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Col. All the infections that the sun sucks up From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him By inch-meal a disease! His spirits hear me, And yet I needs must curse.

Mira. If, by your art, my dearest father, you Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.

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Pros. I'll break my staff, Bury it certain fathoms in the earth: And, deeper than did ever plummet sound, I'll drown my book.

Act IV. Scene I.

Act V. Sce

THE TEMPEST.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE.

THE supernatural agency which forms so leading a feature in this fanciful play, is built according to Mr. Warton) on the peculiar tenets of the Rosicrucian philosophy; the name of Ariel being derived from the Talmudistic mysteries with which the more learned Jews connected that science. It was one of Shakspeare's latest productions, and probably founded on some Italian novel. Warburton considers it "one of the noblest efforts of his sublime and amazing imagination:" a negative species of praise, since the pleasure which it creates arises from a boundless diversity of invention, from a continued succession of supernatural occurrences, devoid of application and destitute of moral, because the end is ootained by means beyond the ordinary compass of belief. In representation it is greatly dependent on the scenery and mechanism. The language, however, is throughout most forcible, and much of the sentiment chaste and magnificent. Caliban is an original creation; whimsical, monstrous, and impressive: but that meu, saved as it were by miracle from death, should immediately plot the destruction of their companions, to obtain dominions which there was no probability of their ever re-visiting, is a suggestion at variance with nature, and inconsistent with the spirit of the piece. Johnson says of The Tempest--"In a single drama are here exhibited princes, courtiers, and sailors, all speaking in their real characters. There is the agency of airy spirits, and of an earthly goblin. The operations of magic, the tumults of a storm, the adventures of a desert island, the native effusion of untaught affection, the punishment of guilt, and the final happiness of the pair for whom our passions and reason are equally interested."

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

ALONSO, King of Naples.

SEBASTIAN, his Brother.

Master of a Ship, Boatswain, and Mariners.
MIRANDA, Daughter to Prospero.

PROSPERO, the rightful Duke of Milan.

ANTONIO, his Brother, the usurping Duke of ARIEL, an Airy Spirit.

Milan.

IRIS,

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CALIBAN, a savage and deformed Slave.

TRINCULO, a Jester.

STEPHANO, a drunken Butler.

Other Spirits attending on PROSPERO.

SCENE-The Sea with a ship: afterwards an uninhabited Island.

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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.
[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 No more amazement: tell your piteous heart,
destiny our cable, for our own doth little advan-There's no harm done.
tage! If he be not born to be hanged, our
case is miserable.

Re-enter BOATSWAIN.

Mira. O woe the day!
Pro. No harm.

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

Boats. Down with the top-mast; yare; lower,
lower; bring her to try with main course. [A
cry within.] A plague upon this howling!
or
louder than the weather,
they are
office.-

Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and
GONZALO.

our

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, uncharitable dog!

Boats. Work you, then.

Art ignorant of what thou art, nought know.
ing

Of whence I am; nor that I am more better
Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell,
And the no greater father.

Mira. More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.
Pro. 'Tis time

should inform thee further. 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.

Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, inso-The lent noise-maker, we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.

Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nut-shell, and as leaky as an unstanched wench. Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; set her two courses; off to sea again, lay her off.

Enter MARINERS, wet.

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

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

For our case is as their's.

Seb. I am out of patience.

Ant. We are merely + cheated of our lives by

This

drunkards.

wide-chapped

rascal; 'Would,

might'st lie drowning,

The washing of ten tides !

Gon. He'll be hanged yet ;

Though every drop of water swear against it,
And gape at wid'st to glut him.

thou

touch'd

direful spectacle of the wreck, which
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. Can'st thou remem-
A time before we came unto this cell?

ber

I do not think thou can'st; for then thou wast
not
Out three years old.

Mira. Certainly, Sir, I can.

Pro. By what? by any other house, or per-
son?

[A confused noise within.]Of any thing the image tell me, that
Hath kept with thy remembrance.

[Exit. (Exit.

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.
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.

[Exit. SCENE II.-The Island: before the Cell of PROSPERO.

Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.

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

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How thou cam'st here thou may'st.
Mira. But that I do not.

Pro. Twelve years since, Mirauda, twelve
years 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 heaveus!

What foul play bad we, that we came from thence?

Or blessed was't we did?

Pro. Both, both, my girl:

By foul play, as thou say'st, were we beav'd

thence;

But blessedly holp hither.

Mira. O my heart bleeds

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

Incontinent.

+ Absolutely.

t Before

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Which is from my remembrance! Please you | Of homage, and I know not how much tri

further.

Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd An-
tonio,-

I pray thee mark me,-that a brother should
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,

bute,

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 dark

ness,

And Prospero the prime duke; being so re- The ministers for the purpose hurried thence

pated

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 traus-
ported,

And wrapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle-
Dost thou attend me ?

Mira. Sir, most heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to suits,

grant

How to deny them; whom to advance, and
whom

To trash for over-topping: new created
The creatures that were mine; I say, or chang'

them,
Or else new-form'd them: having both the
key

Of officer and office, set all hearts

To what tune pleased his ear; that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,
And suck'd my verdure out

tend'st not:

I pray thee, mark me.

Mira. O good Sir, I do.

on't.-Thou

at

Pro. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all

cate

Me and thy crying seif.

Mira, Alack, for pity!

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

Pro. Hear a little further,

And then I'll bring thee to the present busi

ness

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
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-
pared

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,

dedi-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.

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 bro-

ther

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 the duke; out of the substitution,
And executing the outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative ;-Hence his ambition
Growing, Dost hear?

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, needs he will be
Absolute Milan: Me, poor man !-my library
Was dukedom large enough; of temporal

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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 princes can, that have more time
For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.
Mira. Heavens thank you for't! And now,
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 induence
If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes

• Cut away.

+ Without.

1 Thirsty

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