Boatf. Down with the top-maft; yare, lower, lower; bring her to try with main-course. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! 15 they are louder than the weather, or our office. Re-enter Sebaftian, Anthorio, and Gonzalo.

• Readily, nimbly. 2 Of the prefent inftant, the poet probably means. 3 Incontinent.

IC

[A confufed noife within.] Mercy on us!
We fplit! we split! Farewell my wife and chil-
dren! Farewell, brother! We split, we split, we 15
fplit.

Ant. Let's all fink with the king.
Seb. Let's take leave of him.

[Exit. [Exit.

Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of fea for an acre of barren ground; 3 long heath, 20 brown furze, any thing: The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death!

SCENE

II.

[Exit.

The inchanted island: before the cell of Profpero.

Enter Profpero and Miranda.

Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you have

25

30

Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them:
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the fea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd
With thofe that I faw fuffer! a brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, fome noble creatures in her,
Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor fouls! they perifh'd. 35
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have funk the fea within the earth, or ere4

It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and
The freighting fouls 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,

No, not fo much perdition as an hair,
Betid to any creature in the veffel

Which thou heard 'ft cry, which thou faw'ft fink.
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 bootlefs inquifition;
Concluding, Stay, not yet.—

Pro. The hour's now come;

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;
Obey, and be attentive. Canft thou remember

A time before we came unto this cell?

I do not think, thou canst; for then thou waft not
Out? three years old.

Mira. Certainly, fir, I can.

Pr. By what? by any other house, or person!
Of any thing the image tell me, that
Hath kept with thy remembrance.

Mira. 'Tis far off;

A prince of power.

Mira. Sir, are not you my father?

Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
She faid-thou waft my daughter; and thy father
Was duke of Milan; thou his only heir

And princefs, no worse iffu'd.

Mira. O the heavens !

40 What foul play had we, that we came from thence? Or bleffed was't, we did?

45

(Of thee, my dear one! thee, my dear daughter!)

who

Pro. Both, both, my girl:

By foul play, as thou fay'ft, were we heav'd thence
But bleffedly holp hither.

Mira. O, my heart bleeds

To think o' the teen 8 that I have turn'd you to,

Which is from my remembrance! Please you

I

further.

pray thee mark me,-that a brother should
Be fo perfidious!-he whom next thyself,
Of all the world I lov'd, and him put
The manage of my ftate as at that time,
55 Through all the figniories it was the first,
And Profpero the prime duke; being so reputed
In dignity, and, for the liberal arts,
Without a parallel; thofe being all my study,
The government I caft upon my brother,
And to my state grew stranger, being transported,
And wrapp'd in fecret ftudies. Thy falfe uncle-
Doft thou attend me?

The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd 60
The very virtue of compaffion in thee,
I have with fuch provision in mine art
So fafely ordered, that there is no foul-

Abfolutely. 2 Swallow.

cell. Mingle. 7 Quite.

Mira. Sir, moft heedfully.

3 Perhaps it fhould be ling, heath, &c. 4 Before. 5 i. e. a very poor Sorrow, grief, trouble.

Pro

['em,

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits,
How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom
To trash' for over-topping; new created
The creatures that were mine; I fay, or chang'd
Or elfe new form'd 'em; having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state
To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk, [not.
And fuck'd my verdure out on't.-Thou attend'ft
Mira. O good fir, 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'er-priz'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 falfhood, in its contrary as great

As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit,

5

That wrings mine eyes to't.

Pro. Hear a little further,

And then I'll bring thee to the present business
Which now's upon us; without the which, this story
Were most impertinent.

Mira. Wherefore did they not
That hour destroy us?

Pro. Well demanded, wench;

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durft not;
10(So dear the love my people bore me) nor fet
A mark fo bloody on the business; but
With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark;
Bore us fome leagues to fea; where they prepar'd
15 A rotten carcafs of a boat, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, fail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively had quit it: there they hoist us
To cry to the fea that roar'd to us; to figh
To the winds, whose pity, fighing back again,

A confidence fans bound. He being thus lorded, 2c Did us but loving wrong.

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 fuch a finner of his memory,
To credit his own lie,-he did believe

He was, indeed, the duke; out of the fubftitution,
And executing the outward face of royalty, [ing,-
With all prerogative:-Hence his ambition grow-
Doft thou hear?

Mira. Your tale, fir, would cure deafness.

Pro. To have no fcreen between this part he play'd
And him he play'd it for, he needs will be
Abfolute 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 moft ignoble stooping.

This king of Naples, being an enemy
To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's fuit;
Which was, that he in lieu o' the premises,-
Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,-
Should prefently extirpate me and mine
Out of the dukedom; and confer fair Milan,
With all the honours, on my brother: Whereon,
A treacherous army levy'd, one mid-night
Fated to the purpose, did Anthonio open
The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of darkness,
The minifters for the purpose hurried thence
Me, and thy crying felf.

Mira. Alack, for pity!

I, not remembring how I cried out then,
Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint,

Mira. Alack! what trouble

Was I then to you!

Pro. O a cherubim

Thou waft, that did preferve me! Thou didst fmile,
25 Infufed with a fortitude from heaven,
When I have 5 deck'd the fea with drops full falt;
Under my burden groan'd; which rais'd in me
An undergoing ftomach, to bear up
Against what should ensue.

30

35

Mira. How came we afhore?

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
Mafter of this design, did give us; with

Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and neceffaries,
Which fince have fteaded much; fo, of his gentleness,
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me
From my own library, with volumes that
40I prize above my dukedom.
Mira. Would I might

But ever fee that man!

Pro. Now, I arise :-

Sit ftill, and hear the last of our fea-forrow.
45 Here in this island we arriv'd; and here
Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit
Than other princes can, that have more time
For vainer hours, and tutors not fo careful. [you, fir
Mira. Heavens thank you for't! And now, I pray
50 (For ftill 'tis beating in my mind) your reason
For raifing this fea-storm?

Pro. Know thus far forth.-

By accident moft ftrange, bountiful fortune, Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies 55 Brought to this shore: and by my prescience I find my zenith doth depend upon A moft aufpicious star; whose influence If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes Will ever after droop.-Here ceafe more questions; 60 Thou art inclin'd to fleep; 'tis a good dulness, And give it way :-I know, thou canst not choose [Miranda Aeeps.

To trash, Warburton fays, is to cut away the fuperfluities. * Suggestion. Covered. i. e. a ftubborn refolution,

B 2

2 Thirsty.

3 Otherwife than.

Come

Who was fo firm, so constant, that this coil
Would not infect his reason?

Ari. Not a foul

But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd

[25]

Some tricks of defperation: All, but mariners,
Plung'd in the foaming brine, and quit the veffel, 30
Then all a-fire with me: the king's fon, Ferdinand,|
With hair upstarting (then like reeds, not hair)
Was the first man that leap'd; cried, Hell is empty,
And all the devils are bere.

Pro. Why, that's my spirit!
But was not this nigh shore?
Ari. Close by, my master.

Pro. But are they, Ariel, fafe?
Ari. Not a hair perish'd;

On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before: and, as thou bad'ft me,
In troops I have difpers'd them 'bout the isle :
The king's fon have I landed by himself;
Whom I left cooling of the air with fighs,
In an odd angle of the ifle, and fitting,
His arms in this fad knot.

Pro. Of the king's fhip,

The mariners, say how thou haft difpos'd,
And all the reft o' the fleet?

Ari. Safely in harbour

Is the king's fhip; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dft me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the ftill-vex'd Bermoothes 2, there the's hid:
The mariners all under hatches ftow'd;
Whom, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour,
I have left afleep: and for the rest o' the fleet,
Which I difpers'd, they all have met again;
And are upon the Mediterranean flote 3,

Bound fadly home for Naples;

Pro. Doft thou forget

From what a torment I did free thee?
Ari. No.

Pro. Thou doft; and think it it muchto tread the ooze
Of the falt 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.

Ari. I do not, fir.

Pro. Thou ly'ft, malignant thing! Haft thou forgot
The foul witch Sycorax, who, with age and envy,
Was grown into a hoop? haft thou forgot her?
Ari. No, fir.

Pro. Thou haft: Where was sheborn? speak; tell me.
Ari. Sir, in Argier4.

Pro. Oh, was the fo? I muft,

Once in a month, recount what thou hast been,
Which thou forgett'ft. This damn'd witch, Sycorax,
35 For mischiefs manifold, and forceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier,
Thou know'ft, was banifh'd; for one thing she did,
They would not take her life: Is not this true?
Ari. Ay, fir.

40

[child,

Pro. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought with And here was left by the failors: Thou, my slave, As thou report'ft thyself, waft then her fervant: And, for thou waft a spirit too delicate

To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands,

45 Refufing her grand hefts, she did confine thee,
By help of her more potent ministers,
And in her moft unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprifon'd, thou didst painfully remain

50 A dozen years; within which space she died,
And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy groans,
As faft as mill-wheels ftrike: Then was this island
(Save for the fon that fhe did litter here,

A freckled whelp, hag-born) not honour'd with 55 A human shape.

Ari. Yes; Caliban her fon.

Pro. Dull thing, I say fo; he, that Caliban,

Whom now I keep in fervice. Thou best know'st
What torment I did find thee in: thy groans

Suppofing that they faw the king's fhip wreck'd, 60 Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts

And his great perfon perish.

Pro. Ariel, thy charge

Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work:

Of ever-angry bears; it was a torment
To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax
Could not again undo; it was mine art,
3. Flote is wave. 4 Algiers.

Performed to the minuteft article. 2 Bermudas.

When