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It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and
The freighting souls 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,

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(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.

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The direful spectacle of the wreck, 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.

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;
Concluding, Stay, not yet.—

Pro. 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
Out three years old.

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;

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And rather like a dream, than an assurance

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

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Pro. Thou had'st, and more, Miranda: But how

is it,

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That this lives in thy mind? What see'st thou else
In the dark back-ward 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 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

Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She said-thou wast my daughter; and thy father Was duke of Milan; thou his only heir

And princess, no worse issu'd.

Mira. O the heavens!

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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 thente ; 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 fur

ther.

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Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, called Anthonio,I pray thee, mark me,that a brother should Be so perfidious!he whom, nèxt 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, Thy false uncle

And wrapp'd in secret studies.

Dost thou attend me?

Mira. Sir, most heedfully.

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"Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom

"To

"To trash for over-topping; new created "The creatures that were mine, I say, or chang'd'em, "Or else new form'd 'em: having both the key "Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state "To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was

The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,

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"And suck'd my verdure out on't.”—Thou attend'st not.

"Mira. O good sir, I do.

"Pro. I pray thee, mark me.

"I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated "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 Awak'd an evil nature: and my trust, "Like a good parent, did beget of him "A falshood, in its contrary as great

"As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit,

"A confidence sans bound."

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He being thus lorded,

Not only with what my revenue yielded,

But what my power might else exact,—like one,
Who having unto truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie,-he did believe

He was, indeed, the duke; out of the substitution, And executing the outward face of royalty,

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With all prerogative :-Hence his ambition grow. ing,

Dost thou hear?

Mira. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.

Pro.

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