SCENE II.

The Island: before the cell of PROSPERO.

Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.

Miranda. 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 th' 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 creature in her,
Dash'd all to pieces. O! the cry did knock
Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perish'd.
Had I been any god of power, I would

Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er

It should the good ship so have swallow'd, 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, naught 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

'Tis time

Did never meddle with my thoughts.

Pro.

I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand,

The direful spectacle of the wrack, 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'st cry, which thou saw'st sink.
Sit down;

For thou must now know farther.

You have often

Mira.
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. 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 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 hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is it,

That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?
If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here,

How thou cam'st here, thou may'st.

Mira.

But that I do not.

Pro. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since, 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 said thou wast my daughter; and thy father Was Duke of Milan, and his only heir

And Princess, no worse issued.

O, the heavens!

Mira. 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 say'st, were we heav'd thence; But blessedly holp hither.

Mira.
O! my heart bleeds
To think o' th' teen that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance. Please you, farther.
Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio, –
I pray thee, mark me, - that a brother should
Be so perfidious!-he whom, next thyself,
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my State; as, at that time,
Through all the signiories it was the first,
(And Prospero the prime Duke, being so reputed
In dignity) and, for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel: those being all my study,
The government I cast upon my brother,

And to my State grew stranger, being transported,
And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle-
Dost thou attend me?

Mira.

Sir, most heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them, who t' advance, and who

To trash for over-topping. new created

The creatures that were mine, I say, or chang'd 'em,
Or else new form'd 'em: having both the key

Of officer and office, set all hearts i' th' State
To what tune pleas'd his ear, that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,
And suck'd my verdure out on't. -Thou attend'st not.
Mira. O good sir! I do.

Pro.
I pray thee, mark me.
I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness, and the bettering of my mind.
With that, which but by being so retir'd
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother
Awak'd an evil nature; and my trust,
Like a good parent, did beget of him
A falsehood, in its contrary as great

As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence sans bound. He, being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded,
But what my power might else exact,
Who having, unto truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie- he did believe

like one,

He was indeed the Duke; out o' th' substitution, And executing th' outward face of royalty,

With all prerogative: - hence his ambition

Growing,

Mira.

Dost thou hear?

Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. Pro. To have no screen between this part he play'd, And him he play'd it for, he needs will be Absolute Milan. Me, poor man!.

my library

Was dukedom large enough. Of temporal royalties He thinks me now incapable; confederates

(So dry he was for sway) wi' th' King of Naples

To give him annual tribute, do him homage,
Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend
The dukedom, yet unbow'd, (alas, poor Milan!)
To most ignoble stooping.

Mira.

O the heavens !

Pro. Mark his condition, and th' event; then tell

me,

If this might be a brother.

Mira.

I should sin

To think but nobly of my grandmother:
Good wombs have borne bad sons.

Pro.

Now the condition.

This King of Naples, being an enemy

To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit;
Which was, that he, in lieu o' th' premises,
Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,
Should presently extirpate me and mine
Out of the dukedom, and confer fair Milan,
With all the honours, on my brother. Whereon,
A treacherous army levied, one midnight,
Fated to th' purpose, did Antonio open

The gates of Milan; and, i' th' dead of darkness,
The ministers for th' purpose hurried thence

Me, and thy crying self.

Mira.

Alack, for pity!

I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then,

Will cry it o'er again: it is a hint,

That wrings mine eyes to 't.

Pro.

Hear a little farther,

And then I'll bring thee to the present business Which now 's upon 's; without the which this story Were most impertinent.

Mira.

That hour destroy us?

Wherefore did they not