Re-enter boatswain. BOATS. Down with the top-maft: yare, lower, lower; bring her to try with main-courfe. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! Re-enter Sebastian, 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? SEBAS. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blafphemous, uncharitable dog. BOATS Work you then. ANT. Hang, cur, hang; you whorefon, infolent, noisemaker; we are lefs afraid to be drown'd, than thou art. GON. I'H warrant him from drowning, tho' the ship were no stronger than a nut-fhell, and as leaky as an unftaunched wench. BOATS. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; fet her two courses off to fea again, lay her off. Enter mariners wet. MAR. All loft! to prayers, to prayers! all loft! BOATS. What, muft our mouths be cold? [Exeunt. GON. The king and prince at prayers! let us affift 'em, For our cafe is as theirs. SEB. I'm out of patience. ANT. W'ere merely chcated of our lives by drunkards. This wide-chopt rafcal-Would, thou might'ft lye drowning, The washing of ten tides! GON. He'll be hang'd yet, Though every drop of water fwear against it, And gape at wid'ft to glut him. Mercy on us! [A confufed noife within.] We split, we split! farewel, my wife and children! Brother, farewel! we split, we split, we split! ANT. Let's all fink with the king. SEB. Let's take leave of him. [Exit. [Exit. GON. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of fea 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! [Exit. SCENE II, Changes to a part of the inchanted island, near the cell of Profpero. Enter Profpero and Miranda. MIRA. If by your art, my deareft father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them: The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, With thofe that I faw fuffer: a brave vessel Who had, no doubt, fome noble creatures in her, Have funk the fea within the earth; or ere PRO. Be collected; No more amazement; tell your piteous heart,. MIRA. 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 MIRA. More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts. PRO. 'Tis time, I fhould inform thee further. Lend thy hand, [Lays down his mantle. Lye there my art. Wipe thou thine eyes, have comfort. The direful spectacle 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 is no foul, 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 further. The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; I do not think, thou canst; for then thou wast not MIRA. Certainly, Sir, I can. PRO. By what? by any other house, or person? And rather like a dream, than an affurance That my 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 feest thou elfe In the dark back-ward and abyfme of time? If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'ft here; MIRA. But that I do not. PRO. 'Tis twelve years fince, Miranda. years fince, Thy father was the duke of Milan, and A prince of pow'r. MIRA. Sir, are not you my father? PRO. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She said thou waft my daughter; and thy father Was duke of Milan, and his only heir And princefs, no worse issu'd. MIRA. O the heav'ns! What foul play had we, that we came from thence; -Twelve PRO. Both, both, my girl: By foul play (as thou fay'st) were we heav'd thence; MIRA. O, my heart bleeds To think o' th' teene that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance. Please you, further. PRO. My brother, and thy uncle, called Anthonio I pray thee, mark me ;-that a brother should Be fo perfidious!-he whom next thyfelf 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, MIRA. Sir, most heedfully. PRO. Being once perfected how to grant fuits, How to deny them; whom t'advance, and whom To trash for over-topping; new-created The creatures, that were mine; I fay, or chang'd 'em, To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was And fuckt my verdure out on't. MIRA. O good Sir, I do. PRO. I pray thee, mark me. -Thou attend'st not, I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated |