But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek, With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel, It should the good ship so have swallow'd and Pros. Mir. O, woe the day! ΙΟ No harm. I have done nothing but in care of thee, Mir. More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts. Pros. 20 'Tis time 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. mack The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd 30 Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down; For thou must now know farther. Mir. You have often Begun to tell me what I am, but stopp'd Pros. The hour's now come; The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not Out three years old. Mir. Certainly, sir, I can. 4I Pros. By what? by any other house or person? Of any thing the image tell me that Hath kept with thy remembrance. Mir. 'Tis far off, And rather like a dream than an assurance Pros. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. how is it But That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? 50 If thou remember'st aught ere thou camest here, How thou camest here thou mayst. Mir. But that I do not. Twelve years since, Miranda, twelve years since, Thy father was the Duke of Milan and A prince of power. Mir. Sir, are not you my father? Pros. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father Was Duke of Milan; and thou his only heir And princess no worse issued. Mir. O the heavens! What foul play had we, that we came from thence? Or blessed was't we did? Pros. Both, both, my girl: 61 By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heaved thence, But blessedly holp hither. Mir. O, my heart bleeds To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance! Please you, farther. Pr. My brother and thy uncle, call'd AntonioI pray thee, mark me-that a brother should 70 Be so perfidious !—he whom next thyself Without a parallel; those being all my study, And to myState grew stranger, being transported Mir. Sir, most heedfully. Pros. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them, who to advance and who 80 To trash for over-topping, new created The creatures that were mine, I say, or changed 'em, Or else new form'd 'em; having both the key Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state Mir. O, good sir, I do. Pros. 90 I pray thee, mark me. As my trust was; which had indeed no limit, But what my power might else exact, like one 100 He was indeed the duke; out o' the substitution, Mir. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. Pros. 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 roy- atrial alties ΙΙΟ He thinks me now incapable; confederates— Mir. O the heavens ! Pros. Mark his condition and the event; then tell me If this might be a brother. Mir. I should sin To think but nobly of my grandmother: Pros. Now the condition. 120 The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of darkness, Mir. Alack, for pity! I, not remembering how I cried out then, That wrings mine eyes to't. Pros. Hear a little further And then I'll bring thee to the present business Mir. That hour destroy us? Wherefore did they not Pros. Well demanded, wench: My tale provokes that question. durst not, Dear, they 140 So dear the love my people bore me, nor set To the winds whose pity, sighing back again, 150 Mir. Was I then to you! Pros. Alack, what trouble · O, a cherubim Thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile, Infused with a fortitude from heaven, When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt, Under my burthen groan'd; which raised in me An undergoing stomach, to bear up Against what should ensue. Mir. How came we ashore? Pros. By Providence divine. Some food we had and some fresh water that 160 A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo, Out of his charity, being then appointed Master of this design, did give us, with Rich garments, linens, stuffs and necessaries, Which since have steaded much so, of his gen tleness, Knowing I loved my books, he furnish'd me I prize above my dukedom. Mir. But ever see that man! Pros. Now I arise: Would I might [Resumes his mantle. Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow. 170 |