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

Pros.

Dost thou think so, spirit?

And mine shall.

Ari. Mine would, sir, were I human. Pros. 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

20

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:
My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore,
And they shall be themselves.

30

Ari.
I'll fetch them, sir. [Exit.
Pros. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes
and groves,

40

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,
Whereof the 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'd up
The pine and cedar; graves at my command
Have waked 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; SEBASTIAN and
ANTONIO in like manner, attended by ADRIAN and
FRANCISCO: they all enter the circle which PROS-
PERO had made, and there stand charmed; which
PROSPERO observing, speaks:

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

Now useless, boil'd within thy skull! There stand,
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 70
Home both in word and heed. 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 killed your king; I do forgive
thee,
Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding
Begins to swell, and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shore

80

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 hell I lie;

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

After summer merrily.

Merrily, merrily shall I live now

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

да

Pros. Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee;

But yet thou shalt have freedom: sc, so, so.
To the king's ship, invisible as thou art:
There shalt thou find the mariners asleep
Under the hatches; the master and the boatswain
Being awake, enforce them to this place,
And presently, I prithee.

Ari. I drink the air before me, and return
Or ere your pulse twice beat.

[Exi

Gon. All torment, trouble, wonder and amaze

ment

Inhabits here: some heavenly power guide us
Out of this fearful country!

Pros.

Behold, sir king, The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero: 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.

ΙΙΟ

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.

Thy dukedom I resign, and do entreat

Thou pardon me my wrongs. But how should Prospero

Be living and be here?

Pros.

First, noble friend, 120

Let me embrace thine age, whose honor cannot Be measured or confined.

Gon.

Or be not, I'll not swear.

Whether this be

You do yet taste

Pros. Some subtilties o' the isle, that will not let you Believe things certain. Welcome, my friends all! [Aside to Seb. and Ant.] But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded,

I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you And justify you traitors: at this time

I will tell no tales.

Seb.

[Aside] The devil speaks in him.

Pros. No. 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, 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 Were wreck'd upon this shore; where I have lost— How sharp the point of this remembrance is !My dear son Ferdinand.

Pros.

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

I rather think

Pros. You have not sought her help, of whose soft grace For the like loss I have her sovereign aid,

And rest myself content.

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.

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'er 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 and MIRANDA playing at chess.

Mir. Sweet lord, you play me false.

Fer.

I would not for the world.

No, my dear'st love,

Mir. Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should

Fer. Though the seas threaten, they are mer

ciful;

I have cursed them without cause.

Alon.

[Kneels.

Now all the blessings

Of a glad father compass thee about!
Arise, and say how thou camest here.
Mir.

180

O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here!