SCENE I. Before the cell of
PROSPERO.
[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 rais'd the tempest.
Say, my spirit,
How fares the King and 's followers?
ARIEL.
Confin'd 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,
Brim full of sorrow and dismay;
but chiefly
Him 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 them,
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
mov'd than thou art?
Though with their high wrongs
I am struck to the quick,
Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst
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 azur'd 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-bas'd
promontory
Have I made shake; and by the
spurs pluck'd up
The pine and cedar: graves at
my command
Have wak'd their sleepers, op'd,
and let them forth
By my so potent art. But this
rough magic
I here abjure; and, when I have
requir'd
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.
[Solem music]
[Re-enter ARIEL: after him,
ALONSO, with
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 thou 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'rt pinch'd for't 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
shores
That now lie 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:--
[Exit ARIEL]
I will discase me, and myself
present,
As I was sometime Milan.--Quickly,
spirit;
Thou shalt ere long be free.
[ARIEL re-enters, singing, and
helps to attire PROSPERO.]
ARIEL
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.
Whe'er thou be'st 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,
Th' 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 measur'd or confin'd.
GONZALO.
Whether this be
Or be not, I'll not swear.
PROSPERO.
You do yet taste
Some subtleties o' the isle,
that will not let you
Believe things certain.--Welcome,
my friends all:--
[Aside to SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO]
But you, my brace of
lords, were I so minded,
I here could pluck his highness'
frown upon you,
And justify you traitors: at
this time
I will tell no tales.
SEBASTIAN.
[Aside] The devil speaks in him.
PROSPERO.
No.
For you, most wicked sir, whom
to call brother
Would even infect my mouth, I
do forgive
Thy rankest fault; all of them;
and require
My dukedom of thee, which, perforce,
I know
Thou must restore.
ALONSO.
If thou beest Prospero,
Give us particulars of thy preservation;
How thou hast met us here, whom
three hours since
Were wrack'd upon this shore;
where I have lost,--
How sharp the point of this remembrance
is!--
My dear son Ferdinand.
PROSPERO.
I am woe for't, sir.
ALONSO.
Irreparable is the loss, and
patience
Says it is past her cure.
PROSPERO.
I rather think
You have not sought her help;
of whose soft grace,
For the like loss I have her
sovereign aid,
And rest myself content.
ALONSO.
You the like loss!
PROSPERO.
As great to me, as late; and,
supportable
To make the dear loss, have I
means much weaker
Than you may call to comfort
you, for I
Have lost my daughter.
ALONSO.
A daughter?
O heavens! that they were living
both in Naples,
The king and queen there! That
they were, I wish
Myself were mudded in that oozy
bed
Where my son lies. When did you
lose your daughter?
PROSPERO.
In this last tempest. I perceive,
these lords
At this encounter do so much
admire
That they devour their reason,
and scarce think
Their eyes do offices of truth,
their words
Are natural breath; but, howsoe'er
you have
Been justled from your senses,
know for certain
That I am Prospero, and that
very duke
Which was thrust forth of Milan;
who most strangely
Upon this shore, where you were
wrack'd, was landed
To be the lord on't. No more
yet of this;
For 'tis a chronicle of day by
day,
Not a relation for a breakfast
nor
Befitting this first meeting.
Welcome, sir:
This cell's my court: here have
I few attendants
And subjects none abroad: pray
you, look in.
My dukedom since you have given
me again,
I will requite you with as good
a thing;
At least bring forth a wonder,
to content ye
As much as me my dukedom.
[The entrance of the Cell opens,
and discovers
FERDINAND and MIRANDA playing
at chess.]
MIRANDA.
Sweet lord, you play me false.
FERDINAND.
No, my dearest 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 curs'd them without cause.
[Kneels to ALONSO.]
ALONSO.
Now all the blessings
Of a glad father compass thee
about!
Arise, and say how thou cam'st
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
Receiv'd 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 burden our remembrances
with
A heaviness that's gone.
GONZALO.
I have inly wept,
Or should have spoke ere this.
Look down, you gods,
And on this couple drop a blessed
crown;
For it is you that have chalk'd
forth the way
Which brought us hither.
ALONSO.
I say, Amen, Gonzalo!
GONZALO.
Was Milan thrust from Milan,
that his issue
Should become kings of Naples?
O, rejoice
Beyond a common joy, and set
it down
With gold on lasting pillars.
In one voyage
Did Claribel her husband find
at Tunis,
And Ferdinand, her brother, found
a wife
Where he himself was lost; Prospero
his dukedom
In a poor isle; and all of us
ourselves,
When no man was his own.
ALONSO.
[To FERDINAND and MIRANDA] Give
me your hands:
Let grief and sorrow still embrace
his heart
That doth not wish you joy!
GONZALO.
Be it so. Amen!
[Re-enter ARIEL, with the Master
and Boatswain
amazedly following.]
O look, sir! look, sir! Here
are more of us.
I prophesied, if a gallows were
on land,
This fellow could not drown.--Now,
blasphemy,
That swear'st grace o'erboard,
not an oath on shore?
Hast thou no mouth by land? What
is the news?
BOATSWAIN.
The best news is that we have
safely found
Our king and company: the next,
our ship,--
Which but three glasses since
we gave out split,--
Is tight and yare, and bravely
rigg'd as when
We first put out to sea.
ARIEL.
[Aside to PROSPERO] Sir, all
this service
Have I done since I went.
PROSPERO.
[Aside to ARIEL] My tricksy spirit!
ALONSO.
These are not natural events;
they strengthen
From strange to stranger--Say,
how came you hither?
BOATSWAIN.
If I did think, sir, I were well
awake,
I'd 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 mo diversity of sounds, all
horrible,
We were awak'd; straightway,
at liberty:
Where we, in all her trim, freshly
beheld
Our royal, good, and gallant
ship; our master
Cap'ring to eye her: on a trice,
so please you,
Even in a dream, were we divided
from them,
And were brought moping hither.
ARIEL.
[Aside to PROSPERO] Was't well
done?
PROSPERO.
[Aside to ARIEL] Bravely, my
diligence. Thou
shalt be free.
ALONSO.
This is as strange a maze as
e'er men trod;
And there is in this business
more than nature
Was ever conduct of: some oracle
Must rectify our knowledge.
PROSPERO.
Sir, my liege,
Do not infest your mind with
beating on
The strangeness of this business:
at pick'd leisure,
Which shall be shortly, single
I'll resolve you,--
Which to you shall seem probable--of
every
These happen'd accidents; till
when, be cheerful
And think of each thing well.--[Aside
to ARIEL] Come
hither, spirit;
Set Caliban and his companions
free;
Untie the spell. [Exit ARIEL]
How fares my gracious sir?
There are yet missing of your
company
Some few odd lads that you remember
not.
[Re-enter ARIEL, driving in
CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and
TRINCULO, in their stolen apparel.]
STEPHANO.
Every man shift for all the rest,
and let no man
take care for himself, for all
is but fortune.--Coragio!
bully-monster, Coragio!
TRINCULO.
If these be true spies which
I wear in my head,
here's a goodly sight.
CALIBAN.
O Setebos, these be brave spirits
indeed.
How fine my master is! I am afraid
He will chastise me.
SEBASTIAN.
Ha, ha!
What things are these, my lord
Antonio?
Will money buy them?
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 I
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 them?
How cam'st 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'd be king o' the isle, sirrah?
STEPHANO.
I should have been a sore one,
then.
ALONSO.
This is as strange a thing as
e'er I look'd on.
[Pointing to CALIBAN]
PROSPERO.
He is as disproportioned in his
manners
As in his shape.--Go, sirrah,
to my cell;
Take with you your companions:
as you look
To have my pardon, trim it handsomely.
CALIBAN.
Ay, that I will; and I'll be
wise hereafter,
And seek for grace. What a thrice-double
ass
Was I, to take this drunkard
for a god,
And worship this dull fool!
PROSPERO.
Go to; away!
ALONSO.
Hence, and bestow your luggage
where you found it.
SEBASTIAN.
Or stole it, rather.
[Exeunt CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and
TRINCULO.]
PROSPERO.
Sir, I invite your Highness and
your train
To my poor cell, where you shall
take your rest
For this one night; which--part
of it--I'll waste
With such discourse as, I not
doubt, shall make it
Go quick away; the story of my
life
And the particular accidents
gone by
Since I came to this isle: and
in the morn
I'll bring you to your ship,
and so to Naples,
Where I have hope to see the
nuptial
Of these our dear-belov'd 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]
EPILOGUE
[Spoken by 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 confin'd 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 reliev'd 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.
End of Project Gutenberg Etext
of The Tempest by Shakespeare
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