Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth:
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side; His youthful hose well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in its sound:
and mere oblivion; Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.
ALONZO, King of Naples. SEBASTIAN, his Brother. PROSPERO, the rightful Duke of Milan. ANTONIO, his Brother, the usurping Duke
FERDINAND, Son to the King of Naples. GONZALO, the honest old Counsellor of Naples. ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, Lords.
CALIBAN, a savage and deformed Slave. TRINCULO, a Jester.
Scene-The Sea, with a Ship; afterwards an uninhabited Island.
SCENE 1. On a Ship at Sea.
A Storm, with Thunder and Lightning.
Enter a Shipmaster and a Boatswain.
Mast. Boatswain,
Boats. Here, master: what cheer? Mast. Good speak to the mariners; fall to 't yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir. [Exit.
Boats. Heigh, my hearts; cheerly, cheerly, my hearts; yare, yare: Take in the top-sail; Tend to the master's whistle.-Blow till thon burst thy wind, if room enough!
Enter Alonzo, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and others."
Alon. Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master? Play the men.
Boats. I pray now, keep below.
Boats. Work you, then.
Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent no.se-maker, we are less afraid 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 instanched 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. Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.-
This wide-chapped rascal-'Would, thou might'st lie drowning, The washing of ten tides! Gon. He'll be hanged yet; la-Though every drop of water swear against it, And gape at wid'st to glut him.
Ant. Where is the master, boatswain? Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our bour; keep your cabins: you do assist the storm. Gon. Nay, good, be patient.
A confused noise within.] Mercy on us!-We Boats. When the sea is. Hence! What care split, we split!-Farewell, my wife and children! hese roarers for the name of king? To cabin:-Farewell, brother!-We split, we split, we split.
Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard.
Ant. Let's all sink with the king. Seb. Let's take leave of him. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these of sea for an acre of barren ground; long heath, elements to silence, and work the peace of the brown furze, any thing: The wills above be present, we will not hand a rope more; use done! but I would fain die a dry death. (Erit 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 hearts.-Out 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; for our own doth little advantage! If he be not born to be hanged, our [Exeunt.
The Island, before the Cell of Prospero. Enter Prospero and Miranda. Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you
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, 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'er It should the good ship so have swallowed, and The freighting souls within her. Be collected No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, There's no harm done. Mira. O, wo the day!
No harm. Dost thou attend me? Mira.
I have done nothing but in care of thee, (Of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!) who Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing Of whence I am; nor that I am more better Than Prospero, master of a tuil poor cell, And thy no greater father.
Did never meddle with my thoughts. Pro.
'Tis time, I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand, And pluck my magick 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 an hair, Betid to any creature in the vessel
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, or chang'd them,
Or else new-form'd them: having both the key Of officer and office, set all hearts i' th' state To what tune pleased his ear; that now he was The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk, And suck'd my verdure out on 't-Thou at- tend'st not. Mira. O, good sir, I do. Pro.
I pray thee, mark me 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-prized all popular rate, in my false brother Awak'd an evil nature: and my trust, Like a good parent, did beget of him
Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. A falsehood, in its contrary as great
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.
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. Thon had'st, and more, Miranda: But how is it,
That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here, How thou cam'st here, thou may'st. Mira. 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.
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 heaved
But blessedly holp hither.
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 loved, 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 parallei; 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-
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 indeed 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 roy
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! Pro. Mark his condition, and the event; then tell me, If this might be a brother. Mira. I should sin To think but nobly 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,- 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. 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 to 't. 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.
Well demanded, wench: 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
« PreviousContinue » |