Beatf. None that I love more than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command thefe elements to filence, and work the peace of the prefent, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have liv'd fo long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mifchance of the hour, if it fo hap. Cheerly good hearts out of our way, I fay. [Exit.

Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow; methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand faft, good fate, to his hanging; make the rope of his deftiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage: if he be not born to be hang'd, our cafe is miferable. [Exit.

Re-enter Boatswain.

Boatf. Down with the top-maft: yare, lower, lower; bring her to try with main-course. A plague upon this howling

A cry within. Enter Sebaftian, Anthonio and Gonzalo.. they are louder than the weather, or our office. Yet again? what do you here? fhall we give o'er and drown? have you a mind to fink?

Seb. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blafphemous, uncharitable dog.

Boats. Work you then.

Ant. Hang cur, hang, you whorefon infolent noifemaker; we are lefs afraid to be drown'd than thou art.

Gon. I'll warrant him for drowning, though the Ship were no ftronger than a nut-fhell, and as leaky as an unftanch'd Wench.

Boatf. Lay her a hold, a hold; fet her two courfes off to fea again, lay her off.

Enter Mariners wet.

Mar. All loft! to prayers, to prayers! all loft!

Boatf. What, muft our mouths be cold?

Gon. The King and Prince at pray'rs ? let us affift 'em.. For our cafe is as theirs.

Seb. I'm out of patience.

Ant. We're merely cheated of our lives by drunkards. This wide-chopt rascal-would thou might'ft lie drowning The washing of ten tides!

Gon.

Gon. He'll be hang'd yet,

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

Seb. Mercy on us!

[A confufed noife within.

We fplit, we split! farewel my wife and children,
Brother farewel: we fplit, we fplit, we split!

Ant. Let's all fink with the King,

Seb. Let's take leave of him.

[Exit. Gon. Now would I give a thoufand furlongs of fea for an acre of barren ground: ling, heath, broom, furze, any -the wills above be done, but I would fain die a

thing ;dry death.

SCENE II. The Inchanted Ifand.
Enter Profpero and Miranda.

Mir. If by your art (my dearest father) you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them:
The fky it seems would pour down ftinking pitch,
But that the fea, mounting to the welkin's check,
Dafhes the fire out. O! I have suffer'd

With those that I faw fuffer: a brave veffel
(Who had, no doubt, fome noble creatures in her)
Dash'd all to pieces. O! the cry did knock
Against my very heart: poor fouls, they perifh'd:
Had I been any God of pow'r, I would

Have funk the fea within the earth or e'er
It fhould the good fhip fo have swallow'd, and
The fraighted fouls within her.

Pro. Be collected;

No more amazement; tell your piteous heart,

There's no harm done.

Mir. O wo the day!

Pro. No harm.

I have done nothing but in care of thee
(Of thee my dear one, thee my daughter) who
Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing
Of whence I am, nor that I'm more, or better
Than Profpero, mafter of a full poor cell,
And thy no greater father.

Mor. More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts,

[Exit.

B 3

Pre.

Pro. 'Tis time

I fhould inform thee farther. Lend thy hand,
And pluck my magick garment from me: fo!

[Lays down his mantle. Lye there my Art. Wipe thou thine eyes, have comfort,

The direful fpectacle of the wreck, which touch'd

The very virtue of compaffion in thee,

I have with fuch provifion in mine art

So fafely order'd, that there's no foul loft;

No not fo much perdition as an hair

Betid to any creature in the veffel

Which thou heard'ft cry, which thou faw'ft fink: fit down,

For thou must now know farther.

Mir. You have often

Begun to tell me what I am, but stopt,
And left me to the bootlefs inquifition;
Concluding, Stay, not yet.

Pro. The hour's now come,

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear,
Obey, and be attentive. Canft remember
A time before we came unto this cell?

I do not think thou canft, for then thou waft not
Qut three years old.

Mir. Certainly, Sir, I can.

Pro. By what? by any other house, or perfon? Of any thing the image, tell me, that

Hath kept in thy remembrance?

Mir. 'Tis far off;

And rather like a dream, than an affurance

That my remembrance warrants.

Had I not

Four or five women once that tended me?

Pro. Thou hadft, and more, Miranda: but how is it That this lives in thy mind? what feeft thou elfe

In the dark backward and abyfme of time?

If thou remember'ft ought ere thou cam'ft here,
How thou cam'ft here thou may'st.

Mir. But that I do not.

Pro. 'Tis twelve years fince, Miranda; twelve years fince Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and

A Prince of Pow'r,

Mir. Sir, are not you my father?

Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
She faid thou waft my daughter; and thy father
Was Duke of Milan, thou his only heir
A Princess, no worse iffu'd.

Mir. O the heav'ns!

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

Pro. Both, both, my girl:

By foul play (as thou fay'ft) were we heav'd thence,
But bleffedly help'd hither.

Mir. My heart bleeds

To think o'th' teene that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance. Please you, farther.
Pro. My brother and thy uncle, call'd Anthonio-
I pray thee mark me, (that a brother should
Be fo perfidious!) he whom next thyself
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my ftate; as at that time
Through all the fignories it was the first
And Profpero the prime Duke, being fo reputed
In dignity; and for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel; thofe being all my ftudy:
The Government I caft upon my brother,
And to my state grew ftranger, being transported
And rapt in fecret ftudies. Thy falfe uncle-
(Doft thou attend me?)

Mir. Sir, moft heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant fuits, How to deny them; whom t' advance, and whom

To plash for over-topping; new created

The creatures that were mine; I say or chang'd'em,
Or elfe new form'd 'em; having both the key

Of officer and office, fet all hearts

To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was

The ivy which had hid my princely trunk,

And fuckt my verdure out on't.-Thou attend'st not.
Mir. Good Sir, I do.

Pro. I pray thee mark me then.

I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated

To clofenefs, and the bettering of my mind
With that which, but by being fo retired,
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my falfe brother
Awak'd an evil nature; and my truft,
Like a good parent, did beget of him
A falfhood, in its contrary as great

As my truft was; which had indeed no limit,
A confidence fans bound. He being thus lorded
Not only with what my revenue yielded,
But what my power might else exact; like one
Who loving an untruth, and telling't oft',
Makes fuch a finner of his memory
To credit his own lie; he did believe
He was indeed the Duke, from fubftitution
And executing th' outward face of royalty

With all prerogative. Hence his ambition growing→→
Doft thou hear, child?

Mir. Your tale, Sir, would cure deafnefs.

Pro. To have no fcreen between this part he plaid,
And him he plaid it for, he needs will be
Abfolute Milan. Me, poor man!-my library
Was Dukedom large enough; of temporal royalties
He thinks me now incapable: confederates
(So dry he was for fway) wi' th' King of Naples
To give him annual tribute, do him homage,
Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend
The Dukedom yet unbow'd (alas poor Milan!)
To much ignoble stooping,

Mir. O the heavens!

Pro. Mark th' condition, and th' event, then tell me

If this might be a Brother?

Mir. I fhould fin,

To think not nobly of my grand-mother.

Pro. Good wombs have born bad fons. Now the condition

This King of Naples being an enemy

To me inveterate, hears my brother's fuit;
Which was, that he in lieu o' th' premises,
Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,
Should prefently extirpate me and mine
Out of the Dukedom, and confer fair Milan,