SCENE I.-On a Ship at Sea. A Storm, with Thunder and

Lightning.

Enter a Ship-master and a Boatswain.

Master. Boatswain,

Boats.

Master.

Here, master: What cheer?

Good: Speak to the mariners fall to't yarely, or we

run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir.

Enter Mariners.

[Exit.

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, GONZALO, and others.

Alon. Good boatswain, have care.

Play the men.

Boats. I pray now, keep below.

Ant. Where is the master, boson?

Where's the master?

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 roarers for the name of king? To cabin silence; trouble us not.

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 destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage! If he be not born to be hanged our case is miserable. [Exeunt.

Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard.

Re-enter Boatswain.

Boats. Down with the topmast; 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 pox 'o your throat! you bawling, blasphemous, uncharitable dog!

Boats. Work you, then..

Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whores on, insolent noise-maker, 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.

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

Boats. What, must our mouths be cold?

[Exeunt.

Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let us assist them, For our case is as theirs.

Seb.

I am out of patience.

Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.This wide-chopp'd rascal ;-'Would, thou mightst lie drowning, The washing of ten tides!

Gon.

He'll be hang'd yet ;

We split, we split !-

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

[A confused noise within.]-Mercy on us!

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,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd

With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel,
Who had no doubt some noble creature 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 fraughting souls within her.

Pro.

Be collected;

No more amazement: tell your piteous heart,
There's no harm done.

Mira.

Pro.

O, woe the day!

No harm.

I have done nothing but in care of thee,

(Of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!) who
Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing
Of whence I am; nor that I am more better
Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell,
And thy no greater father.

Mira.

More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.
Pro.

'T is time

I should inform thee farther. 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. The direful spectacle of the wrack, 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.
For thou must now know farther.

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.

Sit down;

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 not

VOL. I.

A 2

Certainly, sir, I can.

Pro. By what? by any other house, or person? Of anything the image tell me that

Hath kept with thy remembrance.

Mira.

'T is far off;

And rather like a dream than an assurance

That my remembrance warrants: Had I not

Four or five women once that tended me?

Pro. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda: But how is it That this lives in thy mind? What see'st thou else

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.

Sir, are not you my father?

Mira.
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

And princess no worse issued.

Mira.

O, the heavens !

What foul play had 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 heav'd thence;
But blessedly holp hither.

Mira.

O, my heart bleeds

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

Which is from my remembrance! Please you, farther.

I

Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio,—

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

And Prospero the prime duke, being so reputed
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 transported,'
And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle-
Dost thou attend me?

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