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Good, speak to the mariners: fall we run ourselves aground: [Exit.

Enter MARINERS.

to 't, yarely, or
bestir, bestir.

The Tempest is one of Shakespeare's maturest productions, and is commonly assigned to the year 1610 or 1611. It may have had its origin in the spur given to the imagination by the widespread interest in the newly discovered Bermudas, where in the year 1609 the vessel of Sir George Somers was wrecked. mantic play, with elements of both tragedy and comedy, and an included masque (if that Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDIbe Shakespeare's); and with characters ranging from a brutish monster through the lowest and highest ranks of men to a creature

BOATS. Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tends to the master's whistle. Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!5

A ro

of the spirit world, it contains perhaps in itself the best epitome of its creator's varied

powers.

NAND, GONZALO, and others.
ALON.
the master? Play the men.
Good boatswain, have care. Where's
BOATS.

I pray now, keep below.

11

ANT. Where is the master, boatswain?
BOATS. Do you not hear him? You mar our

storm.

"The persons in this play," writes Edward Dowden, "while remaining real and living. are conceived in a more abstract way, more as types, than those in any other work of labour: keep your cabins: you do assist the Shakespeare. Prospero is the highest wisdom and moral attainment; Gonzalo is humorous common-sense incarnated; all that is meanest and most despicable appears in the wretched conspirators; Miranda, whose name seems to suggest wonder, is almost an elemental being, framed in the purest and simplest type of womanhood, yet made substantial by contrast with Ariel, who is an unbodied joy, too much a creature of light and air to know human affection or human sorrow: Caliban (the name formed from cannibal) stands at the other extreme, with all the elements in him-appetites, intellect, even imagination-out of which man emerges into early civilization, but with a moral nature that is still gross and malignant. Over all presides Prospero like a providence. And the spirit of reconciliation, of forgiveness, harmonizing the contentions of men, appears in The Tempest in the same noble manner that it appears in The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, and Henry VIII."

GON. Nay, good, be patient. BOATS. When the sea is. carest these roarers for the name of king? To Hence! What cabin: silence! trouble us not. 19 GON. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard.

"Nowhere." says Sidney Lee, "did Shakespeare give rein to his imagination with more imposing effect than in The Tempest. As in A Midsummer Night's Dream. magical or supernatural agencies are the mainsprings of the plot. But the tone is marked at all points by a solemnity and profundity of thought and sentiment which are lacking in the early comedy. In Prospero, the guiding providence of the romance, who resigns his magic power in the closing scene. traces have been sought of the lineaments of the dramatist himself, who in this play probably bade farewell to the enchanted work of his life."

BOATS. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; these elements to silence, and work the peace of if you can command 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

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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, incharitable dog! BOATS. Work you, then.

[Exeunt ANT. and SEB.

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

SCENE II.

The island. Before PROSPERO's cell.
Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.

MIR. If by your art,14 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
cheek,

Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd
With those that I saw suffer! a brave15 vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature16 in
her,

Poor souls, they

ANT. Hang, cur! hang, you insolent noise- Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did' knock Against my very heart! perish'd!

maker. We are less afraid to be drown'd than thou art.

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

shell.

50

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10

Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth, or ere17
It should the good ship so have swallowed and
The fraughting18 souls within her.
PROS.

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

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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.
MIR.
More to know
Did never meddle19 with my thoughts.
60
PROS.

ANT. We are merely 12 cheated of our lives by drunkards:

This wide-chapped rascal,-would thou mightst
lie drowning

The washing of ten tides!‡
GON.

"Tis time

I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand,

He'll be hang'd yet, And pluck my magic garment from me.-So:

Though every drop of water swear against it,
And gape at widest to glut him.

[A confused noise within: Mercy on us!'
'We split, we split! '—' Farewell my wife and
children!

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[Lays down his mantle.* Lie there, my art. Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort.

The direful spectacle of the wreck, which
touch'd

The very virtue of compassion in thee,
I have with such provision20 in mine art

14 magic (Note the re-
spectful "you" in
her address. the fa-
miliar "thou" in
her father's.)
15 splendid
Prospero wears the
as magician.

16 Collective for "creatures."

17 sooner than

18 freight-composing 19 mingle

20 foresight

mantle only in his capacity

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'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? PROS. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. how is it

But

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70

I pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should
Be so perfidious!-he whom, next thyself,
Of all the world I loved, and to him put
The manage of my state; as at that time
Through all the signories26 it was the first,
And Prospero the prime duke, being so reputed
In dignity, and for the liberal arts
Without a parallel; those being all my study,
The government I cast upon my brother,
And to my state grew stranger, being trans-
ported

And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle-
Dost thou attend me?
MIR.

Sir, most heedfully.
PROS. Being once perfected how to grant
suits,

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Or else new form'd 'em; having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state
To what tune pleased his ear; that now he was
The ivy which had hid my princely trunk,

That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou And suck'd my verdure out
else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

50

attend 'st not.
MIR. O, good sir, I do.
PROS.

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on't.30 Thou

90

I pray thee, mark me.
I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness and the bettering of my mind
With that which, but32 my being so retired,
O'er-prized all popular rate,33 in my false

brother

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He was indeed the duke; out o' the37 substitu- | My tale provokes that question. Dear, they tion,

And executing the outward face of royalty, With all prerogative-hence his ambition growing,

Dost thou hear?

MIR.

Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. PROS. To have no screen between this part he play'd

And him he play'd it for, he needs will be
Absolute Milan.38 Me, poor man, my library
Was dukedom large enough: of temporal
royalties

He thinks me now incapable; confederates, 111
So dry he was for sway, wi' the King of Naples
To give him annual tribute, do him homage,
Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend
The dukedom, yet unbow 'd,-alas, poor Milan!--
To most ignoble stooping.

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durst not,

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PROS. Mark his condition,39 and the event; 40 When I have deck'd the sea with drops full then tell me

If this might be a brother.

MIR.
I should sin
To think but nobly of my grandmother:
Good wombs have borne bad sons.

PROS.
Now the condition. 120
This King of Naples, being an enemy
To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit;
Which was, that he, in lieu o' the premises+2
Of homage and I know not how much tribute,
Should presently43 extirpate me and mine
Out of the dukedom, and confer fair Milan,
With all the honours, on my brother: whereon,
A treacherous army levied, one midnight
Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open
The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead
darkness,

of

130 The ministers for the purpose hurried thence Me and thy crying self.

MIR.

Alack, for pity!

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salt, Under my burthen groan'd; which raised in me An undergoing stomach,48 to bear up Against what should ensue. MIR.

161

How came we ashore? PROS. By Providence divine. Some food we had, and some fresh water, that A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo, Out of his charity, who 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,

Would I might

Knowing I loved my books, he furnish'd me
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.
MIR.
But ever see that man!
PROS. Now I arise: [Resumes his mantle.
Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow.
Here in this island we arrived; and here 171
Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit
Than other princess '49 can, that have more time
For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.
MIR. 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?

PROS. 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 180 I find my zenith doth depend upon

A most auspicious star, whose influence

If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes

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Will ever after droop. Here cease more ques- In troops I have dispersed them 'bout the isle. tions:

Thou art inclined to sleep; 'tis a good dulness,
And give it way: I know thou canst not choose.
[MIRANDA sleeps.
Come away, servant, come. I am ready now.
Approach, my Ariel, come.
Enter ARIEL.

ARI. All hail, great master! grave sir, hail!
I come

221

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.
PROS.
Of the king's ship,
The mariners, say how thou hast disposed,
And all the rest o' the fleet.

ARI.

Safely in harbour Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once 190 Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew From the still-vex'd Bermoothes,53 there she's hid:

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.50

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200

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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,54
Bound sadly home for Naples;

Supposing that they saw the king's ship
wreck 'd,

And his great person perish.
PROS.

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,51 Ariel, thy charge Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the Exactly is perform 'd: but there's more work. precursors What is the time o' the day? ARI. Past the mid season. PROS. At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six and now 240

O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight-outrunning were not: the fire and

cracks

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But was not this nigh shore?
ARI.

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Close by, my master. Of the salt deep,
PROS. But are they, Ariel, safe?
ARI.

Not a hair perish'd;
On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before: and, as thou badest

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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.
ARI.

53 the ever tempestuous
Bermudas (see in-
troductory note)

I do not, sir.

54 flood, sea

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