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 hour, if it so hap. Cheerly, good hearts! Out of our way, I say. so Exit. 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. A plague upon this howling! they are louder A cry within.

than the weather, or our office.

41

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.

52

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! courses off to sea again; lay her off. Enter Mariners, wet.

Set her two

Mar. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all

lost! Exeunt. Boats. What! must our mouths be cold? Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let's assist them,

For our case is as theirs.
Seb.
I am out of patience.
Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by
drunkards.

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,-111
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.

Pros. Mark his 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.

121

Pros. Now the condition. 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 131 Me and thy crying self.

Mir.

Alack! for pity.

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.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark,
Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepar'd
A rotten carcase 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, 150
Did us but loving wrong.

Mir. Was I then to you.

How came we ashore?
Pros. By Providence divine.
Some food we had and some fresh water that 160
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 lov'd my books, he furnish'd me
From my own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.
Mir.
Would I might

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 arriv'd; and here
Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit
Than other princess' can, that have more time
For vainer hours and tutors not so careful.
Mir. Heavens thank you for 't!
And now,

pray you, sir, For still 'tis beating in my mind, your reason For raising this sea-storm?

Pros.

I

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 180
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:
Thou art inclin'd 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, 190
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
On the curl'd clouds: to thy strong bidding task
Ariel and all his quality.

Pros.
Hast thou, spirit,
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 flam'd amazement: sometimes I'd divide
And burn in many places; on the topmast,
The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the
precursors

201

O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary And sight-outrunning were not: the fire and

cracks

Pros. O, a cherubin Thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile, Infused with a fortitude from heaven, When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt, Under my burden groan'd; which rais'd in me An undergoing stomach, to bear up

Ari.

Not a soul But felt a fever of the mad and play'd Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners 210 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.'
Pros.

Why, that's my spirit!
Close by, my master.
Pros. But are they, Ariel, safe?
Ari.
Not a hair perish'd;
On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before; and, as thou bad'st me
In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle. 220
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.
Pros.

But was not this nigh shore?
Ari.

Of the king's ship
The mariners, say how thou hast dispos'd,
And all the rest o' the fleet.
Ari.

230

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; Who, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour, I have left asleep and for the rest o' the fleet Which I dispers'd, 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.

Once in a month recount what thou hast been,
Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch,
Sycorax,

For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier,
Thou know'st, was banish'd: for one thing she
did

They would not take her life. Is not this true?
Ari. Ay, sir.

Pros. This blue-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 didst painfully remain
A dozen years; within which space she died
And left thee there, where thou didst vent thy
groans

280

290

Pros. 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. Pros. 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. Ari.

Pardon, master:

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

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? 300 Pros. 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!

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

260

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!

310

The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy
Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her?
Ari. No, sir.
Pros.
Thou hast. Where was she born?
speak; tell me.

Who hadst deserv'd more than a prison.

Cul. 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!

Pros. Hag-seed, hence! Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou 'rt 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, 370 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.

Pros.

So, slave; hence! Exit CALIBAN.

Re-enter ARIEL, invisible, playing and singing; FERDINAND following him.

Ari. Come unto these yellow sands,

And then take hands:
Court'sied when you have and kiss'd,-
The wild wares whist.-

Foot it featly here and there;
And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear.
Hark! Hark!

Burthen. Вого, wого.

The watch-dogs bark:

Burthen. Bow, wow.

Hark, hark! I hear

The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow.

380

Fer. Where should this music be? i' the air or the earth?

It sounds no more; and sure, it waits upon
Some god o' the island. Sitting on a bank, 390
Weeping again the king my father's wreck,
This music crept by me upon the waters,
Allaying both their fury and my passion
With its sweet air: thence I have follow'd it,
Or it hath drawn me rather: but 'tis gone.
No, it begins again.

Ari. Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change

Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:

400

Burthen. Ding-dong.

Hark! now I hear them,-ding-dong, bell.

Fer. The ditty does remember my drown'd father.

This is no mortal business, nor no sound
That the earth owes. I hear it now above me.
Pros. The fringed curtains of thine eye advance
And say what thou seest yond.
Mir.

What is 't? a spirit? Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir, 411 It carries a brave form: but 'tis a spirit.

Pros. No, wench: it eats and sleeps and hath