SCENE.-The Sea, with a Ship; afterwards an Island.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-On a Ship at Sea. A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.

Enter a Shipmaster and a Boatswain severally.

Master. Boatswain !

Boatswain. Here, master: what cheer?

Master. Good, speak to the mariners fall to't yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir.

Enter Mariners.

[Exit.

5

Boatswain. Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to the master's whistle.-Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!.

Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND,
GONZALO, and others.

Alonso. Good boatswain, have care.

master? Play the men.

Boatswain. I pray now, keep below.
Antonio. Where is the master, boson ?

Where's the 10

Boatswain. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour keep your cabins: you do assist the storm.

15

Gonzalo. Nay, good, be patient.

Boatswain. When the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin silence! trouble us not.

Gonzalo. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard. Boatswain. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor if you can command these clements 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. Gonzalo. I have great comfort from this fellow : thinks 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 case is miserable. [Exeunt.

Re-enter Boatswain.

me

Boatswain. Down with the topmast! yare! lower, lower! Bring her to try with main-course. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather, or our office.

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?

Sebastian. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!

Boatswain. Work you, then.

Antonio. Hang, cur, hang! you insolent noisemaker,

we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.

Gonzalo. I'll warrant him for drowning, though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell and as leaky as an unstanched keg.

Boatswain. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! Set her two courses; off to sea again; lay her off.

Enter Mariners, wet.

Mariners. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost!

Boatswain. What, must our mouths be cold?

[Exeunt.

Gonzalo. The king and prince at prayers! let us assist

them,

For our case is as theirs.

Sebastian.

I am out of patience.

Antonio. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.

This wide-chapp'd rascal,-would thou might'st lie drowning,

The washing of ten tides !

Gonzalo.
He'll be hang'd yet,
Though every drop of water swear against it,
And gape at wid'st to glut him.

[Exit. [Exit.

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65

[A confused noise within, Mercy on us!'We split, we split!'-'Farewell, my wife and children!'Farewell, brother! We split, we split, we split!'-] Antonio. Let's all sink wi' the king. Sebastian. Let's take leave of him. Gonzalo. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of 70 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.

[Exit.

SCENE II.-The Island: before the Cell of PROSPERO. Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.

Miranda. 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 th' welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O! I 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 swallow'd and
The fraughting souls within her.

Prospero.

Be collected:

No more amazement. Tell your piteous heart
There's no harm done.

Miranda.
Prospero.

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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.

Miranda.

Did never meddle with my
Prospero.

More to know

thoughts.

"Tis time

I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand,
And pluck my magic garment from me.-So:

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[Lays down his mantle. Lie there, my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort. 25 The direful spectacle of the wrack, 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 soulNo, not so much perdition as an hair, Betid to any creature in the vessel

30

Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down; For thou must now know further.

You have often

Miranda.
Begun to tell me what I am, but stopp'd,
And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding, Stay; not yet.'
Prospero.

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.

Miranda.

Certainly, sir, I can.

Prospero. By what? by any other house or person? Of anything the image tell me, that

Hath kept with thy remembrance.

Miranda.
'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?

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45

But how is it

Prospero. Theu hadst, and more, Miranda.
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.

50

Miranda.

But that I do not.

Prospero. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since, Thy father was the Duke of Milan and

A prince of power.

Miranda.

Prospero.

Sir, are not you my father?

Once Duke of Milan; and his only heir
A princess, no worse issued.

Miranda.

Thy father 55

O, the heavens !

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

Prospero.

Both, both, my girl:

By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence;
But blessedly holp hither.

Miranda.

O! my heart bleeds

To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to,

Which is from my remembrance. Please you, further. Prospero. 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 lov'd, 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 uncle-
Dost thou attend me ?

Miranda.

Sir, most heedfully.

Prospero. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them, who t' advance, and who

To trash for over-topping; new_created

The creatures that were mine,-I say, or chang'd 'em,

Or else new form'd 'em

having both the key

Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state

To what tune pleas'd 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.
Miranda. O, good sir! I do.

Prospero.

I

pray thee, mark me.

⚫ 90

I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness and the bettering of my mind