A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigged,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively had quit it; there they hoist us,
To cry to the sea that roared to us; to sigh
To the winds, whose pity, sighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

Mira.

Was I then to you!

Pro.

Alack! what trouble.

O! a cherubim

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

When I have decked the sea with drops full salt;
Under my burden groaned; which raised in me
An undergoing stomach, to bear up

Against what should ensue.

Mira.

Pro. By Providence divine.

How came we ashore?

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 loved my books, he furnished me,

From my own library, with volumes that

I prize above my dukedom.

Mira.

But ever see that man!

Pro.

'Would I might

Now I arise:

Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow.

Here in this island we arrived; and here

Have I, thy school-master, made thee more profit

Than other princes can, that have more time

For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.

Mira. Heavens thank you for't! And now, I pray

you, sir,

(For still 'tis beating in my mind,) your reason For raising this sea-storm?

Know thus far forth.

Pro.
By accident most strange, bountiful fortune,
Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies

Brought to this shore: and by my prescience
I find my zenith doth depend upon

A most auspicious star; whose influence

If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes

Will ever after droop.-Here cease more questions;

1

P

Thou art inclined to sleep; 'tis a good dulness,
And give it way;-I know thou canst not choose.-
[MIRANDA sleeps.

Come away, servant, come: I am ready now;
Approach, my Ariel; come.

Enter ARIEL.

Ari. All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly,

To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride

On the curled clouds: to thy strong bidding, task
Ariel, and all his quality.

Hast thou, spirit,

Pro.
Performed to point, the tempest that I bade thee?
Ari. To every article.

I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flamed amazement: Sometimes, I'd divide,
And burn in many places; on the top-mast,
The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet, and join: Jove's lightnings, the precursors
O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight out-running were not; The fire, and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune
Seemed to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.

Pro.
My brave spirit!
Who was so firm, so constant, that his coil
Would not infect his reason?

Ari.
Not a soul
But felt a fever of the mad, and played

Some tricks of desperation: All, but mariners,
Plunged in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel,
Then all a-fire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand,
With hair up-starting, (then like reeds, not hair,)
Was the first man that leaped; cried, Hell is empty,
And all the devils are here.

Pro.

But was not this nigh shore?
Ari.

Why, that's my spirit!

Close by, my master.

Pro. But are they, Ariel, safe?
Ari.

Not a hair perished;

On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before: and as thou bad'st 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.

Pro.

Of the king's ship,

The mariners, say, how thou hast disposed,
And all the rest o' the fleet.

Ari.
Safely in harbor
Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'st me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still-vexed Bermoothes, there she's hid;
The mariners all under hatches stowed;

Whom, with a charm joined to their suffered 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 wrecked,
And his great person perish.

Pro.

Ariel, thy charge Exactly is performed; but there's more work: What is the time o' the day?

Ari.

Past the mid season.

Pro. At least two glasses: the time 'twixt six and now Must by us both be spent most preciously.

Ari. Is there more toil? since thou must give me pains, Let me remember thee what thou hast promised,

Which is not yet performed me.

Pro.

What is't thou can'st demand?

Ari.

How now! moody?

My liberty.

I pray thee

Pro. Before the time be out? no more. Ari. Remember, I have done thee worthy service; Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, served Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst promise To bate me a full year.

Pro.

Dost thou forget

No.

From what a torment I did free thee?

Ari.

Pro. Thou dost; and think'st it much, to tread the ooze

Of the salt deep;

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.

Ari.

I do not, sir.

Pro. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou forgot

The foul witch, Sycorax, who, with age and envy,
Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her?
Ari. No, sir.

Pro. Thou hast where was she born? speak; tell me.
Ari. Sir, in Argier.

Pro.
O, was she so? I must,
Once in a month, recount what thou hast been,
Which thou forget'st. This damned witch, Sycorax,
For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible

To enter human hearing, from Argier,

Thou know'st, was banished; for one thing she did,
They would not take her life: Is not this true?
Ari. Ay, sir.

Pro. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with child, And here was left by the sailors: Thou, my slave,

As thou report'st thyself, was then her servant:
And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate

To act her earthy and abhorred 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
Imprisoned, thou didst painfully remain

A dozen years; within which space she died,

And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy groans,

As fast as mill-wheels strike: Then was this island,

(Save for the son that she did litter here,

A freckled whelp, hag-born) not honored with
A human shape.

Ari.

Yes; Caliban her son.

Pro. 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 damned, 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.
Pro. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak,
And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till

Thou hast howled away twelve winters.

Ari.

I will be correspondent to command,
And do my sprighting gently.

Pardon, master.

Pro.

I will discharge thee.
Ari.

Do so; and after two days

That's my noble master!

What shall I do? say what? what shall I do?

Pro. 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. Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well; Awake!

Mira. The strangeness of your story put Heaviness in me.

Pro.

Shake it off: Come on:

We'll visit Caliban, my slave, who never
Yields us kind answer.

Mira.

'Tis a villain, sir,

But, as 'tis,

I do not love to look on.

Pro.

We cannot miss him: he does make our fire,
Fetch in our wood; and serves in offices
That profit us. What ho! slave! Caliban!
Thou earth, thou! speak.

Cal. [Within.] There's wood enough within.

Pro. Come forth, I say; there's other business for thee: Come forth, 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.

Pro. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!

Enter CALIBAN.

Cal. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed With raven's feather from unwholesome fen,

Drop on you both! a south-west blow on ye,

And blister you all o'er!

Pro. 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 pinched

As thick as honey-combs, each pinch more stinging
Than bees that made them.

Cal.

I must eat my dinner.