You are a

Boats. None that I more love than myself. counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, 4 we will not hand a rope more; use your authority. If you cannot, give-thanks you have liv'd 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 fait, 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 hang'd, our case is miserable,

(Exeunt. Re-enter Boatswain, Beats. Down with the top-mast; 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 finik ?

Seb. A pox o' your throat ! you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dag! Boats. Work you,

then. Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, infolent noise maker, we are dels afraid to be drown'd than thou art.

Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning; though the thip were no stronger than a nut-shell, and as leaky as an unftanch'd wench,

Boats,

of tbe present,] i. e. of the present inftant. STLEVENS. s Gontalo. It may be observed of Gonzalo, that, being the only good man that appears with the king, he is the only man that preserves his cheerfulness in the wreck, and his hope on the island. JORNSON.

6 an unfianch'd wench.] Unfancb'd, I am willing to believe, wacans incontinent. STLIVENS.

Boots Lay hera-holderia holat; for her two courles; off to kea againI lay beloffw i gová Disel?

Enter Mariners,

rusi. Mar. Al tostd: 80 prayers, to prayers! all loft! [Exeunt. Boats. What, mut our mouths be cold

Gon. The king and prince at prayers ! let us affift them,
For our cafe is as theirs.

Seb. I am out of patience,
Ant. We are merely 9 cheated of our lives by drun.

kards.

-
This wide-chopp'd rascal ;-—'Would, thou might't lie

drowning,
The washing of ten tides !
Gon.

He'll be hang'd yet
Though every drop of water swear againk is,
And gape at wid'it to glut him.?.
(A confused naise within.) Mercy on us !--Wé fplit, we
split!- Farewell, my wife and children! Farewell, bro-
ther!3_We split, we split, we split!-
Ant. Let's all fink with the king,

TExit. Seb. Let's take leave of him.

Exit. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of fea for an

B 4

.

acre

8

7 Lay ber a-bold; a bold;] To lay a fhip a-bold, is to bring her to be as near the wind as the can, in order to keep clear of the land, and get her out to sea.

STEEVENS.

set ber two courses; off to lea again,] "The courses are the main fail and fore fail. JOHNSON.

e-merely) In this place fignifies absolutely. In which sense it is used in Hamlet, Act I. sc. iii. STEEVENS

- to glut bim.] Shakespeare probably wrote, t'englut bim, to swallow bim; for which I know not that glut is ever used by him. In 'this fignification englut, from engloutir , French, occurs frequently. Yet Milton writes glutted offal for swallowed, and therefore, perhaps, the present text may stand. Johnson.

3 Mercy on us! &c. -Farewell, brother ! &c.] All these lines have been hitherto given to Gonzalo, who has no brother in the ship. It is probable that the lines succeeding the confused noise within should be considered as spoken by no determinate characters, Johns

NSON.

acre of barren ground, long heath, brownfurze, 4 any thing: 'The wills above be done, but I would fain.die, a dry death.

[Exit.
S C'E'N EII.
The island: before the cell-of Prospero.

Enter PROSPERO 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,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd
With those that I saw fuffer! a brave vessel,
Who had no doubt fome noble creatures in her,
Dalh'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor fouls! they perilh'd,
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have funk the sea within the earth, e'er 5
It should the good ship fo have swallow'd, and
The freighting fouls within her.
Pro.

Be collected;
No more amazement: tell your piteous heart,
There's no harm done.
Mira,

O, woe 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 am more better 6 Than Profpero, master of a full poor cell,? And thy no greater father.

Mira,

4.can acre of barren ground; long beatb, brown furze, &c.] Sir T. Hanmer reads ling, heath, broom, furze. Perhaps rightly, though he has been charged with tautology. FARMER. or e'er

-] i. e. before. STLEVENS. - more better - This ungrammatical expresion is very free quent among our oldest writers.

STEEVENS. 1 - full poor cell,] i. c, a cell in a great degree of poverty.

STIETIN.

5 6

Mira.

More to know
Did never meddle with my thoughts.
Pro.

'Tis time
I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand,
And pluck my magick garment from me.-So;

[Lays down his mantle.
Lie there my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort
The direful fpectacle 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't cry, which thoa faw't finki Sit down;
For thou must now know further.
Mira,

You have often
Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp’d
And left me to a bootless inquisition;
Concluding, Stay, not yet.
Pro.

The hour's now come ;
The
very

minute bids thee ope thine ear ;
Obey, and be attentive. Can'st thou remember
A time before we came unto this cell?
I do not think thou can'ft; for then thou waft not?
Out three years old.?
Mira,

Certainly, fir, I can.

B 5

Pre.

* Did never meddle with my thougbrs.] 1. e. mix with them. To meddle is often used, with this fenre, by Chaucer. Hence the fubftan. tive medley. The modern and familiar phrase by which that of Miranda may be explained, is -ever entered my iboughts

Sonever came into my bead. STEIVENS,

It should rather mean to interfere, ro trouble, to busy itself, as still used in the North, e. g. Don't meddle with me; i.e. Let me alone; Don't moleft me. RITSON.

virtue of compaffion ] Virtue; the most efficacious part, the energetic quality; in a like sense we say, Tbe virtue of a plans is in ebe extra&t. JOHNSON.

* Out ibree years old.] i.e. Quite three years old, three years old full-out, complete. STELVENS.

Pro. By what? by any other house, or person?
Of any thing the image tell me, that
Hath kept with thy remembrance.
Mira.

'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?

Pro. Thou haďft, and more, Miranda : But how is it,
That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else
In the dark backward and aby fm of time 3
If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'ft here,
How thou cam'ft here, thou may'st.
Mira.

But that I do not.
Pro. Twelve years fince, Miranda, twelve years

fince,
Thy father was the duke of Milan, and
A prince of power.
Mira.

Sir, are not you my father?
Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
She faid-ihou wast my daughter; and thy father
Was duke of Milan ; and his only heir
A princess;--no worse iffued.4
Mira.

O the heaven's !
What foul play had we, that we came from thence ?
Or blessed was't, we did ?
Pro.

Both, both, my girl :
By foul play, as thou fay'ft, were we heav'd thence ;
But blessedly holp hither.
Mira.

heart bleeds To think o' the teens that I have turnd you to, Which is from

my
remembrance! Please

you,

further.
Pro. My brother, and 'thy uncle, call'd Antonio,
I pray thee, mark me; that a brother should
Be fó perfidious !-he whom, next thyself,
Of all the world I lov’d, and to hiin put
The manage of my ftate; as, at that time,
Through all the signiories it was the first,

And abysm of time ?) i, e. abyss. STLIVIN8. * Iffied.] i. e. descended. STEEVENS.

ICON ] is sorrow, grief, trouble. STLIVINS.

O, my,

3