Imatges de pàgina
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Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st
What torments 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 arriv'd, and heard thee, that made gape
The pine and let thee out.

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Pro. 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.

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What shall I do? say? what shall I do?

Pro. Go make thyself like to a nymph o' the sea;

Be subject to no sight but mine; invisible

To every eyeball else. Go, take this shape,

And hither come in 't: hence, with diligence.

(Exit Ariel.)

Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well;
Awake!

Mira. The strangeness of your story put
Heaviness in me.

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We cannot miss him; he does make our fire,

Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices
I

That profit us. What ho! slave! Caliban !

Thou earth thou! speak.

Cali. (within):-There's wood enough within.

Pro. Come forth, I say: there's other business for thee: Come forth, thou tortoise! when?

Re-enter ARIEL, like a water-nymph.

Fine apparition! my quaint Ariel!

Hark in thine ear.

Ari.-My lord, it shall be done.

(Exit.)

Pro.-Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!

Enter CALIBAN.

Cali. 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!

Pro. 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 honey-combs, each pinch more stinging
Than bees that made them.

Cali.

I must eat my dinner!

This island's mine, by Sycorax, my mother,

Which thou tak'st from me. When thou camest first,

Thou strok'dst me, and mad'st much of me; would'st 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 lov'd 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 of the island.

Pro.

Thou most lying slave,

Whom stripes may move, not kindness,-I have us'd thee,

Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodg'd thee

In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate

The honour of my child.

Cali. O ho, O ho! would it had been done! Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled else This isle with Calibans.

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Which any print of goodness will 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 confin'd into this rock,

Who hadst deserv'd more than a prison.

Cali. 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!

Pro.

Hag-seed, hence!

Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou wert 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 achès; make thee roar,

That beasts shall tremble at thy din.

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I must obey his art is of such power, (Aside.)

:

It would controul my dam's god, Setebos,

And make a vassal of him.

Pro.

So, slave; hence !

[Exit Caliban.

Re-enter ARIEL, invisible, playing and singing; FERDINAND

following him.

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 burden bear.

Hark, hark!

Burthen. Bowgh, wowgh. (dispersedly)

The watch-dogs bark:

Bur. Bowgh, wowgh.

Hark, hark! I hear

The strain of strutting chanticlere
Cry, Cock-a-doodle-doo.

Fer. Where should this music be? i' the air, or the earth?
It sounds no more ;-and sure it waits upon
Some god of 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 some rich thing and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell ;

Hark! now I hear them,-ding, dong, bell.

(Burden, Ding-dong.

Fer. The ditty does remember my drowned father.

This is no mortal business, nor no sound
That the earth owes ;-I hear it now above me.
Pro. The fringed curtains of thine eye advance,1
And say, what thou seest yond!

Mira.

Lord, how it looks about!

What is 't? a spirit?
Believe me, sir,

It carries a brave form :-but 't is a spirit.

Pro. 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 them.

Mira.

I might call him

A thing divine; for nothing natural

I ever saw so noble.

Pro.

It goes on, (aside.)

As my soul prompts it:-Spirit, fine spirit! I'll free thee
Within two days for this.

Fer.

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 instructions give,

How I may bear me here. My prime request,
Which do last pronounce, is, O you wonder!
If you be maid, or no?

Mira.
But, certainly a maid.

Fer.

No wonder, sir;

My language! heavens !

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