ANTONIO

Hang, cur! hang, you whoreson, insolent noisemaker. We are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.

GONZALO

I'll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell, and as leaky as an unstanched wench.

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 widest to glut, him.

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

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

ANTONIO

Let's all sink with the king.

SEBASTIAN

Let's take leave of him.

[Exeunt ANTONIO and SEBASTIAN.

GONZALO

Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any thing. above be done! but I would fain die a dry death.

The wills

[Exeunt.

SCENE II

The island. Before PROSPERO'S celi

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 the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. Oh, I have suffer'd
With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her,
Dash'd all to pieces. Oh, 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.

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 am more better
Than Prospero, master of a full poor
And thy no greater father.

cell,

MIRANDA

More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.

PROSPERO

'Tis time

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 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 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

minute bids thee very

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.

MIRANDA

Certainly, sir, I can.

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 ?

PROSPERO

Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is it
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 cam'st here thou mayst.

MIRANDA

But that I do not.

Twelve

PROSPERO

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?