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, 19
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 th' practice, did Antonio open

The gates of Milan; 20 and, i' the dead of darkness,
The ministers for th' purpose hurried thence
Me and thy crying self.

Mira.

Alack, for pity!

I, not remembering how I cried on't then,
Will cry it o'er again: it is a hint,

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.

Mira.

That hour destroy us?

Pros.

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 prepar'd
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,
cry to th' sea that roar'd to us; to sigh
To th' winds, whose pity, sighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

To

Mira.

Was I then to you!

Pros.

Thou wast that did

Infused with a fortitude from Heaven,

19 In consideration of the premises. Lieu was commonly used thus in the Poet's time. See vol. i. page 161, note 31.

20 Here, instead of practice, the original has purpose, the word having probably got misprinted from purpose in the following clause. The change is adopted by Dyce from Collier's second folio. Practice means contrivance or conspiracy. Hint, in the next speech, is used for cause or subject. So, afterwards in this play, "Our hint of woe."

When I have deck'd 21 the sea with drops full salt,
Under my burden groan'd; which rais'd in me
An undergoing stomach,22 to bear up

Against what should ensue.

Mira.

How came we ashore?

Pros. 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 mine own library, with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.

Mira.

But ever see that man!

Would I might

28

Pros. [Resuming his Robe.] Now I arise:
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, I
you, sir,

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

Know thus far forth:

pray

Pros. 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 24 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; 't is a good dulness, And give it way: I know thou canst not choose.[MIRANDA sleeps.

21 This word deck'd has given the editors a deal of trouble, as neither of its admitted senses at all suits the context. It appears that the old Craven dialect has the word deg, meaning to sprinkle. Mr. Dyce, therefore, notes upon the passage thus: "Here deck'd would seem to be a form, if it be not a corruption, of the provincialism degg'd, that is, sprinkled.

22 An undergoing stomach is a firm, resolute, enduring courage. The Poet often uses stomach thus.

23 Profit is here a verb; have made thee to profit more.

24 In astrological language zenith is the highest point in one's fortunes.

B

Come away, servant, come! I'm 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,

To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride

On the curl'd clouds: to thy strong bidding task
Ariel and all his quality.25

Pros.

Hast thou, spirit,

Perform'd to point 26 the tempest that I bade thee?
Ari. To every article.

28

I boarded the King's ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist,27 the deck, in every cabin,
I flam'd amazement: sometime I'd divide,
And burn in many places; on the top-mast,
The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet, and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors
O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary 29
And sight-outrunning were not: the fire, and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune
Seem'd to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.
Pros.
My brave spirit!
Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil 80
Would not infect his reason?

Ari.

Not a soul

But felt a fever of the mad,81 and play'd

Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners 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, 32- then like reeds, not hair, Was the first man that leap'd; cried, Hell is empty, And all the devils are here.

25" All his quality" is all of his kind, all his fellow-spirits, or who are like

him.

26 Perform'd exactly, or in every point; from the French à point.

27 Beak, the prow of the ship; waist, the part between the quarter-deck and forecastle.

28 So in the account of Robert Tomson's voyage, 1555, quoted by Mr. Hunter: "This light continued aboard our ship about three hours, flying from mast to mast, and from top to top; and sometimes it would be in two or three places at once."

29 Momentary in the sense of instantaneous.

30 Coil is stir, tumult, or disturbance. See vol. i. page 569, note 4.

81 Such a fever as madmen feel when the frantic fit is on them.

82 Upstaring is sticking out "like quills upon the fretful porpentine." So in The Faerie Queene, vi. 11, 27: “With ragged weedes, and locks upstaring hye." See vol. i. page 496, note 22.

Pros.

But was not this nigh shore?

Ari.

83

Why, that's my spirit!

Close by, my master.

Not a hair perish'd;

Pros. But are they, Ariel, safe?
Ari.
On their sustaining garments 33 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,
His arms in this sad knot.84

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

Ari.
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,85 there she's hid:
The mariners all under hatches stow'd;

Who, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour,
I've left asleep and for the rest o' the fleet,
Which I dispers'd, they all have met again,
And are upon the Mediterranean flote,86
Bound sadly home for Naples ;

Supposing that they saw the King's ship wreck'd,
And his great person perish.

Pros.

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

What is the time o' the day?

Ari.

Ariel, thy charge

Past the mid season,

The time 'twixt six and now

Must by us both be spent most preciously.

88 Probably the garments that bore them up in the water. 84 His arms folded up as in sorrowful meditation.

85 Still-vex'd is ever-troubled. The Poet very often uses still in the sense of ever or continually. The Bermudas were supposed to be inhabited or haunted by witches and devils, and the sea around them to be agitated with perpetual storms. Bermoothes was then the common spelling of Bermudas. So in Fletcher's Women Pleased, i. 2:

"The devil should think of purchasing that egg-shell,

To victual such a witch for the Burmoothes.

86 Flote is said to be a substantive, meaning flood, wave, or sea. This passage shows that the scene of the play is not laid in the Bermudas, as there has not been time for the rest of the fleet to sail so far. And Ariel's trip to fetch the dew mentioned above was a much greater feat than going from one part of the Bermoothes to another.

87 Two glasses is two runnings of the hour-glass. The original prints these words, "At least two glasses," as part of Prospero's next speech.

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.

Pros.

What is't thou canst demand?

Ari.

How now! moody?

My liberty.

Pros. Before the time be out? no more!
Ari.

Remember I have done thee worthy service;
Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, serv'd

I pr'ythee,

Without or grudge or grumblings: Thou didst promise To bate me a full year.

Pros.

Dost thou forget

No.

From what a torment I did free thee?

Ari.

Pros. Thou dost ; and think'st it much to tread the ooze

Of the salt 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, sir.

Pros. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou forgot 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.

Ari. Sir, in Argier.38

Pros.

O, was she so? I must

Once in a month recount what thou hast been,

Which thou forgett'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.

89

Pros. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought, And here was left by th' 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,

88 Argier is the old English name of Algiers.

39 What are now called blue eyes were called gray in the Poet's time; and blue-ey'd was used in a very different sense from what it now bears. Blue eyes were considered eminently beautiful; but here the term signifies great ugliness; that is, blueness about the eyes. So in As you Like It, iii. 2: A blue eye, and a sunken." See vol. i. page 64, note 38; also page 190, note

21.