The Works of Shakespear

Enter Ariel like a Water-Nymph.

Fine apparition! my quaint Ariel,
Hark in thine ear.

[Exit.

Ari. My lord, it shall be done.
Pro. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himfelf
Upon thy wicked dam, come forth.

Cal.

SCENE IV.

Enter Caliban.

S* wicked dew, as e'er my mother brush'd
With raven's feather from unwholsome fen,

Drop on you both! a fouth-west blow on ye,
"And blifter you all o'er!
[cramps,
Pro. For this, be fure, to night thou shalt have
Side-stiches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins
Shall, for that vast of night that they may work,

el. All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch'd As thick as honey-combs, each pinch more stinging Than bees that made 'em.

Cal. "I must eat my dinner. "This Island's mine by Sycorax my mother, "Which thou tak'st from me. When thou camest first, "Thou stroak'dst me, and mad'st much of me; and

would'st give me

"Water with berries in't; and teach me how

"To name the bigger light, and how the less,

That burn by day and night: and then I lov'd thee,

And shew'd thee all the qualities o'th' Isle,

The fresh springs, brine-pits; barren place, and fertile.

"Curs'd be I, that I did fo! all the charms

* Cal. As wicked dew, &c.] Shakespear hath very artificially given the Air of the Antique to the Language of Caliban, in order to heighten the Grotesque of his Character. As here he uses wicked for unwholfome.

Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!

For I am all the subjects that you have,

"Who first was mine own King; and here you sty me In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me

The rest of th'Island.

Pro. Thou most lying slave,

Whom stripes may move, not kindness; I have us'd

thee

(Filth as thou art) with humane care, and lodg'd In mine own cell, 'till thou didst seek to violate The honour of my child.

Cal. Oh ho, oh ho! - I wou'd, it had been done! Thou didst prevent me, I had peopled elfe This Ifle with Calibans.

Pro. *Abhorred flave;

Which any print of goodness wilt not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pity'd thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other. When thou couldst not, savage,
Shew thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes
With words that made them known. But thy vile
[natures
(The thou didst learn) had that in't, which good
Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou
Deservedly confin'd into this rock,
Who hadit deferv'd more than a prifon-

race

Cal. You taught me language, and my profit on't

* Abhorred flave;] In some of the former Editions this Speech was given to Miranda. Mr. Dryden in his Alteration of this Play rightly transferred it to Profpero.

+ When thou didst not, favage,

Know thy own meaning, &c.] Some of the ancient Editions have been printed as above expressed. The Benefit which Profpero here upbraids Caliban with having beslowed, was teaching him Language. He shews the Greatness of this Benefit by marking the Inconvenience Caliban lay under for want of it. What was the Inconvenience? This, that he did not know his own Meaning.

Is,

Is, I know how to curse: the red plague rid you,

For learning me your language!

Pro. Hag-feed, hence!

Fetch us in fewel, and be quick (thou wert' beft)
To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice?
If thou neglect'st, or doft unwillingly

s'd What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps; Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar,

That beafts shall tremble at thy din.

Cal. No 'pray thee.

I must obey; his art is of fuch pow'r,

e! It would controul my dam's god Setebos,

And make a vaffal of him.

Pro. So, flave, hence!

SCENE V.

[Exit Caliban.

Enter Ferdinand; and Ariel invisible, playing and

finging.

ARIEL'S SONG.

Come unto these yellow fands,

Curt'fied when you have, and kist

And then take hands:

(The wild waves whift;)

Foot it featly here and there,

And, fweet sprites, the burthen bear.

Burthen, dispersedly.

Hark, hark, baugh,-waugh: the watch-dogs bark,

Baugh-waugh.

Ari. Hark, hark, I hear

The strain of strutting chanticlere

Cry, Cock-a-doodle-do.

Fer. Where should this Music be, i'th' air, or earth ?

It sounds no more: and, fure, it waits upon

}

Some

Some God o'th' Island. Sitting on a bank,
Weeping against the King my father's wreck,
This mufic crept by me upon the waters;
Allaying both their fury and my paffion,
With its fweet air; thence I have follow'd it,

Or it hath drawn me rather

No, it begins again.

but 'tis gone.

ARIEL'S SONG.

* Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearls, that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth fuffer a fea-change,
Into fomething rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell.
Hark, now I hear them, ding-dong, bell.

Burthen: ding-dong.

Fer. The ditty does remember my drown'd father;

This is no mortal business, nor no found
That the earth owns: I hear it now above me.

Pro.

HE fringed curtains of thine eyes advance,
And fay, what thou seest yond.

Mira. What is't, a spirit?
Lord, how it looks about! believe me, Sir,
It carries a brave form. But 'tis a spirit.

* Full fathom five thy father lies, &c.] Let us confider the Business Ariel is here upon, and his Manner of executing it. The Commiffion Profpero had intrusted to him, in a Whisper, was plainly this; to conduct Ferdinand to the Sight of Miranda, and to dispose him to the quick Sentiments of Love, while he, on the other Hand, prepared his Daughter for the fame Impressions. Ariel fets about his Business by acquainting Ferdinand, in an extraordinary Manner, with the afflictive News of his Father's Death. A very odd Apparatus, one would think for a Love-fit.

Pro.

Pro. No, wench, it eats, and sleeps, and hath such fenfes

As we have, fuch. This gallant, which thou seest. Was in the wreck: and, but he's fomething stain'd With grief, (that's beauty's canker) thou might'st

call him

A goodly person. He hath lost his fellows,

And strays about to find 'em.

Mira. I might call him

A thing divine; for nothing natural

I ever faw so noble.

Pro. It goes on, I fee,

[Afide.

As my foul prompts it. Spirit, fine spirit, I'll free

thee

Within two days for this.

Fer. Most sure, the Goddess

On whom these ayres attend! vouchsafe, my pray'r
May know, if you remain upon this Island;

ng. And that you will fome good instruction give,
How I may bear me here: my prime request
er (Which I do last pronounce) is, O you wonder!

If you be made or no?

Mira. No wonder, Sir,

But certainly a maid.

Fer. My language! heav'ns!

I am the best of them that speak this speech,
Were I but where 'tis spoken!

Pro. How? the best?

What wert thou, if the King of Naples heard thee? Fer. A fingle thing, as I am now, that wonders To hear thee speak of Naples. He does hear me; f And, that he does, I weep: myself am Naples, Who, with mine eyes (ne'er fince at ebb) beheld ; The King my father wreckt.

Mira. Alack, for mercy!

Fer. Yes, faith, and all his lords: the Duke of Milan, And his brave fon, being twain.

Pro.

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