whistle! [Exeunt Mariners.]— Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough! Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, Gonzalo, and others. Alon. Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master? Play the men. Boats. I pray now, keep below. Ant. Where is the master, boatswain? Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour: keep your cabins: you do assist the storm. Gon. 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. Gon. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard. --- Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if I 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 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. Gon. 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 hanged, our case is miserable. [Exeunt. Re-enter Boatswain. Boats. Down with the topmast! 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, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent noisemaker, we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art. Gon. I'll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell, and as leaky as an unstanched wench. Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! set her two courses! off to sea again; lay her off! Re-enter Mariners wet. Mariners. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost! Boats. What, must our mouths be cold? [Exeunt. Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let's assist them, For our case is as theirs. Seb. I'm out of patience. Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards:This wide-chapp'd rascal, — would thou mightst lie drowning, The washing of ten tides! Gon. [A confused noise within, "We split, we split!". -- "Mercy on us!" 'Farewell, my wife and children!". "Farewell, brother!" "We split, we split, we split!"] Ant. Let's all sink with the king. [Exit Boatswain. [Exit. Let's take leave of him. [Exit. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, - ling, heath, broom, furze, any thing. The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. [Exit, SCENE II. The island: before the cell of Prospero. Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA. Mir. If by your art, my dearest father, you have The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel, Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and Pros. Be collected; No more amazement: tell your piteous heart Mir. O, woe the day! No harm. who I have done nothing but in care of thee, Mir. More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts. Pros. "Tis time I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand, Lie there, my art. So: [Lays down his robe. Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort. The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd The very virtue of compassion in thee, I have with such prevision in mine art So safely order'd, that there is no soul Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down; You have often Mir. Pros. The hour's now come; The very minute bids thee ope thine ear: I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not Mir. Certainly, sir, I can. Pros. By what? by any other house or person? Of any thing the image tell me that Hath kept with thy remembrance. Mir. "Tis far off, And rather like a dream than an assurance That my remembrance warrants. Had I not Pros. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is it That this lives in thy mind? What see'st thou else If thou remember'st aught ere thou cam'st here, Mir. But that I do not. Pros. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since, Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and A prince of power. Mir. Sir, are not you my father? Pros. 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, A princess, no worse issu'd, Mir. O the heavens! What foul play had we, that we came from thence? Or blessed was't we did? Pros. Both, both, my girl: By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence; But blessedly holp hither. Mir. O, my heart bleeds To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance! Please you, further. Pros. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio, 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 Without a parallel: those being all my study, And to my state grew stranger, being transported Pros. Being once perfected how to grant suits, The creatures that were mine, I say, or chang'd 'em, And suck'd my verdure out on't. Thou attend'st not. Pros. I pray thee, mark me. |