Shakespeare Plays and Sonnets
The Tempest
Players:
- Alonso, King of Naples
- Sebastian, his brother
- Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan
- Antonio, his brother; the usurping Duke of Milan
- Ferdinand, son of the King
- Gonzalo, an old and honest councilor
- Adrian, a lord
- Francisco, a lord
- Caliban, Prospero's slave
- Trinculo, a jester
- Stephano, a drunken butler
- Master of a ship
- Boatswain
- Mariners
- Miranda, Prospero's daughter
- Ariel, an airy spirit
- Iris, a spirit
- Ceres, a spirit
- Juno, a spirit
- Nymphs
- Reapers
- Other Spirits; attendants to Prospero
ACT I, SCENE I.
On a ship at sea:
[a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.]
[Enter a Master and a 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]
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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?
PROSPERO:
Thou hast. Where was she born? speak; tell me.
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?
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.
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.
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.
PROSPERO:
Come, follow. Speak not for him.
-
[Exeunt]
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.
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:
When every grief is entertain'd that's offer'd,
- Comes to the entertainer--
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:
Done. The wager?
ADRIAN:
Though this island seem to be desert,--
SEBASTIAN:
Ha, ha, ha! So, you're paid.
ADRIAN:
Uninhabitable and almost inaccessible,--
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.
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.
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.
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.
ANTONIO:
And most chirurgeonly.
GONZALO:
It is foul weather in us all, good sir,
- When you are cloudy.
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.
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?
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.
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?
ANTONIO:
Then, tell me,
- Who's the next heir of Naples?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,--
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, SCENE I.
Before PROSPERO'S Cell.
[Enter FERDINAND, bearing a log]
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.
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.
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.
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?
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!
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?
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.
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?
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.
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, 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.
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.
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.
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:
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, 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.
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?
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.
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.
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!
ALONSO:
Hence, and bestow your luggage where you found it.
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.