THE TEMPEST. ACT I. SCENE I.-On a Ship at Sea. A tempestuous noise of Thunder and Lightning heard.' Enter a Ship-master and a Boatswain, as on ship-board, shaking off wet.2 Master. Boatswain ! Boats. Here, master: what cheer? Mast. Good. Speak to the mariners: fall to 't yarely,3 or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir. Enter Mariners. 3 [Exit. Boats. 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 ALONZO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO, and Others, from the Cabin.* Alon. Good boatswain, have a care. Where's the master? Play the men. Boats. I pray now, keep below. Ant. Where is the master, boatswain? Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour. Keep your cabins: you do assist the storm. Gon. Nay, good, be patient. Boats. When the sea is. Hence! What care these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence! trouble us not. Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard. 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 1 heard not in f. e. 2 as on ship-board, etc.: not in f. e. 3 Nimbly. 4 from the cabin: not in f. e. 5 a not in f. e. hour, if it so hap. way, I say. 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 advantage. If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable., [Exeunt. Cheerly, good hearts !-Out of our [Exit. Re-enter Boatswain. Boats. Down with the top-mast: 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? Seb. A pox o' 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. Mar. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost! [Ex. Boats. What! must our mouths be cold? [them. Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let us assist For our case is as theirs. Seb. I am out of patience. Ant. We are merely1 cheated of our lives by drunkards. This wide-chapp'd rascal,—would, thou might'st lie drowning, The washing of ten tides ! Gon. He'll be hanged yet, Though every drop of water swear against it, And gape at wid'st to glut him. [A confused noise within.] Mercy on us!— We split, we split-Farewell, my wife and children!— 1 Absolutely. Farewell, brother !-We split, we split, we split!— [Exit. [Exit. 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. [Exit. SCENE II.-The Island: before the cell of PROSPERO. Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA. Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you have With those that I saw suffer a brave vessel, Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and Pro. Be collected: No more amazement. Tell your piteous heart, Mira. Pro. O, woe the day! I have done nothing but in care of thee, No harm. (Of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!) who Mira. More to know 'Tis time Did never meddle with my thoughts. Pro. [Lays down his robe.3 Lie there my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort. The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd 1 cheek in f. e. 2 creature: in f. e. 3 mantle: in f. e. The very virtue of compassion in thee, Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down; For thou must now know farther. Mira. You have often Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd, Pro. The hour's now come, The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; [Sits down. 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 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 of time? If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here, Mira. But that I do not. Pro. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year 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 Was duke of Milan, thou3 his only heir And princess, no worse issued. Mira. O, the heavens ! What foul play had we, that we came from thence? Or blessed was't, we did? 1 provision in f. e. 2 Not in f. e. 3 and: in f. e. 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, farther. Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio,— I pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should Without a parallel: those being all my study, And to my state grew stranger, being transported Mira. Sir, most heedfully. Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, The creatures that were mine, I say, or chang'd them, Mira. O good sir! I do. I Thou attend'st not. pray thee, mark me. Pro. As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit, Not only with what my revenue yielded, But what my power might else exact,-like one, 1 Trouble. 2 A hunting term, signifying to beat back. Othello, II., 1. 3 lorded: in f. e. VOL. I.-2 See |