A tempeftuous noife of thunder and lightning heard.

Enter a Shipmafter, and a Boatswain.

Maft.

B

OATSWAIN.

:

Boats. Here, mafter what cheer ? Maft. Good, fpeak to th' mariners: fall to't yarely, or we run ourselves a-ground; beftir, beftir.

Enter Mariners.

[Exit.

Boats. Hey, my hearts; cheerly, my hearts; yare, yare; take in the top-fail; tend to th' mafter's whistle; blow, 'till thou burst thy wind, if room enough.

Enter Alonfo, Sebaftian, Anthonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and others.

Alon. Good boatfwain, have care: where's the master ? play the men.

Boatf. I pray now, keep below.

Ant. Where is the mafter, boatswain?

Boats. Do you not hear him? you mar our labour ; keep your cabbins; you affift the ftorm.

Gonz. Nay, good, be patient.

Boats. When the fea is. Hence- -what care these roarers for the name of King? to cabbin; filence; trouble

us not,

Gonz. Good, yet remember whom thou haft aboard. Boatf. None that I more love than myself. You are a counfellor; if you can command thefe elements to filence, and work the peace o' the prefent, we will not hand a rope more; ufe your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have liv'd fo long, and make yourfelf ready in your cabbin for the mifchance of the hour, if it fo hap. Cheerly, good hearts: out of our way,

I fay.

Exit.

Gonz. I have great comfort from this fellow ; methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand faft, 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 hang'd, our case is miserable. [Exeunt.

Re-enter Boatswain.

this

Boats. Down with the top-maft: yare, lower, lower; bring her to try with main-course. A plague upon howling!

Acry within. Re-enter Sebaftian, Anthonio, and Gonzalo. they are louder than the weather, or our office. Yet again? what do you here? fhall we give o'er, and drown? have you a mind to fink?

Seb. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, uncharitable dog.

Boats. Work you then.

Ant. Hang, cur, hang; you whorefon, infolent, noifemaker; we are lefs afraid to be drown'd than thou

art.

Gonz. I'll warrant him from drowning, tho' the fhip were no ftronger than a nut-fhell, and as leaky as an unftanch'd wench.

Boatf. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; fet her two courses off to fea again, lay her off.

Enter Mariners wet.

Mar. All loft! to prayers! to prayers! all loft! [Exe. Boats. What, muft our mouths be cold?

Gonz. The King and Prince at pray'rs ! let us affift 'em. For our cafe is as theirs.

Seb. I'm out of patience.

[kards. Ant. We're merely cheated of our lives by drunThis wide-chopt rafcal-'Would thou might'ft lie The washing of ten tides !

Gonz. He'll be hang'd yet,

Though every drop of water fwear against it,

And gape at wid'ft to glut him.

A confufed noife within.] Mercy on us!

[drowning,

We fplit, we fplit! farewel, my wife and children!
Brother, farewel! we fplit, we split! we split !
Ant. Let's all fink with the King.

Seb. Let's take leave of him.

[Exit. [Exit.

Gonz. Now would I give a thoufand furlongs of fea 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!

SCENE II. The inchanted island.
Enter Profpero and Miranda.

Exit.

Mira. If by your art (my dearest father) you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them :
The fky, it feems, would pour down ftinking pitch,
But that the fea, mounting to th' welkin's cheek,
Dafhes the fire out. O! I have fuffer'd

With thofe that I faw fuffer: a brave veffel
(Who had, no doubt, fome noble creatures in her)}
Dafh'd all to pieces. O the cry did knock
Against my very heart: poor fouls, they perish'd
Had I been any god of pow'r, I would
Have funk the fea within the earth, or ere
It fhould the good fhip fo have fwallow'd, and

The fraighting fouls within her.

Pro. Be collected;

No more amazement; tell your piteous heart,
There's no harm done.

Mira. O wo 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'm more, or better
Than Profpero, mafter of a full-poor cell,
And thy no greater father.

Mira. More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.

Pro. 'Tis time,

I fhould inform thee farther.

And pluck my magic garment

Lend thy hand,

from me: fo

Lays down his mantle.

Lie there, my art. Wipe thou thine eyes, have com

fort.

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

I have with fuch provifion in mine art

So fafely order'd, that there's no foul loft,

No not fo much perdition as an hair

Betid to any creature in the veffel

Which thou heard 'ft cry, which thou faw'ft fink: fit down;

For thou muft now know farther.

Mira. You have often

Begun to tell me what I am, but stopt,
And left me to a bootlefs inquifition;
Concluding, Stay; not yet.-

Pro. The hour's now come.
The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;
Obey, and be attentive. Canft thou remember

A time before we came unto this cell?

I do not think, thou canft; for then thou waft not

Out three years old.

Mira. Certainly, Sir, I can.

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

Hath kept in 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 hadft, and more, Miranda: but how is it,
That this lives in thy mind? what feest thou else
In the dark back ward and abyfme of time?

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

Mira. But that I do not.

Pro. 'Tis twelve years fince, Miranda; twelve years fince

Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and'

A prince of pow'r.

Mira. Sir, are not you my father?

Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She faid, thou waft my daughter; and thy father Was Duke of Milan; thou his only heir,

A princefs, no worse iffu'd.

Mira. O the heav'ns !

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

Pro. Both, both, my girl:

By foul play (as thou fay'ft) were we heav'd thence
But bleffedly help'd hither.

Mira. O, my heart bleeds

To think, o' th' teene that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance. Please you, farther.

I

Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Anthonio———.

pray thee, mark me ;- -(that a brother should

Be fo perfidious!) he whom next thyfelf

Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my ftate; (as, at that time,
Through all the fignories it was the first;
And Profpero the prime Duke, being fo reputed
In dignity; and for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel; thofe being all my study):
The government I caft upon my brother,

And to my ftate grew ftranger; being transported,
And rapt in fecret ftudies. Thy falfe uncle-
(Doft thou attend me ?)

Mira. Sir, moft heedfully.