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.

Gonz. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground; long heath, brown furze, any thing: The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death! [Exit.

SCENE II.

The enchanted 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,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd

With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel,

Who had, no doubt,

Dash'd all to pieces. Against my very heart! any god of

Had I been

power,

Have sunk the sea within the earth, or ere

some noble creatures in her,
O, the cry did knock
Poor souls! they perish'd.

It

It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and
The freighting souls within her.

Pro. Be collected;

No more amazement:

tell your piteous heart,

There's no harm done.

Mira. O woe the day!

Pro. No harm.

I have done nothing but in care of thee,

(Of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!) who
Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing
Of whence I am; nor that I am more better
Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell,
And thy no greater father.

Mira. More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.
Pro. 'Tis time,

I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand,
And pluck my magic garment from me.-So;

Lye there

90

100

[Lays down his mantle.

my art.- -Wipe thou mine eyes; have com

fort.

The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd
The very virtue of compassion in thee,

I have with such provision in mine art
So safely order'd, that there is no soul-
No, not so much perdition as an hair,
Betide to any creature in the vessel

Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink.

Sit down;

For thou must now know further.

Mira. You have often

Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd,
And left me to a bootless inquisition;
Concluding, Stay, not yet-

Pro. The hour's now come;

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;
Obey, and be attentive. Canst thou remember
A time before we came unto this cell?

I do not think thou canst; for then thou wast not
Out three years old.

Mira. Certainly, sir, I can.

120

Pro. By what? by any other house, or person? Of any thing the image tell me, that

Hath kept with thy remembrance.

Mira. 'Tis far off;

And rather like a dream, than an assurance
That
my remembrance warrants: Had I not

Four or five women once, that tended me?

Pro. Thou had'st, and more, Miranda: But how

is it,

That this lives in thy mind? What see'st thou else
In the dark back-ward and abysm of time?

If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here;
How thou cam'st here, thou may'st.

Mira. But that I do not.

130

Pro. Twelve years since, Miranda, twelve years

since,

Thy father was the duke of Milan, and

A prince of power.

Mira. Sir, are not you my father?

Pro.

Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father Was duke of Milan; thou his only heir

And princess, no worse issu❜d.

Mira. O the heavens!

140

What foul play had we, that we came from thence? Or bless'd was't we did?

Pro. Both, both, my girl:

By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence; But blessedly holp hither.

Mira. O, my heart bleeds

To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to,

Which is from my remembrance; Please you fur

I

ther.

150

Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, called Anthonio,pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should

Be so perfidious!-he whom, next thyself,

Of all the world I lov'd, and to him

put
The manage of my state; as, at that time,
Through all the signiories it was the first,
And Prospero the prime duke; being so reputed
In dignity, and for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel; those being all my study,
The government I cast upon my brother,

And to my state grew stranger, being transported,
And wrapp'd in secret studies. Thy false uncle-

Dost thou attend me?

Mira. Sir, most heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom

160

Το

To trash for over-topping; new created

170

The creatures that were mine, I say, or chang'd em,
Or else new form'd 'em: having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state
To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,
And suck'd my verdure out on't.-Thou attend'st

not.

Mira. O good sir, I do.

Pro. I pray thee, mark me.

I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness, and the bettering of my mind
With that, which, but by being so retired,
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother
Awak'd an evil nature: and my trust,
Like a good parent, did beget of him
A falsehood, in its contrary as great

As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded,

By what my power might else exact,-like one,
Who having unto truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie,—he did believe

He was indeed, the duke; out of the substitution,
And executing the outward face of royalty,

180

191

With all prerogative:-Hence his ambition growing,

Dost thou hear?

Mira. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.

Pro.