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, With those that I saw suffer a brave vessel, Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perished. Have sunk the sea within the earth, or ere It should the good ship so have swallowed, and I have done nothing but in care of thee, Mira. Did never meddle with my thoughts. Pro. More to know "Tis time Lend thy hand, I should inform thee farther. [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 No, not so much perdition as an hair, 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, The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not 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. Mira. "Tis far off; And rather like a dream, than an assurance my 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 |