Page images
PDF
EPUB

Enter Mariners, wet. Mar. All lest! to prayers, to prayers! all lost! [Exeunt. Beats. What, must our mouths be cold? Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let For our case is as theirs. [us assist them, Seb. I am out of patience. Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.

would, thou

This wide-chopp'd rascal,
mightst lie drowning,
The washing of ten tides!
Gon.
He'll be hang'd yet,
Though every drop of water swear against it,
And gape at wid'st to glut him.

[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. [Exit. Seb. Let's take leave of him. [Exit. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground; long heath, brown furze, anything. The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. [Exit. SCENE II.-The Island: before the Cell of Prospero.

Enter Prospero and Miranda.

Mira. 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,

[cheek,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd
With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creatures 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 e'er
It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and
The freighting souls within her.

Pro.
Be collected:
No more amazement. Tell your piteous heart,
There's no harm done. Mira. O, woe the day!
Pro.
No harm.

I have done nothing but in care of thee,
(Of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!)
who

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 order'd, 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 further.
Mira.
You have often
Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd,
And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding, "Stay, not yet.'

Pro.

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
Out three years old.
[not
Mira.
Certainly, sir, I can.
Pro. By what? by any other house, or per-
Of anything the image tell me, that [son?
Hath kept with thy remembrance.

Mira,

'Tis far off; And rather like a dream, than an assurance Four or five women once, that tended me? That my remembrance warrants. Had I not

Pro. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But

how is it,

felse
That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou
In the dark backward and abysm of time?
If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam 'st here,
How thou cam'st here, thou may'st.
Mira.
But that I do not.
Pro. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve
year since,

Thy father was the duke of Milan, and
A prince of power.

Mira.
Sir, are not you my father?
Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
She said thou wast my daughter; and thy
father

Was duke of Milan; and his only heir A princess,-no worse issued. Mira. O the heavens! What foul play had we, that we came from Or blessed was't we did? [thence? Pro. Both, both, my girl: By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd But blessedly holp hither. [thence; Mira. O! my heart bleeds To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to, Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing Which is from my remembrance. Please you Of whence I am : nor that I am more better further. [Antonio,Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell, Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd And thy no greater father. Mira. More to I pray thee, mark me,—that a brother should Did never meddle with my thoughts. [know Pro. 'Tis time I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand, And pluck my magic garment from me.-So: [Lays down his robe. Lie there, my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort.

Be so perfidious!—he whom, next thyself,
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my state; as, at that time,
Through all the signiories it was the first,
And Prospero the prime duke; being so re-
In dignity; and, for the liberal arts, [puted
Without a parallel: those being all my study,

The government I cast upon my brother, Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,And to my state grew stranger, being trans- Should presently extirpate me and mine

ported,

And rapt in secret studies. Thy false
Dost thou attend me?

Out of the dukedom, and confer fair Milan,
uncle-With all the honours, on my brother : whereon,
A treacherous army levied, one midnight
Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open [ness,
The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of dark-
The ministers for the purpose hurried thence
Me, and thy crying self.
Alack, for pity!

Mira.
Sir, most heedfully.
Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits,
How to deny them; whom to advance, and
whom

To trash for overtopping; new created
The creatures that were mine, I say, or
chang'd them,

Or else new form'd them: having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' th' state
To what tune pleas'd 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.

Mira. O good sir, I do.
Pro.
I pray thee, mark me.
I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness, and the bettering of my mind
With that, which, but by being so retir'd,
O'erpriz'd all popular rate, in my false brother
Awak'd 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, unto 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 sub-
stitution,

And executing the outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative :-Hence his ambition
Dost thou hear?
[growing.
Mira. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.
Pro. 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) with 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.

Mira.

O the heavens ! Pro. Mark his condition, and the event; then tell me

If this might be a brother. Mira. I should sin
To think but nobly of my grandmother :
Good wombs have borne bad sons.
Pro.
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,-

Mira.
I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then,
Will cry it o'er again: it is a hint,
That wrings mine eyes to 't.

Pro.

Hear a little further, And then I'll bring thee to the present busi[story Which now's upon us; without the which, this Were most impertinent.

ness

Mira.

That hour destroy us?
Pro.

Wherefore did they not

Well demanded, wench: My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not,

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 pre-
A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd, (pard
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.

Mira.
Alack, what trouble
Was I then to you! Pro. O! a cherubin.
Thou wast, that did preserve me! Thou didst
Infused with a fortitude from heaven, [smile,
When I have deck'd the sea with drops full
salt,

Under my burden groan'd; which rais'd in
An undergoing stomach, to bear up [me
Against what should ensue.

Mira.

How came we ashore?
Pro. By Providence divine.
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 lov'd my books, he furnish'd me,
From my own library, with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.

Mira.
Would I might
But ever see that man! Pro. Now I arise :-
[Puts on his robe again.
Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow.
Here in this island we arriv'd; 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.

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?

Pro.
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
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'm ready now:
Approach, my Ariel; come!
Enter Ariel.
[I come
Ari. All hail, great master! grave sir, hail!
To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly,
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride [task
On the curl'd clouds: to thy strong bidding,
Ariel, and all his quality.

Pro. 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 dis-

ary

[precursors

[blocks in formation]

Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's
The mariners all under hatches stow'd; [hid:
Whom, 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,
[charge
And his great person perish. Pro. Ariel, thy
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.

How now! moody? What is 't thou canst demand? Ari.

My liberty. Pro. Before the time be out? no more! Ari.

I pray thee

[promise

tinctly, Then meet, and join: Jove's lightnings, the Remember, I have done thee worthy service; O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more moment-Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, serv'd feracks Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst And sight-outrunning were not: the fire, and To bate me a full year. Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Nep-| [tremble, Seem to besiege, and make his bold waves Yea, his dread trident shake.

tune

[empty.

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, [nand, Then all a-fire with me: the king's son, FerdiWith hair up-staring (then like reeds, not hair,) Was the first man that leap'd; cried, 'Hell is And all the devils are here.' Pro Why, that's my spirit! But was not this nigh shore? Ari. Close by, my master. Pro. 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. 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,

Pro.
Dost thou forget
From what a torment I did free thee?
Ari.
No.

Pro. Thou dost; and think'st it much to
Of the salt deep,-
[tread the ooze
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. Ari. I do not, sir.
Pro. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast

thou forgot

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

Pro. Thou hast. speak; tell me.

Where was she born?

Ari. Sir, in Argier. Pro. O, was she so? I must, [been, Once in a month, recount what thou hast Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch, Sycorax,

For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier, [did,
Thou know'st, was banish'd: for one thing she
They would not take her life. Is not this true?
Ari. Av, sir.
[with child,
Pro. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought

Hark in thine ear.

And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my
slave,
[vant : Ari. My lord, it shall be done. [Exit.
As thou report'st thyself, was then her ser- Pro. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil
And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate
Upon thy wicked dam, come forth! [himself
To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands,
Enter Caliban.
[brush'd
Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee, Cal. As wicked dew as e'er my mother
By help of her more potent ministers,
With raven's feather from unwholesome fen,
And in her most unmitigable rage,
Drop on you both! a south-west blow on ye,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
And blister you all o'er! [have cramps,
Imprison'd, thou didst painfully remain
A dozen years; within which space she died,
And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy
groans
[island
As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this
(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
Dad 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
The pine, and let thee out.
[gape
Ari.
I thank thee, master.
Pro. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an
And peg thee in his knotty, entrails, till [oak,
Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.
Ari.

Pardon, master :
I will be correspondent to command,
And do my spiriting gently.
Pro.

Do so; and after two days
I will discharge thee.

[ocr errors]

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 dili-

gence.

Pro. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins [work, Shall, for that vast of night that they may All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch'd As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more Than bees that made them. [stinging

Cal.
I must eat my dinner.
This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou tak'st from me. When thou
camest first,
[wouldst give me

Thou strok'dst me, and mad'st much of me;
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 show'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, while you do keep from me
The rest o' the island.

Pro.
Thou most lying slave,
Whom stripes may move, not kindness: I
have us'd thee,
[thee
Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodg'd
In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate
The honour of my child.

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

Pro.
[Exit Ariel.
Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept
Awike!
[well;
Mira. [Waking.] The strangeness of your

story put
Heaviness in me. Pro. Shake it off. Come
We'll visit Caliban, my slave, who never [on;
Yeds us kind answer.

Miri.

'Tis a villain, sir,

I do not love to look on. Pro. But, as 'tis,
We cannot miss him he does make our fire,
Fetch in our wood; and serves in offices
Tat profit us.-What ho! slave! Caliban !
Thou earth, thou! speak.

Cal. Within.] There's wood enough
within.
[ness for thee:
Pro, Come forth, I say; there's other busi-
Come, thou tortoise! when?

Re-enter Ariel, like a water-nymph. Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel,

Abhorred slave,
Which any print of goodness will not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee
[savage,

each hour

One thing or other when thou didst not, 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
[good natures

vile race,
Though thou didst learn, had that in't which
Could not abide to be with; therefore wast
Deservedly confin'd into this rock, [thou
Who hadst deserv'd more than a prison.

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

Pro.

Hag-seed, hence!

I might call him

Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou wert A goodly person: he hath lost his fellows,
best,
[malice? And strays about to find them.
To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, Mira.
If thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly [cramps,
What I command, I'll rack thee with old
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.
Re-enter Ariel invisible, playing and singing;
Ferdinand following him.
ARIEL'S SONG.

Come unto these yellow sands,

And then take hands:

Court' sied when you have, and kiss'd,
(The wild waves whist,)

Foot it featly here and there;
And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.

Hark, hark!

Burden. Bough, wowgh.

The watch-dogs bark:

Burden. Bowgh, wowgh.

Hark, hark! I hear

[Dispersedly.

[Dispersedly.

The strain of strutting chanticleer,

Cry, Cock-a-doodle-doo.

A thing divine; for nothing natural
I ever saw so noble.

Pro. [Aside.] It goes on, I see,
As my soul prompts it.-Spirit, fine spirit!
Within two days for this.
[I'll free thee
Fer.
Most sure, the goddess
On whom these airs attend!--Vouchsafe, my
prayer

May know if you remain upon this island;
And that you will some good instruction give,
How I may bear me here: my prime request,
Which I do last pronounce, is,--O you wonder!
-If you be maid, o no? Mira. No wonder,
But certainly a maid.
[sir;
My language! heavens!-
I am the best of them that speak this speech,
Were I but where 'tis spoken.

Fer.

Pro.
How! the best?
What wert thou, if the king of Naples heard

thee?

Fer. A single thing, as I am now, that wonders

To hear thee speak of Naples. He does hear

me;

And, that he does, I weep: myself am Naples;
Who with mine eyes, ne'er since at ebb, beheld

Fer. Where should this music be? i' th' air, The king, my father, wreck'd.

or th' earth?

[blocks in formation]

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:
Hark! now I hear them,-ding-dong, bell.
[Burden ding-dong.
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.
Pro. The fringed curtains of thine eye ad-
And say, what thou seest yond'. [vance,
Mira.
What is't? a spirit?
Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir,
It carries a brave form :-but 'tis a spirit.
Pro. No, wench; it eats and sleeps, and
hath such senses

seest,

As we have, such; this gallant, which thou
Was in the wreck; and, but he's something
stain'd
[call him
With grief, that's beauty's canker, thou might'st

Mira.
Alack, for mercy!
Fer. Yes, faith, and all his lords; the duke
And his brave son, being twain. [of Milan,
Pro. [Aside.]
The duke of Milan,
And his more braver daughter, could control
thee,

If now 'twere fit to do't :-At the first sight
[Aside.
They have chang'd eyes :-delicate Ariel,
I'll set thee free for this!-[To Fer.] A word,

good sir;

I fear you have done yourself some wrong: a [This

word.

Mira. Why speaks my father so ungently?
Is the third man that e'er I saw; the 51st
That e'er I sigh'd for: pity move my father
To be inclin'd my way! Fer. O! if a virgin,
And your affection not gone forth, I'll make
The queen of Naples.
[you
Pro.

Soft, sir: one word more[Aside.] They are both in either's powers: but this swift business

I must uneasy make, lest too light winning
Make the prize light.--[To Fer.] One word
more: I charge thee,
That thou attend me. Thou dost here usurp
The name thou ow'st not; and hast put thy-
Upon this island, as a spy, to win it [self
From me, the lord on't.

Fer.
No, as I am a man.
Mira. There's nothing ill can dwell in such
If the ill spirit have so fair a house, [a temple:
Good things will strive to dwell with 't.

Pro. [To Fer.] Follow me.-[To Mira.]

« PreviousContinue »