Boats. Work you then.

Ant. Hang, cur, hang; you whorefon, infolent,, noisemaker; we are lefs afraid to be drown'd, than thou art.

Gonz. I'll warrant him from drowning, tho' the ship were no ftronger than a nut-fhell, and as leaky as an unftanch'd wench.

Boatf. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; fet her two courses off to fea again, lay her off.

Enter Mariners wet.

Mar. All loft! to prayers, to prayers! all loft
Boat. What, muft our mouths be cold?

[Exe.

Gonz. The King and Prince at pray'rs ! let us affift 'em ; For our cafe is as theirs.

Seb. I'm out of patience.

Ant. We're merely cheated of our lives by drunkards. This wide-chopt rafcal would, thou might'ft lie drowning,

The washing of ten tides!

Gonz. He'll be hang'd yet,

Though every drop of water fwear against it,

And gape at wid'st to glut him.

A confufed noife within.] Mercy on us!

We fplit, we fplit! farewel, my wife and children!

Brother, farewel! we fplit, we fplit, we split!

Ant. Let's all fink with the King.

Seb. Let's take leave of him.

[Exit.

[Exit.

Gonz. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of fea 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!

SCENE changes to a part of the Inchanted Ifland, near the Cell of Profpero.

Enter Profpero and Miranda.

Mira. I F by your art (my dearest father) you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them: The fky, it feems, would pour down stinking pitch,

B 3

But

But that the fea, mounting to th' welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O! I have fuffer'd

With thofe that I saw fuffer: a brave vessel
(Who had, no doubt, fome noble creatures in her)
Dafh'd all to pieces. O! the cry did knock
Against my very heart; poor fouls, they perish'd!
Had I been any God of pow'r, I would
Have funk the fea within the earth; or ere
It should the good fhip fo have fwallow'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,

(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 (2)
Than Profpero, master of a full-poor cell, (3)
And thy no greater father.

Mira. More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.

Pro. "Tis time

I should inform thee farther.

Lend thy hand,

And pluck my magick garment from me: fo!

[Lays down his mantle. Lie there my art. Wipe thou thine eyes, have comfort, The direful fpectacle of the wreck, which touch'd The very virtue of compaffion in thee,

(2) I am more better.] This is the genuine reading, which the laft Editor has fophifticated; not obferving, I fuppofe, how frequent it is wth Shakespeare, and the other Writers of that age, to add the termination to adjectives of the comparative and superlative degrees, and at the fame time prefix the figns fhowing the degrees.

(3) full poor cell,] Thefe two adjectives without a Hyphen, and taking the first adverbially, make ftark nonfenfe; but full-poor is what the Latins used to exprefs by perpauper, perexiguus. The French likewife have a fimilar form of expreffion; fort-pauvre, fort-debile, fort-n alude, &c,

I

I have with fuch provifion in mîne art (4)
So fafely order'd, that there is no foyle, (5)
No not fo much perdition as an hair,

Betid to any creature in the vessel

Which thou heard'ft cry, which thou faw'ft fink: fit down. For thou must now know farther.

Mira. You have often

Begun to tell me what I am, but ftopt,
And left me to a bootless 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 canft; for then thou waft not
Out three years old. (6)

Mira. Certainly, Sir, I can.

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

Hath kept in thy remembrance.

Mira. "Tis far off;

And rather like a dream, than an assurance

(4) Provifion in mine art.] This is the reading of the rft fol. edition, which I have therefore reftored. The word compassion took place afterwards, I prefume, from the mistake of the Printers, who threw their eyes twice inadvertently on the preceding line, where this word is, and so happen'd to substitute it.

(5) is no foyle,] i. e. no damage, lofs, detriment. The two old. Folio's read,- —is no foul: which will not agree in Grammar with the following part of the fentence, Mr. Rowe first fubftituted-e foul left, which does not much mend the matter, taking the context together. Foyle is a word familiar with our Poet, and in fome degree fynonymous to perdition in the next line. So in the beginning of the third act of this play,

-but fome defect in her

Did quarrel with the nobleft grace she ow'd,

And put it to the foil.

i. e. abated, undid it.

(6) out three years old.] This is the old reading: 'tis true, the expreffion is obfolete, but it fupply'd the fenfe of, full out, out-right, or right-out, as in the fourth act of this play;

Swears, he will fhoot no more, but play with fparrows,
And be a boy right-out.

B 4

That

That my remembrance warrants. Had I not
Four, or five, women once, that tended me?

Pro. Thou hadft, and more, Miranda: but how is it,
That this lives in thy mind? what seeft thou elfe
In the dark back-ward and abyfme of time?

If thou remember'ft aught, ere thou cam'ft here;
How thou cam'ft here, thou may'st.

Mira. But that I do not.

Pro. 'Tis twelve years fince, Miranda; twelve years fince, Thy father was the duke of Milan, and

A Prince of pow'r.

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, and his only heir

A Princess, no worse iffu'd.

Mira. O the heav'ns!

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

Pro. Both, both, my girl!

By foul play (as thou fay'ft) were we heav'd thence :
But bleffedly help'd hither.

Mira. O, my heart bleeds

To think o' th' teene that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance. Please you, farther.
Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Anthonio-

I pray thee, mark me ;-(that a brother fhould
Be fo perfidious!) he whom next thyself
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my ftate; (as, at that time,
Through all the fignories it was the first;
And Profpero the prime Duke, being fo 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 ftranger; being transported,
And rapt in fecret ftudies. Thy falfe uncle-
(Doft thou attend me?)

Mira. Sir, moft heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant fuits,

How

How to deny them; whom t' advance, and whom
To trash for over-topping; new created

The creatures, that were mine; I fay, or chang'd 'em,
Or elfe new form'd 'em ; having both the key
Of officer and office, fet all hearts i' th' ftate
To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,
And fuckt my verdure out on't.
Thou attend'ft not.
Mira. Good Sir, I do.

Pro. I pray thee, mark me then.

I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To clofenefs, and the bettering of my mind,
With that which, but by being fo retired,
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my falfe brother
Awak'd an evil nature; and my trust,
Like a good parent, did beget of him
A falfehood in its contrary, as great
As my truft was; which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence fans bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded,

But what my power might elfe exact; like one,
Who having into truth, by telling of it,
Made fuch a finner of his memory,

To credit his own lye, he did believe

He was, indeed, the Duke; from fubftitution,
And executing th' outward face of royalty,

With all prerogative. Hence his ambition growing-
Doft thou hear?

Mira. Your tale, Sir, 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 fway) wi'th' 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.

Mira. O the heav'ns?