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 curl'd clouds; to thy strong bidding, task
Ariel, and all his quality.

Hast thou, spirit,

Pro.
Perform'd 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
Seem'd to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.

Pro.
My brave spirit!
Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil

Would not infect his reason?

Ari.
Not a soul,
But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd

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

Pro.

Why, that's my spirit!

But was not this nigh shore?
Ari.

Close by, my master.

Not a hair perish'd;

Pro. But are they, Ariel, safe?
Ari.
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 harbour
Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid:
The mariners all under hatches stow'd;

:

Whom, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour,
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 wreck'd,
And his great person perish.

Pro.

Ariel, thy charge Exactly is perform'd; 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 dost give me pains. Let me remember thee what thou hast promis'd,

Which is not yet perform'd 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, serv'd
Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst promise
To bate me a full year.

Pro.

Dost thou forget

From what a torment I did free thee?

Ari.

Pro. Thou dost; and think'st

No.

It much to dread 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 bak'd with frost.

I do not, sir.

Ari.
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.

[tell me.

Thou hast: Where was she born? speak;

Ari. Sir, in Argier.

Pro.

Oh, was she so? I must,

Once in a month, recount what thou hast been,
Which thou forgett'st. This damn'd 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 blear-eyed hag was hither brought with child,

And here was left by the sailors: Thou, my slave,

As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant:

And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate

To act her earthy and abhorr'd 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
Imprison'd, thou did'st painfully remain

A dozen years; within which space she died,

And left thee there; where thou did'st 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 honour'd 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 damn'd, which Sycorax
Could not again undo; it was mine art,

When I arriv'd, 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 howl'd away twelve winters.

That's my noble master!

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

Pro. Go, make thyself like to a nymph o' the sea; Be subject to no sight but mine; invisible

To every eye-ball else. Go, take this shape

And hither come in't: 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.

I do not love to look on.

Pro.

'Tis a villain, sir,

But, as 'tis,

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.

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 brush'd With raven's feather from unwholesome fen,

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

And blister you all o'er.

[Exit.

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 pinch'd

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

Cal.
I must eat my dinner.
This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,

Which thou tak'st from me. When thou camest first, [me
Thou strok'dst me, and mad'st much of me; would'st give

Water with berries in't; and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night: and then I lov'd thee,
And shew'd thee all the qualities o' the isle,

The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place, and fertile;
Cursed be I that did so!-All the charms

Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have,

Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me

The rest of the island.

Pro.

Thou most lying slave,

Whom stripes may move, not kindness: I have used thee, Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodged thee

In mine own cell, till thou did'st seek to violate

The honour of my child.

Cal. O ho, O ho!-'would it had been done! Thou did'st prevent me; I had peopled else This isle with Calibans.

Abhorred slave;

Pro.
Which any print of goodness will not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,

Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other: when thou did'st not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but would'st gabble like

A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes

With words that made them known: But thy vile race, Though thou did'st learn, had that in't which good natures Could not abide to be with: therefore wast thou

Deservedly confined into this rock,

Who had'st deserved more than a prison.

Cal. You taught me language; and my profit on't
Is, I know how to curse; the red plague rid you,
For learning me your language!

Pro.
Hag-seed, hence!
Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou wert best,
To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice?
If thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly

What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps;
Fill all thy bones with aches; make thee roar,
That beasts shall tremble at thy din.

Cal.

No, pray thee!

[Aside.

I must obey: his art is of such power,
It would control my dam's god, Setebos,
And make a vassal of him.

Pro.

So, slave; hence! [Exit CALIBAN.