Fer.

I am, in my condition,
A prince, Miranda; I do think, a king:
(I would, not so!) and would no more endure
This wooden slavery, than I would suffer

The flesh-fly blow my mouth.-Hear my soul
The very instant that I saw you, did [speak;-
My heart fly to your service; there resides,
To make me slave to it; and, for your sake,
Am I this patient log-man.

Mira.

Do you love me?

Fer. O heaven, O earth, bear witness to this sound,
And crown what I profess with kind event,
If I speak true; if hollowly, invert

What best is boded me, to mischief! I,
Beyond all limit of what else* i'the world,
Do love, prize, honour you.

Mira.

To weep at what I am glad of.

Pro.

I am a fool,

Fair encounter

Of two most rare affections! Heavens rain grace On that which breeds between them!

Fer.

Wherefore weep you?

Mira. At mine unworthiness, that dare not offer
What I desire to give; and much less take,
What I shall die to want: But this is trifling;
And all the more it seeks to hide itself,

The bigger bulk it shows. Hence, bashful cunning,
And prompt me, plain and holy innocence!
I am your wife, if you will marry me;
If not, I'll die your maid: to be your fellow
You may deny me: but I'll be your servant,
Whether you will or no.

Fer.

My mistress, dearest,

And I thus humble ever.

* Whatsoever.

Mira.

My husband then?
Fer. Ay, with a heart as willing

As bondage e'er of freedom: here's my hand. Mira. And mine, with my heart in't; And now farewell,

Till half an hour hence.

Fer.

A thousand! thousand!

A GUILTY CONSCIENCE.

O, it is monstrous! monstrous!

Methought, the billows spoke and told me of it; The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder, That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd The name of Prosper.

ACT IV.

CONTINENCE BEFORE MARRIAGE.

If thou dost break her virgin knot before
All sanctimonious ceremonies may
With full and holy rite be minister'd,
No sweet aspersion* shall the heavens let fall
To make this contract grow; but barren hate,
Sour-ey'd disdain, and discord, shall bestrew
The union of your bed with weeds so loathly,
That you shall hate it both.

As I hope

A LOVER'S PROTESTATION.

For quiet days, fair issue, and long life,
With such love as 'tis now; the murkiest den,

The most opportune place, the strong'st suggestion,
Our worser genius can, shall never melt

* Sprinkling

Mine honour into lust; to take away
The edge of that day's celebration,

When I shall think, or Phoebus' steeds are founder'd, Or night kept chain'd below.

PASSION TOO STRONG FOR Vows.

Look thou be true; do not give dalliance Too much the rein; the strongest oaths are straw To the fire i'the blood: be more abstemious, Or else, good night, your vow!

VANITY OF HUMAN NATURE.

These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded*,
Leave not a rack behind: We are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

DRUNKARDS ENCHANTED BY ARIEL.

I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking; So full of valour, that they smote the air For breathing in their faces; beat the ground For kissing of their feet; yet always bending Towards their project: Then I beat my tabor, At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their ears, Advanc'd their eyelids, lifted up their noses,

*Vanished.

A body of clouds in motion; but it is most probable that the author wrote track.

As they smelt music: so I charm'd their ears,
That, calf-like, they my lowing follow'd, through
Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss, and
thorns,

Which enter'd their frail shins: at last I left them
I' the filthy mantled pool beyond your cell,
There dancing up to the chins.

LIGHTNESS OF FOOT.

Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole may not Hear a foot fall.

ACT V.

TEARS.

His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops From eaves* of reeds.

COMPASSION AND CLEMENCY SUPERIOR TO REVENGE.

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.

*Thatch.

FAIRIES AND MAGIC.

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 you be) I have be-dimm'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.

SENSES RETURNING.

The charm dissolves арасе;

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 my 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, Alonzo, use me and my daughter:
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act:-
Thou'rt pinch'd for't now, Sebastian.—Flesh and
blood,