Have I made shake; and by the spurs plucked up
The pine and cedar: graves, at my command,
Have waked their sleepers: oped and let them forth,
By my so potent art: But this rough magic
I here abjure; and, when I have required
Some heavenly music, (which even now I do,)
To work mine end upon their senses, that
This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And, deeper than did ever plummet sound,
I'll drown my book.
[Solemn music.
Re-enter ARIEL: after him, ALONZO, with a frantic gesture, attended by GONZALO; SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO in like manner, attended by ADRIAN and FRANCISCO: They all enter the circle which PROSPERO had made, and there stand charmed; which PROSPERO observing, speaks.
A solemn air, and the best comforter
To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains,
Now useless, boiled within thy skull! There stand,
For you are spell-stopped.-
Holy Gonzalo, honorable man,
Mine eyes, ever sociable to the show of thine,
Fall fellowly drops.-The charm dissolves apace;
And as the morning steals upon the night,
Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their clearer reason.-O my good Gonzalo,
My true preserver, and a loyal sir
To him thou follow'st; I will pay thy graces
Home, both in word and deed. Most cruelly
Didst thou, Alonzo, use me and my daughter:
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act;
Thou'rt pinched for 't, now, Sebastian.-Flesh and blood,
You brother mine, that entertained ambition,
Expelled remorse and nature; who with Sebastian
(Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,)
Would here have killed your king; I do forgive thee,
Unnatural though thou art! Their understanding
Begins to swell; and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shores,
That now lie foul and muddy. Not one of them,
That yet looks on me, or would know me: - Ariel,
Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell; [Exit ARIEL.
I will dis-case me, and myself present,
―
VOL. I.-5
E*
As I was sometime Milan:- quickly, spirit;
Thou shalt ere long be free.
ARIEL re-enters, singing, and helps to attire PROSpero.
Ari. Where the bee sucks, there suck I;
In a cowslip's bell I lie:
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly,
After summer, merrily:
Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
Pro. Why, that's my dainty Ariel; I shall miss thee;
But yet thou shalt have freedom: so, so, so
To the king's ship, invisible as thou art:
There shalt thou find the mariners asleep
Under the hatches; the master, and the boatswain,
Being awake, enforce them to this place;
And presently, I pr'ythee.
Ari. I drink the air before me and return
Or e'er your pulse twice beat.
Gon. All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement [Exit ARIEL. Inhabits here: Some heavenly power guide us Out of this fearful country!
Pro.
Behold, sir king,
The wronged duke of Milan, Prospero:
For more assurance than a living prince
Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body;
And to thee and thy company, I bid
A hearty welcome.
Alon.
Whe'r thou beest he, or no,
Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me,
As late I have been, I not know: thy pulse
Beats, as of flesh and blood; and, since I saw thee,
The affliction of my mind amends, with which,
I fear, a madness held me: this must crave
(An if this be at all) a most strange story.
Thy dukedom I resign; and do entreat
Thou pardon me my wrongs:-But how should Prospero
Be living, and be here?
Pro.
First, noble friend,
Let me embrace thine age; whose honor cannot
Be measured, or confined.
Whether this be,
Gon.
Or be not, I'll not swear.
Pro.
Some subtilties o' the isle,
that will not let you
You do yet taste
Believe things certain: - Welcome, my friends all:
But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded,
[Aside to SEB. and ANT.
I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you,
And justify you traitors: at this time
I'll tell no tales.
The devil speaks in him. [Aside.
No:-
For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother
Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive
Thy rankest fault; all of them; and require
My dukedom of thee, which, perforce, I know,
Thou must restore.
Alon.
If thou beest Prospero,
Give us particulars of thy preservation:
How thou hast met us here, who three hours since
Were wrecked upon this shore; where I have lost
(How sharp the point of this remembrance is!)
My dear son Ferdinand.
Pro.
I am wo for't, sir.
Alon. Irreparable is the loss; and Patience
Says, it is past her cure.
Pro.
I rather think,
You have not sought her help; of whose soft grace,
For the like loss, I have her sovereign aid,
And rest myself content.
Alon.
You the like loss?
Pro. As great to me, as late; and portable
To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker
Than you may call to comfort you; for I
Have lost my daughter.
Alon.
A daughter?
O heavens! that they were living both in Naples,
The king and queen there! that they were, I wish
Myself were mudded in that oozy bed
Where my son lies. When did you lose your daughter?
Pro. In this last tempest. I perceive, these lords At this encounter do so much admire,
That they devour their reason; and scarce think
Their eyes do offices of truth, their words
Are natural breath: but howsoe'er you have
Been justled from your senses, know for certain,
That I am Prospero, and that very duke
Which was thrust forth of Milan; who most strangely
Upon this shore, where you were wrecked, was landed,
To be the lord on't. No more yet of this;
For 'tis a chronicle of day by day,
Not a relation for a breakfast, nor
Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir;
This cell's my court: here have I few attendants,
And subjects none abroad: pray you, look in.
My dukedom since you have given me again,
I will requite you with as good a thing;
At least, bring forth a wonder, to content ye,
As much as me my dukedom.
The entrance of the Cell opens, and discovers FERDINAND and MIRANDA playing at chess.
Mira. Sweet lord, you play me false.
Fer.
I would not for the world.
Mira. Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle, And I would call it fair play.
Alon.
A vision of the island, one dear son
Shall I twice lose.
Seb.
A most high miracle!
Fer. Though the seas threaten, they are merciful: I have cursed them without cause.
[Kneels to ALON. Now all the blessings
Alon.
Of a glad father compass thee about!
Arise, and say how thou cam'st here.
Mira.
O! wonder
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!
Pro.
'Tis new to thee.
Alon. What is this maid, with whom thou wast at play?
Your eld'st acquaintance cannot be three hours:
Is she the goddess that hath severed us,
And brought us thus together?
Fer.
Sir, she's mortal;
But, by immortal Providence, she's mine;
I chose her, when I could not ask my father
For his advice; nor thought I had one: she
Is daughter to this famous duke of Milan,
Of whom so often I have heard renown,
But never saw before; of whom I have
Received a second life, and second father
This lady makes him to me.
Alon.
I am hers:
ACT V.]
THE TEMPEST.
But O, how oddly will it sound, that I
Must ask my child forgiveness!
Pro.
Let us not burden our remembrances
With heaviness that's gone.
Gon.
I have inly wept,
Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you gods,
And on this couple drop a blessed crown;
For it is you, that have chalked forth the way
Which brought us hither!
Alon.
I say, Amen, Gonzalo.
Gon. Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue
Should become kings of Naples? O, rejoice
Beyond a common joy; and set it down
With gold on lasting pillars: In one voyage
Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis;
And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife
Where he himself was lost; Prospero his dukedom,
In a poor isle; and all of us, ourselves,
When no man was his own.
Alon.
Let grief and sorrow still embrace his heart,
That doth not wish you joy!
Gon.
Be't so! Amen!
Re-enter ARIEL, with the Master and Boatswain amazedly following.
O look, sir, look, sir; here are more of us!
I prophesied, if a gallows were on land,
This fellow could not drown:-Now, blasphemy,
That swear'st grace o'erboard, not an oath on shore?
Hast thou no mouth by land? What is the news?
Boats. The best news is, that we have safely found
Our king, and company: the next our ship,-
Which, but three glasses since, we gave out split,-
Is tight and yare, and bravely rigged, as when
We first put out to sea.
Ari.
Have I done since I went.
Sir, all this service
[Aside.
Pro.
My tricksy spirit!
Alon. These are not natural events; they strengthen, From strange to stranger:-Say, how came you hither? Boats. If I did think, sir, I were well awake, I'd strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep, And (how, we know not) all clapped under hatches,
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