thefe roarers for the name of king? To cabin: filence: trouble us not.

Gon Good; yet remember whom thou haft aboard.

Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to filence, and work the peace of the prefent, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have liv'd fo long, and make yourfelf ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it fo hap.Cheerly, good hearts-Out of our way, I fay.

[Exit

Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks, he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand faft, 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 hang'd, our cafe is miferable. [Exeunt.

Re-enter Boatfwain.

Boatf. Down with the top-maft; yare; lower, lower; bring her to try with main-courfe. [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 fink?

Seb. A pox o' your throat! you bawling, blafphemous, uncharitable dog!

Boats. Work you then.

Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whorefon, infolent noife-maker, we are lefs afraid to be drown'd than thou art.

Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning; though

the fhip were no ftronger than a nut-shell, and as leaky as an unftanch'd wench.

Boat. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; fet her two courfes; off to fea again, lay her off.

Enter Mariners wet.

Mar. All loft! to prayers, to prayers! all loft!

Boats. What, muft our mouths be cold?

[Exeunt.

Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let us affift them,

For our cafe is as theirs.

Seb. I am out of patience.

Ant. We're merely cheated of our lives, by drunkards.

This wide-chopp'd rafcal;-'Would thou might'ft lie drowning,

The washing of ten tides!

Gon.

He'll be hang'd yet; Though every drop of water fwear against it, And gape at wid'ft to glut him.

[A confufed noife within.] Mercy on us!

we fplit, we fplit!-Farewell, my wife and children!-Farewell, brother! We split, we split, we fplit!

Ant. Let's all fink with the king.

Seb. Let's take leave of him.

[Exit. Exit.

Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of fea 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 inchanted ifland: before the cell of Profpero.

Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.

Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them:
'The fky, it feems, would pour down ftinking pitch,
But that the fea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd

With thofe that I faw fuffer! a brave veffel,
Who had no doubt fome noble creatures in her,
Dafh'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor fouls! they perish'd.
Had I been any god of power, I would

Have funk the fea within the earth, or e'er
It fhould the good fhip fo have fwallow'd, and
The freighting fouls within her.

Pro.

Be collected; No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, There's no harm done.

Mira.

Pro.

O, woe the day!

I have done nothing but in care of thee,

No harm.

(Of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!) who
Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing
Of whence I am; nor that I am more better
Than Profpero, mafter of a full-poor cell,

And thy no greater father.

Mira.

More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.

Pro. 'Tis time, I fhould inform thee further. Lend thy hand, And pluck my magick garment from me.-So; [Lays down his mantle.

Lie there my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort.

The direful fpectacle of the wreck, which touch'd
The very virtue of compaffion in thee,
I have with fuch provision in mine art
So fafely order'd, that there is no foul-
No, not fo much perdition as an hair,
Betid to any creature in the veffel

Which thou heard'ft cry, which thou saw'st fink.
Sit down ;

For thou must now know further.

You have often

Mira.
Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd
And left me to a bootless inquifition;
Concluding, Stay, not yet.—

The hour's now come;

Pro.
The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;
Obey, and be attentive. Can'ft thou remember
A time before we came unto this cell?

I do not think thou can'ft; for then thou waft not
Out three years old.

Mira.

Certainly, fir, I can. Pro. By what? by any other house, or person? Of any thing the image tell me, that Hath kept with thy remembrance.

'Tis far off:

Mira.
And rather like a dream, than an affurance
That my remembrance warrants: Had I not
Four or five women once, that tended me?

Pro. Thou had'st, and more, Miranda: But how is it,

That this lives in thy mind? What fee'ft thou elfe
In the dark backward and abyfm of time?

If thou remember'ft aught, ere thou cam'ft here,
How thou cam'ft here thou may'ft.

Mira.

But that I do not

2

Pro. Twelve years fince,

Miranda, twelve years fince 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 faid-thou waft my daughter; and thy father Was duke of Milan; thou his only heir

A princess;-no worse issued.

Mira.

O the heavens!

What foul play had we, that we came from thence? Or bleffed was't, we did?

Pro.

Both, both, my girl :

By foul play, as thou fay'ft, were we heav'd thence; But bleffedly 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.

I

Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, called An

tonio,

pray thee, mark me-1
e-that a brother should
Be fo perfidious !-he whom, next thyself,
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my ftate; as, at that time,
Through all the figniories it was the first,
And Profpero the prime duke; being so reputed
In dignity, and, for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel; thofe being all my study,
The government I caft upon my brother,

And to my ftate grew ftranger, being tranfported,
And
rapt in fecret ftudies. Thy falfe uncle-
Doft thou attend me ?

Mira.

Sir, moft heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant fuits, How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom To trash for over-topping'; new created