Enter Mariners.

Boatswain. Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to th' master's whistle. Blow till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!

Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO, and others.

Alonso. Good boatswain, have care.

Play the men.

Boatswain. I pray now, keep below.

Where's the master?

Antonio. Where is the master, boatswain?

Boatswain. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour. Keep your cabins; you do assist the storm.

Gonzalo. Nay, good, be patient.

Boatswain. When the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin!

us not.

Silence! trouble

Gonzalo. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard. Boatswain. None that I love more 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 liv'd 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.

Gonzalo. 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.

Enter Boatswain.

Boatswain. Down with the topmast! yare! lower, lower!

Bring her to try wi' th' main-course. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather or our office.

Enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO.

Yet again! what do you here? Shall we give o'er, and drown? Have you a mind to sink?

Sebastian. A plague o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!

Boatswain. Work you, then.

Antonio. Hang, cur! hang, you whoreson, insolent noisemaker! We are less afraid to be drown'd than thou art. Gonzalo. I'll warrant him for drowning, though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell.

Boatswain. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! Set her two courses. Off to sea again: lay her off.

Enter Mariners wet.

Mariners. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost
Boatswain. What! must our mouths be cold?

Gonzalo. The king and prince at prayers! Let's assist

them,

For our case is as theirs.

Sebastian.

I'm out of patience.

Antonio. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.

This wide-chapp'd rascal,-would thou mightst lie drowning. The washing of ten tides!

Gonzalo.

He'll be hang'd yet,

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

[A confused noise within. "Mercy on us!"—

66

"We split, we split !"-" Farewell, my wife and children !”—

66

'Farewell, brother!"-"We split, we split, we split !"-] Antonio. Let's all sink wi' th' king.

[Exit.

Sebastian. Let's take leave of him.

[Exit. Gonzalo. 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. The island. Before PROSPERO's cell.

Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.

Miranda. 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 th' welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered
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 ere

It should the good ship so have swallow'd and
The fraughting souls within her.

(Of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!), who
Art ignorant of what thou art, naught knowing

Of whence I am, nor that I am more better
Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell,
And thy no greater father.

Miranda.

Did never meddle with my thoughts.

Prospero.

More to know

'Tis time

[Exit.

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. Sit down;

For thou must now know farther.

Miranda.

You have often

Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd,
And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding," Stay, not yet."

Prospero.

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.

Prospero. By what? by any other house or person? Of any thing the image tell me that

Hath kept with thy remembrance.

Miranda.

"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?

But how is it

Prospero. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda.
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,
How thou camʼst here thou mayst.

Miranda.

But that I do not.

Prospero. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since, Thy father was the Duke of Milan and

A prince of power.

Miranda.

Sir, are not you my father?

Prospero. 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.

Miranda.

O the heavens !

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

Prospero.
Both, both, my girl :
By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence;
But blessedly holp hither.

Miranda.

O, my heart bleeds To think o' th' teen that I have turn'd you to,

Which is from my remembrance! Please you, farther.

I

Prospero. 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?

Miranda.

Sir, most heedfully.

Prospero. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them, who t' advance, and who

To trash for over-topping, new created