ARI. Safely in harbour Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew From the still-vex'd Bermoothes,' there's she's hid : The mariners all under hatches stow'd; Who, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour, I have left asleep and for the rest o' th' fleet Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrack'd, PROS. Ariel, thy charge Exactly is perform'd: but there's more work, What is the time o' th' day? ARI. 1 The still-vex'd Bermoothes, the ever-disturbed Bermudas. Such was the spelling of the name in Shakspere's time. Henley says "The epithet here applied to the Bermudas will be best understood by those who have seen the chafing of the sea over the rugged rocks by which they are surrounded, and which render access to them so dan. gerous." It was on the Bermudas that Sir George Somers was wrecked. (See Introduction.) They were supposed to be haunted by evil spirits. Wright quotes Stow's Annals (ed. Howe 1631), p. 1020 "Sir George Sommers, sitting at the stearne, seeing the ship Past the mid season. 230 desperate of reliefe, looking euery minute when the ship would sinke, hee espied land, which, according to his and Captaine Newports opinion, they iudged it should be that dreadfull coast of the Bermodes, which Iland[s] were of all Nations, said and supposed to bee inchanted and inhabited with witches and deuills, which grew by reason of accustomed monstrous Thunder, storme, and tempest, neere unto those Ilands, also for that the whole coast is so wonderous dangerous of Rockes, that few can approach them, but with vnspeakable hazard of shipwrack." 2 Flote, flood, sea, PROS. At least two glasses.' The time 'twixt six and now Must by us both be spent most preciously. 240 ARI. Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains,2 Let me remember thee what thou hast promis'd, PROS. What is 't thou canst demand? ARI. How now? moody? My liberty. I prithee, PROS. Before the time be out? no more! ARI. Remember I have done thee worthy service; Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, serv'd Without or grudge or grumblings :3 thou didst promise To bate1 me a full year. ARI. No. PROS. Thou dost, and think'st it much to tread the ooze Of the salt deep, To run upon the sharp wind of the north, To do me business in the veins o' th' earth When it is bak'd with frost. ARI. I do not, sir. PROS. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou forgot The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy PROS. Thou hast. Where was she born? [260 speak; tell me. ARI. Sir, in Argier.3 PROS. O, was she so? I must Once in a month recount what thou hast been, Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch Sycorax, For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible To enter human hearing, from Argier, Thou know'st, was banish'd: for one thing she did Is not this true? 1 The noblest natures feel ingratitude most keenly. See Amiens' song at the end of the second Act of As You Like It. 2 Envy, malice, as often. 3 Argier, the old form of Algiers. 4 What this was we are not told. Boswell suggests that the explanation might be found in the novel on which The Tempest was founded, but what this novel was (if there was one) is unknown. PROS. This blue-ey'd' hag was hither brought with child And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my [270 slave 2 As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant; To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands, Into a cloven pine; within which rift A dozen years; within which space she di'd And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy [280 groans As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this island- A freckl'd whelp hag-born-not honour'd with ARI. Yes, Caliban her son. PROS. Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st What torment I did find thee in; thy groans Did make wolves howl and penetrate the breasts 1 Blue-ey'd, with a black circle round the eye. A blue eye in this sense, says Wright, was a sign of pregnancy. 2 As thou report'st thyself, as thou thyself tellest. Note the skill with which a common stage artifice is managed for the benefit of the audience Prospero has to tell Ariel what he knew well enough already, yet it comes naturally enough. 3 Hests, commands. Of ever angry bears; it was a torment Could not again undo: it was mine art, When I arriv'd and heard thee, that made gape ARI. I thank thee, master. 290 PROS. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak And peg thee in his knotty entrails till Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters. ARI. I will be correspondent to command, PROS. I will discharge thee. ARI. Pardon, master; Do so, and after two days That's my noble master! What shall I do? say what; what shall I do? [300 PROS. Go make thyself like a nymph o' th' sea': be subject To no sight but thine and mine, invisible To every eyeball else. Go take this shape. And hither come in 't: go, hence with diligence! [Exit Ariel. Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well; 1 Steevens remarks, "There does not appear to be sufficient cause why Ariel should assume this new shape, as he was to be invisible to all eyes but those of Prospero." Wright suggests that he would be in harmony with the scene to the audience, and in his song below, 1. 402, we have, "Sea Nymphs hourly ring his knell." |