[ACT L

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

Mir.

Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.

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

Mir.

O the heavens !

Pros. Mark his condition and the event; then tell me If this might be a brother.

Mir.

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

Pros.

This King of Naples, being an enemy
Now the condition,
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.

Mir.

Alack, for pity!

I, not remembering how I cried out then,

Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint

That wrings mine eyes to't.

Pros.

Hear a little further

And then I'll bring thee to the present business

Which now's upon's; without the which this story

Were most impertinent.

Mir.

That hour destroy us?
Pros.

Wherefore did they not

Well demanded, wench:

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My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not, 140
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.

Mir.

Alack, what trouble

O, a cherubin

Thou didst smile,

Thou wast that did preserve me.

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.

Mir.

How came we ashore?

Pros. By Providence divine.

Some food we had and some fresh water that

A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,

Out of his clarity, 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.

Mir.

But ever see that man!

Pros.

Would I might

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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.

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Mir. 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?

Know thus far forth.

Pros.
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

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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.

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.

Hast thou, spirit,

Pros.
Perform'd to point the tempest that l 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: 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.

Pros.
My brave spirit!
Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil

Would not infect his reason?

Not a soul

Ari.
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."

Pros.

Why, that's my spirit!

But was not this nigh shore?
Ari.

Pros. But are they, Ariel, safe?
Ari.

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Close by, my master.

Not a hair perish'd;

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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.

Pros.

Of the king's ship

The mariners say how thou hast disposed
And all the rest o' the fleet.

Ari.
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,
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.

Pros.
Ariel, thy charge
Exactly is performed: but there's more work.
What is the time o' the dry?

Ari.

Past the mid season.

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Pros. At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six and now Must by us both be spent most preciously.

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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.

Pros.

What is't thou canst demand?

Ari.

How now? moody?

My liberty.

Pros. Before the time be out? no more!
Ari.

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.

Pros.

Dost thou forget

From what a torment I did free thee?

Ari.

No.

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Pros. 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.

Ari.

I do not, sir.

Pros. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou forgot The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and ervy

Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her?

Ari. No, sir.
Pros.

tell me.

Thou hast. Where was she born? speak ;

Ari. Sir, in Argier.

O, was she so? I must

Pros.
Once in a month recount what thou has been,
Which thou forget'st. This damned 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?

Ari. Ay, sir.

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Pros. 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 earthly and abhorred 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

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And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy groans 280 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.

Ari.

Yes, Caliban her son.

Pros. 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.

Ari.
I thank thee, master.
Pros. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak
And peg thee in its knotty entrails till
Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.

Pardon, master;

Do so, and after two days

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