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,

90 (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. 'Tis time,
I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand,
And pluck my magic garment from me.--So;

[Lays down his mantle. Lye there my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes ;

have com
fort.
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 şaw'st sink.

Sit down;
For thou must now know further.

100

110

120

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 remeinber
A time before we came unto this cell?
I do not think thou canst ; for then thou wașt 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 ;
And rather like a dream, than an assurance
That my remeinbrance 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 see'st thou else
In the dark back-ward and abysm of time? 130
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 nat 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; thoi his only hcir
And princess, no worse issu'd.

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 thente ;
But blessedly holp hither.

Mira. O, my heart bleeds
To think of the teen that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance 1 Please you fur.
ther.

150
Pro. My brother, and thy uncle; called Anthonio,
I 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 inanage 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,

160
And to iny state grew stranger, being transported,
And wrapp'd in secret studies. Thy false uncle
Dost thou attend me?

Mira. Sir, most heedfully.

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

« TO

And Abs

1 Sub

*180

“ 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 170 “ 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 To

not. “ Mira. O good sir, I do.

“ Pro. I pray thee, mark me. “ I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated

1 “ 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 iny trust was; which had, indeed, no limit, " A confidence sans bound.”. He being thus lorded, Not only with what my revenue yielded,

T But what my power might else exact, like one, Who having untọ 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 royaltyy, 191 With all prerogative :-Hence his ambition grow

ing, Dost thou hear ? Mira. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.

Pro.