Boats. I pray now, keep below.

Ant. Where is the mafter, boatswain?

Boats. Do you not hear him? you mar our labour; keep your cabins; you do affift the ftorm. Gonz. Nay, good, be patient.

Boats. When the fea is. Hence what care these Roarers for the name of King? to cabin; filence; trouble us not.

Gonz. Good, yet remember whom thou haft aboard. Boat. None, that I more love than my felf. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to filence, and work the peace o'the (1) prefent, we will not hand a rope more; ufe your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have liv'd fo long, and make your felf ready in your cabin for the mifchance of the hour, if it fo hap. Cheerly, good hearts: out of our way, I fay. [Exit.

Gonz. I have great comfort from this fellow; methinks, he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand faft, 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 hang'd, our cafe is miferable. [Exeunt.

Re-enter Boatswain.

Boatf. Down with the top-maft: yare, lower, lower; bring her to try with main-courfe. A plague upon this howling!

Acry within. Re-enter Sebaftian, Anthonio, and Gonzalo. they are louder than the weather, or our office. Yet again? what do you here? fhall we give o'er, and drown? have you a mind to fink?

Sebaf. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blafphe mous, uncharitable dog.

Boat. Work you then.

Ant. Hang, cur, hang; you whorefon, infolent, noisemaker; we are less afraid to be drown'd, than thou art. (1) i. . on the prefent, at this Inftant.

Gonz.

Gonz. I'll warrant him from drowning, tho' the fhip were no ftronger than a nut-fhell, and as leaky as an unftanch'd wench.

Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; fet her two courses off to fea again, lay her off.

Enter Mariners wet.

Mar. All loft! to prayers, to prayers! all loft! [Exe.
Boats. What, muft our Mouths be cold?

Gonz. The King and Prince at pray'rs! let us affift

'em.

For our cafe is as theirs.

Seb. I'm out of patience.

Ant. We're meerly cheated of our lives by drunkards. This wide-chopt rafcal

drowning,

The washing of ten tides!

Gonz. He'll be hang'd yet,

would, thou might'ft lye

Though every drop of water fwear against it,

And gape at wid'ft to glut him.

A confufed noife within.] Mercy on us!

We fplit, we split! Farewel, my Wife and Children! Brother, farewel! we fplit, we fplit, we split!

Ant. Let's all fink with the King.

Seb. Let's take leave of him.

[Exit.

[Exit.

Gonz. Now would I give a thoufand furlongs of fea for an acre of barren ground; long heath, brown furze, any thing; the wills above be done, but I

--

would fain die a dry death!

[Exit.

SCENE changes to a Part of the Inchanted Island, near the Cell of Profpero.

Enter Profpero and Miranda.

Mira.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 ftinking pitch, But that the fea, mounting to th' welkin's cheek, Dashes the fire out. O! I have fuffer'd

B 3

With

With those that I faw fuffer: a brave vessel
(Who had, no doubt, fome noble creatures in her)
Dafh'd all to pieces. O! the cry did knock
Against my very heart: poor fouls, they perish'd!
Had I been any God of Pow'r, I would

Have funk the fea within the earth; or ere
It should the good fhip fo have fwallow'd, and
The fraighting fouls within her.

Pro. Be collected;

No more amazement; tell your piteous heart,
There's no harm done.

Mira. O wo the day!

Pro. No harm.

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 (2)
Than Profpero, mafter of a full-poor cell, (3)
And thy no greater father.

Mira. More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.
Pro. 'Tis time,

I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand,
And pluck my magick garment from me: fo!

[Lays down his mantle.
Lye there my Art. Wipe thou thine eyes, have comfort.
The direful spectacle of the wrack, which touch'd
The very virtue of compaffion in thee,

I have with fuch provifion in mine art [4]

So

(2) I am more better.] This is the genuine Reading, which the laft Editor has fophifticated; not observing, I fuppofe, how frequent it is with Shakespeare, and the other Writers of that Age, to add the Termination to Adjectives of the comparative and fuperlative Degrees, and at the fame time prefix the Signs fhowing the Degrees.

(3) full poor Cell,] Thefe two Adjectives without a Hyphen, and taking the first adverbially, make ftark Nonfenfe; but full-poor is what the Letines ufed to express by perpauper, perexiguus. The French likewife have a fimilar Form of Expreffion; fort pauvre, fort-debile, fert-malade, &c..

(4) Provifion in mine Art.] This is the Reading of the 1ft fol. Edition, which I have therefore reftored. The word Compassion took place after

So fafely order'd, that there is no foyle, (5)
No not fo much perdition as an hair,

Betid to any creature in the vessel

Which thou heard 'ft cry, which thou faw'ft fink: fit down.

For thou must now know farther.

Mira. You have often

Begun to tell me what I am, but stopt,
And left me to a bootlefs inquifition;
Concluding, Stay; not yet.

Pro. The hour's now come,

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;
Obey, and be attentive. Canft thou remember
A time, before we came unto this cell?

I do not think, thou canft; for then thou waft not
Out three years old. (6)

Mira. Certainly, Sir, I can.

Pro. By what? by any other house, or person?
Of any thing the image tell me, that
Hath kept in 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?

afterwards, I prefume, from the miftake of the Printers, who threw their Eyes twice inadvertently on the preceding Line, where this Word is, and fo happen'd to fubftitute it.

(5) is no Foyle,] i. e. no Damage, Lofs, Detriment. The two old Folio's read, is no Soul: which will not agree in Grammar with the following Part of the Sentence. Mr. Rowe first fubftituted—no Soul loft, which does not much mend the Matter, taking the Context together. Foyle is a Word familiar with our Poet, and in fome Degree fynonomous to Perdition in the next Line. So in the Beginning of the third Act of this Play,

but fome Defeat in her Did quarrel with the nobleft Grace fhe ow'd

And put it to the foil.

j. e. abated, undid it.

(6) out three years old.] This is the old Reading: 'tis true, the Expreffion is obfolete, but it fupply'd the Senfe of, full out, out-right, or right-out, as in the fourth Act of this Play;

Sears, be will shoot no more, but play with Sparrows,

And be a boy right-out,

Pro. Thou hadft, and more, Miranda: but how is it, That this lives in thy mind? what feeft thou elfe

In the dark back-ward and abyfme of time?

If thou remember'ft ought, ere thou cam'ft here;
How thou cam'ft here, thou may'st.

Mira. But that I do not.

Pro. 'Tis twelve years fince, Miranda; twelve years fince,

Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and

A Prince of Pow'r.

Mira. Sir, are not you my father?

Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She faid, thou waft my daughter; and thy father Was Duke of Milan, and his only heir

A Princess, no worse issu'd.

Mira. O the heav'ns!

What foul play had we, that we came from thence?
Or bleffed was't, we did?

Pro. Both, both, my girl:

By foul play (as thou fay't) were we heav'd thence; But bleffedly help'd hither.

Mira. O, my heart bleeds

To think o'th' teene that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance. Please you, farther.
Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Anthonio-
I pray thee, mark me; (that a brother fhould
Be fo perfidious!) he whom next thy felf
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my ftate; (as, at that time,
Through all the fignories it was the first;
And Profpero the prime Duke, being fo reputed
In dignity; and for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel; thofe being all my study :)
The government I caft upon my brother,

And to my ftate grew ftranger; being transported,
And rapt in fecret ftudies. Thy falfe uncle
(Doft thou attend me?)

Mira. Sir, moft heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant fuits, How to deny them; whom t'advance, and whom

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