Mir.
If by your arts, dear father, you can quell
The water's dreadful roar, allay their fury;
For O! I've suffer'd, with those, whom I saw suffer!
Had I been any God of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er,
It should the goodly ship have swallow'd, and
The fright'ned souls within her.—

Pros.
Tell your piteous heart, there's no harm done.
I have preserv'd their lives.
My child, who art ignorant of what thou art,
Attend: 'Tis twelve years since thy father was the Duke
Of Milan. Be not amazed, my daughter,
Thou art a princess of no less issue.

Mir.
O heavens! what foul play had we?

Pros.
Mark me well:
I then neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To study, and bettering of my mind,
Did cast the government on my brother,
Call'd Anthonio. He, from substitution,
And executing the outward face of
Royalty, with all prerogative, did
Believe he was indeed the Duke; hence
His ambition growing, he confederates
With the king of Naples, my inveterate foe,
To extirpate me from my Dukedom, and
To confer fair Milan on my brother.

Mir.
O treachery!

Pros.
This settled, and an army levied; one night,
Fated to the purpose, did Anthonio open
The gates of Milan, and in the dead of darkness,
The ministers for the purpose, hurried thence
Me, and thy crying self.—In fine, they forced us
Out to sea, in a rotten, unrigg'd boat,
Where they left us, to the mercy of the winds.

AIR.
In pity, Neptune, smooths the liquid way,
Obsequious tritons on the surface play;
And sportive dolphins, with a nimble glance,
To the bright sun, their glittering scales advance.
In oozy bed, profound, the billows sleep,
No clamorous winds awake the silent deep;
With safety through the sea our boat is bore,
In gentle waves we're wafted to this shore.

Mir.
Alas! alas!

Pros.
Know farther, then, Fortune,
Now growing bountiful, to this shore
Hath brought mine enemies; and, by my prescience
I find my zenith doth depend upon
A most propitious star, whose influence,
If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes
Will ever after droop.—I shall land them safe,
Tho' hell oppose me in my good intent.
Thou art inclin'd to sleep, 'tis a good dulness,
And give it way. I know though can'st not chuse.

AIR. Miranda.
Come, O sleep! my eyelids close,
Lull my soul to soft repose.

Pros.
It was a dreadful storm,
Hell seem'd to range at large, and hath
Disgorg'd her dire inhabitants. Nature was
In convulsion, and work'd as the last day had
Come.—O then! the cloud capp'd towers,
And gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples,
The great globe itself; ye all which it inherit
Shall dissolve; and, like the baseless fabrick
Of a vision, leave not a wreck behind.
But I must disappoint the works of hell.
What ho! My Ariel! Ariel descends, a wand in her hand, and winged.

Ariel.
All hail! great master! grave Sir, hail! I come
To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly,
To swim, to drive into the fire, to ride
On circling clouds, to thy strong bidding, task
Ariel, and all her qualities.

AIR.
In the light moon shine, while winds whistle loud
Tevy, tevy, tevy, we march and we fly,
All racking along in a downy white cloud;
And least our leap from the sky should prove too far,
We slide on the back of a new falling star.
Merry, merry, merry, we sail from the East,
Half tippl'd at a rainbow feast.

Pros.
Spirit, thou hast performed to point
The business that I bade thee, and disposed
The ship and princes exactly to thy charge;
The king of Naples, and my brother, are now
In a fast sleep; but there's more work,
What is the time of day?

Ariel.
Past the mid-season.

AIR. Prospero.
We must work, we must haste;
Noon-tide hour is long since past;
Sprights that glimmer in the sun,
Into shades already run,
Fly and do your work anon.

Ariel.

Let me remember thee, what thou hast promised.

Pros.
What is't thou can'st demand?

Ariel.
My liberty.

Pros
Before the time be out?—No more.
Do'st thou forget
The foul witch Sycorax, the dam of Caliban?

Ariel.
No.

Pros.
Thou do'st, and think'st it much to tread the ooze
Of the salt deep;
To run against the sharp winds of the north;
To do my business in the veins of the earth,
When it is bak'd with frost!

Ariel.
I do not, Sir.

Pros.
Thou best knowest what torments I found thee in.
It was my art, when I arrived, and heard thee,
That made the pine within whose rift thou wast

Imprisoned, to gape, and let thee out.
And if thou murmurest, I will rend an oak,
And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till thou,
Hast howl'd out twelve long winters.

Ariel.
Pardon master, I obey— [Exit

Pros.
Awake my dear heart, awake! Miranda awakes.

Mir.
The strangeness of your story
Put heaviness in me.—
Here comes that monster Caliban, I
Do not love to look upon him. I'll retire. (Exit.) Enter Caliban.

Pros.

Thou pois'nous slave, got by the devil himself, upon thy wicked dame, what brings thee here?

Cal.

As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed, with raven's feather from unwholseme fens, drop on you both. A south-west wind blow on you, and blister you all o'er.

Pros.

For this, be sure, to night, thou shalt have cramps, side stitches that shall pen thy heart up; urchins shall prick thee till thou bleed'st; thou shalt be pinch'd as thick as honey combs; each pinch more stinging than the bees which made them.

Cal.

I must eat my dinner: This island's mine, by Sycorax, my mother; which thou takest from me. When thou came first, thou strockdest me, would'st give me water with berries in it, and teach me how to name the bigger lights, and how the less: and then I lov'd thee, and shew'd thee all the qualities of the isle; the best springs, brine pits, barren places, and fertile. All the charms of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on thee!

Pros.

Thou lying slave, I have used thee with human care, and lodged thee in my own cell, till thou did'st seek to violate the honor of my daughter.

Cal.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, would it had been done: thou did'st prevent me, I had peopled else this Isle with Calibans. You taught me language, and I know how to curse. The red batch rid you for teaching me your language.

Pros.
Hag-seed, hence!
Fetch in fuel and be quick
To answer other business; shrug'st thou, malice?
If thou neglectest what I command, I'll wrack
Thee with old cramps, fill all thy bones with ackes,
Make thee roar, that beasts shall tremble at thy din.

Cal.
I must obey,
His art is of such power
It would controul my dam's god, Setebos,
And make a vassal of him. [Exeunt.

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