TEMPEST, ACT I. SCENE I. A storm with thunder and lightning. Enter a Shipmaster and a Boatswain. On a ship at sea. BOATSWAIN, Master. Boats. Here, master: What cheer? Mast. 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 top-sail; tend to the master's whistle.-Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough! Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GON. ZALO, and others. Alon. Good boatswain, have care. ter? Play the men. Boats. I pray now, keep below. Where's the mas Ant. Where is the master, boatswain? Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour; keep your cabins: you do assist the storm. Gonz. 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. Gonz. 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 o' 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, Gonz. 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 hang'd, our case is miserable. [Exeunt. 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 pox o' your throat! you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog! Boats. Work you, then. Ant. Hang, cut, hang! you whoreson, insolent noisemaker! we are less afraid to be drown'd than thou art. Gonz. I'll warrant him from drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nut-shell, and as leaky as an unstaunch'd 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! [Exe. Boats. What, must our mouths be cold? Gonz. 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-chapped rascal:'Would, thou might'st lie drowning, The washing of ten tides! Gonz. He'll be hang'd yet; Though every drop of water swear against it, And gape at wid'st to glut him. [1] It may be observed of Gonzalo, that being the only good man that appears with the king, he is the only man that preserves his cheerfulness in the wreck. and his hope on the island.—JOHNSON. [A confused noise within.] Mercy on us!We split, [Exit. [Exit. Gonz. 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. SCENE II. [Exit 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, With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel, Who had, no doubt, some noble creatures in her, Against my very heart! Poor souls! they perish'd. Had I been any god of pow'r, I would Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er' It should the good ship so have swallowed, and Pro. Be collected; No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, 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 Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell, Mira. More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts. Pro. "Tis time I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand, [2] i e. before. So, in Ecclesiastes, xii. 6: "Or ever the silver cord be loosed, er the golden bowl be broken." STEEVENS. VOL. I. F 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 wreck, which touch'd 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; Pro. The hour's now come; The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; Can'st thou remember A time before we came unto this cell? I do not think thou can'st; for then thou wast not Mira. Certainly, sir, I can. Pro. By what? by any other house, or person? Of any thing the image tell me, that Hath kept with thy remembrance. Mira. 'Tis 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 had'st, and more, Miranda: But how is it, That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm' of time? If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here, Mira But that I do not. Pro. Twelve years since, Miranda, 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 [3] i. e. abyss. This spelling is common to other ancient writers. STE. Was duke of Milan; and his only heir Mira. O, the heavens ! What foul play had we, that we came from thence ? Pro. Both, both, my girl : By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence ; Mira. O, my heart bleeds To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to, I pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should Be so perfidious !-he whom, next thyself, Without a parallel; those being all my study, And to my state grew stranger, being transported, Mira. Sir, most heedfully. Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, 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'd them, Or else new form'd them having both the key Of officer and office, set all hearts To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk, And suck'd my verdure out on't.-Thou attend'st not: I pray thee, mark me, Mira. O good sir, I do. Pro. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate 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 brother [4] A trash is a term still in use among hunters, to denote a piece of leather, couples, or any other weight fastened round the neck of a dog, when his speed is superior to the rest of the pack; i. e. when he over-tops them, when he hunts too quick. C. |