[Exit. [Exit.

[A confused noise within.] Mercy on us!We split, We split-Farewell, my wife and children '— Farewell, brother!-We split, we split, we split !Ant. Let's all sink with the king. Seb. Let's take leave of him. Gonz. 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. [Exit.

SCENE II.

The Island :_ before the Cell of PROSPERO. Enter PROSPERO 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 stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to the 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 pow'r, I would

Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er2
It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and
The freighting souls within her.

Pro. Be collected;

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

Mira. O, woe 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
Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell,
And thy no greater father.

Mira. More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.

Pro. 'Tis time

I should inform thee further.Lend thy hand,

[2] i.e. before. So, in Ecclesiastes, xii. 6 : « Or ever the silver cord be

loosed, or the golden bowl be broken." STEEVENS.

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 order'd, 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;

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.

Mira. Certainly, sir, I can.

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. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda : But how is it,

That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm 3 of time?

If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here,
How thou cam'st here, thou mayst.

Mira. But that I do not.

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

[3] i.e. abyss. This spelling is common to other ancient writers. STE.

Was Duke of Milan; and his only heir
A princess ;-no worse issu❜d.

Mira. 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 heav'd thence;
But blessedly holp hither.

Mira. 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, called 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 signiories 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?

Mira. 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

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. I pray thee, mark me.

Mira. O good sir, I do.

Pro. I 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-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother

[4] A trash is a term still in use among hunters, to denote a piece of leather, couples, or any other weight fastened round the neck of a dog, when his speed is superior to the rest of the pack; i. e. when he over-tops them, when he hunts too quick. C.

Awak'd 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, unto truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie, 5-he did believe
He was 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 royalties 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 !) Te most ignoble stooping.

Mira. 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 levy'd, one midnight

Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open

[5] i.e. By often repeating the same story, made his memory such a sinner unto truth, as to credit his own lie. A miserable delusion, to which story-tellers are frequently subjećt. WARB.

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.

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. Wherefore did they not

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

With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark ;

Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepar'd
A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively had quit it: there they hoist us,
To cry to the sea that roar'd to us; to sigh

To the winds, whose pity, sighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

Mira. Alack! what trouble

Was I then to you!

Pro. O a cherubim

Thou wast, that did preserve me! Thou didst smile,
Infused with a fortitude from heaven,

When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt;
Under my burden groan'd; which rais'd in me

An undergoing stomach, to bear up

Against what should ensue.

Mira. How came we ashore?

Pro. By Providence divine.

Some food we had, and some fresh water, that

A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,

Out of his charity, (who being then appointed
Master of this design,) did give us ; with
Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries,

Which since have steaded much; so, of his gentleness,
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me,