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.

Ari. 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.1

Pro.

Hast thou, spirit,

Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee?
Ari. 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: Sometimes I'd divide,
And burn in many places; on the top-mast,
The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet, and join: Jove's lightnings, the pre-

cursors

O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary And sight-out-running were not: The fire, and

cracks

Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune Seem'd to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble, Yea, his dread trident shake.

1 All his confederates; all who are of the same profession. The part between the quarter-deck and the forecastle.

Pro.

My brave spirit!

Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil

Would not infect his reason?

Ari.

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 a-fire 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.'

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.3

Pro.

Of the king's ship,

The mariners, say, how thou hast disposed,

Ari.

Safely in harbor

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, 1 there she's hid :
The mariners all under hatches stow'd;

Whom, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labor,
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.

Pro.

Ariel, thy charge

Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work :

What is the time o' the day?

Ari.

Past the mid season.

Pro. At least two glasses: the time 'twixt six

and now,

Must by us both be spent most preciously.

Ari. 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.

Pro.

How now? moody ?

My liberty.

What is 't thou canst demand?
Ari.

Pro. Before the time be out? no more.

Ari.

I pray thee

Remember, I have done thee worthy service: