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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: 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. Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come. |
ARIEL: All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly, To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride On the curl'd clouds, to thy strong bidding task Ariel and all his quality. |
PROSPERO: Hast thou, spirit, Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee? |
ARIEL: To every article. I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak, Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, I flamed amazement: sometime I'ld divide, And burn in many places; on the topmast, The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary And sight-outrunning were not; the fire and cracks Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble, Yea, his dread trident shake. |
PROSPERO: My brave spirit! Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil Would not infect his reason? |
ARIEL: Not a soul But felt a fever of the mad and play'd Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel, Then all afire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand, With hair up-staring,--then like reeds, not hair,-- Was the first man that leap'd; cried, 'Hell is empty And all the devils are here.' |
PROSPERO: Why that's my spirit! But was not this nigh shore? |
ARIEL: Close by, my master. |
PROSPERO: But are they, Ariel, safe? |
ARIEL: Not a hair perish'd; On their sustaining garments not a blemish, But fresher than before: and, as thou badest me, In troops I have dispersed them 'bout the isle. The king's son have I landed by himself; Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs In an odd angle of the isle and sitting, His arms in this sad knot. |
PROSPERO: Of the king's ship The mariners say how thou hast disposed And all the rest o' the fleet. |
ARIEL: Safely in harbour Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid: The mariners all under hatches stow'd; Who, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour, I have left asleep; and for the rest o' the fleet Which I dispersed, they all have met again And are upon the Mediterranean flote, Bound sadly home for Naples, Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd And his great person perish. |
PROSPERO: Ariel, thy charge Exactly is perform'd: but there's more work. What is the time o' the day? |
ARIEL: Past the mid season. |
PROSPERO: At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six and now Must by us both be spent most preciously. |
ARIEL: Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains, Let me remember thee what thou hast promised, Which is not yet perform'd me. |
PROSPERO: How now? moody? What is't thou canst demand? |
ARIEL: My liberty. |
PROSPERO: Before the time be out? no more! |
ARIEL: I prithee, Remember I have done thee worthy service; Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, served Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst promise To bate me a full year. |
PROSPERO: Dost thou forget From what a torment I did free thee? |
ARIEL: No. |
PROSPERO: Thou dost, and think'st it much to tread the ooze Of the salt deep, To run upon the sharp wind of the north, To do me business in the veins o' the earth When it is baked with frost. |
ARIEL: I do not, sir. |
PROSPERO: Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou forgot The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her? |
ARIEL: No, sir. |
PROSPERO: Thou hast. Where was she born? speak; tell me. |
ARIEL: Sir, in Argier. |
PROSPERO: O, was she so? I must Once in a month recount what thou hast been, Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch Sycorax, For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible To enter human hearing, from Argier, Thou know'st, was banish'd: for one thing she did They would not take her life. Is not this true? |
ARIEL: Ay, sir. |
PROSPERO: This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with child And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my slave, As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant; And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands, Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee, By help of her more potent ministers And in her most unmitigable rage, Into a cloven pine; within which rift Imprison'd thou didst painfully remain A dozen years; within which space she died And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy groans As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this island-- Save for the son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp hag-born--not honour'd with A human shape. |
ARIEL: Yes, Caliban her son. |
PROSPERO: Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st What torment I did find thee in; thy groans Did make wolves howl and penetrate the breasts Of ever angry bears: it was a torment To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax Could not again undo: it was mine art, When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape The pine and let thee out. |
ARIEL: I thank thee, master. |
PROSPERO: If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak And peg thee in his knotty entrails till Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters. |
ARIEL: Pardon, master; I will be correspondent to command And do my spiriting gently. |
PROSPERO: Do so, and after two days I will discharge thee. |
ARIEL: That's my noble master! What shall I do? say what; what shall I do? |
PROSPERO: Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea: be subject To no sight but thine and mine, invisible To every eyeball else. Go take this shape And hither come in't: go, hence with diligence! 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: |
PROSPERO: Come forth, I say! there's other business for thee: Come, thou tortoise! when? Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel, Hark in thine ear. |
ARIEL: My lord it shall be done. |
PROSPERO: Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself Upon thy wicked dam, come forth! |
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. 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! 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! |
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. 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 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: |
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: |
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. They are both in either's powers; but this swift business I must uneasy make, lest too light winning Make the prize light. One word more; I charge thee That thou attend me: thou dost here usurp The name thou owest not; and hast put thyself Upon this island as a spy, to win it From me, the lord on't. |
FERDINAND: No, as I am a man. |
MIRANDA: There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple: If the ill spirit have so fair a house, Good things will strive to dwell with't. |
PROSPERO: Follow me. Speak not you for him; he's a traitor. Come; I'll manacle thy neck and feet together: Sea-water shalt thou drink; thy food shall be The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots and husks Wherein the acorn cradled. Follow. |
FERDINAND: No; I will resist such entertainment till Mine enemy has more power. |
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: |
MIRANDA: Be of comfort; My father's of a better nature, sir, Than he appears by speech: this is unwonted Which now came from him. |
PROSPERO: Thou shalt be free As mountain winds: but then exactly do All points of my command. |
ARIEL: To the syllable. |