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 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 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 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 pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!

Boats. Work you, then.

Ant. Hang, cur, hang, you whoreson, insolent noise-maker, we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.

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

Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! courses off to sea again; lay her off.

Set her two

Enter Mariners, wet

Mar. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost!

Boats. What, must our mouths be cold?

[Exeunt.

Gon. The king and prince at prayers; let's

assist them,

For our case is as theirs.

Seb.

I am out of patience.

Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by

drunkards.

This wide-chopped rascal,-'would, thou might'st

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.

[Exit. [Exit.

Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground; long heath, brown furze, anything. The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death.

[Exit.

SCENE II.-The Island: before the Cell of PROSPERO

Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA

Mira. 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 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.

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.

Mira.

More to know

"T is time

Did never meddle with my thoughts.

Pro.

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 down;

For thou must now know farther.

Mira.

You have often

Begun to tell me what I am; but stopped,
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. 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.

Mira.

Certainly, sir, I can.

Pro. By what? by any other house, or person? Of anything the image, tell me, that

Hath kept with thy remembrance.

"T is far off;

Mira.
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 hadst, and more, Miranda: but how

is it,

That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else