumblings: thou didst promise

To bate me a full year.

Pro.

Dost thou forget From what a torment I did free thee?

Ari.

No.

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 baked with frost.

Ari.
I do not, sir.
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

O, was she so? I must

Once in a month recount what thou hast been,

Which thou forgett'st. This damn'd witch, Sy

For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier,

Thou know'st, was banish'd; for one thing she did

They would not take her life. Is not this true? Ari. Ay, sir.

Pro. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with child,

And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my slave,
As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant :
And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate

To act her earthy 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 honour'd with
A human shape.

Ari.

Yes; Caliban her son. 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 arrived, 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.
Pardon, master:
I will be correspondent to command,
And do my spriting gently.

Pro.

Do so; and after two days

I will discharge thee.
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 thine and mine;
Invisible

To every eyeball else.
And hither come in't

Go, take this shape, go, hence with diligence. [Exit ARIEL. Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well; Awake!

Mira. [waking.] The strangeness of your story.

put

Heaviness in me.

Pro.

Shake it off.

Come on;

We'll visit Caliban, my slave, who never
Yields us kind answer.

Mira.

I do not love to look on.

'Tis a villain, sir,

But, as 'tis,

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, thou tortoise! when!