Some tricks of desperation: All, but mariners, Plunged in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel, Then all a-fire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand, With hair up-starting, (then like reeds, not hair,) Was the first man that leaped; cried, Hell is empty, And all the devils are here. Pro. But was not this nigh shore? Why, that's my spirit! Close by, my master. Pro. But are they, Ariel, safe? Not a hair perished; On their sustaining garments not a blemish, Pro. Of the king's ship, The mariners, say, how thou hast disposed, And all the rest o' the fleet. Ari. Safely in harbor Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once Whom, with a charm joined to their suffered labor, Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrecked, Pro. Ariel, thy charge 1 The epithet here applied to the Bermudas will be best understood by those who have seen the chafing of the sea over the rugged rocks by which they are surrounded, and which renders access to them so difficult. It was then the current opinion that Bermudas was inhabited by monsters and devils. Setebos, the god of Caliban's dam, was an American devil, worshipped by the giants of Patagonia. 2 Waves, or the sea. Flot, Fr. Exactly is performed; but there's more work: Ari. Past the mid season. Pro. At least two glasses: the time 'twixt six and now Must by us both be spent most preciously. Ari. Is there more toil? since thou must give me pains, Let me remember thee what thou hast promised, Pro. What is't thou can'st demand? Ari. How now! moody? My liberty. Pro. Before the time be out? no more. I pray thee Remember, I have done thee worthy service; Pro. Dost thou forget No. From what a torment I did free thee? Ari. Pro. 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, Ari. I do not, sir. Pro. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou forgot The foul witch, Sycorax, who, with age and envy, Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her? Ari. No, sir. Pro. Thou hast where was she born? speak; tell me. Ari. Sir, in Argier.' Pro. O, was she so? I must, Once in a month, recount what thou hast been, 1 The old English name of Algiers. Which thou forget'st. This damned witch, Sycorax, For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible To enter human hearing, from Argier, Thou know'st, was banished; for one thing she did, Pro. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with child, And here was left by the sailors: Thou, my slave, To act her earthy and abhorred commands, A dozen years; within which space she died, And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy groans, As fast as mill-wheels strike: Then was this island, (Save for the son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp, hag-born) not honored with Ari. Yes; Caliban her son. Pro. Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban, Of To lay upon the damned, which Sycorax Ari. I thank thee, master. Pro. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak, And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till Thou hast howled away twelve winters. 1 Behests, commands. Ari. I will be correspondent to command, Pro. 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? Pro. 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, [Exit ARIEL. Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well; Awake! Mira. The strangeness of your story put Heaviness in me. Pro. We'll visit Caliban, my slave, who never Yields us kind answer. Mira. Shake it off: Come on; 'Tis a villain, sir, But, as 'tis, I do not love to look on. Pro. We cannot miss him: he does make our fire, Cal. [Within.] There's wood enough within. Come forth, thou tortoise! when? Re-enter ARIEL, like a Water-nymph. Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel, Hark in thine ear. Ari. My lord, it shall be done. [Exit. 1 We cannot do without him. 2 A common expression of impatience. 3 Brisk, spruce, dexterous, from the French cointe. Pro. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself Upon thy wicked dam, come forth! Enter CALIBAN. Cal. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed And blister you all o'er! Pro. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps, Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins1 As thick as honey-combs, each pinch more stinging Cal. I must eat my dinner. When thou camest first, This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou tak'st from me. Thou strok'dst me, and mad'st much of me; wouldst give me Water with berries in't; and teach me how To name the bigger light, and how the less, That burn by day and night: and then I loved thee, And showed thee all the qualities o' the isle, The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place, and fertile ; Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you! Which first was mine own king: and here you sty me The rest of the island. Pro. Thou most lying slave, Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have used thee, 1 Urchins were fairies of a particular class. Hedgehogs were also called urchins; and it is probable that the sprites were so named, because they were of a mischievous kind, the urchin being anciently deemed a very noxious animal. 2 That vast of night is that space of night. So, in Hamlet: "In the dead waste and middle of the night." |