-
It should the good ship so have swallow'd and
The fraughting souls within her.
- Be collected:
- No more amazement: tell your piteous heart
- There's no harm done.
-
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.
-
More to know
Did never meddle with my thoughts.
- 'Tis time
- I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand,
- And pluck my magic garment from me. So:
- 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 provision in mine art
- So safely ordered that there is no soul—
- No, not so much perdition as an 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 farther.
-
You have often
Begun to tell me what I am, but stopp'd
And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding 'Stay: not yet.'
- The hour's now come;
- The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;
- Obey and be attentive. Canst thou remember
- A time before we came unto this cell?
- I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not
- Out three years old.
-
Certainly, sir, I can
- By what? by any other house or person?
- Of any thing the image tell me that
- Hath kept with thy remembrance.
-
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?
- Thou hadst, 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 camest here,
- How thou camest here thou mayst.Thou hadst, 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 camest here,
- How thou camest here thou mayst.
-
But that I do not
- Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since,
- Thy mother was the Duchess of Milan and
- A princess of power.
-
Madam, are not you my mother?
- The very same, the Duchess of Milan; and thou my only heir
- And princess no worse issued.
-
O the heavens!
What foul play had we, that we came from thence?
Or blessed was't we did?
- Both, both, my girl:
- By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heaved thence,
- But blessedly holp hither.
-
O, my heart bleeds
To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance! Please you, farther.
- My brother and thy uncle, call'd Antonio—
- 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 signories it was the first
- And Prospera the prime duchess, 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
- And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle—
- Dost thou attend me?
-
Madam, most heedfully.
- Being once perfected how to grant suits,
- How to deny them, who to advance and who
- To trash for over-topping, new created
- The creatures that were mine, I say, or changed 'em,
- 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,
- And suck'd my verdure out on't. Thou attend'st not.
-
O, good madam, I do.
- 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 retired,
- O'er-prized all popular rate, in my false brother
- Awaked an evil nature; and my trust,
- Like a good parent, did beget of him
- A falsehood in its contrary as great
- As my trust was; which had indeed no limit,
- A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded,
- Not only with what my revenue yielded,
- But what my power might else exact, like one
- Who having into truth, by telling of it,
- Made such a sinner of his memory,
- To credit his own lie, he did believe
- He was indeed the duke; out o' the substitution
- And executing the outward face of royalty,
- With all prerogative: hence his ambition growing—
- Dost thou hear?
-
Your tale, madam, would cure deafness.
- To have no screen between this part he play'd
- And him he play'd it for, he needs will be
- Absolute Milan. Me, poor woman, my library
- Was dukedom large enough: of temporal royalties
- He thinks me now incapable; confederates—
- 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.
-
O the heavens!
- Mark his condition and the event; then tell me
- If this might be a brother.
-
I should sin
To think but nobly of my grandmother:
Good wombs have borne bad sons.
- Now the condition.
- The King of Naples, being an enemy
- To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit;
- Which was, that he, in lieu o' the premises
- Of homage and I know not how much tribute,
- Should presently 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 of darkness,
- The ministers for the purpose hurried thence
- Me and thy crying self.
-
Alack, for pity!
I, not remembering how I cried out then,
Will cry it o'er again: it is a hint
That wrings mine eyes to't.
- Hear a little further
- And then I'll bring thee to the present business
- Which now's upon's; without the which this story
- Were most impertinent.
-
Wherefore did they not
That hour destroy us?
- Well demanded, wench:
- My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not,
- So dear the love my people bore me, nor set
- A mark so bloody on the business, but
- With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
- In few, they hurried us aboard a bark,
- Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepared
- A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd,
- Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
- Instinctively had quit it: there they hoist us,
- To cry to the sea that roar'd to us, to sigh
- To the winds whose pity, sighing back again,
- Did us but loving wrong.
-
Alack, what trouble
Was I then to you!
- O, a cherubim
- Thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile.
- Infused with a fortitude from heaven,
- When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt,
- Under my burthen groan'd; which raised in me
- An undergoing stomach, to bear up
- Against what should ensue.
-
How came we ashore?
- By Providence divine.
- Some food we had and some fresh water that
- A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,
- Out of his charity, 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,
- Knowing I loved my books, he furnish'd me
- From mine own library with volumes that
- I prize above my dukedom.
-
Would I might
But ever see that man!
- Now I arise:
- Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow.
- Here in this island we arrived; and here
- Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit
- Than other princesses can that have more time
- For vainer hours and tutors not so careful.
-
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?
- 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
- I find my zenith doth depend upon
- A most auspicious star, whose influence
- If now I court not but omit, my fortunes
- Will ever after droop. Here cease more questions:
- Thou art inclined to sleep; 'tis a good dulness,
- And give it way: I know thou canst not choose.
- Come away, servant, come. I am ready now.
- Approach, my Ariel, come.
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