PERSONS REPRESENTED. * ALONSO, King of Naples. SEBASTIAN, his Brother. PROSPERO, the rightful Duke of Milan. ANTONIO, his Brother, the usurping Duke of Milan. FERDINAND, Son to the King of Naples. GONZALO, an honest old Counsellor of Naples. CALIBAN, a savage and deformed Slave. TRINCULO, a Jester. STEPHANO, a drunken Butler. Master of a Ship, Boatswain, and Mariners. MIRANDA, Daughter to Prospero. SCENE, the Sea, with a Ship; afterwards an uninhabited Island. * This enumeration of persons is taken from the folio 1623. STEEVENS. 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 present3, 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 [Exit. 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. Re-enter Boatswain. Boats. Down with the topmast; yare; lower, lower; bring her to try with main-course.5 [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather, or our office. - of the present,] i. e. of the present instant. 4 Gonzalo.] It may be observed of Gonzalo, that, being the only good man that appears with the king, he is the only man that preserves his cheerfulness in the wreck, and his hope on the island. JOHNSON. 5—bring her to try with main-course.] This phrase occurs in Smith's Sea Grammar, 1627, 4to. under the article How to handle a Ship in a Storme: "Let us lie at Trie with our main course; that is, to hale the tacke aboord, the sheat close aft, the boling set up, and the helme tied close aboord." Steevens, |