TEMPEST.

Master.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Alonso, king of Naples.
Sebastian, his brother.

Prospero, the rightful duke of Milan.

Antonio, his brother, the usurping duke of Milan.

Ferdinand, son to the king of Naples.
Gonzalo, an honest old counsellor of Naples.
Adrian,
Francisco,

}lords.

Caliban, a savage and deformed slave.
Trinculo, a jester.

Stephano, a drunken butler.

Master of a ship, Boatswain, and Mariners.

Enter Mariners.

Boats. Heigh, my hearts; cheerly, cheerly, my hearts; yare, yare: take in the top-sail: tend to the raaster's whistle.-Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!

ACT I.

fate, to his hanging! make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage! If he SCENE I-On a ship at sea. A storm, with be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable. thunder and lightning. Enter a Ship-master [Exeunt. and a Boatswain.

BOATSWAIN,

Boats. Here, master: what cheer? Mast. Good: speak to the mariners: fall to't yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir. [Exil.

Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand,
Gonzalo, and others.

Miranda, daughter to Prospero.

Alon. Good boatswain, have a care. Where's the master? Play the men.

Boats. I pray now, keep below. Ant. Where is the master, boastwain? 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: ellence: trouble us not.

Ariel, an airy spirit.

Iris,

Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard.

Ceres,

Juno,
Nymphs,
Reapers

spirits.

Other spirits attending on Prospero. Scene, the sea, with a ship; afterwards an uninhabited island.

Re-enter Boatswain.

Boats. Down with the top-mast; yare; lower, lower; bring her to try with main course. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather, or our office.

Enter Mariners, wet.

Mar. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost! [Exeunt. Boats. What, must our mouths be cold? Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let us assist them, For our case is as theirs. Seb. I am out of patience. Ant. We are merely drunkards.

cheated of our lives by

2

Boals. 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, This wide-chapped rascal ;-'Would, thou might'st we will not hand a rope more; use your authority. lie drowning, If you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, The washing of ten tides! and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mis- Gon. He'll be hanged yet; chance of the hour, if it so hap.-Cheerly, good Though every drop of water swear against it," hearts. Out of our way, I say. [Exit. And gape at wid'st to glut him.

Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow: me-[A confused noise within.] Mercy on us!-We thinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his split, we split! Farewell, my wife and children!complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Farewell, brother!-We split, we split, we split.

(1) Readily.

(2) Present instant.

(3) Incontinent.

(4) Absolutely.

SKETCH

OF THE

LIFE OF SHAKSPEARE.

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE was born at Strat-the performance. But in whatever situation he

"Th' applause, delight, the wonder, of our stage."

ford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, on the 23d day was first employed at the theatre, he appears to of April, 1564. His family was above the vulgar have soon discovered those talents which afterwards rank. His father, John Shakspeare, was a con-made him siderable dealer in wool, and had been an officer of the corporation of Stratford. He was likewise a justice of the peace, and at one time a man of Some distinction he probably first acquired as considerable property. This last, however, ap- an actor, but no character has been discovered pears to have been lost by some means, in the latter in which he appeared to more advantage than in part of his life. His wife was the daughter and that of the Ghost in Hamlet: and the best critics heiress of Robert Arden, of Wellington, in the and inquirers into his life are of opinion, that he county of Warwick, by whom he had a family of was not eminent as an actor. In tracing the chronology of his plays, it has been discovered, that Romeo and Juliet, and Richard II. and III., were Our illustrious poet was the eldest son, and was printed in 1597, when he was thirty-three years educated, probably, at the free-school of Stratford; old. There is also some reason to think that he but from this he was soon removed, and placed in commenced a dramatic writer in 1592, and Mr. the office of some country attorney. The exact Malone even places his first play, the First Part of amount of his education has been long a subject Henry VI., in 1589.

ten children.

of controversy. It is generally agreed, that he did not enjoy what is usually termed a literary educaHis plays were not only popular, but approved tion; but he certainly knew enough of Latin and by persons of the higher order, as we are certain French to introduce scraps of both in his plays, that he enjoyed the gracious favour of Queen Eliwithout blunder or impropriety. zabeth, who was very fond of the stage; the patronage of the Earl of Southampton, to whom he

When about eighteen years old, he married dedicated some of his poems; and of King James, Anne Hathaway, who was eight years older than who wrote a very gracious letter to him with his himself. His conduct soon after this marriage was own hand, probably in return for the compliment not very correct. Being detected with a gang of Shakspeare had paid to his majesty in the tragedy deer-stealers, in robbing the park of Sir Thomas of Macbeth. It may be added, that his uncomLucy, of Charlecote, near Stratford, he was obliged mon merit, his candour, and good nature, are supto leave his family and business, and take shelter posed to have procured him the admiration and in London. acquaintance of every person distinguished for such qualities. It is not difficult, indeed, to trace, that

He was twenty-two years of age when he arrived Shakspeare was a man of humour, and a social in London, and is said to have made his first ac-companion; and probably excelled in that species quaintance in the play-house. Here his necessities of minor wit, not ill adapted to conversation, of obliged him to accept the office of call-boy, or which it could have been wished he had been more prompter's attendant; who is appointed to give the sparing in his writings.

performers notice to be ready, as often as the busi

ness of the play requires their appearance on the How long he acted, has not been discovered; but stage. According to another account, far less he continued to write till the year 1614. During probable, his first employment was to wait at the his dramatic career, he acquired a property in the door of the play-house, and hold the horses of those theatre, which he must have disposed of when he who had no servants, that they might be ready after retired, as no mention of it occurs in his will. The