Mast. Boatswain!

Boats. Here, master: what cheer?

Mast. Good, speak to the mariners: fall to 't, yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir.

Enter Mariners.

[Exit.

Boats. Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to the master's whistle. Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!

Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and others.

Alon. Good boatswain, have care. Where's the 10 master? Play the men.

Boats. I pray now, keep below.

Ant. Where is the master, boatswain?
Boats. Do you not hear him?

You mar our labour: do assist the storm.

Hence!

What cares

keep your
cabins: you
Gon. Nay, good, be patient.
Boats. When the sea is.

these roarers for the name of king? To
cabin silence! trouble us not.

Gon. Good, yet remember whom thou hast

aboard.

Boats. None that I more love than myself. You

are a counsellor; if you can command these
elements to silence, and work the peace of the
present, we will not hand a rope more; use your
authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have
lived so long, and make yourself ready in your
cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap.
Cheerly, good hearts! Out of our way, I say.

20

[Exit.

Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging: make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage. If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable.

Re-enter Boatswain.

30

[Exeunt.

Boats. Down with the topmast! yare! lower, lower! Bring her to try with main-course. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather or our office.

40

Re-enter Sebastian, Antonio, and Gonzalo.

Yet again! what do you here? Shall we give o'er and drown? Have you a mind to sink? Seb. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!

Boats. Work you then.

Ant.

Gon.

Hang, cur! hang, you whoreson, insolent noisemaker! We are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.

I'll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell and as leaky as an unstanched wench.

Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! set her two courses off to sea again; lay her off.

Enter Mariners wet.

Mariners. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost!

Boats. What, must our mouths be cold?

50

Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let's assist

Seb.

Ant.

Gon.

them,

For our case is as theirs.

I'm out of patience.

We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards: This wide-chapp'd rascal-would thou mightst lie

drowning

The washing of ten tides!

He'll be hang'd yet,
Though every drop of water swear against it
And gape at widest to glut him.

[A confused noise within: "Mercy on us!

60

"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.
Gon.

Let's take leave of him. [Exeunt Ant. and Seb. 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. [Exeunt.

70

SCENE II.

The island. Before Prospero's cell.

Enter Prospero and Miranda.

Mir. If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.

Pros.

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, some noble creature in her,
Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perish'd.
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallow'd and
The fraughting souls within her.

Be collected:

No more amazement: tell your piteous heart

10