The Tempest

Players:

ACT I

ACT I, SCENE I. On a ship at sea:

[a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.]

[Enter a Master and a Boatswain]

  • 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 the
  • 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, boatswain?
  • 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 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.
  • [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 hanged, our case is miserable.
  • [Exeunt]

  • [Re-enter Boatswain]

  • Boatswain:

  • 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.
  • [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!
  • Boatswain:

  • What, must our mouths be cold?
  • GONZALO:

  • The king and prince at prayers! let's assist them,
  • For our case is as theirs.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • I'm out of patience.
  • ANTONIO:

  • We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards:
  • This wide-chapp'd rascal--would thou mightst 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 widest 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 with the king.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Let's take leave of him.
  • [Exeunt ANTONIO and SEBASTIAN]

  • 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 a dry death.
  • [Exeunt]

ACT I, SCENE II. The island. Before PROSPERO'S cell.

[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 the 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 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.
  • 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 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.
  • 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 remember'st aught ere thou camest here,
  • How thou camest 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 thou 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 heaved thence,
  • But blessedly holp hither.
  • MIRANDA:

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

  • Sir, most heedfully.
  • PROSPERO:

  • 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.
  • 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 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
  • 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?
  • 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' 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.
  • 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.
  • The 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,
  • The ministers for the purpose hurried thence
  • Me and thy crying self.
  • MIRANDA:

  • 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.
  • PROSPERO:

  • 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.
  • 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 had quit it: there they hoist us,
  • To cry to the sea that roar'd to us, to sigh
  • To the winds whose pity, sighing back again,
  • Did us but loving wrong.
  • MIRANDA:

  • Alack, what trouble
  • Was I then to you!
  • PROSPERO:

  • O, a cherubim
  • 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 burthen groan'd; which raised 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, 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 loved 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 arrived; and here
  • Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit
  • Than other princesses 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 inclined 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 flamed amazement: sometime I'ld divide,
  • And burn in many places; on the topmast,
  • The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
  • Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors
  • O' the 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 leap'd; 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 badest me,
  • In troops I have dispersed 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 disposed
  • And all the rest o' the 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 stow'd;
  • Who, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour,
  • I have left asleep; and for the rest o' the fleet
  • Which I dispersed, they all have met again
  • And are upon the Mediterranean flote,
  • Bound sadly home for Naples,
  • Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd
  • And his great person perish.
  • PROSPERO:

  • Ariel, thy charge
  • Exactly is perform'd: but there's more work.
  • What is the time o' the 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 promised,
  • 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 thee no mistakings, served
  • 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' the earth
  • When it is baked 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-eyed 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 freckled 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 arrived 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 spiriting 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' the 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:

  • 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, for that 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 'em.
  • CALIBAN:

  • I must eat my dinner.
  • This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,
  • Which thou takest from me. When thou camest first,
  • Thou strokedst me and madest 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 loved thee
  • And show'd thee all the qualities o' the isle,
  • The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile:
  • Cursed 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' the island.
  • PROSPERO:

  • Thou most lying slave,
  • Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have used thee,
  • Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodged thee
  • In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate
  • The honour of my child.
  • CALIBAN:

  • O ho, O ho! would't had been done!
  • Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled 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 confined into this rock,
  • Who hadst deserved 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:
  • Courtsied when you have and kiss'd
  • The wild waves whist,
  • Foot it featly here and there;
  • And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear.
  • Hark, hark!
  • [Burthen dispersedly, within]

  • The watch-dogs bark!
  • [Burthen Bow-wow]

  • Hark, hark! I hear
  • The strain of strutting chanticleer
  • Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow.
  • FERDINAND:

  • Where should this music be? i' the air or the earth?
  • It sounds no more: and sure, it waits upon
  • Some god o' the island. Sitting on a bank,
  • Weeping again the king my father's wreck,
  • 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
  • [Burthen 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 seest
  • Was in the wreck; and, but he's something stain'd
  • With grief that's 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 wreck'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
  • 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:

  • 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 inclined my way!
  • FERDINAND:

  • 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 owest 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:

  • Follow me.
  • Speak not you for him; he's a traitor. Come;
  • I'll manacle thy neck and feet together:
  • Sea-water shalt thou drink; thy food shall be
  • The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots and husks
  • Wherein the acorn cradled. Follow.
  • FERDINAND:

  • No;
  • I will resist such entertainment till
  • Mine enemy has more power.
  • [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 makest a show but darest 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 imposter! 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:

  • 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 wreck 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' the 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 free
  • As mountain winds: but then exactly do
  • All points of my command.
  • ARIEL:

  • To the syllable.
  • PROSPERO:

  • Come, follow. Speak not for him.
  • [Exeunt]

ACT II

ACT II, SCENE I. Another part of the island.

[Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and others]

  • GONZALO:

  • Beseech you, sir, be merry; you have cause,
  • So have we all, of joy; for our escape
  • Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe
  • Is common; every day some sailor's wife,
  • The masters of some merchant and the merchant
  • Have just our theme of woe; but for the miracle,
  • I mean our preservation, few in millions
  • Can speak like us: then wisely, good sir, weigh
  • Our sorrow with our comfort.
  • ALONSO:

  • Prithee, peace.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • He receives comfort like cold porridge.
  • ANTONIO:

  • The visitor will not give him o'er so.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Look he's winding up the watch of his wit;
  • by and by it will strike.
  • GONZALO:

  • Sir,--
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • One: tell.
  • GONZALO:

  • When every grief is entertain'd that's offer'd,
  • Comes to the entertainer--
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • A dollar.
  • GONZALO:

  • Dolour comes to him, indeed: you
  • have spoken truer than you purposed.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should.
  • GONZALO:

  • Therefore, my lord,--
  • ANTONIO:

  • Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue!
  • ALONSO:

  • I prithee, spare.
  • GONZALO:

  • Well, I have done: but yet,--
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • He will be talking.
  • ANTONIO:

  • Which, of he or Adrian, for a good
  • wager, first begins to crow?
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • The old cock.
  • ANTONIO:

  • The cockerel.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Done. The wager?
  • ANTONIO:

  • A laughter.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • A match!
  • ADRIAN:

  • Though this island seem to be desert,--
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Ha, ha, ha! So, you're paid.
  • ADRIAN:

  • Uninhabitable and almost inaccessible,--
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Yet,--
  • ADRIAN:

  • Yet,--
  • ANTONIO:

  • He could not miss't.
  • ADRIAN:

  • It must needs be of subtle, tender and delicate
  • temperance.
  • ANTONIO:

  • Temperance was a delicate wench.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly delivered.
  • ADRIAN:

  • The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • As if it had lungs and rotten ones.
  • ANTONIO:

  • Or as 'twere perfumed by a fen.
  • GONZALO:

  • Here is everything advantageous to life.
  • ANTONIO:

  • True; save means to live.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Of that there's none, or little.
  • GONZALO:

  • How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!
  • ANTONIO:

  • The ground indeed is tawny.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • With an eye of green in't.
  • ANTONIO:

  • He misses not much.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • No; he doth but mistake the truth totally.
  • GONZALO:

  • But the rarity of it is,--which is indeed almost
  • beyond credit,--
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • As many vouched rarities are.
  • GONZALO:

  • That our garments, being, as they were, drenched in
  • the sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness and
  • glosses, being rather new-dyed than stained with
  • salt water.
  • ANTONIO:

  • If but one of his pockets could speak, would it not
  • say he lies?
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report
  • GONZALO:

  • Methinks our garments are now as fresh as when we
  • put them on first in Afric, at the marriage of
  • the king's fair daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • 'Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our return.
  • ADRIAN:

  • Tunis was never graced before with such a paragon to
  • their queen.
  • GONZALO:

  • Not since widow Dido's time.
  • ANTONIO:

  • Widow! a pox o' that! How came that widow in?
  • widow Dido!
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • What if he had said 'widower AEneas' too? Good Lord,
  • how you take it!
  • ADRIAN:

  • 'Widow Dido' said you? you make me study of that:
  • she was of Carthage, not of Tunis.
  • GONZALO:

  • This Tunis, sir, was Carthage.
  • ADRIAN:

  • Carthage?
  • GONZALO:

  • I assure you, Carthage.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • His word is more than the miraculous harp; he hath
  • raised the wall and houses too.
  • ANTONIO:

  • What impossible matter will he make easy next?
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • I think he will carry this island home in his pocket
  • and give it his son for an apple.
  • ANTONIO:

  • And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring
  • forth more islands.
  • GONZALO:

  • Ay.
  • ANTONIO:

  • Why, in good time.
  • GONZALO:

  • Sir, we were talking that our garments seem now
  • as fresh as when we were at Tunis at the marriage
  • of your daughter, who is now queen.
  • ANTONIO:

  • And the rarest that e'er came there.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido.
  • ANTONIO:

  • O, widow Dido! ay, widow Dido.
  • GONZALO:

  • Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I
  • wore it? I mean, in a sort.
  • ANTONIO:

  • That sort was well fished for.
  • GONZALO:

  • When I wore it at your daughter's marriage?
  • ALONSO:

  • You cram these words into mine ears against
  • The stomach of my sense. Would I had never
  • Married my daughter there! for, coming thence,
  • My son is lost and, in my rate, she too,
  • Who is so far from Italy removed
  • I ne'er again shall see her. O thou mine heir
  • Of Naples and of Milan, what strange fish
  • Hath made his meal on thee?
  • FRANCISCO:

  • Sir, he may live:
  • I saw him beat the surges under him,
  • And ride upon their backs; he trod the water,
  • Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted
  • The surge most swoln that met him; his bold head
  • 'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar'd
  • Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke
  • To the shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis bow'd,
  • As stooping to relieve him: I not doubt
  • He came alive to land.
  • ALONSO:

  • No, no, he's gone.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss,
  • That would not bless our Europe with your daughter,
  • But rather lose her to an African;
  • Where she at least is banish'd from your eye,
  • Who hath cause to wet the grief on't.
  • ALONSO:

  • Prithee, peace.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • You were kneel'd to and importuned otherwise
  • By all of us, and the fair soul herself
  • Weigh'd between loathness and obedience, at
  • Which end o' the beam should bow. We have lost your
  • son,
  • I fear, for ever: Milan and Naples have
  • More widows in them of this business' making
  • Than we bring men to comfort them:
  • The fault's your own.
  • ALONSO:

  • So is the dear'st o' the loss.
  • GONZALO:

  • My lord Sebastian,
  • The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness
  • And time to speak it in: you rub the sore,
  • When you should bring the plaster.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Very well.
  • ANTONIO:

  • And most chirurgeonly.
  • GONZALO:

  • It is foul weather in us all, good sir,
  • When you are cloudy.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Foul weather?
  • ANTONIO:

  • Very foul.
  • GONZALO:

  • Had I plantation of this isle, my lord,--
  • ANTONIO:

  • He'ld sow't with nettle-seed.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Or docks, or mallows.
  • GONZALO:

  • And were the king on't, what would I do?
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • 'Scape being drunk for want of wine.
  • GONZALO:

  • I' the commonwealth I would by contraries
  • Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
  • Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
  • Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
  • And use of service, none; contract, succession,
  • Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
  • No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
  • No occupation; all men idle, all;
  • And women too, but innocent and pure;
  • No sovereignty;--
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Yet he would be king on't.
  • ANTONIO:

  • The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the
  • beginning.
  • GONZALO:

  • All things in common nature should produce
  • Without sweat or endeavour: treason, felony,
  • Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,
  • Would I not have; but nature should bring forth,
  • Of its own kind, all foison, all abundance,
  • To feed my innocent people.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • No marrying 'mong his subjects?
  • ANTONIO:

  • None, man; all idle: whores and knaves.
  • GONZALO:

  • I would with such perfection govern, sir,
  • To excel the golden age.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • God save his majesty!
  • ANTONIO:

  • Long live Gonzalo!
  • GONZALO:

  • And,--do you mark me, sir?
  • ALONSO:

  • Prithee, no more: thou dost talk nothing to me.
  • GONZALO:

  • I do well believe your highness; and
  • did it to minister occasion to these gentlemen,
  • who are of such sensible and nimble lungs that
  • they always use to laugh at nothing.
  • ANTONIO:

  • 'Twas you we laughed at.
  • GONZALO:

  • Who in this kind of merry fooling am nothing
  • to you: so you may continue and laugh at
  • nothing still.
  • ANTONIO:

  • What a blow was there given!
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • An it had not fallen flat-long.
  • GONZALO:

  • You are gentlemen of brave metal; you would lift
  • the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue
  • in it five weeks without changing.
  • [Enter ARIEL, invisible, playing solemn music]

  • SEBASTIAN:

  • We would so, and then go a bat-fowling.
  • ANTONIO:

  • Nay, good my lord, be not angry.
  • GONZALO:

  • No, I warrant you; I will not adventure
  • my discretion so weakly. Will you laugh
  • me asleep, for I am very heavy?
  • ANTONIO:

  • Go sleep, and hear us.
  • [All sleep except ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, and ANTONIO]

  • ALONSO:

  • What, all so soon asleep! I wish mine eyes
  • Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts: I find
  • They are inclined to do so.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Please you, sir,
  • Do not omit the heavy offer of it:
  • It seldom visits sorrow; when it doth,
  • It is a comforter.
  • ANTONIO:

  • We two, my lord,
  • Will guard your person while you take your rest,
  • And watch your safety.
  • ALONSO:

  • Thank you. Wondrous heavy.
  • [ALONSO sleeps. Exit ARIEL]

  • SEBASTIAN:

  • What a strange drowsiness possesses them!
  • ANTONIO:

  • It is the quality o' the climate.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Why
  • Doth it not then our eyelids sink? I find not
  • Myself disposed to sleep.
  • ANTONIO:

  • Nor I; my spirits are nimble.
  • They fell together all, as by consent;
  • They dropp'd, as by a thunder-stroke. What might,
  • Worthy Sebastian? O, what might?--No more:--
  • And yet me thinks I see it in thy face,
  • What thou shouldst be: the occasion speaks thee, and
  • My strong imagination sees a crown
  • Dropping upon thy head.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • What, art thou waking?
  • ANTONIO:

  • Do you not hear me speak?
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • I do; and surely
  • It is a sleepy language and thou speak'st
  • Out of thy sleep. What is it thou didst say?
  • This is a strange repose, to be asleep
  • With eyes wide open; standing, speaking, moving,
  • And yet so fast asleep.
  • ANTONIO:

  • Noble Sebastian,
  • Thou let'st thy fortune sleep--die, rather; wink'st
  • Whiles thou art waking.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Thou dost snore distinctly;
  • There's meaning in thy snores.
  • ANTONIO:

  • I am more serious than my custom: you
  • Must be so too, if heed me; which to do
  • Trebles thee o'er.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Well, I am standing water.
  • ANTONIO:

  • I'll teach you how to flow.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Do so: to ebb
  • Hereditary sloth instructs me.
  • ANTONIO:

  • O,
  • If you but knew how you the purpose cherish
  • Whiles thus you mock it! how, in stripping it,
  • You more invest it! Ebbing men, indeed,
  • Most often do so near the bottom run
  • By their own fear or sloth.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Prithee, say on:
  • The setting of thine eye and cheek proclaim
  • A matter from thee, and a birth indeed
  • Which throes thee much to yield.
  • ANTONIO:

  • Thus, sir:
  • Although this lord of weak remembrance, this,
  • Who shall be of as little memory
  • When he is earth'd, hath here almost persuade,--
  • For he's a spirit of persuasion, only
  • Professes to persuade,--the king his son's alive,
  • 'Tis as impossible that he's undrown'd
  • And he that sleeps here swims.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • I have no hope
  • That he's undrown'd.
  • ANTONIO:

  • O, out of that 'no hope'
  • What great hope have you! no hope that way is
  • Another way so high a hope that even
  • Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,
  • But doubt discovery there. Will you grant with me
  • That Ferdinand is drown'd?
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • He's gone.
  • ANTONIO:

  • Then, tell me,
  • Who's the next heir of Naples?
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Claribel.
  • ANTONIO:

  • She that is queen of Tunis; she that dwells
  • Ten leagues beyond man's life; she that from Naples
  • Can have no note, unless the sun were post--
  • The man i' the moon's too slow--till new-born chins
  • Be rough and razorable; she that--from whom?
  • We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast again,
  • And by that destiny to perform an act
  • Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come
  • In yours and my discharge.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • What stuff is this! how say you?
  • 'Tis true, my brother's daughter's queen of Tunis;
  • So is she heir of Naples; 'twixt which regions
  • There is some space.
  • ANTONIO:

  • A space whose every cubit
  • Seems to cry out, 'How shall that Claribel
  • Measure us back to Naples? Keep in Tunis,
  • And let Sebastian wake.' Say, this were death
  • That now hath seized them; why, they were no worse
  • Than now they are. There be that can rule Naples
  • As well as he that sleeps; lords that can prate
  • As amply and unnecessarily
  • As this Gonzalo; I myself could make
  • A chough of as deep chat. O, that you bore
  • The mind that I do! what a sleep were this
  • For your advancement! Do you understand me?
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Methinks I do.
  • ANTONIO:

  • And how does your content
  • Tender your own good fortune?
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • I remember
  • You did supplant your brother Prospero.
  • ANTONIO:

  • True:
  • And look how well my garments sit upon me;
  • Much feater than before: my brother's servants
  • Were then my fellows; now they are my men.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • But, for your conscience?
  • ANTONIO:

  • Ay, sir; where lies that? if 'twere a kibe,
  • 'Twould put me to my slipper: but I feel not
  • This deity in my bosom: twenty consciences,
  • That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candied be they
  • And melt ere they molest! Here lies your brother,
  • No better than the earth he lies upon,
  • If he were that which now he's like, that's dead;
  • Whom I, with this obedient steel, three inches of it,
  • Can lay to bed for ever; whiles you, doing thus,
  • To the perpetual wink for aye might put
  • This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence, who
  • Should not upbraid our course. For all the rest,
  • They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk;
  • They'll tell the clock to any business that
  • We say befits the hour.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Thy case, dear friend,
  • Shall be my precedent; as thou got'st Milan,
  • I'll come by Naples. Draw thy sword: one stroke
  • Shall free thee from the tribute which thou payest;
  • And I the king shall love thee.
  • ANTONIO:

  • Draw together;
  • And when I rear my hand, do you the like,
  • To fall it on Gonzalo.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • O, but one word.
  • [They talk apart]

  • [Re-enter ARIEL, invisible]

  • ARIEL:

  • My master through his art foresees the danger
  • That you, his friend, are in; and sends me forth--
  • For else his project dies--to keep them living.
  • [Sings in GONZALO's ear]

  • While you here do snoring lie,
  • Open-eyed conspiracy
  • His time doth take.
  • If of life you keep a care,
  • Shake off slumber, and beware:
  • Awake, awake!
  • ANTONIO:

  • Then let us both be sudden.
  • GONZALO:

  • Now, good angels
  • Preserve the king.
  • [They wake]

  • ALONSO:

  • Why, how now? ho, awake! Why are you drawn?
  • Wherefore this ghastly looking?
  • GONZALO:

  • What's the matter?
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Whiles we stood here securing your repose,
  • Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing
  • Like bulls, or rather lions: did't not wake you?
  • It struck mine ear most terribly.
  • ALONSO:

  • I heard nothing.
  • ANTONIO:

  • O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear,
  • To make an earthquake! sure, it was the roar
  • Of a whole herd of lions.
  • ALONSO:

  • Heard you this, Gonzalo?
  • GONZALO:

  • Upon mine honour, sir, I heard a humming,
  • And that a strange one too, which did awake me:
  • I shaked you, sir, and cried: as mine eyes open'd,
  • I saw their weapons drawn: there was a noise,
  • That's verily. 'Tis best we stand upon our guard,
  • Or that we quit this place; let's draw our weapons.
  • ALONSO:

  • Lead off this ground; and let's make further search
  • For my poor son.
  • GONZALO:

  • Heavens keep him from these beasts!
  • For he is, sure, i' the island.
  • ALONSO:

  • Lead away.
  • ARIEL:

  • Prospero my lord shall know what I have done:
  • So, king, go safely on to seek thy son.
  • [Exeunt]

ACT II, SCENE II. Another part of the island.

[Enter CALIBAN with a burden of wood. A noise of thunder heard]

  • CALIBAN:

  • All the infections that the sun sucks up
  • From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall and make him
  • By inch-meal a disease! His spirits hear me
  • And yet I needs must curse. But they'll nor pinch,
  • Fright me with urchin--shows, pitch me i' the mire,
  • Nor lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark
  • Out of my way, unless he bid 'em; but
  • For every trifle are they set upon me;
  • Sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me
  • And after bite me, then like hedgehogs which
  • Lie tumbling in my barefoot way and mount
  • Their pricks at my footfall; sometime am I
  • All wound with adders who with cloven tongues
  • Do hiss me into madness.
  • [Enter TRINCULO]

  • Lo, now, lo!
  • Here comes a spirit of his, and to torment me
  • For bringing wood in slowly. I'll fall flat;
  • Perchance he will not mind me.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Here's neither bush nor shrub, to bear off
  • any weather at all, and another storm brewing;
  • I hear it sing i' the wind: yond same black
  • cloud, yond huge one, looks like a foul
  • bombard that would shed his liquor. If it
  • should thunder as it did before, I know not
  • where to hide my head: yond same cloud cannot
  • choose but fall by pailfuls. What have we
  • here? a man or a fish? dead or alive? A fish:
  • he smells like a fish; a very ancient and fish-
  • like smell; a kind of not of the newest Poor-
  • John. A strange fish! Were I in England now,
  • as once I was, and had but this fish painted,
  • not a holiday fool there but would give a piece
  • of silver: there would this monster make a
  • man; any strange beast there makes a man:
  • when they will not give a doit to relieve a lame
  • beggar, they will lazy out ten to see a dead
  • Indian. Legged like a man and his fins like
  • arms! Warm o' my troth! I do now let loose
  • my opinion; hold it no longer: this is no fish,
  • but an islander, that hath lately suffered by a
  • thunderbolt.
  • [Thunder]

  • Alas, the storm is come again! my best way is to
  • creep under his gaberdine; there is no other
  • shelter hereabouts: misery acquaints a man with
  • strange bed-fellows. I will here shroud till the
  • dregs of the storm be past.
  • [Enter STEPHANO, singing: a bottle in his hand]

  • STEPHANO:

  • I shall no more to sea, to sea,
  • Here shall I die ashore--
  • This is a very scurvy tune to sing at a man's
  • funeral: well, here's my comfort.
  • [Drinks]

  • [Sings]

  • The master, the swabber, the boatswain and I,
  • The gunner and his mate
  • Loved Mall, Meg and Marian and Margery,
  • But none of us cared for Kate;
  • For she had a tongue with a tang,
  • Would cry to a sailor, Go hang!
  • She loved not the savour of tar nor of pitch,
  • Yet a tailor might scratch her where'er she did itch:
  • Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang!
  • This is a scurvy tune too: but here's my comfort.
  • [Drinks]

  • CALIBAN:

  • Do not torment me: Oh!
  • STEPHANO:

  • What's the matter? Have we devils here? Do you put
  • tricks upon's with savages and men of Ind, ha? I
  • have not scaped drowning to be afeard now of your
  • four legs; for it hath been said, As proper a man as
  • ever went on four legs cannot make him give ground;
  • and it shall be said so again while Stephano
  • breathes at's nostrils.
  • CALIBAN:

  • The spirit torments me; Oh!
  • STEPHANO:

  • This is some monster of the isle with four legs, who
  • hath got, as I take it, an ague. Where the devil
  • should he learn our language? I will give him some
  • relief, if it be but for that. if I can recover him
  • and keep him tame and get to Naples with him, he's a
  • present for any emperor that ever trod on neat's leather.
  • CALIBAN:

  • Do not torment me, prithee; I'll bring my wood home faster.
  • STEPHANO:

  • He's in his fit now and does not talk after the
  • wisest. He shall taste of my bottle: if he have
  • never drunk wine afore will go near to remove his
  • fit. If I can recover him and keep him tame, I will
  • not take too much for him; he shall pay for him that
  • hath him, and that soundly.
  • CALIBAN:

  • Thou dost me yet but little hurt; thou wilt anon, I
  • know it by thy trembling: now Prosper works upon thee.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Come on your ways; open your mouth; here is that
  • which will give language to you, cat: open your
  • mouth; this will shake your shaking, I can tell you,
  • and that soundly: you cannot tell who's your friend:
  • open your chaps again.
  • TRINCULO:

  • I should know that voice: it should be--but he is
  • drowned; and these are devils: O defend me!
  • STEPHANO:

  • Four legs and two voices: a most delicate monster!
  • His forward voice now is to speak well of his
  • friend; his backward voice is to utter foul speeches
  • and to detract. If all the wine in my bottle will
  • recover him, I will help his ague. Come. Amen! I
  • will pour some in thy other mouth.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Stephano!
  • STEPHANO:

  • Doth thy other mouth call me? Mercy, mercy! This is
  • a devil, and no monster: I will leave him; I have no
  • long spoon.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Stephano! If thou beest Stephano, touch me and
  • speak to me: for I am Trinculo--be not afeard--thy
  • good friend Trinculo.
  • STEPHANO:

  • If thou beest Trinculo, come forth: I'll pull thee
  • by the lesser legs: if any be Trinculo's legs,
  • these are they. Thou art very Trinculo indeed! How
  • camest thou to be the siege of this moon-calf? can
  • he vent Trinculos?
  • TRINCULO:

  • I took him to be killed with a thunder-stroke. But
  • art thou not drowned, Stephano? I hope now thou art
  • not drowned. Is the storm overblown? I hid me
  • under the dead moon-calf's gaberdine for fear of
  • the storm. And art thou living, Stephano? O
  • Stephano, two Neapolitans 'scaped!
  • STEPHANO:

  • Prithee, do not turn me about; my stomach is not constant.
  • CALIBAN:

  • [Aside]

  • These be fine things, an if they be
  • not sprites.
  • That's a brave god and bears celestial liquor.
  • I will kneel to him.
  • STEPHANO:

  • How didst thou 'scape? How camest thou hither?
  • swear by this bottle how thou camest hither. I
  • escaped upon a butt of sack which the sailors
  • heaved o'erboard, by this bottle; which I made of
  • the bark of a tree with mine own hands since I was
  • cast ashore.
  • CALIBAN:

  • I'll swear upon that bottle to be thy true subject;
  • for the liquor is not earthly.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Here; swear then how thou escapedst.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Swum ashore. man, like a duck: I can swim like a
  • duck, I'll be sworn.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Here, kiss the book. Though thou canst swim like a
  • duck, thou art made like a goose.
  • TRINCULO:

  • O Stephano. hast any more of this?
  • STEPHANO:

  • The whole butt, man: my cellar is in a rock by the
  • sea-side where my wine is hid. How now, moon-calf!
  • how does thine ague?
  • CALIBAN:

  • Hast thou not dropp'd from heaven?
  • STEPHANO:

  • Out o' the moon, I do assure thee: I was the man i'
  • the moon when time was.
  • CALIBAN:

  • I have seen thee in her and I do adore thee:
  • My mistress show'd me thee and thy dog and thy bush.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Come, swear to that; kiss the book: I will furnish
  • it anon with new contents swear.
  • TRINCULO:

  • By this good light, this is a very shallow monster!
  • I afeard of him! A very weak monster! The man i'
  • the moon! A most poor credulous monster! Well
  • drawn, monster, in good sooth!
  • CALIBAN:

  • I'll show thee every fertile inch o' th' island;
  • And I will kiss thy foot: I prithee, be my god.
  • TRINCULO:

  • By this light, a most perfidious and drunken
  • monster! when 's god's asleep, he'll rob his bottle.
  • CALIBAN:

  • I'll kiss thy foot; I'll swear myself thy subject.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Come on then; down, and swear.
  • TRINCULO:

  • I shall laugh myself to death at this puppy-headed
  • monster. A most scurvy monster! I could find in my
  • heart to beat him,--
  • STEPHANO:

  • Come, kiss.
  • TRINCULO:

  • But that the poor monster's in drink: an abominable monster!
  • CALIBAN:

  • I'll show thee the best springs; I'll pluck thee berries;
  • I'll fish for thee and get thee wood enough.
  • A plague upon the tyrant that I serve!
  • I'll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee,
  • Thou wondrous man.
  • TRINCULO:

  • A most ridiculous monster, to make a wonder of a
  • Poor drunkard!
  • CALIBAN:

  • I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs grow;
  • And I with my long nails will dig thee pignuts;
  • Show thee a jay's nest and instruct thee how
  • To snare the nimble marmoset; I'll bring thee
  • To clustering filberts and sometimes I'll get thee
  • Young scamels from the rock. Wilt thou go with me?
  • STEPHANO:

  • I prithee now, lead the way without any more
  • talking. Trinculo, the king and all our company
  • else being drowned, we will inherit here: here;
  • bear my bottle: fellow Trinculo, we'll fill him by
  • and by again.
  • CALIBAN:

  • [Sings drunkenly]

  • Farewell master; farewell, farewell!
  • TRINCULO:

  • A howling monster: a drunken monster!
  • CALIBAN:

  • No more dams I'll make for fish
  • Nor fetch in firing
  • At requiring;
  • Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish
  • 'Ban, 'Ban, Cacaliban
  • Has a new master: get a new man.
  • Freedom, hey-day! hey-day, freedom! freedom,
  • hey-day, freedom!
  • STEPHANO:

  • O brave monster! Lead the way.
  • [Exeunt]

ACT III

ACT III, SCENE I. Before PROSPERO'S Cell.

[Enter FERDINAND, bearing a log]

  • FERDINAND:

  • There be some sports are painful, and their labour
  • Delight in them sets off: some kinds of baseness
  • Are nobly undergone and most poor matters
  • Point to rich ends. This my mean task
  • Would be as heavy to me as odious, but
  • The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead
  • And makes my labours pleasures: O, she is
  • Ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed,
  • And he's composed of harshness. I must remove
  • Some thousands of these logs and pile them up,
  • Upon a sore injunction: my sweet mistress
  • Weeps when she sees me work, and says, such baseness
  • Had never like executor. I forget:
  • But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours,
  • Most busy lest, when I do it.
  • [Enter MIRANDA; and PROSPERO at a distance, unseen]

  • MIRANDA:

  • Alas, now, pray you,
  • Work not so hard: I would the lightning had
  • Burnt up those logs that you are enjoin'd to pile!
  • Pray, set it down and rest you: when this burns,
  • 'Twill weep for having wearied you. My father
  • Is hard at study; pray now, rest yourself;
  • He's safe for these three hours.
  • FERDINAND:

  • O most dear mistress,
  • The sun will set before I shall discharge
  • What I must strive to do.
  • MIRANDA:

  • If you'll sit down,
  • I'll bear your logs the while: pray, give me that;
  • I'll carry it to the pile.
  • FERDINAND:

  • No, precious creature;
  • I had rather crack my sinews, break my back,
  • Than you should such dishonour undergo,
  • While I sit lazy by.
  • MIRANDA:

  • It would become me
  • As well as it does you: and I should do it
  • With much more ease; for my good will is to it,
  • And yours it is against.
  • PROSPERO:

  • Poor worm, thou art infected!
  • This visitation shows it.
  • MIRANDA:

  • You look wearily.
  • FERDINAND:

  • No, noble mistress;'tis fresh morning with me
  • When you are by at night. I do beseech you--
  • Chiefly that I might set it in my prayers--
  • What is your name?
  • MIRANDA:

  • Miranda.--O my father,
  • I have broke your hest to say so!
  • FERDINAND:

  • Admired Miranda!
  • Indeed the top of admiration! worth
  • What's dearest to the world! Full many a lady
  • I have eyed with best regard and many a time
  • The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage
  • Brought my too diligent ear: for several virtues
  • Have I liked several women; never any
  • With so fun soul, but some defect in her
  • Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed
  • And put it to the foil: but you, O you,
  • So perfect and so peerless, are created
  • Of every creature's best!
  • MIRANDA:

  • I do not know
  • One of my sex; no woman's face remember,
  • Save, from my glass, mine own; nor have I seen
  • More that I may call men than you, good friend,
  • And my dear father: how features are abroad,
  • I am skilless of; but, by my modesty,
  • The jewel in my dower, I would not wish
  • Any companion in the world but you,
  • Nor can imagination form a shape,
  • Besides yourself, to like of. But I prattle
  • Something too wildly and my father's precepts
  • I therein do forget.
  • FERDINAND:

  • I am in my condition
  • A prince, Miranda; I do think, a king;
  • I would, not so!--and would no more endure
  • This wooden slavery than to suffer
  • The flesh-fly blow my mouth. Hear my soul speak:
  • The very instant that I saw you, did
  • My heart fly to your service; there resides,
  • To make me slave to it; and for your sake
  • Am I this patient log--man.
  • MIRANDA:

  • Do you love me?
  • FERDINAND:

  • O heaven, O earth, bear witness to this sound
  • And crown what I profess with kind event
  • If I speak true! if hollowly, invert
  • What best is boded me to mischief! I
  • Beyond all limit of what else i' the world
  • Do love, prize, honour you.
  • MIRANDA:

  • I am a fool
  • To weep at what I am glad of.
  • PROSPERO:

  • Fair encounter
  • Of two most rare affections! Heavens rain grace
  • On that which breeds between 'em!
  • FERDINAND:

  • Wherefore weep you?
  • MIRANDA:

  • At mine unworthiness that dare not offer
  • What I desire to give, and much less take
  • What I shall die to want. But this is trifling;
  • And all the more it seeks to hide itself,
  • The bigger bulk it shows. Hence, bashful cunning!
  • And prompt me, plain and holy innocence!
  • I am your wife, if you will marry me;
  • If not, I'll die your maid: to be your fellow
  • You may deny me; but I'll be your servant,
  • Whether you will or no.
  • FERDINAND:

  • My mistress, dearest;
  • And I thus humble ever.
  • MIRANDA:

  • My husband, then?
  • FERDINAND:

  • Ay, with a heart as willing
  • As bondage e'er of freedom: here's my hand.
  • MIRANDA:

  • And mine, with my heart in't; and now farewell
  • Till half an hour hence.
  • FERDINAND:

  • A thousand thousand!
  • [Exeunt FERDINAND and MIRANDA severally]

  • PROSPERO:

  • So glad of this as they I cannot be,
  • Who are surprised withal; but my rejoicing
  • At nothing can be more. I'll to my book,
  • For yet ere supper-time must I perform
  • Much business appertaining.
  • [Exit]

ACT III, SCENE II. Another part of the island.

[Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO]

  • STEPHANO:

  • Tell not me; when the butt is out, we will drink
  • water; not a drop before: therefore bear up, and
  • board 'em. Servant-monster, drink to me.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Servant-monster! the folly of this island! They
  • say there's but five upon this isle: we are three
  • of them; if th' other two be brained like us, the
  • state totters.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Drink, servant-monster, when I bid thee: thy eyes
  • are almost set in thy head.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Where should they be set else? he were a brave
  • monster indeed, if they were set in his tail.
  • STEPHANO:

  • My man-monster hath drown'd his tongue in sack:
  • for my part, the sea cannot drown me; I swam, ere I
  • could recover the shore, five and thirty leagues off
  • and on. By this light, thou shalt be my lieutenant,
  • monster, or my standard.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Your lieutenant, if you list; he's no standard.
  • STEPHANO:

  • We'll not run, Monsieur Monster.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Nor go neither; but you'll lie like dogs and yet say
  • nothing neither.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Moon-calf, speak once in thy life, if thou beest a
  • good moon-calf.
  • CALIBAN:

  • How does thy honour? Let me lick thy shoe.
  • I'll not serve him; he's not valiant.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Thou liest, most ignorant monster: I am in case to
  • justle a constable. Why, thou deboshed fish thou,
  • was there ever man a coward that hath drunk so much
  • sack as I to-day? Wilt thou tell a monstrous lie,
  • being but half a fish and half a monster?
  • CALIBAN:

  • Lo, how he mocks me! wilt thou let him, my lord?
  • TRINCULO:

  • 'Lord' quoth he! That a monster should be such a natural!
  • CALIBAN:

  • Lo, lo, again! bite him to death, I prithee.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Trinculo, keep a good tongue in your head: if you
  • prove a mutineer,--the next tree! The poor monster's
  • my subject and he shall not suffer indignity.
  • CALIBAN:

  • I thank my noble lord. Wilt thou be pleased to
  • hearken once again to the suit I made to thee?
  • STEPHANO:

  • Marry, will I kneel and repeat it; I will stand,
  • and so shall Trinculo.
  • [Enter ARIEL, invisible]

  • CALIBAN:

  • As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, a
  • sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island.
  • ARIEL:

  • Thou liest.
  • CALIBAN:

  • Thou liest, thou jesting monkey, thou: I would my
  • valiant master would destroy thee! I do not lie.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Trinculo, if you trouble him any more in's tale, by
  • this hand, I will supplant some of your teeth.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Why, I said nothing.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Mum, then, and no more. Proceed.
  • CALIBAN:

  • I say, by sorcery he got this isle;
  • From me he got it. if thy greatness will
  • Revenge it on him,--for I know thou darest,
  • But this thing dare not,--
  • STEPHANO:

  • That's most certain.
  • CALIBAN:

  • Thou shalt be lord of it and I'll serve thee.
  • STEPHANO:

  • How now shall this be compassed?
  • Canst thou bring me to the party?
  • CALIBAN:

  • Yea, yea, my lord: I'll yield him thee asleep,
  • Where thou mayst knock a nail into his bead.
  • ARIEL:

  • Thou liest; thou canst not.
  • CALIBAN:

  • What a pied ninny's this! Thou scurvy patch!
  • I do beseech thy greatness, give him blows
  • And take his bottle from him: when that's gone
  • He shall drink nought but brine; for I'll not show him
  • Where the quick freshes are.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Trinculo, run into no further danger:
  • interrupt the monster one word further, and,
  • by this hand, I'll turn my mercy out o' doors
  • and make a stock-fish of thee.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Why, what did I? I did nothing. I'll go farther
  • off.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Didst thou not say he lied?
  • ARIEL:

  • Thou liest.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Do I so? take thou that.
  • [Beats TRINCULO]

  • As you like this, give me the lie another time.
  • TRINCULO:

  • I did not give the lie. Out o' your
  • wits and bearing too? A pox o' your bottle!
  • this can sack and drinking do. A murrain on
  • your monster, and the devil take your fingers!
  • CALIBAN:

  • Ha, ha, ha!
  • STEPHANO:

  • Now, forward with your tale. Prithee, stand farther
  • off.
  • CALIBAN:

  • Beat him enough: after a little time
  • I'll beat him too.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Stand farther. Come, proceed.
  • CALIBAN:

  • Why, as I told thee, 'tis a custom with him,
  • I' th' afternoon to sleep: there thou mayst brain him,
  • Having first seized his books, or with a log
  • Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake,
  • Or cut his wezand with thy knife. Remember
  • First to possess his books; for without them
  • He's but a sot, as I am, nor hath not
  • One spirit to command: they all do hate him
  • As rootedly as I. Burn but his books.
  • He has brave utensils,--for so he calls them--
  • Which when he has a house, he'll deck withal
  • And that most deeply to consider is
  • The beauty of his daughter; he himself
  • Calls her a nonpareil: I never saw a woman,
  • But only Sycorax my dam and she;
  • But she as far surpasseth Sycorax
  • As great'st does least.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Is it so brave a lass?
  • CALIBAN:

  • Ay, lord; she will become thy bed, I warrant.
  • And bring thee forth brave brood.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Monster, I will kill this man: his daughter and I
  • will be king and queen--save our graces!--and
  • Trinculo and thyself shall be viceroys. Dost thou
  • like the plot, Trinculo?
  • TRINCULO:

  • Excellent.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Give me thy hand: I am sorry I beat thee; but,
  • while thou livest, keep a good tongue in thy head.
  • CALIBAN:

  • Within this half hour will he be asleep:
  • Wilt thou destroy him then?
  • STEPHANO:

  • Ay, on mine honour.
  • ARIEL:

  • This will I tell my master.
  • CALIBAN:

  • Thou makest me merry; I am full of pleasure:
  • Let us be jocund: will you troll the catch
  • You taught me but while-ere?
  • STEPHANO:

  • At thy request, monster, I will do reason, any
  • reason. Come on, Trinculo, let us sing.
  • [Sings]

  • Flout 'em and scout 'em
  • And scout 'em and flout 'em
  • Thought is free.
  • CALIBAN:

  • That's not the tune.
  • [Ariel plays the tune on a tabour and pipe]

  • STEPHANO:

  • What is this same?
  • TRINCULO:

  • This is the tune of our catch, played by the picture
  • of Nobody.
  • STEPHANO:

  • If thou beest a man, show thyself in thy likeness:
  • if thou beest a devil, take't as thou list.
  • TRINCULO:

  • O, forgive me my sins!
  • STEPHANO:

  • He that dies pays all debts: I defy thee. Mercy upon us!
  • CALIBAN:

  • Art thou afeard?
  • STEPHANO:

  • No, monster, not I.
  • CALIBAN:

  • Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
  • Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
  • Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
  • Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
  • That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
  • Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
  • The clouds methought would open and show riches
  • Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked,
  • I cried to dream again.
  • STEPHANO:

  • This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I shall
  • have my music for nothing.
  • CALIBAN:

  • When Prospero is destroyed.
  • STEPHANO:

  • That shall be by and by: I remember the story.
  • TRINCULO:

  • The sound is going away; let's follow it, and
  • after do our work.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Lead, monster; we'll follow. I would I could see
  • this tabourer; he lays it on.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Wilt come? I'll follow, Stephano.
  • [Exeunt]

ACT III, SCENE III. Another part of the island.

[Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and others]

  • GONZALO:

  • By'r lakin, I can go no further, sir;
  • My old bones ache: here's a maze trod indeed
  • Through forth-rights and meanders! By your patience,
  • I needs must rest me.
  • ALONSO:

  • Old lord, I cannot blame thee,
  • Who am myself attach'd with weariness,
  • To the dulling of my spirits: sit down, and rest.
  • Even here I will put off my hope and keep it
  • No longer for my flatterer: he is drown'd
  • Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks
  • Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go.
  • ANTONIO:

  • [Aside to SEBASTIAN]

  • I am right glad that he's so
  • out of hope.
  • Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose
  • That you resolved to effect.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • [Aside to ANTONIO]

  • The next advantage
  • Will we take throughly.
  • ANTONIO:

  • [Aside to SEBASTIAN]

  • Let it be to-night;
  • For, now they are oppress'd with travel, they
  • Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance
  • As when they are fresh.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • [Aside to ANTONIO]

  • I say, to-night: no more.
  • Solemn and strange music
  • ALONSO:

  • What harmony is this? My good friends, hark!
  • GONZALO:

  • Marvellous sweet music!
  • [Enter PROSPERO above, invisible. Enter several strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet; they dance about it with gentle actions of salutation; and, inviting the King, & c. to eat, they depart]

  • ALONSO:

  • Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these?
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • A living drollery. Now I will believe
  • That there are unicorns, that in Arabia
  • There is one tree, the phoenix' throne, one phoenix
  • At this hour reigning there.
  • ANTONIO:

  • I'll believe both;
  • And what does else want credit, come to me,
  • And I'll be sworn 'tis true: travellers ne'er did
  • lie,
  • Though fools at home condemn 'em.
  • GONZALO:

  • If in Naples
  • I should report this now, would they believe me?
  • If I should say, I saw such islanders--
  • For, certes, these are people of the island--
  • Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet, note,
  • Their manners are more gentle-kind than of
  • Our human generation you shall find
  • Many, nay, almost any.
  • PROSPERO:

  • [Aside]

  • Honest lord,
  • Thou hast said well; for some of you there present
  • Are worse than devils.
  • ALONSO:

  • I cannot too much muse
  • Such shapes, such gesture and such sound, expressing,
  • Although they want the use of tongue, a kind
  • Of excellent dumb discourse.
  • PROSPERO:

  • [Aside]

  • Praise in departing.
  • FRANCISCO:

  • They vanish'd strangely.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • No matter, since
  • They have left their viands behind; for we have stomachs.
  • Will't please you taste of what is here?
  • ALONSO:

  • Not I.
  • GONZALO:

  • Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were boys,
  • Who would believe that there were mountaineers
  • Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em
  • Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men
  • Whose heads stood in their breasts? which now we find
  • Each putter-out of five for one will bring us
  • Good warrant of.
  • ALONSO:

  • I will stand to and feed,
  • Although my last: no matter, since I feel
  • The best is past. Brother, my lord the duke,
  • Stand to and do as we.
  • [Thunder and lightning. Enter ARIEL, like a harpy; claps his wings upon the table; and, with a quaint device, the banquet vanishes]

  • ARIEL:

  • You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,
  • That hath to instrument this lower world
  • And what is in't, the never-surfeited sea
  • Hath caused to belch up you; and on this island
  • Where man doth not inhabit; you 'mongst men
  • Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad;
  • And even with such-like valour men hang and drown
  • Their proper selves.
  • [ALONSO, SEBASTIAN & c. draw their swords]

  • You fools! I and my fellows
  • Are ministers of Fate: the elements,
  • Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well
  • Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs
  • Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish
  • One dowle that's in my plume: my fellow-ministers
  • Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt,
  • Your swords are now too massy for your strengths
  • And will not be uplifted. But remember--
  • For that's my business to you--that you three
  • From Milan did supplant good Prospero;
  • Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit it,
  • Him and his innocent child: for which foul deed
  • The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
  • Incensed the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,
  • Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso,
  • They have bereft; and do pronounce by me:
  • Lingering perdition, worse than any death
  • Can be at once, shall step by step attend
  • You and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from--
  • Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls
  • Upon your heads--is nothing but heart-sorrow
  • And a clear life ensuing.
  • [He vanishes in thunder; then, to soft music enter the Shapes again, and dance, with mocks and mows, and carrying out the table]

  • PROSPERO:

  • Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou
  • Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring:
  • Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated
  • In what thou hadst to say: so, with good life
  • And observation strange, my meaner ministers
  • Their several kinds have done. My high charms work
  • And these mine enemies are all knit up
  • In their distractions; they now are in my power;
  • And in these fits I leave them, while I visit
  • Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose is drown'd,
  • And his and mine loved darling.
  • [Exit above]

  • GONZALO:

  • I' the name of something holy, sir, why stand you
  • In this strange stare?
  • ALONSO:

  • O, it is monstrous, monstrous:
  • Methought the billows spoke and told me of it;
  • The winds did sing it to me, and the thunder,
  • That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced
  • The name of Prosper: it did bass my trespass.
  • Therefore my son i' the ooze is bedded, and
  • I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded
  • And with him there lie mudded.
  • [Exit]

  • SEBASTIAN:

  • But one fiend at a time,
  • I'll fight their legions o'er.
  • ANTONIO:

  • I'll be thy second.
  • [Exeunt SEBASTIAN, and ANTONIO]

  • GONZALO:

  • All three of them are desperate: their great guilt,
  • Like poison given to work a great time after,
  • Now 'gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you
  • That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly
  • And hinder them from what this ecstasy
  • May now provoke them to.
  • ADRIAN:

  • Follow, I pray you.
  • [Exeunt]

ACT IV

ACT IV, SCENE I. Before PROSPERO'S cell.

[Enter PROSPERO, FERDINAND, and MIRANDA]

  • PROSPERO:

  • If I have too austerely punish'd you,
  • Your compensation makes amends, for I
  • Have given you here a third of mine own life,
  • Or that for which I live; who once again
  • I tender to thy hand: all thy vexations
  • Were but my trials of thy love and thou
  • Hast strangely stood the test here, afore Heaven,
  • I ratify this my rich gift. O Ferdinand,
  • Do not smile at me that I boast her off,
  • For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise
  • And make it halt behind her.
  • FERDINAND:

  • I do believe it
  • Against an oracle.
  • PROSPERO:

  • Then, as my gift and thine own acquisition
  • Worthily purchased take my daughter: but
  • If thou dost break her virgin-knot before
  • All sanctimonious ceremonies may
  • With full and holy rite be minister'd,
  • No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall
  • To make this contract grow: but barren hate,
  • Sour-eyed disdain and discord shall bestrew
  • The union of your bed with weeds so loathly
  • That you shall hate it both: therefore take heed,
  • As Hymen's lamps shall light you.
  • FERDINAND:

  • As I hope
  • For quiet days, fair issue and long life,
  • With such love as 'tis now, the murkiest den,
  • The most opportune place, the strong'st suggestion.
  • Our worser genius can, shall never melt
  • Mine honour into lust, to take away
  • The edge of that day's celebration
  • When I shall think: or Phoebus' steeds are founder'd,
  • Or Night kept chain'd below.
  • PROSPERO:

  • Fairly spoke.
  • Sit then and talk with her; she is thine own.
  • What, Ariel! my industrious servant, Ariel!
  • [Enter ARIEL]

  • ARIEL:

  • What would my potent master? here I am.
  • PROSPERO:

  • Thou and thy meaner fellows your last service
  • Did worthily perform; and I must use you
  • In such another trick. Go bring the rabble,
  • O'er whom I give thee power, here to this place:
  • Incite them to quick motion; for I must
  • Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple
  • Some vanity of mine art: it is my promise,
  • And they expect it from me.
  • ARIEL:

  • Presently?
  • PROSPERO:

  • Ay, with a twink.
  • ARIEL:

  • Before you can say 'come' and 'go,'
  • And breathe twice and cry 'so, so,'
  • Each one, tripping on his toe,
  • Will be here with mop and mow.
  • Do you love me, master? no?
  • PROSPERO:

  • Dearly my delicate Ariel. Do not approach
  • Till thou dost hear me call.
  • ARIEL:

  • Well, I conceive.
  • [Exit]

  • PROSPERO:

  • Look thou be true; do not give dalliance
  • Too much the rein: the strongest oaths are straw
  • To the fire i' the blood: be more abstemious,
  • Or else, good night your vow!
  • FERDINAND:

  • I warrant you sir;
  • The white cold virgin snow upon my heart
  • Abates the ardour of my liver.
  • PROSPERO:

  • Well.
  • Now come, my Ariel! bring a corollary,
  • Rather than want a spirit: appear and pertly!
  • No tongue! all eyes! be silent.
  • [Soft music]

  • [Enter IRIS]

  • IRIS:

  • Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas
  • Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats and pease;
  • Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep,
  • And flat meads thatch'd with stover, them to keep;
  • Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims,
  • Which spongy April at thy hest betrims,
  • To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy broom -groves,
  • Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,
  • Being lass-lorn: thy pole-clipt vineyard;
  • And thy sea-marge, sterile and rocky-hard,
  • Where thou thyself dost air;--the queen o' the sky,
  • Whose watery arch and messenger am I,
  • Bids thee leave these, and with her sovereign grace,
  • Here on this grass-plot, in this very place,
  • To come and sport: her peacocks fly amain:
  • Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain.
  • [Enter CERES]

  • CERES:

  • Hail, many-colour'd messenger, that ne'er
  • Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter;
  • Who with thy saffron wings upon my flowers
  • Diffusest honey-drops, refreshing showers,
  • And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown
  • My bosky acres and my unshrubb'd down,
  • Rich scarf to my proud earth; why hath thy queen
  • Summon'd me hither, to this short-grass'd green?
  • IRIS:

  • A contract of true love to celebrate;
  • And some donation freely to estate
  • On the blest lovers.
  • CERES:

  • Tell me, heavenly bow,
  • If Venus or her son, as thou dost know,
  • Do now attend the queen? Since they did plot
  • The means that dusky Dis my daughter got,
  • Her and her blind boy's scandal'd company
  • I have forsworn.
  • IRIS:

  • Of her society
  • Be not afraid: I met her deity
  • Cutting the clouds towards Paphos and her son
  • Dove-drawn with her. Here thought they to have done
  • Some wanton charm upon this man and maid,
  • Whose vows are, that no bed-right shall be paid
  • Till Hymen's torch be lighted: but vain;
  • Mars's hot minion is returned again;
  • Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows,
  • Swears he will shoot no more but play with sparrows
  • And be a boy right out.
  • CERES:

  • High'st queen of state,
  • Great Juno, comes; I know her by her gait.
  • [Enter JUNO]

  • JUNO:

  • How does my bounteous sister? Go with me
  • To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be
  • And honour'd in their issue.
  • [They sing:]

  • JUNO:

  • Honour, riches, marriage-blessing,
  • Long continuance, and increasing,
  • Hourly joys be still upon you!
  • Juno sings her blessings upon you.
  • CERES:

  • Earth's increase, foison plenty,
  • Barns and garners never empty,
  • Vines and clustering bunches growing,
  • Plants with goodly burthen bowing;
  • Spring come to you at the farthest
  • In the very end of harvest!
  • Scarcity and want shall shun you;
  • Ceres' blessing so is on you.
  • FERDINAND:

  • This is a most majestic vision, and
  • Harmoniously charmingly. May I be bold
  • To think these spirits?
  • PROSPERO:

  • Spirits, which by mine art
  • I have from their confines call'd to enact
  • My present fancies.
  • FERDINAND:

  • Let me live here ever;
  • So rare a wonder'd father and a wife
  • Makes this place Paradise.
  • [Juno and Ceres whisper, and send Iris on employment]

  • PROSPERO:

  • Sweet, now, silence!
  • Juno and Ceres whisper seriously;
  • There's something else to do: hush, and be mute,
  • Or else our spell is marr'd.
  • IRIS:

  • You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the windring brooks,
  • With your sedged crowns and ever-harmless looks,
  • Leave your crisp channels and on this green land
  • Answer your summons; Juno does command:
  • Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate
  • A contract of true love; be not too late.
  • [Enter certain Nymphs]

  • You sunburnt sicklemen, of August weary,
  • Come hither from the furrow and be merry:
  • Make holiday; your rye-straw hats put on
  • And these fresh nymphs encounter every one
  • In country footing.
  • [Enter certain Reapers, properly habited: they join with the Nymphs in a graceful dance; towards the end whereof PROSPERO starts suddenly, and speaks; after which, to a strange, hollow, and confused noise, they heavily vanish]

  • PROSPERO:

  • [Aside]

  • I had forgot that foul conspiracy
  • Of the beast Caliban and his confederates
  • Against my life: the minute of their plot
  • Is almost come.
  • [To the Spirits]

  • Well done! avoid; no more!
  • FERDINAND:

  • This is strange: your father's in some passion
  • That works him strongly.
  • MIRANDA:

  • Never till this day
  • Saw I him touch'd with anger so distemper'd.
  • PROSPERO:

  • You do look, my son, in a moved sort,
  • As if you were dismay'd: be cheerful, sir.
  • Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
  • As I foretold you, were all spirits and
  • Are melted into air, into thin air:
  • And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
  • The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
  • The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
  • Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
  • And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
  • Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
  • As dreams are made on, and our little life
  • Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex'd;
  • Bear with my weakness; my, brain is troubled:
  • Be not disturb'd with my infirmity:
  • If you be pleased, retire into my cell
  • And there repose: a turn or two I'll walk,
  • To still my beating mind.
  • FERDINAND MIRANDA:

  • We wish your peace.
  • [Exeunt]

  • PROSPERO:

  • Come with a thought I thank thee, Ariel: come.
  • [Enter ARIEL]

  • ARIEL:

  • Thy thoughts I cleave to. What's thy pleasure?
  • PROSPERO:

  • Spirit,
  • We must prepare to meet with Caliban.
  • ARIEL:

  • Ay, my commander: when I presented Ceres,
  • I thought to have told thee of it, but I fear'd
  • Lest I might anger thee.
  • PROSPERO:

  • Say again, where didst thou leave these varlets?
  • ARIEL:

  • I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking;
  • So fun of valour that they smote the air
  • For breathing in their faces; beat the ground
  • For kissing of their feet; yet always bending
  • Towards their project. Then I beat my tabour;
  • At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd
  • their ears,
  • Advanced their eyelids, lifted up their noses
  • As they smelt music: so I charm'd their ears
  • That calf-like they my lowing follow'd through
  • Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss and thorns,
  • Which entered their frail shins: at last I left them
  • I' the filthy-mantled pool beyond your cell,
  • There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake
  • O'erstunk their feet.
  • PROSPERO:

  • This was well done, my bird.
  • Thy shape invisible retain thou still:
  • The trumpery in my house, go bring it hither,
  • For stale to catch these thieves.
  • ARIEL:

  • I go, I go.
  • [Exit]

  • PROSPERO:

  • A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
  • Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,
  • Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost;
  • And as with age his body uglier grows,
  • So his mind cankers. I will plague them all,
  • Even to roaring.
  • [Re-enter ARIEL, loaden with glistering apparel, & c]

  • Come, hang them on this line.
  • [PROSPERO and ARIEL remain invisible. Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, all wet]

  • CALIBAN:

  • Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole may not
  • Hear a foot fall: we now are near his cell.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Monster, your fairy, which you say is
  • a harmless fairy, has done little better than
  • played the Jack with us.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Monster, I do smell all horse-piss; at
  • which my nose is in great indignation.
  • STEPHANO:

  • So is mine. Do you hear, monster? If I should take
  • a displeasure against you, look you,--
  • TRINCULO:

  • Thou wert but a lost monster.
  • CALIBAN:

  • Good my lord, give me thy favour still.
  • Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to
  • Shall hoodwink this mischance: therefore speak softly.
  • All's hush'd as midnight yet.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool,--
  • STEPHANO:

  • There is not only disgrace and dishonour in that,
  • monster, but an infinite loss.
  • TRINCULO:

  • That's more to me than my wetting: yet this is your
  • harmless fairy, monster.
  • STEPHANO:

  • I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er ears
  • for my labour.
  • CALIBAN:

  • Prithee, my king, be quiet. Seest thou here,
  • This is the mouth o' the cell: no noise, and enter.
  • Do that good mischief which may make this island
  • Thine own for ever, and I, thy Caliban,
  • For aye thy foot-licker.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Give me thy hand. I do begin to have bloody thoughts.
  • TRINCULO:

  • O king Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano! look
  • what a wardrobe here is for thee!
  • CALIBAN:

  • Let it alone, thou fool; it is but trash.
  • TRINCULO:

  • O, ho, monster! we know what belongs to a frippery.
  • O king Stephano!
  • STEPHANO:

  • Put off that gown, Trinculo; by this hand, I'll have
  • that gown.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Thy grace shall have it.
  • CALIBAN:

  • The dropsy drown this fool I what do you mean
  • To dote thus on such luggage? Let's alone
  • And do the murder first: if he awake,
  • From toe to crown he'll fill our skins with pinches,
  • Make us strange stuff.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Be you quiet, monster. Mistress line,
  • is not this my jerkin? Now is the jerkin under
  • the line: now, jerkin, you are like to lose your
  • hair and prove a bald jerkin.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Do, do: we steal by line and level, an't like your grace.
  • STEPHANO:

  • I thank thee for that jest; here's a garment for't:
  • wit shall not go unrewarded while I am king of this
  • country. 'Steal by line and level' is an excellent
  • pass of pate; there's another garment for't.
  • TRINCULO:

  • Monster, come, put some lime upon your fingers, and
  • away with the rest.
  • CALIBAN:

  • I will have none on't: we shall lose our time,
  • And all be turn'd to barnacles, or to apes
  • With foreheads villanous low.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Monster, lay-to your fingers: help to bear this
  • away where my hogshead of wine is, or I'll turn you
  • out of my kingdom: go to, carry this.
  • TRINCULO:

  • And this.
  • STEPHANO:

  • Ay, and this.
  • [A noise of hunters heard. Enter divers Spirits, in shape of dogs and hounds, and hunt them about, PROSPERO and ARIEL setting them on]

  • PROSPERO:

  • Hey, Mountain, hey!
  • ARIEL:

  • Silver I there it goes, Silver!
  • PROSPERO:

  • Fury, Fury! there, Tyrant, there! hark! hark!
  • [CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, are driven out]

  • Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints
  • With dry convulsions, shorten up their sinews
  • With aged cramps, and more pinch-spotted make them
  • Than pard or cat o' mountain.
  • ARIEL:

  • Hark, they roar!
  • PROSPERO:

  • Let them be hunted soundly. At this hour
  • Lie at my mercy all mine enemies:
  • Shortly shall all my labours end, and thou
  • Shalt have the air at freedom: for a little
  • Follow, and do me service.
  • [Exeunt]

ACT V

ACT V, SCENE I. Before PROSPERO'S cell.

[Enter PROSPERO in his magic robes, and ARIEL]

  • PROSPERO:

  • Now does my project gather to a head:
  • My charms crack not; my spirits obey; and time
  • Goes upright with his carriage. How's the day?
  • ARIEL:

  • On the sixth hour; at which time, my lord,
  • You said our work should cease.
  • PROSPERO:

  • I did say so,
  • When first I raised the tempest. Say, my spirit,
  • How fares the king and's followers?
  • ARIEL:

  • Confined together
  • In the same fashion as you gave in charge,
  • Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir,
  • In the line-grove which weather-fends your cell;
  • They cannot budge till your release. The king,
  • His brother and yours, abide all three distracted
  • And the remainder mourning over them,
  • Brimful of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly
  • Him that you term'd, sir, 'The good old lord Gonzalo;'
  • His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops
  • From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works 'em
  • That if you now beheld them, your affections
  • Would become tender.
  • PROSPERO:

  • Dost thou think so, spirit?
  • ARIEL:

  • Mine would, sir, were I human.
  • PROSPERO:

  • And mine shall.
  • Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
  • Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,
  • One of their kind, that relish all as sharply,
  • Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art?
  • Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,
  • Yet with my nobler reason 'gaitist my fury
  • Do I take part: the rarer action is
  • In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent,
  • The sole drift of my purpose doth extend
  • Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel:
  • My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore,
  • And they shall be themselves.
  • ARIEL:

  • I'll fetch them, sir.
  • [Exit]

  • PROSPERO:

  • Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
  • And ye that on the sands with printless foot
  • Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
  • When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
  • By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
  • Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime
  • Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
  • To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
  • Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
  • The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
  • And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
  • Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
  • Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak
  • With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
  • Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up
  • The pine and cedar: graves at my command
  • Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth
  • By my so potent art. But this rough magic
  • I here abjure, and, when I have required
  • Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
  • To work mine end upon their senses that
  • This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
  • Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
  • And deeper than did ever plummet sound
  • I'll drown my book.
  • [Solemn music]

  • [Re-enter ARIEL before: then ALONSO, with a frantic gesture, attended by GONZALO; SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO in like manner, attended by ADRIAN and FRANCISCO; they all enter the circle which PROSPERO had made, and there stand charmed; which PROSPERO observing, speaks:]

  • A solemn air and the best comforter
  • To an unsettled fancy cure thy brains,
  • Now useless, boil'd within thy skull! There stand,
  • For you are spell-stopp'd.
  • Holy Gonzalo, honourable man,
  • Mine eyes, even sociable to the show of thine,
  • Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace,
  • And as the morning steals upon the night,
  • Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
  • Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
  • Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo,
  • My true preserver, and a loyal sir
  • To him you follow'st! I will pay thy graces
  • Home both in word and deed. Most cruelly
  • Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter:
  • Thy brother was a furtherer in the act.
  • Thou art pinch'd fort now, Sebastian. Flesh and blood,
  • You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition,
  • Expell'd remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian,
  • Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,
  • Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee,
  • Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding
  • Begins to swell, and the approaching tide
  • Will shortly fill the reasonable shore
  • That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them
  • That yet looks on me, or would know me Ariel,
  • Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell:
  • I will discase me, and myself present
  • As I was sometime Milan: quickly, spirit;
  • Thou shalt ere long be free.
  • [ARIEL sings and helps to attire him]

  • Where the bee sucks. there suck I:
  • In a cowslip's bell I lie;
  • There I couch when owls do cry.
  • On the bat's back I do fly
  • After summer merrily.
  • Merrily, merrily shall I live now
  • Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
  • PROSPERO:

  • Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee:
  • But yet thou shalt have freedom: so, so, so.
  • To the king's ship, invisible as thou art:
  • There shalt thou find the mariners asleep
  • Under the hatches; the master and the boatswain
  • Being awake, enforce them to this place,
  • And presently, I prithee.
  • ARIEL:

  • I drink the air before me, and return
  • Or ere your pulse twice beat.
  • [Exit]

  • GONZALO:

  • All torment, trouble, wonder and amazement
  • Inhabits here: some heavenly power guide us
  • Out of this fearful country!
  • PROSPERO:

  • Behold, sir king,
  • The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero:
  • For more assurance that a living prince
  • Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body;
  • And to thee and thy company I bid
  • A hearty welcome.
  • ALONSO:

  • Whether thou best he or no,
  • Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me,
  • As late I have been, I not know: thy pulse
  • Beats as of flesh and blood; and, since I saw thee,
  • The affliction of my mind amends, with which,
  • I fear, a madness held me: this must crave,
  • An if this be at all, a most strange story.
  • Thy dukedom I resign and do entreat
  • Thou pardon me my wrongs. But how should Prospero
  • Be living and be here?
  • PROSPERO:

  • First, noble friend,
  • Let me embrace thine age, whose honour cannot
  • Be measured or confined.
  • GONZALO:

  • Whether this be
  • Or be not, I'll not swear.
  • PROSPERO:

  • You do yet taste
  • Some subtilties o' the isle, that will not let you
  • Believe things certain. Welcome, my friends all!
  • [Aside to SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO]

  • But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded,
  • I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you
  • And justify you traitors: at this time
  • I will tell no tales.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • [Aside]

  • The devil speaks in him.
  • PROSPERO:

  • No.
  • For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother
  • Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive
  • Thy rankest fault; all of them; and require
  • My dukedom of thee, which perforce, I know,
  • Thou must restore.
  • ALONSO:

  • If thou be'st Prospero,
  • Give us particulars of thy preservation;
  • How thou hast met us here, who three hours since
  • Were wreck'd upon this shore; where I have lost--
  • How sharp the point of this remembrance is!--
  • My dear son Ferdinand.
  • PROSPERO:

  • I am woe for't, sir.
  • ALONSO:

  • Irreparable is the loss, and patience
  • Says it is past her cure.
  • PROSPERO:

  • I rather think
  • You have not sought her help, of whose soft grace
  • For the like loss I have her sovereign aid
  • And rest myself content.
  • ALONSO:

  • You the like loss!
  • PROSPERO:

  • As great to me as late; and, supportable
  • To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker
  • Than you may call to comfort you, for I
  • Have lost my daughter.
  • ALONSO:

  • A daughter?
  • O heavens, that they were living both in Naples,
  • The king and queen there! that they were, I wish
  • Myself were mudded in that oozy bed
  • Where my son lies. When did you lose your daughter?
  • PROSPERO:

  • In this last tempest. I perceive these lords
  • At this encounter do so much admire
  • That they devour their reason and scarce think
  • Their eyes do offices of truth, their words
  • Are natural breath: but, howsoe'er you have
  • Been justled from your senses, know for certain
  • That I am Prospero and that very duke
  • Which was thrust forth of Milan, who most strangely
  • Upon this shore, where you were wreck'd, was landed,
  • To be the lord on't. No more yet of this;
  • For 'tis a chronicle of day by day,
  • Not a relation for a breakfast nor
  • Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir;
  • This cell's my court: here have I few attendants
  • And subjects none abroad: pray you, look in.
  • My dukedom since you have given me again,
  • I will requite you with as good a thing;
  • At least bring forth a wonder, to content ye
  • As much as me my dukedom.
  • [Here PROSPERO discovers FERDINAND and MIRANDA playing at chess]

  • MIRANDA:

  • Sweet lord, you play me false.
  • FERDINAND:

  • No, my dear'st love,
  • I would not for the world.
  • MIRANDA:

  • Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle,
  • And I would call it, fair play.
  • ALONSO:

  • If this prove
  • A vision of the Island, one dear son
  • Shall I twice lose.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • A most high miracle!
  • FERDINAND:

  • Though the seas threaten, they are merciful;
  • I have cursed them without cause.
  • [Kneels]

  • ALONSO:

  • Now all the blessings
  • Of a glad father compass thee about!
  • Arise, and say how thou camest here.
  • MIRANDA:

  • O, wonder!
  • How many goodly creatures are there here!
  • How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
  • That has such people in't!
  • PROSPERO:

  • 'Tis new to thee.
  • ALONSO:

  • What is this maid with whom thou wast at play?
  • Your eld'st acquaintance cannot be three hours:
  • Is she the goddess that hath sever'd us,
  • And brought us thus together?
  • FERDINAND:

  • Sir, she is mortal;
  • But by immortal Providence she's mine:
  • I chose her when I could not ask my father
  • For his advice, nor thought I had one. She
  • Is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan,
  • Of whom so often I have heard renown,
  • But never saw before; of whom I have
  • Received a second life; and second father
  • This lady makes him to me.
  • ALONSO:

  • I am hers:
  • But, O, how oddly will it sound that I
  • Must ask my child forgiveness!
  • PROSPERO:

  • There, sir, stop:
  • Let us not burthen our remembrance with
  • A heaviness that's gone.
  • GONZALO:

  • I have inly wept,
  • Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you god,
  • And on this couple drop a blessed crown!
  • For it is you that have chalk'd forth the way
  • Which brought us hither.
  • ALONSO:

  • I say, Amen, Gonzalo!
  • GONZALO:

  • Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue
  • Should become kings of Naples? O, rejoice
  • Beyond a common joy, and set it down
  • With gold on lasting pillars: In one voyage
  • Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis,
  • And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife
  • Where he himself was lost, Prospero his dukedom
  • In a poor isle and all of us ourselves
  • When no man was his own.
  • ALONSO:

  • [To FERDINAND and MIRANDA]

  • Give me your hands:
  • Let grief and sorrow still embrace his heart
  • That doth not wish you joy!
  • GONZALO:

  • Be it so! Amen!
  • [Re-enter ARIEL, with the Master and Boatswain amazedly following]

  • O, look, sir, look, sir! here is more of us:
  • I prophesied, if a gallows were on land,
  • This fellow could not drown. Now, blasphemy,
  • That swear'st grace o'erboard, not an oath on shore?
  • Hast thou no mouth by land? What is the news?
  • Boatswain:

  • The best news is, that we have safely found
  • Our king and company; the next, our ship--
  • Which, but three glasses since, we gave out split--
  • Is tight and yare and bravely rigg'd as when
  • We first put out to sea.
  • ARIEL:

  • [Aside to PROSPERO]

  • Sir, all this service
  • Have I done since I went.
  • PROSPERO:

  • [Aside to ARIEL]

  • My tricksy spirit!
  • ALONSO:

  • These are not natural events; they strengthen
  • From strange to stranger. Say, how came you hither?
  • Boatswain:

  • If I did think, sir, I were well awake,
  • I'ld strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep,
  • And--how we know not--all clapp'd under hatches;
  • Where but even now with strange and several noises
  • Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains,
  • And more diversity of sounds, all horrible,
  • We were awaked; straightway, at liberty;
  • Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld
  • Our royal, good and gallant ship, our master
  • Capering to eye her: on a trice, so please you,
  • Even in a dream, were we divided from them
  • And were brought moping hither.
  • ARIEL:

  • [Aside to PROSPERO]

  • Was't well done?
  • PROSPERO:

  • [Aside to ARIEL]

  • Bravely, my diligence. Thou shalt be free.
  • ALONSO:

  • This is as strange a maze as e'er men trod
  • And there is in this business more than nature
  • Was ever conduct of: some oracle
  • Must rectify our knowledge.
  • PROSPERO:

  • Sir, my liege,
  • Do not infest your mind with beating on
  • The strangeness of this business; at pick'd leisure
  • Which shall be shortly, single I'll resolve you,
  • Which to you shall seem probable, of every
  • These happen'd accidents; till when, be cheerful
  • And think of each thing well.
  • [Aside to ARIEL]

  • Come hither, spirit:
  • Set Caliban and his companions free;
  • Untie the spell.
  • [Exit ARIEL]

  • How fares my gracious sir?
  • There are yet missing of your company
  • Some few odd lads that you remember not.
  • [Re-enter ARIEL, driving in CALIBAN, STEPHANO and TRINCULO, in their stolen apparel]

  • STEPHANO:

  • Every man shift for all the rest, and
  • let no man take care for himself; for all is
  • but fortune. Coragio, bully-monster, coragio!
  • TRINCULO:

  • If these be true spies which I wear in my head,
  • here's a goodly sight.
  • CALIBAN:

  • O Setebos, these be brave spirits indeed!
  • How fine my master is! I am afraid
  • He will chastise me.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Ha, ha!
  • What things are these, my lord Antonio?
  • Will money buy 'em?
  • ANTONIO:

  • Very like; one of them
  • Is a plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable.
  • PROSPERO:

  • Mark but the badges of these men, my lords,
  • Then say if they be true. This mis-shapen knave,
  • His mother was a witch, and one so strong
  • That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs,
  • And deal in her command without her power.
  • These three have robb'd me; and this demi-devil--
  • For he's a bastard one--had plotted with them
  • To take my life. Two of these fellows you
  • Must know and own; this thing of darkness!
  • Acknowledge mine.
  • CALIBAN:

  • I shall be pinch'd to death.
  • ALONSO:

  • Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler?
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • He is drunk now: where had he wine?
  • ALONSO:

  • And Trinculo is reeling ripe: where should they
  • Find this grand liquor that hath gilded 'em?
  • How camest thou in this pickle?
  • TRINCULO:

  • I have been in such a pickle since I
  • saw you last that, I fear me, will never out of
  • my bones: I shall not fear fly-blowing.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Why, how now, Stephano!
  • STEPHANO:

  • O, touch me not; I am not Stephano, but a cramp.
  • PROSPERO:

  • You'ld be king o' the isle, sirrah?
  • STEPHANO:

  • I should have been a sore one then.
  • ALONSO:

  • This is a strange thing as e'er I look'd on.
  • [Pointing to Caliban]

  • PROSPERO:

  • He is as disproportion'd in his manners
  • As in his shape. Go, sirrah, to my cell;
  • Take with you your companions; as you look
  • To have my pardon, trim it handsomely.
  • CALIBAN:

  • Ay, that I will; and I'll be wise hereafter
  • And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass
  • Was I, to take this drunkard for a god
  • And worship this dull fool!
  • PROSPERO:

  • Go to; away!
  • ALONSO:

  • Hence, and bestow your luggage where you found it.
  • SEBASTIAN:

  • Or stole it, rather.
  • [Exeunt CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO]

  • PROSPERO:

  • Sir, I invite your highness and your train
  • To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest
  • For this one night; which, part of it, I'll waste
  • With such discourse as, I not doubt, shall make it
  • Go quick away; the story of my life
  • And the particular accidents gone by
  • Since I came to this isle: and in the morn
  • I'll bring you to your ship and so to Naples,
  • Where I have hope to see the nuptial
  • Of these our dear-beloved solemnized;
  • And thence retire me to my Milan, where
  • Every third thought shall be my grave.
  • ALONSO:

  • I long
  • To hear the story of your life, which must
  • Take the ear strangely.
  • PROSPERO:

  • I'll deliver all;
  • And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales
  • And sail so expeditious that shall catch
  • Your royal fleet far off.
  • [Aside to ARIEL]

  • My Ariel, chick,
  • That is thy charge: then to the elements
  • Be free, and fare thou well! Please you, draw near.
  • [Exeunt]

ACT V, (EPILOGUE)

[SPOKEN BY PROSPERO]

  • PROSPERO:

  • Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
  • And what strength I have's mine own,
  • Which is most faint: now, 'tis true,
  • I must be here confined by you,
  • Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
  • Since I have my dukedom got
  • And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell
  • In this bare island by your spell;
  • But release me from my bands
  • With the help of your good hands:
  • Gentle breath of yours my sails
  • Must fill, or else my project fails,
  • Which was to please. Now I want
  • Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
  • And my ending is despair,
  • Unless I be relieved by prayer,
  • Which pierces so that it assaults
  • Mercy itself and frees all faults.
  • As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
  • Let your indulgence set me free.