Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent noiseinaker, we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art. Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning; though the
Enter ALONZO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, ship were no stronger than a nut-shell, and as leaky
Alon. Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master? Play the men. 2)
Boats. I pray now, keep below.
Ant. Where is the master, boatswain?
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, 3) 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 heartsOut 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,
as an unstanched wench. 6)
Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold: 7) set her two courses; off to sea again, ) lay her off.
This wide-chapped rascal; 'Would, thou might'st lie drowning, The washing of ten tides! Gon. He'll be hanged yet; Though every drop of water swear against it, And gape at wid'st to glut him. 10)
[A confused noise within.] Mercy on us! We split, we split! - Farewell, my wife and children! Farewell, brother! 11) We split, we split, we split! — Ant. Let's all sink with the king. [Exit. Seb. Let's take leave of him. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea
for an acre of barren ground; long heath, brown furze, 12) any thing: The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. [Exit.
The Island: before the Cell of Prospero. 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 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, 13) 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 14) It should the good'ship so have swallowed, and The freighting souls within her. Pro. Be collected; No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, There's no harm done.
No harm. 15) I have done nothing but in care of thee, (Of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!) who Art ignorant of what thou art, not knowing Of whence I am; nor that I am more better 16) Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell, 17) And thy no greater father. Mira. More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts. 18) Pro. "Tis time 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 19) in thee, I have with such provision in mine art So safely order'd, that there is no soul—20) No, not so much perdition as an hair, Betid to any creature in the vessel
Pro. Twelve years since, Miranda, twelve years since, 23)
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. 24) 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.
O, my heart bleeds To think o'the teen 25) 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 rapt 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; 26) new created The creatures that were mine; I say, or chang'd them, Or else new form'd them; having both the key 27) Of officer and office, set all hearts 28) To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk, And suck'd my verdure out on't. Thou attend'st not: I pray thee, mark me. 29) Mira. O good sir, I do. Pro. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate 30) To closeness, and the bettering of my mind With that, which, but by being so retired, O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother Awak'd an evil nature: and my trust, Like a good parent, 31) did beget of him You have often A falsehood, in its contrary as great
Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down;
For thou must now know further. Mira.
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. Can'st thou remember
A time before we came unto this cell?
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, I like one, Who having, unto truth, by telling of it, Made such a sinner of his memory, To credit his own lie, 32) — he did believe
I do not think thou can'st; for then thou wast not He was the duke: out of the substitution, 33) Out three years old. 21)
Mira. 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 see'st thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? 22) If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here, How thou cam'st here, thou may'st. Mira.
And executing the outward face of royalty, With all prerogative; - Hence his ambition Growing, Dost hear?
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) 34) 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!) To most ignoble stooping. Mira.
Pro. Mark his condition, and the event; then tell me, If this might be a brother. Mira. To think but nobly 35) of my grandmother: Good wombs have borne 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 lieu o'the premises, 36) 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.
Alack, for pity! I, not rememb'ring how I cry'd out then, Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint, 37) That wrings mine eyes. 38) Pro. Hear a little further, And then I'll bring thee to the present business Which now's upon us; without the which, this story Were most impertinent. Mira.
That hour destroy us? Pro.
My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not; (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.
Was I then to you! Pro. Thou wast, that did preserve me! Thou didst smile, Infused with a fortitude from heaven,
When I have deck'd the sea 39) with drops full salt; Under my burden groan'd; which rais'd in me An undergoing stomach, 49) to bear up Against what should ensue.
Pro. By Providence divine. Some food we had, and some fresh water, that A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,
Ari. All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly,
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
On the curl'd clouds; 45) to thy strong bidding, task Ariel, and all his quality. 46)
Pro. Hast thou, spirit, Perform'd to point 47) the tempest that I bade thee? Ari. To every article.
I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak, 48) Now in the waist, 49) the deck, in every cabin, I flam'd amazement: Sometimes, I'd divide, And burn in many places; 50) on the top-mast The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, Then meet, and join: Jove's lightnings, the precursors O'the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary And sight-out-running were not: The fire, and cracks Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune Seem'd to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble, Yea, his dread trident shake. 51) 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, Plung'd in the foaming brine and quit the vessel, 52) 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.
How came we ashore? On their sustaining 53) garments not a blemish, But fresher than before: and, as thou bad'st me, In troops I have dispers'd 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 dispos'd, And all the rest o'the fleet?
Out of his charity, (who being then appointed Master of this design,) did give us; 4) with Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries, Which since have steaded much; so, of his gentleness, Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me, From my own library, with volumes that I prize above my dukedom.
Pro. Now I arise:- 42) Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow. Here in this island we arrived; and here Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit Than other princes can, that have more time 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?
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, 54) 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 dispers'd, they all have met again; And are upon the Mediterranean flote, 55) Bound sadly home for Naples; Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd, And his great person perish.
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. 57) Pro. O, was she so? I must, Once in a month, recount what thou hast been, Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch, Sycorax, 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.
What shall I do? say what? what shall I do? Pro. Go, make thyself like to a nymph o'the sea; 58) 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. [Exit ARIEL. Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well; Awake!
Mira. The strangeness 59) 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. Pro.
We cannot miss him: 60) 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.
Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel, Hark in thine ear.
Ari. My lord, it shall be done. [Exit. Pro. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!
Cal. As wicked dew 1) as e'er my mother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholesome fen, Drop on you both! a south-west blow on ye, And blister you all o'er.
Pro. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps, Side-stiches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins 62) Shall, for that vast of night that they may work, 63)
Pro. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought with child,|| And here was left by the sailors: Thou, my slave,|| All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch'd
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 did'st painfully remain
A dozen years; within which space she died,
And left thee there; where thou did'st 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 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.
As thick as honey-combs, each pinch more stinging Than bees that made them. Cal. I must eat my dinner. This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou tak'st from me. When thou camest first, Thou strok'dst me, and mad'st much of me; would'st
Water with berries in't; and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night: and then I lov'd thee, And shew'd thee all the qualities o'the isle, The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place, and fertile; Cursed be I that did so! All the charms Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you! For I am all the subjects that you have, Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me The rest of the island.
Pro. Thou most lying slave, Whom stripes may move, not kindness: I have us'd thee, Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodg'd thee In mine own cell, till thou did'st seek to violate The honour of my child.
Cal. O ho, O ho! 4)-'would it had been done! Thou did'st prevent me; I had peopled else This isle with Calibans.
Abhorred slave; Which any print of goodness will not take, Pardon, master: Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,
I will be correspondent to command,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other: when thou did'st not, savage, Know thine own meaning, 65) but would'st gabble like A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes With words that made them known: But thy vile race, 66)
Though thou did'st learn, had that in't which good
Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou Deservedly confin'd into this rock,
Who had'st deserv'd more than a prison.
Cal. You taught me language; and my profit on't Is, I know how to curse: the red plague rid you, 67) For learning me your language! Pro. Hag-seed, hence! Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou wert best, To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice? If thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps; Fill all thy bones with aches; make thee roar That beasts shall tremble at thy din. Cal.
No, pray thee! I must obey; his art is of such power. It would control my dam's god, Setebos, 68) And make a vassal of him. Pro.
So, slave; hence! [Exit CALIBAN.
Pro. No, wench; it eats and sleeps, and hath such
As we have, such: This gallant, which thou seest, Was in the wreck; and but he's something stain'd With grief, that's beauty's canker,thou might'st call him A goodly person: he hath lost his fellows, And strays about to find them. Mira.
A thing divine; for nothing natural I ever saw so noble. Pro. [Aside. As my soul prompts it:-Spirit, fine spirit! I'll free thee Within two days for this. Fer. Most sure, the goddess On whom these airs attend!— Vouchsafe, my prayer May know, if you remain upon this island; And that you will some good instruction give, How I may bear me here: My prime request, Which I do last pronounce, is, Ô you wonder! If you be made or no? 79) Mira.
But, certainly a maid. Fer.
My language! heavens! I am the best of them that speak this speech, Were I but where 'tis spoken.
Pro. How, the best? What wert thou, if the king of Naples heard thee? Fer. A single thing, as I am now, that wonders To hear thee speak of Naples: He does hear me; And that he does, I weep: myself am Naples; Who with mine eyes, ne'er since at ebb, beheld The king my father wreck'd.
Mira. Alack, for mercy! Fer. Yes, faith, and all his lords; the duke of Milan, And his brave son, being twain. 89) Pro. The duke of Milan, And his more braver daughter, could controul thee, 8 1) If now 'twere fit to do't: At the first sight [Aside. They have chang'd eyes: - Delicate Ariel, I'll set thee free for this! A word, good sir; I fear you have done yourself some wrong: 82) a word. Mira. Why speaks my father so ungently? This Is the third man that e'er I saw; the first That e'er I sigh'd for: pity move my father To be inclin'd my way!
Fer. And your affection not gone forth, I'll make you The queen of Naples. Pro. Soft, sir; one word more. They are both in either's powers; but this swift business I must uneasy make, lest too light winning [Aside. Make the prize light. One word more; I charge thee, That thou attend me: thou dost here usurp The name thou ow'st not; and hast put thyself Upon this island, as a spy, to win it From me, the lord on't.
Fer. No, as I am a man. Mira. There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple: If the ill spirit have so fair an house, Good things will strive to dwell with't. Pro.
Follow me. [TO FERD. - Come,
Speak not you for him; he's a traitor. I'll manacle thy neck and feet together: Sea-water shalt thou drink, thy food shall be The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots, and husks Wherein the acorn cradled; Follow. Fer. No;
I will resist such entertainment, till Mine enemy has more power. [He draws. Mira. O dear father, Make not too rash a trial of him, for He's gentle, and not fearful. 83)
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