It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and Pro. Be collected; No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, Mira. O, woe the day! Pro. No harm. I have done nothing but in care of thee, 90 (Of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!) who Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell, Mira. More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts. The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd I have with such provision in mine art Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down; For thou must now know further. Mira. You have often Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd, Pro. The hour's now come; The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; I do not think thou canst; for then thou wast not Mira. Certainly, sir, I can, 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 110 120 Pro. Thou had'st, and more, Miranda: But how is it, 132 That this lives in thy mind? What see'st thou else Mira. But that I do not. Pro. Twelve years 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 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 issu'd. Mira. O the heavens! 140 What foul play had we, that we came from thence? Or blessed was't, we did? Pro. Both, both, my girl: By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thente ; But blessedly holp hither. Mira. O, my heart bleeds To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance! Please you fur ther. 150 Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, called Anthonio,I pray thee, mark me,that a brother should Be so perfidious!he whom, nèxt thyself, Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put The manage of my state; as, at that time, Through all the signiories 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 transported, Thy false uncle And wrapp'd in secret studies. Dost thou attend me? Mira. Sir, most heedfully. 160 "Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom "To "To trash for over-topping; new created "The creatures that were mine, I say, or chang'd'em, "Or else new form'd 'em: having both the key "Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state "To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk, 170 "And suck'd my verdure out on't.”—Thou attend'st not. "Mira. O good sir, I do. "Pro. I pray thee, mark me. "I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated "To closeness, and the bettering of my mind "With that, which, but by being so retir'd, "O'er priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother Awak'd an evil nature: and my trust, "Like a good parent, did beget of him "A falshood, in its contrary as great "As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit, "A confidence sans bound." 180 He being thus lorded, Not only with what my revenue yielded, But what my power might else exact,—like one, To credit his own lie,-he did believe He was, indeed, the duke; out of the substitution, And executing the outward face of royalty, 191 With all prerogative :-Hence his ambition grow. ing, Dost thou hear? Mira. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. Pro. |