Mir.

More to know

"T is time

Did never meddle with my thoughts.

Pros.

I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand,
And pluck my magic garment from me.

So:

[Lays down his mantle. Lie there, my art. Wipe thou thine eyes; have

comfort.

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 ordered that there is no soul-
No, not so much perdition as an hair
Betid to any creature in the vessel

Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink.
Sit down;

For thou must now know farther.

You have often

Mir.
Begun to tell me what I am, but stopp'd
And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding "Stay: not yet."

Pros.

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?

30

I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not 40

Out three years old.

Mir.

Certainly, sir, I can.

Pros. By what? by any other house or person?

Of any thing the image tell me that

Hath kept with thy remembrance.

Mir.

"T is 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?

Pros. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is it

That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?
If thou remember'st aught ere thou camest here,
How thou camest here thou mayst.

Mir.

But that I do not. Pros. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year

since,

Thy father was the Duke of Milan and

A prince of power.

Mir.

Sir, are not you my father?

Pros. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father
Was Duke of Milan; and thou his only heir
And princess no worse issued.

Mir.

O the heavens!

50

What foul play had we, that we came from thence? 60 Or blessed was 't we did?

Pros.

Both, both, my girl:

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

Mir.

O, my heart bleeds To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance! Please you, farther.

I

Pros. My brother and thy uncle, call'd An

Be so perfidious! -he whom next thyself
Of all the world I loved and to him put
The manage of my state; as at that time
Through all the signories 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 rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle Dost thou attend me?

Mir.

Sir, most heedfully.

Pros. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them, who to advance and who

To trash for over-topping, new created

The creatures that were mine, I say, or changed

'em.

Or else new form'd 'em; having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state
To what tune pleased 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.

Mir. O, good sir, I do.

I

Pros. 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-prized all popular rate, in my false brother Awaked an evil nature; and my trust, Like a good parent, did beget of him A falsehood in its contrary as great

70

80

90

As

my trust was;

which had indeed no limit,

A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded,

But what my power might else exact, like one
Who having into 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 o' the substitution,
And executing the outward face of royalty,

With all prerogative: hence his ambition growing-
Dost thou hear?

Mir.

Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.

Pros. To have no screen between this part he play'd

100

And him he play'd it for, he needs will be
Absolute Milan. Me, poor man, my library
Was dukedom large enough: of temporal royalties 110
He thinks me now incapable; confederates -
So dry he was for sway-wi' the King of Naples
To give him annual tribute, do him homage,

Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend

The dukedom yet unbow'd - alas, poor Milan !--To most ignoble stooping.

Mir.

O the heavens !

Pros. Mark his condition and the event; then

tell me

If this might be a brother.

Mir.

I should sin

To think but nobly of my grandmother :
Good wombs have borne bad sons.

Pros.

Now the condition. 120

This King of Naples, being an enemy

To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit;
Which was, that he, in lieu o' the premises
Of homage and I know not how much tribute,
Should presently extirpate me and mine
Out of the dukedom and confer fair Milan
With all the honours on my brother: whereon,
A treacherous army levied, one midnight
Fated to the purpose did Antonio open

The gates of Milan, and, i' the dead of darkness, 130
The ministers for the purpose hurried thence

Me and thy crying self.

Mir.

Alack, for pity!

I, not remembering how I cried out then,
Will cry it o'er again: it is a hint

That wrings mine eyes to 't.

Pros.

Hear a little further

And then I 'll bring thee to the present business Which now 's upon 's; without the which this story Were most impertinent.

Mir.

That hour destroy us?

Pros.

Wherefore did they not

Well demanded, wench:

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst

not,

So dear the love my people bore me, nor set

A mark so bloody on the business, but

With colours fairer painted their foul ends.

In few, they hurried us aboard a bark,

Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepared
A rotten carcass of a butt, not rigg'd,

Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively have quit it: there they hoist us,

140