The Dramatic Works

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

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

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 la-
bour! 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.

Other spirits attending on Prospero.

Scene, the sea, with a ship; afterwards an uninhabited island.

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 hanged, our case is miserable.
[Exeunt.

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.

Re-enter Sebastian, Antonio, and Gonzalo Yet again? what do you here? Shall we give o'cr, and drown? Have you a mind to sink?

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

Boats. Work you, then.

Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent noise-maker, we are less afl aid to be drowned than thou art.

Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nut-shell, and as leaky as an unstaunched3 wench.

Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; set her two courses; off to sea again, lay her off.

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.

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, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority. 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. [Erit. And gape at wid'st to glut him.

Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.

This wide-chapped rascal ;—'Would, thou might'st lie drowning,

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.

Ant. Let's all sink with the king. [Exit. In the dark backward and abysm3 of time! Seb. Let's take leave of him. Exit. If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here, Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of How thou cam'st here, thou may'st. Mira. sea for an acre of barren ground; long heath, brown "But that I do not. furze, any thing: the wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. [Exit. SCENE II.-The island: before the cell of Prospero. Enter Prospero and Miranda.

Mir. 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, 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'er1 It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and The freighting souls within her. Pro. Be collected; No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, There's no harm done.

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 in thee,
I have with such provision in mine art
So safely order'd, that there is no soul-
No, not so much perdition as a hair,
Betid to any creature in the vessel

Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink.
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 bootless inquisition;
Concluding, Stay, not yet.—

Pro.

The hour's now come; The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; Obey, and be attentive. Canst thou remember A time before we came unto this cell?

I do not think thou canst; for then thou wast not Out three years old.

Mira.

Certainly, sir, I can. 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 seest thou else (2) Quite. (3) Abyss.

(1) Before.

Pro. Twelve years since,
Miranda, twelve years since, 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.
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.

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. 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 wrapt in secret studies. Thy false uncleDost 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; new created
The creatures that were mine; I say cr chang'd
them,

Or else new form'd them: having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts
To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was
The ivy, which had my princely trunk,
And suck'd my verdure out on't. Thou attend'st

not:

I pray thee, mark me.

Mira. O good sir, I do. Pro. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate To closeness, and the bettering of my mind With that, which, but by being so retir'd, O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother, Awak'd an evil nature: and my trust, Like a good parent, did beget of him A falsehood, in its contrary as great 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,—like one, Who having, unto truth, by telling of it, Made such a sinner of his memory, To credit his own lie,-he did believe He was the duke; out of the substitution, And executing the outward face of royalty, With all prerogative:-Hence his ambition Growing,-Dost hear?

Mira. 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) 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.
O the heavens!

Mira.

Pro.

Now I arise:

Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow.
Here in this island we arriv'd; and here
Have 1, thy school-master, made thee more profit

Pro. Mark his condition, and the event; then Than other princes can, that have more time

tell me,

If this might be a brother.

Mira.

I should sin

Now the condition.

To think but nobly of my grandmother:
Good wombs have born bad sons.

Pro.

This king of Naples, being an enemy

To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit;
Which was, that he in lieu o' the premises,-

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?

Pro.

Know thus far forth.-
By accident most strange, bountiful fortune,
Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies
Brought to this shore: and by my prescience

Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,-I find my zenith doth depend upon
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.

Mira.

Alack, for pity!

I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then,

Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint,'

That wrings mine eyes.

Pro.

Hear a little further,

(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.

A most auspicious star; whose influence
If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes
Will ever after droop.-Here cease more questions;
Thou art inclin'd to sleep; 'tis a good dulness,
And give it way;-I know thou canst not choose.-
[Miranda sleeps.
Come away, servant, come: I am ready now;
Approach, my Ariel; come.

Enter Ariel.

Ari. All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I

come

To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly,
On the curl'd clouds; to thy strong bidding, task
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
Ariel, and all his quality.
Hast thou, spirit,

Pro.
Perform'd to points the tempest that I bade thee?
Ari. To every article.

I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flam'd amazement: sometimes, I'd divide,
And burn in many places; on the top-mast,
The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly;
Then meet, and join: Jove's lightnings, the pre-

Pro. But are they, Ariel, safe?
.Ari.

Not a hair perish'd;
On their sustaining garments not a blemish,

Which since have steaded much; so, of his gentle-But fresher than before: and, as thou bad'st me,

ness,

Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me,

(1) Thirsty. (2) Consideration. (3) Suggestion. (4) Sprinkled. (5) Stubborn resolution.

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The Dramatic Works, Volum 1