William Shakespeare
-
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The Tempest (c. 1610)
Sir John Everett Millais, Ferdinand Lured by Ariel, 1849" style="width: 234px; height: 300px; float: right;" class="PopBoxImageSmall" title="Click to magnify/shrink" onclick="Pop(this,50,'/');"/>ACT ONE
SCENE 1
[On a ship at sea; a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard]
[Enter a SHIPMASTER and a BOATSWAIN severally]
MASTER.
- Boatswain!
BOATSWAIN.
- Here, master: what cheer?
MASTER.
- Good! Speak to the mariners: fall to't yarely, or
- we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir.
[Exit]
[Enter MARINERS]
BOATSWAIN.
- Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts!
- yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to th' master's
- whistle.—Blow till thou burst thy wind, if room enough.
[Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO, and
- OTHERS]
ALONSO.
- Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master?
- Play the men.
BOATSWAIN.
- I pray now, keep below.
ANTONIO.
- Where is the master, boson?
BOATSWAIN.
- Do you not hear him? You mar our labour:
- keep your cabins: you do assist the storm.
GONZALO.
- Nay, good, be patient.
BOATSWAIN.
- When the sea is. Hence! What cares these
- roarers for the name of king? To cabin! silence! Trouble
- us not.
GONZALO.
- Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard.
BOATSWAIN.
- None that I more love than myself. You are
- 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.
[Exit]
GONZALO.
- 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 hang'd, our
- case is miserable.
[Exeunt]
[Re-enter BOATSWAIN]
BOATSWAIN.
- Down with the topmast! yare! lower, lower!
- Bring her to try wi' th' maincourse. [A cry within] A
- plague upon this howling! They are louder than the
- weather or our office.—
[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?
SEBASTIAN.
- A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous,
- incharitable dog!
BOATSWAIN.
- Work you, then.
ANTONIO.
- Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent noisemaker,
- we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.
GONZALO.
- I'll warrant him for drowning, though the ship were
- no stronger than a nutshell, and as leaky as an unstanched
- wench.
BOATSWAIN.
- 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!
[Exeunt]
BOATSWAIN.
- What, must our mouths be cold?
GONZALO.
- The King and Prince at prayers! let us assist them,
- For our case is as theirs.
SEBASTIAN.
- I am out of patience.
ANTONIO.
- We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.—
- This wide-chapp'd rascal—would thou might'st lie drowning
- The washing of ten tides!
GONZALO.
- He'll be hang'd yet,
- 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!'—]
ANTONIO.
- Let's all sink wi' the King.
[Exit]
SEBASTIAN.
- Let's take leave of him.
[Exit]
GONZALO.
- 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
- dry death.
[Exit]
[The Island. Before the cell of PROSPERO]
[Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA]
MIRANDA.
- 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 th' welkin's cheek,
- Dashes the fire out. O! I have suffered
- With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel,
- Who had, no doubt, some noble creatures 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 e'er
- It should the good ship so have swallow'd and
- The fraughting souls within her.
PROSPERO.
- Be collected:
- No more amazement: tell your piteous heart
- There's no harm done.
MIRANDA.
- O! woe the day!
PROSPERO.
- 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.
MIRANDA.
- More to know
- Did never meddle with my thoughts.
PROSPERO.
- 'Tis time
- 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 wrack, 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.
MIRANDA.
- You have often
- Begun to tell me what I am: but stopp'd,
- And left me to a bootless inquisition,
- Concluding 'Stay; not yet.'
PROSPERO.
- 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.
MIRANDA.
- Certainly, sir, I can.
PROSPERO.
- By what? By any other house, or person?
- Of any thing the image, tell me, that
- Hath kept with thy remembrance.
MIRANDA.
- '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?
PROSPERO.
- 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 rememb'rest aught ere thou cam'st here,
- How thou cam'st here, thou mayst.
MIRANDA.
- But that I do not.
PROSPERO.
- Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since,
- Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and
- A prince of power.
MIRANDA.
- Sir, are not you my father?
PROSPERO.
- Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
- She said thou wast my daughter: and thy father
- Was Duke of Milan, and his only heir
- And princess,—no worse issued.
MIRANDA.
- O, the heavens!
- What foul play had we that we came from thence?
- Or blessed was't we did?
PROSPERO.
- Both, both, my girl.
- By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence;
- But blessedly holp hither.
MIRANDA.
- O! my heart bleeds
- To think o' th' teen that I have turn'd you to,
- Which is from my remembrance. Please you, further.
PROSPERO.
- My brother and thy uncle, call'd Antonio—
- I 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 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?
MIRANDA.
- Sir, most heedfully.
PROSPERO.
- Being once perfected how to grant suits,
- How to deny them, who t' advance, and who
- To trash for over-topping; new created
- 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' th' 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.
MIRANDA.
- O, good sir! I do.
PROSPERO.
- 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 retir'd,
- 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,
- 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 th' outward face of royalty,
- With all prerogative.—Hence his ambition growing—
- Dost thou hear?
MIRANDA.
- Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.
PROSPERO.
- To have no screen between this part he play'd
- 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
- He thinks me now incapable; confederates,—
- So dry he was for sway,—wi' th' 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.
MIRANDA.
- O the heavens!
PROSPERO.
- Mark his condition, and the event; then tell me
- If this might be a brother.
MIRANDA.
- I should sin
- To think but nobly of my grandmother:
- Good wombs have borne bad sons.
PROSPERO.
- Now the condition.
- 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' th' dead of darkness,
- The ministers for th' purpose hurried thence
- Me and thy crying self.
MIRANDA.
- Alack, for pity!
- I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then,
- Will cry it o'er again: it is a hint
- That wrings mine eyes to't.
PROSPERO.
- Hear a little further,
- And then I'll bring thee to the present business
- Which now's upon us; without the which this story
- Were most impertinent.
MIRANDA.
- Wherefore did they not
- That hour destroy us?
PROSPERO.
- 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 boat, not rigg'd,
- Nor tackle, sail, nor mast: the very rats
- Instinctively have quit it. There they hoist us,
- To cry to th' sea, that roar'd to us: to sigh
- To th' winds, whose pity, sighing back again,
- Did us but loving wrong.
MIRANDA.
- Alack! what trouble
- Was I then to you!
PROSPERO.
- O, a cherubin
- Thou wast that did preserve me! Thou didst smile,
- Infused with a fortitude from heaven,
- When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt,
- Under my burden groan'd: which rais'd in me
- An undergoing stomach, to bear up
- Against what should ensue.
MIRANDA.
- How came we ashore?
PROSPERO.
- By Providence divine.
- Some food we had and some fresh water that
- A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,
- Out of his charity,—who being then appointed
- Master of this design,—did give us, with
- Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries,
- Which since have steaded much: so, of his gentleness,
- Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me,
- From mine own library with volumes that
- I prize above my dukedom.
MIRANDA.
- Would I might
- But ever see that man!
PROSPERO.
- Now I arise:—
[Resumes his mantle]
Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow.
- Here in this island we arriv'd: and here
- Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit
- Than other princes can, that have more time
- For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.
MIRANDA.
- Heavens thank you for't! And now, I pray you, sir,—
- For still 'tis beating in my mind,—your reason
- For raising this sea-storm?
PROSPERO.
- Know thus far forth.
- By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune,
- Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies
- Brought to this shore; and by my prescience
- I find my zenith doth depend upon
- A most auspicious star, whose influence
- If now I court not but omit, my fortunes
- Will ever after droop. Here cease more questions;
- Thou art inclin'd to sleep; 'tis a good dulness,
- And give it way;—I know thou canst not choose.—
[MIRANDA sleeps]
Come away, servant, come! I am ready now.
- Approach, my Ariel; Come!
[Enter ARIEL]
ARIEL.
- All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come
- To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly,
- To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
- On the curl'd clouds; to thy strong bidding task
- Ariel and all his quality.
PROSPERO.
- Hast thou, spirit,
- Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee?
ARIEL.
- To every article.
- I boarded the King's ship; now on the beak,
- Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
- I flam'd amazement; sometime I'd divide,
- And burn in many places; on the topmast,
- The yards, and boresprit, would I flame distinctly,
- Then meet and join: Jove's lightning, the precursors
- O' th' dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
- And sight-outrunning were not: the fire and cracks
- Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune
- Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble,
- Yea, his dread trident shake.
PROSPERO.
- My brave spirit!
- Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil
- Would not infect his reason?
ARIEL.
- Not a soul
- But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd
- Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners
- Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel,
- Then all afire with me: the King's son, Ferdinand,
- With hair up-staring—then like reeds, not hair—
- Was the first man that leapt; cried 'Hell is empty,
- And all the devils are here.'
PROSPERO.
- Why, that's my spirit!
- But was not this nigh shore?
ARIEL.
- Close by, my master.
PROSPERO.
- But are they, Ariel, safe?
ARIEL.
- Not a hair perish'd;
- On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
- But fresher than before: and, as thou bad'st me,
- In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle.
- The king's son have I landed by himself,
- Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs
- In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting,
- His arms in this sad knot.
PROSPERO.
- Of the King's ship
- The mariners, say how thou hast dispos'd,
- And all the rest o' th' fleet?
ARIEL.
- 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 she's hid:
- The mariners all under hatches stowed;
- Who, with a charm join'd to their suff'red labour,
- I have left asleep: and for the rest o' th' fleet
- Which I dispers'd, they all have met again,
- And are upon the Mediterranean flote
- Bound sadly home for Naples,
- Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrack'd,
- And his great person perish.
PROSPERO.
- Ariel, thy charge
- Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work:
- What is the time o' th' day?
ARIEL.
- Past the mid season.
PROSPERO.
- At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six and now
- Must by us both be spent most preciously.
ARIEL.
- Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains,
- Let me remember thee what thou hast promis'd,
- Which is not yet perform'd me.
PROSPERO.
- How now! moody?
- What is't thou canst demand?
ARIEL.
- My liberty.
PROSPERO.
- Before the time be out! No more!
ARIEL.
- I prithee,
- Remember I have done thee worthy service;
- Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, serv'd
- Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst promise
- To bate me a full year.
PROSPERO.
- Dost thou forget
- From what a torment I did free thee?
ARIEL.
- No.
PROSPERO.
- 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.
ARIEL.
- I do not, sir.
PROSPERO.
- Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou forgot
- The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy
- Was grown into a hoop? Hast thou forgot her?
ARIEL.
- No, sir.
PROSPERO.
- Thou hast. Where was she born?
- Speak; tell me.
ARIEL.
- Sir, in Argier.
PROSPERO.
- 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
- They would not take her life. Is not this true?
ARIEL.
- Ay, sir.
PROSPERO.
- This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought with child,
- And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my slave,
- As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant:
- And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate
- To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands,
- Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee,
- By help of her more potent ministers,
- And in her most unmitigable rage,
- Into a cloven pine; within which rift
- Imprison'd, thou didst painfully remain
- A dozen years; within which space she died,
- And left thee there, where thou didst vent thy groans
- As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this island—
- Save for the son that she did litter here,
- A freckl'd whelp, hag-born—not honour'd with
- A human shape.
ARIEL.
- Yes; Caliban her son.
PROSPERO.
- 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
- Of ever-angry bears: it was a torment
- To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax
- Could not again undo; it was mine art,
- When I arriv'd and heard thee, that made gape
- The pine, and let thee out.
ARIEL.
- I thank thee, master.
PROSPERO.
- 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.
ARIEL.
- Pardon, master:
- I will be correspondent to command,
- And do my spriting gently.
PROSPERO.
- Do so; and after two days
- I will discharge thee.
ARIEL.
- That's my noble master!
- What shall I do? Say what? What shall I do?
PROSPERO.
- 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;
- Awake!
MIRANDA.
- [Waking] The strangeness of your story put
- Heaviness in me.
PROSPERO.
- Shake it off. Come on;
- We'll visit Caliban my slave, who never
- Yields us kind answer.
MIRANDA.
- 'Tis a villain, sir,
- I do not love to look on.
PROSPERO.
- But as 'tis,
- We cannot miss him: he does make our fire,
- Fetch in our wood; and serves in offices
- That profit us.—What ho! slave! Caliban!
- Thou earth, thou! Speak.
CALIBAN.
- [Within] There's wood enough within.
PROSPERO.
- Come forth, I say; there's other business for thee:
- Come, thou tortoise! when?
[Re-enter ARIEL like a water-nymph.]
Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel,
- Hark in thine ear.
ARIEL.
- My lord, it shall be done.
[Exit]
PROSPERO.
- Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself
- Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!
[Enter CALIBAN]
CALIBAN.
- As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd
- With raven's feather from unwholesome fen
- Drop on you both! A south-west blow on ye,
- And blister you all o'er!
PROSPERO.
- For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps,
- Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins
- Shall forth at vast of night that they may work
- All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch'd
- As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging
- Than bees that made them.
CALIBAN.
- I must eat my dinner.
- This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,
- Which thou tak'st from me. When thou cam'st first,
- Thou strok'st me and made much of me; wouldst give me
- Water with berries in't; and teach me how
- To name the bigger light, and how the less,
- That burn by day and night: and then I lov'd thee,
- And show'd thee all the qualities o' th' isle,
- The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place, and fertile.
- Curs'd be I that did so! All the charms
- Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
- For I am all the subjects that you have,
- Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me
- In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
- The rest o' th' island.
PROSPERO.
- Thou most lying slave,
- Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have us'd thee,
- Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodg'd thee
- In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate
- The honour of my child.
CALIBAN.
- Oh ho! Oh ho! Would it had been done!
- Thou didst prevent me; I had peopl'd else
- This isle with Calibans.
PROSPERO.
- Abhorred slave,
- Which any print of goodness wilt not take,
- Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,
- Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
- One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage,
- Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
- A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes
- With words that made them known: but thy vile race,
- Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures
- Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou
- Deservedly confin'd into this rock, who hadst
- Deserv'd more than a prison.
CALIBAN.
- You taught me language, and my profit on't
- Is, I know how to curse: the red plague rid you,
- For learning me your language!
PROSPERO.
- Hag-seed, hence!
- Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou 'rt best,
- To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice?
- If thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly
- What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps,
- Fill all thy bones with aches; make thee roar,
- That beasts shall tremble at thy din.
CALIBAN.
- No, pray thee.—
- [Aside] I must obey. His art is of such power,
- It would control my dam's god, Setebos,
- And make a vassal of him.
PROSPERO.
- So, slave: hence!
[Exit CALIBAN]
[Re-enter ARIEL invisible, playing and singing;
- FERDINAND following]
[ARIEL'S SONG.]
- Come unto these yellow sands,
- And then take hands:
- Curtsied when you have, and kiss'd,—
- The wild waves whist,—
- Foot it featly here and there;
- And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.
- Hark, hark!
- [Burden: Bow, wow, dispersedly.]
- The watch dogs bark:
- [Burden: Bow, wow, dispersedly.]
- Hark, hark! I hear
- The strain of strutting Chanticleer
- [Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow.]
FERDINAND.
- Where should this music be? i' th' air or th' earth?
- It sounds no more;—and sure it waits upon
- Some god o' th' island. Sitting on a bank,
- Weeping again the king my father's wrack,
- This music crept by me upon the waters,
- Allaying both their fury and my passion,
- With its sweet air: thence I have follow'd it,—
- Or it hath drawn me rather,—but 'tis gone.
- No, it begins again.
[ARIEL sings]
- Full fathom five thy father lies:
- Of his bones are coral made:
- Those are pearls that were his eyes:
- Nothing of him that doth fade
- But doth suffer a sea-change
- Into something rich and strange.
- Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
- [Burden: Ding-dong.]
- Hark! now I hear them—ding-dong, bell.
FERDINAND.
- The ditty does remember my drown'd father.
- This is no mortal business, nor no sound
- That the earth owes:—I hear it now above me.
PROSPERO.
- The fringed curtains of thine eye advance,
- And say what thou seest yond.
MIRANDA.
- What is't? a spirit?
- Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir,
- It carries a brave form:—but 'tis a spirit.
PROSPERO.
- No, wench; it eats and sleeps, and hath such senses
- As we have, such; this gallant which thou see'st
- Was in the wrack; and but he's something stain'd
- With grief,—that beauty's canker,—thou mightst call him
- A goodly person: he hath lost his fellows
- And strays about to find 'em.
MIRANDA.
- I might call him
- A thing divine; for nothing natural
- I ever saw so noble.
PROSPERO.
- [Aside] It goes on, I see,
- As my soul prompts it.—Spirit, fine spirit! I'll free thee
- Within two days for this.
FERDINAND.
- Most sure, the goddess
- On whom these airs attend!—Vouchsafe, my prayer
- May know if you remain upon this island;
- And that you will some good instruction give
- How I may bear me here: my prime request,
- Which I do last pronounce, is,—O you wonder!—
- If you be maid or no?
MIRANDA.
- No wonder, sir;
- But certainly a maid.
FERDINAND.
- My language! Heavens!—
- I am the best of them that speak this speech,
- Were I but where 'tis spoken.
PROSPERO.
- How! the best?
- What wert thou, if the King of Naples heard thee?
FERDINAND.
- A single thing, as I am now, that wonders
- To hear thee speak of Naples. He does hear me;
- And, that he does, I weep: myself am Naples,
- Who with mine eyes,—never since at ebb,—beheld
- The King, my father wrack'd.
MIRANDA.
- Alack, for mercy!
FERDINAND.
- Yes, faith, and all his lords, the Duke of Milan,
- And his brave son being twain.
PROSPERO.
- [Aside.] The Duke of Milan,
- And his more braver daughter could control thee,
- If now 'twere fit to do't.—At the first sight [Aside.]
- They have changed eyes;—delicate Ariel,
- I'll set thee free for this!—[To FERDINAND] A word, good sir:
- I fear you have done yourself some wrong: a word.
MIRANDA.
- [Aside.] Why speaks my father so ungently? This
- Is the third man that e'er I saw; the first
- That e'er I sigh'd for; pity move my father
- To be inclin'd my way!
FERDINAND.
- [Aside.] O! if a virgin,
- And your affection not gone forth, I'll make you
- The Queen of Naples.
PROSPERO.
- Soft, sir; one word more—
- [Aside] They are both in either's powers: but this swift
- business I must uneasy make, lest too light winning
- Make the prize light. [To FERDINAND] One word more:
- I charge thee
- That thou attend me. Thou dost here usurp
- The name thou ow'st not; and hast put thyself
- Upon this island as a spy, to win it
- From me, the lord on't.
FERDINAND.
- No, as I am a man.
MIRANDA.
- There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple:
- If the ill spirit have so fair a house,
- Good things will strive to dwell with't.
PROSPERO.
- {To FERDINAND] Follow me.—
- [To MIRANDA] Speak not you for him; he's a traitor.—
- [To FERDINAND] Come;
- I'll manacle thy neck and feet together:
- Sea-water shalt thou drink; thy food shall be
- The fresh-brook mussels, wither'd roots, and husks
- Wherein the acorn cradled. Follow.
FERDINAND.
- No;
- I will resist such entertainment till
- Mine enemy has more power.
[He draws, and is charmed from moving.]
MIRANDA.
- O dear father!
- Make not too rash a trial of him, for
- He's gentle, and not fearful.
PROSPERO.
- What! I say,
- My foot my tutor? Put thy sword up, traitor;
- Who mak'st a show, but dar'st not strike, thy conscience
- Is so possess'd with guilt: come from thy ward,
- For I can here disarm thee with this stick
- And make thy weapon drop.
MIRANDA.
- Beseech you, father!
PROSPERO.
- Hence! Hang not on my garments.
MIRANDA.
- Sir, have pity;
- I'll be his surety.
PROSPERO.
- Silence! One word more
- Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What!
- An advocate for an impostor? hush!
- Thou think'st there is no more such shapes as he,
- Having seen but him and Caliban: foolish wench!
- To the most of men this is a Caliban,
- And they to him are angels.
MIRANDA.
- My affections
- Are then most humble; I have no ambition
- To see a goodlier man.
PROSPERO.
- [To FERDINAND] Come on; obey:
- Thy nerves are in their infancy again,
- And have no vigour in them.
FERDINAND.
- So they are:
- My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up.
- My father's loss, the weakness which I feel,
- The wrack of all my friends, nor this man's threats,
- To whom I am subdued, are but light to me,
- Might I but through my prison once a day
- Behold this maid: all corners else o' th' earth
- Let liberty make use of; space enough
- Have I in such a prison.
PROSPERO.
- [Aside] It works.—[To FERDINAND] Come on.—
- Thou hast done well, fine Ariel! [To FERDINAND] Follow me.—
- [To ARIEL] Hark what thou else shalt do me.
MIRANDA.
- Be of comfort;
- My father's of a better nature, sir,
- Than he appears by speech: this is unwonted,
- Which now came from him.
PROSPERO.
- Thou shalt be as free
- As mountain winds; but then exactly do
- All points of my command.
ARIEL.
- To the syllable.
PROSPERO.
- [To FERDINAND] Come, follow.—Speak not for him.
[Exeunt]