Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs Pros. Of the king's ship The mariners say how thou hast disposed Ari. Safely in harbour Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once Who, with a charm joined to their suffered labour, : Which I dispersed, they all have met again Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrecked Pros. Ariel, thy charge Exactly is performed: but there's more work. What is the time o' the day? Ari. Pros. At least two glasses. now Past the mid season. The time 'twixt six and 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 performed me. Pros. What is't thou canst demand? Ari. How now? moody? My liberty. Pros. Before the time be out? no more! Remember I have done thee worthy service; I prithee, Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, served Pros. Dost thou forget No. From what a torment I did free thee? Ari. Pros. 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. Pros. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak Ari. I will be correspondent to command Pros. I will discharge thee. Ari. Pardon, master; Do so, and after two days That's my noble master! What shall I do? say what; what shall I do? Pros. Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea: be subject To no sight but thine and mine, invisible To every eyeball else. Go take this shape Enter ARIEL, invisible, playing and singing; FERDINAND following. ARIEL'S Song. OME unto these yellow sands, And then take hands: Courtsied when you have and kissed The wild waves whist, Foot it featly here and there; And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear. The watch-dogs bark : Ari. Hark, hark! I hear Bow-wow. Bow-wow. The strain of strutting chanticleer Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow. Fer. Where should this music be? i' the air or the earth? It sounds no more: and, sure, it waits upon ARIEL sings. Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes : But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. Burthen. Ding-dong. Ari. Hark! now I hear them, -Ding-dong, bell. Fer. The ditty does remember my drowned father. This is no mortal business, nor no sound That the earth owes. I hear it now above me. W. Shakespeare. CCLVIII. LYCIDAS. (A MONODY.) ET once more, O ye laurels, and once more I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude; Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year : Begin then, Sisters of the sacred well3 So may some gentle Muse With lucky words favour my destined urn; And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud. For we were nursed upon the self-same hill, Fed the same flock by fountain, shade, and rill. 1 Lycidas, Edward King, Milton's college friend, who was drowned in 1637 whilst crossing from Chester to Ireland. 2 Sisters, the Muses. 3 Sacred well, the fountain of Helicon on Mount Parnassus, which the Muses were said to frequent. Together both, ere the high lawns appeared Tempered to the oaten' flute ; Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel But, O the heavy change, now thou art gone, The willows and the hazel copses green, Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays :- Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, When first the white-thorn blows; Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherds' ear. Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas? For neither were ye playing on the steep3 Where your old Bards, the famous Druids, lie, Nor on the shaggy top of Mona1 high, 1 Oaten, see p. 13. 2 Damætas, a name used for a shepherd. 3 The steep, the mountains of Denbighshire. Mona, Anglesea, called by the Welsh, Inis Dowil, or the Dark Island, from its dense forests. |