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, 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 advan

A

tage. If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable. [Exeunt.

Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO.

Yet again! what do you here? Shall we give

o'er and drown? Have you a mind to sink? Seb. A pox of your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!

Boats. Work you then.

Ant. Hang, cur! hang, you whoreson, insolent noisemaker! We are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.

Gon. I'll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell and as leaky as an unstanched wench.

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

[Exeunt Ant. and Seb. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea 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. [Exeunt

SCENE II. The island. Before PROSPERO'S cell.

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 suffered With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel, Who had, no doubt, some noble creature 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 cre It should the good ship so have swallow'd and The fraughting souls within her.

Pros. Be collected: No more amazement: tell your piteous heart There's no harm done.

Mir. Pros.

O, woe the day!

ΙΟ

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 Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell, And thy no greater father. Mir.

More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts.

Pros.

20

'Tis time I should inform thee farther. 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 ordered that there is no soul—
No, not so much perdition as an hair
Betid to any creature in the vessel
Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink.
Sit down;

30

For thou must now know farther.
Mir.
You have often
Begun to tell me what I am, but stopp'd
And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding Stay: not yet."

Pros.

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 40 Out three years o'd.

Certainly, sir, I can.

Mir. Pros. By what? by any other house or person? Of any thing the image tell me that Hath kept with thy remembrance. Mir. '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?

But

Pros. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda.

50

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 camest here, How thou camest here thou mayst. Mir. But that I do not. Pros. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since, Thy father was the Duke of Milan and A prince of power. Mir. Sir, are not you my father? Pros. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father Was Duke of Milan; and thou his only heir And princess no worse issued. Mir.

O the heavens! What foul play had we, that we came from Or blessed was't we did? [thence? Pros. Both, both, my girl; 61 By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heaved thence, But blessedly holp hither. Mir. O, my heart bleeds To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance! Please you, farther.

70

Pr. My brother and thy uncle, call'd AntonioI 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 signories 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 rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncleDost thou attend me? Mir.

Sir, most heedfully. Pros. Being once perfected how to grant suits How to deny them, who to advance and who 80 To trash for over-topping, new created

The creatures that were mine, I say, or changed

'em,

Or else new form'd 'em; having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the 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 attend'st

not.

I pray thee, mark me. I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated To closeness and the bettering of my mind 90 With that which, but by being so retired, O'er-prized all popular rate, in my false brother Awaked 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 into truth, by telling of it, Made such a sinner of his memory, To credit his own lie, he did believe

100

He was indeed the duke; out o' the substitution,

Then all afire with me: the King's son, Ferdinand,

With hair up-staring,-then like reeds, not hair,

Ari.

Was the first man that leap'd; cried, Hell is
And all the devils are here.'
[empty,
Pres.
Why that's my spirit!
But was not this nigh shore?
Close by, my master.
Pros. But are they, Ariel, safe?
Ari.
Not a hair perish'd;
On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before: and, as thou badest me,
In troops I have dispersed them 'bout the isle.
The king's son have I landed by himself;
Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs
In an odd angle of the isle and sitting,
His arms in this sad knot.
Pres.
Of the king's ship
The mariners say how thou hast disposed
And all the rest o' the fleet.
Ari

Safely in harbor

221

230

Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid:
The mariners all under hatches stow'd;
Who, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labor,
I have left asleep: and for the rest o' the fleet
Which I dispersed, they all have met again
And are upon the Mediterranean flote,
Bound sadly home for Naples,
Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd
And his great person perish.

Pros.
Ariel, thy charge
Exactly is perform'd: but there's more work.
What is the time o' the day?
Ari

Past the mid season. Pros. At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six and now 240 Must by us both be spent most preciously. Ari. Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains,

Let me remember thee what thou hast promised,
Which is not yet perform'd me.
Pres.

How now ? moody?
What is't thou canst demand?
Ari.
My liberty.
Pros. Before the time be out? no more!
Ari.
I prithee,
Remember I have done thee worthy service;
Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings,
served

Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst
To bate me a full year.
[promise
Pres.
Dost thou forget 250
From what a torment I did free thee?
No.

Ari

Of the salt deep,

Pros. Thou hast. speak; tell me. Ari. Sir, in Argier. Pros.

Where was she born?

200

O, was she so? I must Once in a month recount what thou hast been, Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch Sycorax,

For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier, [did
Thou know'st, was banish'd; for one thing she
They would not take her life. Is not this true?
Ari. Ay, sir.

Pros. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought
with child
[slave,
And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my
As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant;
And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate
To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands,
Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee,
By help of her more potent ministers
And in her most unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprison'd thou didst painfully remain
A dozen years; within which space she died
And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy
groans

280

As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this
Save for the son that she did litter here, [island-
A freckled whelp hag-born-not honor'd with
A human shape.
Ari.

Yes, Caliban her son.

290

Pros. Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st What torment I did find thee in; thy groans Did make wolves howl and penetrate the breasts Of ever angry bears: it was a torment To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax Could not again undo; it was mine art, When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape The pine and let thee out. Ari. I thank thee, master. Pros. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an And peg thee in his knotty entrails till [oak Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters. Ari.

Pardon, master;

I will be correspondent to command
And do my spiriting gently.
Pros.

Do so, and after two days
I will discharge thee.
Ari.
That's my noble master!
What shall I do? say what; what shall I do? 300
Pros. 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
And hither come in't; go, hence with diligence!
[Exit Ariel.

To run upon the sharp wind of the North,

To do me business in the veins o' the earth When it is baked with frost.

Ar. Pros.

I do not, sir.

Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou forgot

Ari. No, sir.

310

That profit us. What, ho! slave! Caliban!
Thou earth, thou! speak.

Cal. [Within] There's wood enough within. Pros. Come forth, I say! there's other business for thee:

Come, 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. Pros. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself

Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!

320

Enter CALIBAN.

Cal. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholesome fen Drop on you both! a south-west blow on ye And blister you all o'er!

Pros. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt

have cramps, Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins Shall, for that vast of night that they may work, All exercise on thee; thou shalt be pinch'd As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stingThan bees that made 'em. [ing Cal. I must eat my dinner. 330 This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou takest from me. When thou camest first, Thou strokedst me and madest 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 show'd thee all the qualities o' the isle, The fresh-springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile :

Cursed be I that did so! All the charms
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have, 341
Which first was mine own king: and here you

sty me In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me The rest o' the island.

Pros.

Thou most lying slave, Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have used thee,

Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodged thee

In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate The honor of my child.

Cal. O ho, Ó ho! would't had been done! Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled else 350 This isle with Calibans.

Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou Deservedly confined into this rock, 361 Who hadst deserved more than a prison. Cal. You taught me language; and my profit on't

Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you For learning me your language!

Pres. Abhorred slave, Which any print of goodness wilt not take, Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee, Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour

One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage, Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like

A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes With words that made them known. But thy vile race, [good natures Though thou didst learn, had that in't which

Pros.

Hag-seed, hence! Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou'rt best, To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice? If thou neglect'st or dost unwillingly What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps, Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar 370 That beasts shall tremble at thy din. Cal. No, pray thee. [Aside] must obey: his art is of such power, it would control my dam's god, Setebos, And make a vassal of him.

Pros. So, slave; hence! [Exit Caliban. Re-enter ARIEL, invisible, playing and singing; FERDINAND following.