SCENE I. Before the cell of Prospero.

Enter PROSPERO in his magic robes, and ARIEL. Prospero. Now does my project gather to a head. My charms crack not, my spirits obey, and Time Goes upright with his carriage. How's the day?

Ariel. On the sixth hour; at which time, my lord, You said our work should cease.

In the same fashion as you gave in charge,
Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir,
In the line-grove which weather-fends your cell;
They cannot budge till your release. The king,
His brother, and yours, abide all three distracted,
And the remainder mourning over them,
Brimful of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly

Him that you term'd, sir, the good old lord, Gonzalo ;
His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops

From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works 'em
That if you now beheld them, your affections

Would become tender.

Prospero.

Dost thou think so, spirit

And mine shall.

Ariel. Mine would, sir, were I human.

Frospero.

Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling

Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,

One of their kind, that relish all as sharply

Passion as they, be kindlier mov'd than thou art?

Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick, Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury

Do I take part. The rarer action is

In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent,

The sole drift of my purpose doth extend

Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel:
My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore,
And they shall be themselves.

Ariel.

I'll fetch them, sir.

[Exit.

Prospero. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and

groves;

And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid—
Weak masters though ye be--I have bedimm'd
The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
And 'twixt the green sea and the azur'd vault
Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt; the strong-bas'd promontory
Have I made shake, and by the spurs pluck'd up
The pine and cedar: graves at my command
Have wak'd their sleepers, op'd, and let 'em forth
By my so potent art. But this rough magic.
I here abjure; and, when I have requir'd
Some heavenly music-which even now I do,—
To work mine end upon their senses, that
This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I'll drown my book.

[Solemn music.

Here enter ARIEL before: then ALONSO, with a frantic gesture, attended by GONZALO; SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO in like manner, attended by ADRIAN and FRANCISCO: they all enter the circle which PROSPERO had made, and there stand charmed; which PROSPERO observing, speaks :

A solemn air, and the best comforter
To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains,

Now useless, boil'd within thy skull! There stand,
For you are spell-stopp'd.—

Holy Gonzalo, honourable man,

Mine eyes, even sociable to the show of thine,
Fall fellowly drops.-The charm dissolves apace;
And as the morning steals upon the night,
Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo,

My true preserver, and a loyal sir

To him thou follow'st! I will pay thy graces
Home both in word and deed. Most cruelly

Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter:
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act ;—

Thou art pinch'd for't now, Sebastian.-Flesh and blood,
You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition,

Expell'd remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian,—
Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,—
Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee,
Unnatural though thou art.-Their understanding
Begins to swell; and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shore,

That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them
That yet looks on me, or would know me.—Ariel,
Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell:

I will discase me, and myself present
Quickly, spirit;

As I was sometime Milan.

Thou shalt ere long be free.

ARIEL sings, and helps to attire him.

Where the bee sucks, there suck 1:

In a cowslip's bell I lie;

There I couch when owls do cry.

On the bat's back I do fly

After summer merrily.

Merrily, merrily, shall I live now

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

G

Prospero. Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss

thee;

But yet thou shalt have freedom :—so, so, so.—

To the king's ship, invisible as thou art :

There shalt thou find the mariners asleep

Under the hatches; the master and the boatswain

Being awake, enforce them to this place,

And presently, I prithee.

Ariel. I drink the air before me, and return

Or ere your pulse twice beat.

[Exit.

Gonzalo. All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement Inhabits here: some heavenly power guide us

Out of this fearful country!

Prospero.

Behold, Sir King,

The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero:

For more assurance that a living prince

Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body;
And to thee and thy company I bid

A hearty welcome.

Alonso.

Whe'r thou beest he or no,

Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me,

As late I have been, I not know thy pulse

Beats, as of flesh and blood; and, since I saw thee,

Th' affliction of my mind amends, with which,

I fear, a madness held me.

This must crave

An if this be at all—a most strange story.

Thy dukedom I resign, and do entreat

Thou pardon me my wrongs.—But how should Prospero

Be living and be here?