A tempestuous noise of Thunder and Lightning heard. Enter a Ship-master and a Boatswain, as on shipboard, shaking off wet. Master. Boatswain! Boats. Here, master: what cheer? Mast. Good. Speak to the mariners fall to't yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir. [Exit. Enter Mariners. Boats. Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare, yare. Take in the topsail; tend to the master's whistle.- Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough! Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GON- Boats. I pray now, keep below. Ant. Where is the master, boatswain? Where's the Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour. Keep your cabins: you do assist the storm. Gon. Nay, good, be patient. Boats. When the sea is. Hence! What care these rearers for the name of king? To cabin: silence! trouble us not. 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 tot 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 destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage. If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable. Re-enter Boatswain. Boats. Down with the top-mast: yare; lower, lower. Bring her to try with main-course. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather, or our office. 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 poxo' 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. 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. Set her two courses : off to sea again; lay her off. Enter Mariners, wet. Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let us assist them. Seb. I am out of patience. Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunk- This wide-chapp'd rascal,-would, thou might'st lie Gon. 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 [Exeunt. die a dry death. [Exit. B SCENE II. The Island: before the cell of PROSPERO. Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA. Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you have 'Tis time Did never meddle with my thoughts. Pro. I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand, [Lays down his robe. So safely order'd, that there is no soul No, not so much perdition as an hair, By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence; Mira. O! my heart bleeds I pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should Without a parallel: those being all my study, The government I cast upon my brother, Mira. Sir, most heedfully. Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, The creatures that were mine, I say, or chang'd them, I pray thee, mark me. Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit To closeness, and the bettering of my mind down; For thou must now know farther. Mira. You have often Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd, Pro. With that, which but by being so retired Like a good parent, did beget of him A falsehood, in its contrary as great As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit, The hour's now come, A confidence sans bound. He being thus loaded, Certainly, sir, I can. Pro. By what? by any other house, or person? If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here, But what my power might else exact,—like one, To credit his own lie, -he did believe He was indeed the duke; out o' the substitution, Mira. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. Mira. 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,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 practise, did Antonio open The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of darkness, The ministers for the purpose hurried thence Me, and thy crying self. Mira. Alack, for pity! 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 farther, 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? Pro. Wherefore did they not Well demanded, wench: My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not, Bore us some leagues to sea, where they prepar'd Mira. Was I then to you! Pro. Alack! what trouble O! a cherubim Thou wast, that did preserve me. When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt, Mira. Pro. By Providence divine. How came we ashore? Some food we had, and some fresh water, that Out of his charity, (who being then appointed. I prize above my dukedom. Mira. But ever see that man! Pro. Would I might Hast thou, spirit, I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak, Pro. Ari. Pro. But are they, Ariel, safe? Not a hair perish'd; Now I arise:- [Puts on his robe again. Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once 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 Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew From the still-vex'à Bermoothes, there she's hid: The mariners all under hatches stow'd; Whom, with a charm joined to their suffer'd labour, I have left asleep and for the rest o' the fleet Mira. Heavens thank you for 't! And now, I pray Which I dispers'd, you, sir, they all have met again, And all upon the Mediterranean float, Pro. Thou dost; and think'st it much, to tread the ooze Yields us kind answer. Of the salt deep, To run upon the sharp wind of the north, To do me business in the veins o' th' earth, speak; tell me. Ari. Sir, in Argier. Pro. O! was she so? I must, Once in a month, recount what thou hast been, Thou know'st, was banish'd: for one thing she did, Pro. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with child, To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands, A dozen years; within which space she died, And left thee there, where thou didst vent thy groans A freckled whelp, hag-born) not honour'd with Mira. "Tis a villain, sir, I do not love to look on. Cal. [Within.] There's wood enough within. Re-enter ARIEL, like a water-nymph. Ari. Cal. As wicked dew, as e'er my mother brush'd Pro. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps, Cal. I must eat my dinner. This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou tak'st from me. When thou cam'st here first, Thou strok'dst me, and mad'st much of me; would'st give me Water with berries in't; and teach me how The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place, and fertile. |