This wide-chapp'd rascal-would thou mightst lie drown
60
ing
The washing of ten tides!
Gon.
He'll be hang'd yet,
Though every drop of water swear against it
And gape at widest to glut him.
66
[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. [Exeunt Ant. and Seb. 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. [Exeunt.
SCENE II. The island. Before PROSPERO's cell.
Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.
Mir. 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 suffered
With those that I saw suffer; a brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature 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 power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallow'd and
The fraughting souls within her.
Pros.
Be collected:
No more amazement: tell your piteous hear.
There's no harm done.
Mir.
Pros.
O, woe the day!
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.
Mir.
More to know
Did never meddle with my thoughts.
Pros.
"Tis time
I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand,
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 ordered 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 farther.
Mir.
You have often
Begun to tell me what I am, but stopp'd
And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding "Stay: not yet."
25
Pros.
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.
Mir.
Certainly sir, I can.
Pros. By what? by any other house or person?
Of any thing the image tell me that
Hath kept with thy remembrance.
Mir.
"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?
Pros. 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 camest here,
How thou camest here thou mayst.
Mir.
But that I do not. Pros. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since, Thy father was the Duke of Milan and
Sir, are not you my father?
Pros. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father
Was Duke of Milan; and thou his only heir
And princess no worse issued.
Mir.
O the heavens !
What foul play had we, that we came from thence !
Or blessed was't we did?
Pros
Both, both, my girl:
By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heaved thence,
But blessedly holp hither.
Mir.
O, my heart bleeds
To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance! Please you, farther.
Pros. My brother and thy uncle, call'd Antonio-
I pray thee, mark me-that a brother should
Be so perfidious !-he whom next thyself
Of all the world I loved and to him put
The manage of my state; as at that time
Through all the signories 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 ?
Mir.
Sir, most heedfully.
Pros. Being once perfected how to grant suits,
How to deny them, who to advance and who
To trash for over-topping, new created
The creatures that were mine, I say, or changed 'em,
Or else new form'd 'em; having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state
To what tune pleased 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.
Mir. O, good sir, I do.
Pros.
I I pray thee, mark me.
I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness and the bettering of my mind
With that which, but being so retired,
O'er-prized all popular rate, in my false brother
Awaked 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 into truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,
To credit his own lie, he did believe
He was indeed the duke; out o' the substitution,
And executing the outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative: hence his ambition growing
Dost thou hear?
Mir.
Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.
Pros. 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-wi' 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 !-
To most ignoble stooping.
Mir.
O the heavens !
Pros. Mark bis condition and the event; then tell me
If this might be a brother.
Mir.
I should sin
To think but nobly of my grandmother:
Good wombs have borne bad sons.
Alack, for pity!
I, not remembering how I cried out then,
Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint
Pros. Now the condition, 120 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 levied, one midnight Fated to the purpose did Antonio open The gates of Milan, and, i' the dead of darkness, The ministers for the purpose hurried thence Me and thy crying self.
Mir.
That wrings mine eyes to't.
Pros.
Hear a little further And then I'll bring thee to the present business Which now's upon's; without the which this story Were most impertinent.
Mir.
Wherefore did they not
That hour destroy us?
Pros.
Well demanded, wench:
My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not 140
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.
1
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark,
Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepared
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.
Mir.
Alack, what trouble
Was I then to you!
Thou didst smile,
Pros.
O, a cherubin
Thou wast that did preserve me.
Infused with a fortitude from heaven,
When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt,
Under my burthen groan'd; which raised in me
An undergoing stomach, to bear up
Against what should ensue.
Mir.
Pros. By Providence divine.
Some food we had and some fresh water that
A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,
Out of his charity, 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 furnish'd me
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.
Mir.
Would I might
sir,
For still 'tis beating in my mind, your reason
For raising this sea-storm?
Pros.
Know thus far forth.
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
But ever see that man!
Pros. Now I arise: [Resumes his mantle. Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow. 170 Here in this island we arrived; and here Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit Than other princesses can that have more time For vainer hours and tutors not so careful.
Mir. Heavens thank you for't! And now, I pray you,
|