Ari.
All hail, great master! grave Sir, hail! I come
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.

Pro.
Hast thou, spirit,
Perform'd to point the tempest that I bad thee?

Ari.
To every Article.
I boarded the King's ship: now on the beak,^{7 note}
Now in the waste^{8 note}, the deck, in every cabin,
I flam'd amazement. Sometimes, I'd divide,
And burn in many places; on the top-mast,
The yards, and bolt-sprit, would I flame distinctly;
Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursers
Of dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight out-running were not; the fire and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune
Seem'd to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble;

Yea, his dread trident shake.

Pro.
My brave spirit!
Who was so firm, so constant, that this coyle
Would not infect his reason?

Ari.
Not a soul
But felt a fever of the mad, and plaid^{9 note}
Some tricks of desperation: all, but mariners,
Plung'd in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel,
Then all a-fire with me: the King's son Ferdinand
With hair up-staring (then like reeds, not hair)
Was the first man, that leap'd; cry'd, “hell is empty;
“And all the devils are here.”

Pro.
Why, that's my spirit!
But was not this nigh shore?

Ari.
Close by, my Master.

Pro.
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 badst me,
In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle:
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.

Pro.
Of the King's ship
The mariners, say, how thou hast dispos'd,
And all the rest o' th' fleet?

Ari.
Safely in harbour
Is the King's ship; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dst me up at midnight, to fetch dew
From the still-vext Bermoothes. There she's hid,^{1 note}

The mariners all under hatches stow'd,
Whom with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour
I've left asleep; and for the rest o' th' fleet
(Which I dispers'd) they all have met again,
And are upon the Mediterranean flote,
Bound sadly home for Naples;
Supposing, that they saw the King's ship wreckt,
And his great person perish.

Pro.
Ariel, thy charge
Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work.
What is the time o'th' day?^{2 note}

Ari.
Past the mid season.

Pro.
At least two glasses; the time 'twixt six and now
Must by us both be spent most preciously.

Ari.
Is there more toil? since thou dost give me pains,
Let me remember thee what thou hast promis'd,
Which is not yet perform'd me.

Pro.
How now? moody?
What is't thou canst demand?

Ari.
My liberty.

Pro.
Before the time be out? no more.

Ari.
I pr'ythee,
Remember, I have done thee worthy service;
Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, serv'd

Without or grudge, or grumblings; thou didst promise
To bate me a full year.

Pro.
Dost thou forget^{3 note}

Ari.
No.

Pro.
Thou dost; and think'st it much to tread the ooze
Of the salt deep;

To run upon the sharp Wind of the North;
To do me business in the veins o' th' earth,
When it is bak'd with frost.

Ari.
I do not, Sir.

Pro.
Thou ly'st, malignant thing! hast thou forgot
The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy
Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her?

Ari.
No, Sir.

Pro.
Thou hast: where was she born? speak; tell me,

Ari.
Sir, in Argier.

Pro.
Oh, was she so? I must
Once in a month recount what thou hast been,
Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch Sycorax,
For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier,
Thou know'st, was banish'd: for one thing she did,
They would not take her life. Is not this true?

Ari.
Ay, Sir.

Pro.
This blue ey'd hag was hither brought with child,
And here was left by th' sailors; thou my slave,
As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant.
And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate
To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands,
Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee,
By help of her more potent ministers,
And in her most unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprison'd, thou didst painfully remain
A dozen years, within which space she dy'd,
And left thee there: where thou didst vent thy groans,
As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this Island,
Save for the son that she did litter here,
A freckled whelp, hag-born, not honour'd with
A human shape

Ari.
Yes; Caliban her son.

Pro.
Dull thing, I say so: he, that Caliban,

Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st,
What torment 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.

Ari.
I thank thee, master.

Pro.
If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak,
And peg thee in his knotty entrails, 'till
Thou'st how'ld away twelve winters.

Ari.
Pardon, master.
I will be correspondent to command,
And do my sp'riting gently.

Pro.
Do so; and after two days
I will discharge thee.

Ari.
That's my noble master:
What shall I do? say what? what shall I do?

Pro.
Go make thyself like to a nymph o' th' sea.
Be subject to no sight but mine, invisible
To every eye-ball else. Go take this shape
And hither come in it: go hence with diligence. [Exit Ariel.
  Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well;
Awake—

Mira.
The strangeness of your story put^{4 note}
Heaviness in me.

Pro.
Shake it off: come on;
We'll visit Caliban my slave, who never
Yields us kind answer.

Mira.
'Tis a villain, Sir,
I do not love to look on—

Pro.
But, as 'tis,

We cannot miss him: he does make our fire,
Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices
That profit us. What ho! slave! Caliban!
Thou earth, thou! speak.

Cal. [within.]
There's wood enough within.

Pro.
Come forth, I say; there's other Business for thee.
Come, thou Tortoise! when?— 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.

Previous section

Next section