On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before: and, as thou bad'st me,
In troops I have dispersed them 'bout the isle.
The king's son have I landed by himself;
Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs
In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting,
His arms in this sad knot.

Pros.

Of the king's ship

The mariners, say how thou hast disposed,
And all the rest o' the fleet.

Ari.

Safely in harbour

Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still-vexed Bermoothes, there she's hid:
The mariners all under hatches stowed;

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230

Who, with a charm joined to their suffered labour,

I've left asleep: and for the rest o' the fleet,

Which I dispersed, they all have met again
And are upon the Mediterránean flote,
Bound sadly home for Naples;

235

Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrecked,

Ariel, thy charge

And his great person perish.

Pros.

Exactly is performed: but there's more work.

What is the time o' the day?

Ari.
Past the mid season.
Pros. At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six
Must by us both be spent most preciously. [and now
Ari. Is there more toil? Since thou dost give

me pains,

Let me remember thee what thou hast promised,
Which is not yet performed me.

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Pros.

What is 't thou canst demand?

Ari.

How now ? moody?

My liberty.

245

I prithee,

Pros. Before the time be out? no more!
Ari.

Remember I have done thee worthy service;
Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, served
Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst promise
To bate me a full year.

Pros.

Dost thou forget

No.

From what a torment I did free thee?

Ari.

Pros. Thou dost; and think'st it much to tread
Of the salt deep,

To run upon the sharp wind of the north,
To do me business in the veins o' the earth

When it is baked with frost.

[the ooze

Ari.
I do not, sir. [forgot
Pros. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou
The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy
Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her?
Ari. No, sir.
Pros.

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255

Thou hast. Where was she born? 260 [speak; tell me.

Ari. Sir, in Argier.

O, was she so? I must

Pros.
Once in a month recount what thou hast been,

Which thou forget'st. This damned witch Sycorax,
For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier,

Thou know'st, was banished: for one thing she did
They would not take her life. Is not this true?

Ari. Ay, sir.

[child,

Pros. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with
And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my slave,
As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant;
And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate

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270

To act her earthy and abhorred commands,
Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee,
By help of her more potent ministers,
And in her most unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprisoned thou didst painfully remain

A dozen years; within which space she died,

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And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy groans 280 As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this island

Save for the son that she did litter here,

A freckled whelp hag-born-not honoured with
A human shape.

Ari.

Yes, Caliban her son.

Pros. Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban,
Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st
What torment I did find thee in; thy groans
Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts
Of ever-angry bears: it was a torment
To lay upon the damned, which Sycorax
Could not again undo: it was mine art,
When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape
The pine and let thee out.

Ari.
I thank thee, master.
Pros. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak
And peg thee in his knotty entrails till
Thou hast howled away twelve winters.

Ari.

I will be correspondent to command,

And do my spiriting gently.

Pros.

I will discharge thee.

Pardon, master;

Do so; and after two days

Ari.
That's my noble master!
What shall I do? say what; what shall I do?

Pros. Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea: be
To no sight but thine and mine; invisible [subject
To every eyeball else. Go take this shape,

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290

295

300

And hither come in 't: go, hence with diligence!

[Exit Ariel.

305

Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well;
Awake!

Mir. The strangeness of your story put

Heaviness in me.

Pros.

We'll visit Caliban my slave, who never

Yields us kind answer.

Mir.

Shake it off. Come on;

"Tis a villain, sir,

But, as 'tis,

I do not love to look on.

Pros.

We cannot miss him: he does make our fire,
Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices

That profit us. What, ho! slave! Caliban!
Thou earth, thou! speak.

310

Cal. [within] There's wood enough within. Pros. Come forth, I say! there's other business 315 Come, thou tortoise! when?

Re-enter ARIEL like a water-nymph.

[for thee:

Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel,

My lord, it shall be done. [Exit.

Hark in thine ear.

Ari.

Pros. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!

Enter CALIBAN.

[himself 320

Cal. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed
With raven's feather from unwholesome fen
Drop on you both! a south-west blow on ye

And blister you all o'er !

[cramps,

Pros. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have 325 Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins Shall, for that vast of night that they may work, All exercise on thee; thou shalt be pinched

As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging
Than bees that made 'em.

Cal.

I must eat my dinner.
This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou takʼst from me. When thou camest first,
Thou strokedst me and madest much of me, wouldst
Water with berries in 't, and teach me how [give me
To name the bigger light and how the less,
That burn by day and night: and then I loved thee
And showed thee all the qualities o' th' isle,
The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile:
Cursed be I that did so! All the charms

Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have,

Which first was mine own king: and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest o' the island.

Pros.

330

335

340

Thou most lying slave, [thee, Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have used 345 Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodged thee In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate

The honour of my child.

Cal. O ho, O ho! would 't had been done!
Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled else
This isle with Calibans.

Pros.

Abhorred slave,

Which any print of goodness wilt not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,

Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes
With words that made them known. But thy vile race,
Though thou didst learn, had that in 't which good

natures

Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou

C

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