The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

So rare a wonder'd father and a wife Makes this place Paradise.

Pros.

120

[Juno and Ceres whisper, and send Iris on employment. Sweet, now, silence! Juno and Ceres whisper seriously; There's something else to do: hush, and be mute, Or else our spell is marr'd. Iris. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the winding brooks,

With your sedged crowns and ever-harmless looks,

Leave your crisp channels and on this green land Answer your summons; Juno does command: Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate A contract of true love; be not too late.

Enter certain Nymphs.

You sunburnt sicklemen, of August weary, Come hither from the furrow and be merry: Make Holiday; your rye straw hats put on, And these fresh nymphs encounter every one In country footing.

Enter certain Reapers, properly habited: they join with the Nymphs in a graceful dance; towards the end whereof PROSPERO starts suddenly, and speaks; after which, to a strange, hollow, ant confused noise, they heavily vanish.

Pros. A side] I had forgot that foul conspiracy Of the beast Caliban and his confederates 140 Against my life: the minute of their plot Is almost come. [To the Spirits.] Well done! avoid; no more!

Fer. This is strange: your father's in some passion

That works him strongly.

150

Mir. Never till this day Saw I him touch'd with anger so distemper'd. Pros. You do look, my son, in a moved sort, As if you were dismay'd: be cheerful, sir. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'dtowers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex'd; Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled: Be not disturb'd with my infirmity; If you be pleased, retire into my cell And there repose: a turn or two I'll walk, To still my beating mind.

Ari. Ay, my commander; when I presented Ceres,

I thought to have told thee of it, but I fear'd Lest I might anger thee.

Pros. Say again, where didst thou leave these varlets?

Ari. I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking;

So full of valor that they smote the air
For breathing in their faces; beat the ground
For kissing of their feet; yet always bending
Towards their project. Then I beat my tabor;
At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd
Advanced their eyelids, lifted

their ears,

their noses As they smelt music: so I charm'd their ears, That, calf-like, they my lowing follow'd through Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss and thorns,

180

Which enter'd their frail shins: at last I left them I' the filthy-mantled pool beyond your cell, There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake O'erstunk their feet.

Pros.
This was well done, my bird.
Thy shape invisible retain thou still :
The trumpery in my house, go, bring it hither,
For stale to catch these thieves.
Ari.
I go,
I go. Exit.
Pros. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost;
And as with age his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers. I will plague them all,
Even to roaring.

Re-enter ARIEL, loaden with glistering
apparel, &c.

Come, hang them on this line. PROSPERO and ARIEL remain, invisible. Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, all wet. Cal. Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole may not

Hear a foot fall: we now are near his cell.

Ste. Monster, your fairy, which you say is a harmless fairy, has done little better than played the Jack with us.

Trin. Monster, I do smell all horse-piss; at which my nose is in great indignation.

200

Ste. So is mine. Do you hear, monster? If I should take a displeasure against you, look

Trin. That's more to me than my wetting: yet this is your harmless fairy, monster.

Ste. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er ears for my labor.

Cal. Prithee, my king, be quiet. See'st thou here,

This is the mouth o' the cell: no noise, and enter. Do that good mischief which may make this island

Thine own forever, and I, thy Caliban,
For aye thy foot-licker.

Ste. Give me thy hand. I do begin to have bloody thoughts.

220

Trin. O king Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano! look what a wardrobe here is for thee! Cal. Let it alone, thou fool; it is but trash. Trin. O, ho, monster! we know what belongs to a frippery. O king Stephano!

Ste. Put off that gown, Trinculo; by this hand, I'll have that gown.

Trin. Thy grace shall have it.

Cal. The dropsy drown this fool! what do

A noise of hunters heard. Enter divers Spirits, in shape of dogs and hounds, and hunt them about; PROSPERO and ARIEL setting them on.

Pros. Hey, Mountain, hey!
Ari. Silver! there it goes, Silver!
Pros. Fury, Fury! there, Tyrant, there! hark!
hark! [Cal., Ste., and Trin, are driven out.
Go,charge my goblins that they grind their joints
With dry convulsions, shorten up ther sinews
With aged cramps, and more pinch-spotted
make them

Than pard or cat o' mountain.
Ari.

Hark, they roar!
Pros. Let them be hunted soundly. At this
Lie at my mercy all mine enemies:
[hour
Shortly shall all my labors end, and thou
Shalt have the air at freedom: for a little
Follow, and do me service.

[Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE 1. Before PROSPERO'S cell. Enter PROSPERO in his magic robes, and ARIEL. Pros. Now does my project gather to a head: My charms crack not; my spirits obey; and time Goes upright with his carriage. How's the day? Ar. On the sixth hour; at which time, my lord, You said our work should cease. Pros. I did say so, When first I raised the tempest. Say, my spirit, How fares the king and's followers? Ari. Confined together In the same fashion as you gave in charge, Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir, In the line-grove which weather-fends your cell: They cannot budge till your release. The king, His brother and yours, abide all three distracted, And the remainder mourning over them, Brimful of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly, Him that you term'd, sir, "The good old lord, Gonzalo;'

His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly

works 'em,

That if you now beheld them, your affections Would become tender.

Pros.
Dost thou think so, spirit?
Ari. Mind would, sir, were I human.
Pros.
And mine shall.
Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,
One of their kind, that relish all as sharply,
Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art?
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to
the quick,

Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury
Do I take part; the rarer action is
In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent,
The sole drift of my purpose doth extend
Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel: 30
My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore,
And they shall be themselves.
Ari.
I'll fetch them, sir. [Exit.
Pros. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes
and groves,

And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
Whereofthe ewe not bites, and you whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous
winds,

And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
Have I made shake, and by the spurs pluck'dup
The pine and cedar; graves at my command
Have wak'd their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth
By my so potent art. But this rough magic 50
I here abjure, and when I have required
Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,

And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I'll drown my book.
[Solemn music.
Re-enter ARIEL before: then ALONSO, with a
frantic gesture, attended by GONZALO; SE-
BASTIAN and ANTONIO in like manner, at-
tended by ADRIAN and FRANCISCO: they all
enter the circle which PROSPERO had made,
and there stand charmed; which PROS-
PERO observing, speaks:

A solemn air and the best comforter
To an unsettled fancy cure thy brains,

For more assurance that a living prince
Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body;
And to thee and thy company I bid
A hearty welcome.
Alon.

110

Whether thou be'st he or no,
Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me,
As late I have been, I not know: thy pulse
Beats as of flesh and blood; and, since I saw
thee,

The affliction of my mind amends, with which,
I fear, a madness held me: this must crave,
An if this be at all, a most strange story.

Now useless, boil'd within thy skull! There stand, Thy dukedom I resign, and do entreat
For you are spell-stopp'd.

Holy Gonzalo, honorable man,

Mine eyes, even sociable to the show of thine,
Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace,
And as the morning steals upon the night,
Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo,
My true preserver, and a loyal sir
To him thou follow'st! I will pay thy graces
Home both in word and deed. Most cruelly
Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter:
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act.
Thou art pinch'd for't now, Sebastian. Flesh
and blood,

You brother mine, that entertain'd ambition, Expell'd remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian,

Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong, Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee,

Thou pardon me my wrongs. But how should
Prospero

Be living and be here?

Pres.
For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother
Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive
Thy rankest fault; all of them; and require
My dukedom of thee, which perforce, I know,
80 Thou must restore.
Alon.
If thou be'st Prospero,
Give us particulars of thy preservation;
How thou hast met us here, who three hours since
Werewreck'd upon this shore; where I have lost-
How sharp the point of this remembrance is!—
My dear son Ferdinand.

Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding
Begins to swell, and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shore
That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them
That yet looks on me, or would know me. Ariel,
Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell:
I will discase me, and myself present
As I was sometime Milan: quickly, spirit;
Thou shalt ere long be free.

ARIEL sings, and helps to attire him.
Where the bee sucks. there suck I:
In a cowslip's bell I lic;

There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly
After summer merrily.

Merrily, merrily shall I live now

Pros.
I am woe for't, sir.
Alon. Irreparable is the loss, and patience 140
Says it is past her cure.
Pros.

I rather think
You have not sought her help, of whose soft grace
95 For the like loss I have her sovereign aid,
And rest myself content.

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

Alon.

You the like loss?
Pros. As great to me as late; and, supportable
To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker
Than you may call to comfort you, for I
Have lost my daughter.

Alon.

A daughter?

O heavens, that they were living both in Naples,
The king and queen there! that they were, I wish
Myself were mudded in that oozy bed
Where my son lies.

When did you lose your

daughter? Pros. In this last tempest, I perceive, these lords At this encounter do so much admire That they devour their reason, and scarce think Their eyes do offices of truth, their words Are natural breath: but, howsoe'r you have Been justled from your senses, know for certain That I am Prospero, and that very duke Which was thrust forth of Milan, who most strangely 160

Upon this shore, where you were wreck'd,
was landed,

To be the lord on't. No more yet of this;
For 'tis a chronicle of day by day,
Not a relation for a breakfast nor
Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir:
This cell's my court: here have I few attendants,
And subjects none abroad: pray you, look in.
My dukedom since you have given me again,
I will requite you with as good a thing:
At least bring forth a wonder, to content ye 170
As much as me my dukedom.

Here Prospero discovers FERDINAND
MIRANDA playing at chess.
Mir. Sweet lord, you play me false.
Fer.
No, my
I would not for the world.

and

dear'st love,

210

And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife
Where he himself was lost, Prospero his dukedom
In a poor isle, and all of us ourselves
When no man was his own.

[hands:
Alon. [To Fer. and Mir] Give me your
Let grief and sorrow still embrace his heart
That doth not wish you joy!
Gon.
Be it so! Amen!
Re-enter ARIEL, with the Master and Boat-
swain amazedly following.

0, look, sir, look, sir! here is more of us:

I prophesied, if a gallows were on land,
This fellow could not drown. Now, blasphemy,
That swear'st grace o'er board, not an oath on
shore?

Hast thou no mouth by land? What is the news?
Boats. The best news is, that we have safely
found

211

Mir, Yes, for a score of kingdoms you Our king and company; the next, our shipshould wrangle, Which, but three glasses since, we gave out split

And I would call it fair play.

Alon.

If this prove
A vision of the island, one dear son
Shall I twice lose.

Seb.

A most high miracle!

Fer. Though the seas threaten, they are merciful;

I have cursed them without cause.

180

[Kneels.
A lon.
Now all the blessings
Of a glad father compass thee about!
Arise, and say how thou camest here.
Mir.

O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! Obrave new world, That has such people in't!

Pres.

'Tis new to thee.

Is tight and yare and bravely rigg'd as when
We first put out to sea.

Ari. [Aside to Pros.] Sir, all this service
Have I done since I went.

Pros. Aside to Ari.] My tricksy spirit! Alon. These are not natural events! they strengthen [hither? From strange to stranger. Say, how came you Boats. If I did think, sir, I were well awake, We were dead of sleep, I'd strive to tell you. And-how we know not-all clapp'd under hatches;

Where but even now with strange and several noises

Alon. What is this maid with whom thou Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains,

wast at play?

Your eld'st acquaintance cannot be three hours:
Is she the goddess that hath sever'd us,
And brought us thus together?
Fer.
Sir, she is mortal;
But by immortal Providence she's mine:
I chose her when I could not ask
my father
190
She
For his advice, nor thought I had one.
Is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan,
Of whom so often I have heard renown,
But never saw before; of whom I have
Received a second life; and second father
This lady makes him to me.

Alon.

I am hers: But, O, how oddly will it sound that I Must ask my child forgiveness!

Pros.

There, sir, stop:
Let us not burthen our remembrance with
A heaviness that's gone.

Gon.

I have inly wept,

200

Or should have spoke ere this. Look down,
you gods,

And on this couple drop a blessed crown!
For it is you that have chalk'd forth the way
Which brought us hither.

Alon.

I say, Amen, Gonzalo! Gon. Was Milan thrust from Milan, that

his issue

Should become kings of Naples? O, rejoice
Beyond a common joy, and set it down

With gold on lasting pillars: In one voyage
Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis;

And more diversity of sounds, all horrible,
We were awaked; straightway, at liberty;
Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld
Our royal, good and gallant ship, our master
Capering to eye her: on a trice, so please you,
Even in a dream, were we divided from them
And were brought moping hither.

Ari. [Aside to Pros.] Was't well done? 240
Pros. Aside to Ari Bravely, my diligence.
Thou shalt be free.
[trod;

Alon. This is as strange a maze as e'er men
And there is in this business more than nature
Was ever conduct of: some oracle
Must rectify our knowledge.

What things are these, my lord Antonio? Will money buy 'em?

Ant.

Very like; one of them Is a plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable. Pros. Mark but the badges of these men, my lords, [knave, Then say if they be true. This mis-shapen His mother was a witch, and one so strong That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs,

And deal in her command without her power. 271 These three have robb'd me; and this demidevil

For he's a bastard one--had plotted with them To take my life. Two of these fellows you Must know and own: this thing of darkness I Acknowledge mine.

Cal.

I shall be pinched to death.

A lon. Is not thisStephano, my drunken butler? Seb. He is drunk now: where had he wine? Alon. And Trinculo is reeling ripe: where should they

Find this grand liquor that hath gilded 'em? 280 How camest thou in this pickle?

Trin. I have been in such a pickle since I saw you last that, I fear me, will never out of my bones: I shall not fear fly-blowing.

Seb. Why, how now, Stephano!

Ste. O, touch me not; I am not Stephano,

Go quick away; the story of my life
And the particular accidents gone by
Since I came to this isle: and in the morn
I'll bring you to your ship and so to Naples,
Where I have hope to see the nuptial
Of these our dear-beloved solemnized:
And thence retire me to my Milan, where 310
Every third thought shall be my grave.
A lon.
I long
To hear the story of your life, which must
Take the ear strangely.

Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
And what strength I have's mine own,
Which is most faint: now, 'tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got
And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands:
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.

As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
Let your indulgence set me free.

ΙΟ

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