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MASTER.

OATSWAIN,

BOATS. Here, master: what cheer?

MAST. Good: Speak to the mariners: fall to't yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir.

Enter Mariners.

[Exit.

BOATS. Heigho, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare, yare: Take in the top-sail; Tend to the master's whistle.-Blow till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!

Enter ALONZO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO,
and Others.

ALON. Good Boatswain, have care.

Play the men.

BOATS. I pray now, keep below.

ANT. Where is the master, boatswain?

Where's the master?

BOATS. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour! keep

your cabins: you do assist the storm.

GON. Nay, good, be patient.

BOATS. When the sea is. Hence! What care these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence: trouble us not.

GON. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard.

BOATS. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these clements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap.-Cheerly, good hearts!-Out of our way, I

say.

[Exit.

Gox. I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks, he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast good Fate to his hanging! make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage! If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable. [Exeunt.

Re-enter Boatswain.

BOATS. Down with the top-mast; yare; lower, lower. Bring

her to Try with main course. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather, or our office.— Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO.

Yet again! what do you here? Shall we give o'er, and drown? Have you a mind to sink?

SEB. A pox o' your throat! you bawling, blasphemous, uncharitable dog!

BOATS. Work you, then.

ANT. Hang, cur, hang! you insolent noise-maker, we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.

GON. I'll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nut-shell.

BOATS. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! set her two courses; off to sea again; lay her off.

Enter Mariners, wet.

MAR. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost!

BOATS. What, must our mouths be cold?

[Exeunt.

GON. The king and prince at prayers! let us assist them,

For our case is as theirs.

SEB. I am out of patience.

ANT. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.— This wide-chapp'd rascal;—Would, thou might'st lie drowning, The washing of ten tides!

GON.

He'll be hanged yet,

Though every drop of water swear against it,

And gape at wid'st to glut him.

[A confused Noise within.] Mercy on us!—

We split, we split !-Farewell my wife and children!

-Farewell, brother!-We split, we split, we split.

ANT. Let's all sink with the king.

SEB. Let's take leave of him.

[Exit.

[Exit.

GON. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground; ling, heath, broom, furze, any thing: The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. [Exit.

[graphic][subsumed]

SCENE II.-The Island: before the Cell of Prospero.

Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.

MIRANDA.

F by your art, my dearest father, you have

Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.

The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's check,
Dashes the fire out. O! I have suffer'd

With those that I saw suffer a brave vessel,
Who had no doubt some noble creatures in her,
Dashed all to pieces. O! the cry did knock
Against my very heart.

Poor souls! they perish'd.

Had I been any god of power, I would

Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er

It should the good ship so have swallowed, and
The fraughting souls within her.

PRO.

Be collected:

No more amazement: tell your piteous heart,
There's no harm done.

MIRA.

PRO.

O, woe the day!

No harm.

I have done nothing but in care of thee,
(Of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!) who
Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing

Of whence I am; nor that I am more better
Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell,
And thy no greater father.

MIRA.

More to know

'Tis time

Did never meddle with my thoughts.

PRO.

I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand,

And pluck my magic garment from me.—So:

[Lays down his mantle.

Lie there, my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort.

The direful spectacle of the wrack, which touch'd

The very virtue of compassion in thee,

I have with such prevision in mine art
So safely order'd, that there is no soul-
No, not so much perdition as a hair,
Betid to any creature in the vessel

Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down;

For thou must now know further.

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The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;

You have often

The hour's now come;

Obey, and be attentive. Can'st thou remember

A time before we came unto this cell?

I do not think thou can'st; for then thou wast not
Out three years old.

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PRO. By what? by any other house, or person? Of any thing the image, tell me, that

Hath kept with thy remembrance.

MIRA.

"Tis far off;

And rather like a dream than an assurance

That my remembrance warrants. Had I not

Four or five women once, that tended me?

PRO. Thou had'st, and more, Miranda. But how is it, That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

If thou remember'st aught ere thou cam'st here,

How thou cam'st here, thou may'st.

MIRA.

But that I do not.

PRO. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve years since, Thy father was the duke of Milan, and

A prince of power.

MIRA.

Sir, are not you my father?

PRO. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and

She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father

Was duke of Milan; thou his only heir

And princess-no worse issued.

MIRA.

O, the heavens !

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