Gonz. Good, yet remember whom thou haft aboard. Boat. None, that I more love than myfelf. You are a Counsellor, if you can command thefe elements to filence, and work the peace o' the prefent, we will not hand a rope more; ufe your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have liv'd fo long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it fo hap. Cheerly, good hearts: out of our way, I fay. [Exit.

Gonz. I have great comfort from this fellow; me. thinks, he hath no drowning Mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand faft, good fate, to his hanging, make the rope of his deftiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage: if he be not born to be hang'd, our cafe is miferable. [Exeunt.

Re-enter Boatfwain.

Boats. Down with the top-maft: yare, lower, lower; bring her to try with main courfe. A plague upon this howling!

A cry within. Re-enter Sebaftian, Anthonio, and

Gonzalo.

They are louder than the weather, or our office. Yet again? what do you here? fhall we give o'er, and drown? have you a mind to fink?

Sebaf. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blafphe mous uncharitable dog.

Boatf. Work you then.

Ant. Hang, cut, hang; you whoreson, insolent, noisemaker; we are lefs afraid to be drown'd, than thou art. Gonz. I'll warrant him from drowning, tho the ship were no ftronger than a nut-shell, and as leaky as an unftanch'd wench.

Boatf. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; fet her two courses off to fea again, lay her off.

Enter Marriners wet.

Mar. All loft! to prayers, to prayers! all loft! [Exe. Bearf. What, must our Mouths be cold?

Gonz. The King and Prince at Prayers! let us assist 'em. or our cafe is as theirs.

Seb. I'm out of patience.

Aut. We're meerly cheated of our lives by drunkards. This wide-chopt rafcal--would, thou might'A lie drowning,

The

The washing of ten tides!

Gonz. He'll be hang'd yet,

Though every drop of water fwear against it,
And gape at wid'ft to glut him.

A confufed noife within.] Mercy on us!

We fplit, we fplit! Farewel, my Wife and Children!
Brother, farewel! we fplit, we fplit, we split!
Ant. Let's all fink with the King.

Seb. Let's take leave of him.

[Exit.

[Exit.

Gonz. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of fea 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!

[Exit.

SCENE changes to a Part of the Inchanted Island, near the Cell of Profpero.

Enter Profpero and Miranda.

Mira. If by your art (my deareft farther) you have
Put the wild Waters in this roar, allay them:
The sky, it feems, would pour down flinking pitch,
But that the fea, mounting to th' welkin's cheek,
Dafhes the fire out. Oh! I have fuffer'd

With thofe that I faw fuffer: a brave veffe!
(Who had, no doubt, fome noble creatures in her)
Dafh'd all to pieces. O! the cry did knock
Against my very heart: poor fouls, they perifh'd!
Had I been any God of Pow'r, I would
Have funk the fea within the earth; or ere
It should the good fhip fo have fwallow'd, and
The fraighting fouls within her.

Pro. Be collected;

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

Mira. O wo 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
Than Profpero, mafter of a full poor cell,
And thy no greater father.

A 3

Mirai

Mira. More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.
Pro. 'Tis time,

I fhould inform thee farther. Lend thy hand,
And pluck my magick garment from me: fo!

[Lays down his mantle.
Lie there my Art. Wipe thou thine eyes, have comfort.
The direful fpectacle of the wrack, which touch'd
The very virtue of compaffion in thee,
I have with fuch provifion in mine art
So fafely order'd, that there is no foyle,
No not fo much perdition as an hair
Betid to any creature in the Veffel

Which thou heard'st cry, which thou faw'ft fink: fit down, For thou must now know farther.

Mira. You have often Begun to tell me what I am,

but flopt,

And left me to a bootlefs inquifition;
Concluding, Stay; not yet.

Pre. The hour's now come,

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;
Obey, and be attentive. Canft thou remember
A time, before we came unto this cell?

I do not think, thou canst; for then thou waft net
Out three years old.

Mira. Certainly, Sir, I can.

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

Hath kept in thy remembrance.

Mira. 'Tis far off:

And rather like a dream, than an affurance

That my remembrance warrants. If ad I not
Four, or five, women once, that tended me?

Pro. Thou hadft, and more, Miranda: but how is it, That this lives in thy mind? what feeft thou elfe

In the dark backward and abyfme of time?

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

Mira. But that I do not.

Pro 'Tis twelve years fince, Miranda; twelve years fince, Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and

A Prince of Power.

Mira.

Mira. Sir, are not you my father?

Pro Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She faid, thou waft my daughter; and thy Father Was Duke of Milan, and his only heir

A Princefs, no worse iffu'd.

Mira. O the heavens !

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

Pro. Both, both, my girl:

By foul play (as thou fay'ft) were we heav'd thence; But bleffedly help'd hither.

Mira. O my heart bleeds

To think o'th' teene 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 fo perfidious!) he whom next thyfelf
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my ftate; (as, at that time,
Through all the fignories it was the first;
And Profpero, the prime Duke, being fo reputed
In dignity; and for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel; thofe being all my ftudy :)
The government I caft upon my brother,
And to my ftate grew ftranger; being tranfported.
And wrapt in fecret ftudies. Thy falfe uncle-
(Doft thou attend me?)

Mira. Sir, moft heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant fuits, How to deny them; whom t' advance, and whom

To trath for over-topping; new created

The creatures, that were mine; I fay, or chang'd 'em, Or elfe new form'd 'em, having both the key

Of officer and office, fet all hearts i'th' ftate

To what tune pleas'd his ear, that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,

And fuckt my verdure out on't.Thou attend'ft not.
Mira. Good Sir, I do.

Pro. 1 pray thee, mark me then.

I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To clofenefs, and the bettering of my mind,
With that which, but by being fo retired,
A 4

O'erg

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 falfehood in its contrary, as great

As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence fans bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded,
But what my power might elfe exact, like one,
Who having into truth, by telling of it,
Made fuch a finner of his memory,

To credit his own lie, he did believe
He was indeed the Duke; from fubftitution,
And executing th' outward face of royalty,

With all prerogative. Hence his ambition growing-
Doft thou hear?

Mira. Your tale, Sir, would cure deafness.

Pro. To have no fcreen between this part he plaid,
And him he plaid it for, he needs will be

Abfolute Milan. Me, poor man!-
my library
Was Dukedom large enough; of temporal royalties
He thinks me now incapable: confederates
(So dry he was for fway) 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 meft ignoble ftooping.

Mira. O the heav'ns!

Pro. Mark his condition, and th'event; then tell me, If this might be a Brother?

Mira. I should fin,

To think but nobly of my grand-mother;

Good wombs have bore bad fons.

Pro. Now the condition:

This King of Naples, being an enemy
To me inveterate, hearks my brother's fuit,
Which was, that he in lieu o'th' premises,
Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,
Should prefently extirpate me and mine

Out of the Dukedom; and confer fair Milan,
With all the honours, on my brother. Whereon
A treacherous army levy'd, one mid-night
Fated to th' purpofe, did Anthonio open

The