ACT I. SCENE I

On a Ship at Sea.

A Storm with Thunder and Lightning.

Enter a Ship-mafter and a Boatswain,

Mafter. Boatswain,

Bouts. Here, mafter: What cheer?

Maft. Good: Speak to the mariners: fall to't yarely, or we run ourselves aground: beftir, bestir,

Enter Mariners.

[Exit.

Beats. Heigh, my hearts; cheerly, cheerly, my hearts; yare, yare: Take in the top-fail; Tend to the master's whiftle.-Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough! Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO, and others:

Alon. Good Boatfwain, have care. Where's the mafter? Play the men.3

Boats. I pray now, keep below.

Ant. Where is the mafter, boatfwain ?`

Boatf. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour; Keep cabins: you do affift the ftorm.

your

Gon. Nay, good, be patient.

Boats. When the fea is. Hence! What care thefe roarers for the name of king? To cabin: filence: trouble us not. Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou haft aboard.

2

B-3

Boats.

fall to't yarely,] i. e. readily, nimbly. Our author is frequent in his ufe of this word. STEEVENS.

Here it is applied as a fea-term, and in other parts of the scene. So he ufes the adjective, A& V. fc. v. Our fhip is tight and yare." And in one of the Henries: " yare are our hips." To this day the failors fay, "fit yare to the helm." T. WARTON.

3 Play the men.] i, e. act with spirit, behave like men.

STEEVENS..

Boats. None that I more love than myfelf. You are a counsellor; if you can command thefe elements to filence, and work the peace of the prefent,4 we will not hand a rope more; ufe your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have liv'd fo long, and make yourfelf ready in your cabin for the mifchance of the hour, if it fo hap.-Cheerly, good hearts-Out of our way, I fay. [Exit.

5 Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks, he hath no drowning merk 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 case is miferable. [Exeunt.

Re-enter Boatswain.

Beats. 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, incharitable dog!

Boats. Work you, then.

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

Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning; though the hip were no ftronger than a nut-fhell, and as leaky as an unftanch'd wench,"

Boats.

of the prefent,] i. e. of the present inftant. STEEVENS. 5 Gonzalo. It may be obferved of Gonzalo, that, being the only good man that appears with the king, he is the only man that preferves his cheerfulness in the wreck, and his hope on the inland. JOHNSON.

6 — an unftanch'd wench.] Unftanch'd, I am willing to believe, means incontinent. STEEVENS.

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

Enter Mariners wet.

Mar. Al loft! to prayers, to prayers! all loft! [Exeunt. Boats. What, muit our mouths be cold?

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 are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.

This wide-chopp'd rafcal;-'Would, thou might't 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 plit, we fplit!-Farewell, my wife and children!-Farewell, brother!3-We split, we fplit, 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

B. 4.

acre

7 Lay ber a-bold, a bold;] To lay a ship a-bold, is to bring her to lie as near the wind as fhe can, in order to keep clear of the land, and get her out to fea. STEEVENS.

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fet ber two courfes; off to fea again,] The courfes are the main fail and fore fail. JOHNSON.

merely] In this place fignifies abfolutely. In which sense it is ufed in Hamlet, A& I. fc. ii. STEEVENS

to glut bim.] Shakespeare probably wrote, t'englut bim, to fwallow him; for which I know not that glut is ever ufed by him. In this fignification englut, from engloutir, French, occurs frequently. Yet Milton writes glutted offal for fwallowed, and therefore, perhaps, the prefent text may ftand. JOHNSON.

3 Mercy on us! &c.. -Farewell, brother! &c.] All the fe lines have been hitherto given to Gonzalo, who has no brother in the ship. It is probable that the lines fucceeding the confused noise within should be confidered as fpoken by no determinate characters. JOHNSON.

acre of barren ground; long heath, brown furze,4 any thing: The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death. [Exit.

The island: 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 sky, it feems, would pour down ftinking pitch,
But that the fea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have fuffer'd

With those 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 5
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!

No harm.

I have done nothing but in care of thee,

(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.

4- an acre of barren ground; long beath, brown furze, &c.] Sir T. Hanmer reads ling, heath, broom, furze.-Perhaps rightly, though he has been charged with tautology. FARMER.

-or e'èr -] i. e. before. STEEVENS.

more better] This ungrammatical expression is very frequent among our oldeft writers. STEEVENS.

7

- full poor cell,] i. c. a cell in a great degree of poverty.

STEEVENS.

Mira.

More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts."

'Tis time

Pro.
I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand,
And pluck my magick garment from me.-So;

[Lays down his mante
Lie there my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort
The direful fpectacle of the wreck, which touch'd
The very virtue of compaffion 9 in thee,
I have with fuch provifion 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 vessel

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

For thou must now know further.

Mira.

You have often.

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

Pro.

The very minute bids thee
Obey, and be attentive.

The hour's now come;

Can't thou remember

A time before we came unto this cell?

I do not think thou can't; for then thou waft not
Out three years old.2.
Mira.

Certainly, fir, I can.
B5

Did never meddle with my thoughts.] i. e. mix with them. To meddle is often used, with this fenfe, by Chaucer. Hence the fubftantive medley. The modern and familiar phrafe by which that of Miranda may be explained, is- -never entered my thoughts-never came into my bead. STEEVENS.

It should rather mean to interfere, to trouble, to buy itself, as still used in the North, e. g. Don't meddle with me; i. e. Let me alone; Don't moleft me. RITSON.

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virtue of compaffion- -] Virtue; the most efficacious part, the energetic quality; in a like fenfe we fay, The virtue of a plant is in the extract. JOHNSON.

2 Out three years old.] i. e. Quite three years old, three years old full-out, complete. STEEVENS.