THE TEMPEST.

ACT I.

SCENE I. On a ship at sea: a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.

Enter a Ship-Master: and a Boatswain.

Mast. Boatswain !

Boats. Here, master: what cheer?

Mast. Good, speak to the mariners: fall to 't, yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir. [Exit.

Enter Mariners.

Boats. Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my 5 hearts! yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to the master's whistle. Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!

Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND,
GONZALO, and others.

Alon. Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master? Play the men.

Boats. I pray now, keep below.

Ant. Where is the master, boatswain?

Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour: keep your cabins: you do assist the storm.

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Gon. Nay, good, be patient.

Boats. When the sea is. Hence!

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What cares

these roarers for the name of king? To cabin! silence trouble us not.

Gon. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard. Boats. None that I more love than myself. You 20 are a Counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your 25 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 fast, good 30 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 hanged, our case is miserable. [Exeunt.

Re-enter Boatswain.

Boats. Down with the topmast! yare! lower, lower! Bring her to try with main-course. [A cry 35 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 sink?

Seb. A plague o' your throat, you bawling, blas- 40 phemous, incharitable dog!

Boats. Work you, then.

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

thou art.

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Gon. I'll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell, and leaky withal.

Boats. 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! Boats. What, must our mouths be cold?

Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let's assist For our case is as theirs.

Seb.

[them,

I'm out of patience. Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by

drunkards:

This wide-chapped rascal,-would thou mightst lie

drowning

The washing of ten tides!

Gon.

He'll be hanged yet, Though every drop of water swear against it, And gape at wid'st 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!" Ant. Let's all sink with the king.

Seb. Let's take leave of him. [Exeunt Ant. and Seb. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea 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. [Exeunt.

SCENE II. The island. Before PROSPERO'S cell.

Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.

Mir. If by your art, my dearest father, you've Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.

The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,

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But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creatures in her,
Dashed all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished!
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 swallowed and
The fraughting souls within her.

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

Mir. Pros.

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O, woe the day!

No harm. 15

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 cell,
And thy no greater father.

Mir.

More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts.

Pros.

'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 touched
The very virtue of compassion in thee,
I have with such provision in mine art
So safely ordered, 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
For thou must now know farther.

[down;

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You have often

Mir.
Begun to tell me what I am; but stopped,
And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding "Stay: not yet.”

Pros.

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The hour's now come;

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;

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.

Mir.

Certainly, sir, I can.

Pros. By what? by any other house or person? Of any thing the image tell me that

Hath kept with thy remembrance.

Mir.

'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?

Pros. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is't That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time?

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

Mir.
But that I do not.
Pros. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since,
Thy father was the Duke of Milan and

A prince of power.

Mir.

Sir, are not you my father?
Pros. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father
Was Duke of Milan; and thou his only heir
A princess no worse issued.

Mir.

O the heavens !

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What foul play had we, that we came from thence? 60 Or blessed was 't we did?

Pros.

Both, both, my girl: