The Tempest

Yare, yare!

Take in the topsail.

Tend to the master's whistle!

Bestir, bestir!

Good Boatswain, have care.

Where's the master?

Play the men.

I pray now, keep below.

Where is the master, bos'n?

Do you not hear him!?

You mar our labour,

keep your cabins,

you do assist the storm.

Nay, good, be patient.

When the sea is.

Good, yet remember

whom thou hast aboard.

None that I more love than myself.

Silence, trouble us not!

Out of our way, I say!

Yet again? What do you here?

Shall we give o'er, and drown?

Have you a mind to sink?

A pox o' your throat, you bawling,

blasphemous, incharitable dog!

Work you, then

Hang, cur, hang! You whoreson,

insolent noisemaker,

we are less afraid

to be drowned than thou art,

Off to sea again!

Lay her off!

Hell is empty and all the devils here!

If by your art, my dearest mother, you

have put the wild waters in this roar,

allay them...

O, I have suffered with those that

I saw suffer.

A brave vessel, who had, no doubt,

some noble creature in her,

dash'd all to pieces.

Poor souls, they perish'd!

Be collected

No more amazement,

tell thy 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 Prospera,

master of a full poor cell

and thy no greater mother.

More to know did never meddle

with my thoughts

'Tis time I should inform thee farther.

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, 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, ma'am, 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

Had I not Four or five women

once that tended me?

Thou hadst, and more, Miranda

Twelve year since, Miranda,

twelve year since

thy mother held the Dukedom

of Milan and its princely power

But are not you my mother?

The very same, who long ago was wife

to him who ruled Milan most liberally

who, with as tolerant a hand toward me

gave license to my long hours

in pursuit of hidden truths

of coiled powers contained within

some elements to harm, or heal

I brooked no interruption

but your squalling

for thou, child, art a princess born

O, Heavens!

What foul play had we, that we

came from thence?

Upon thy father's death, authority was

conferred as was his will to me alone

thereby awaking the ambitions of my

brother and thy uncle, call'd Antonio

- Thou attendst not...

- Good Madam, I do!

I pray thee, mark me

that a brother should be so perfidious!

He whom I did charge to execute

express commands

as to the prudent

governing of fair Milan

instead undid, subverted

Dost thou attend me?

Ma'am, most heedfully!

Perverting my upstanding studies

now his slandering and bile-dipped

brush did paint a faithless portrait

His sister, a practicer of the black arts!

A demon, not a woman, nay a witch!

And he full-knowing others of

my sex have burned for no less!

The flames now fanned, my counselors

turned against me. Dost thou hear?

Your tale, ma'am, would cure deafness

To credit his own lie he did

believe he was indeed the Duke

confederates wi' the King of

Naples to give him annual tribute

and bend my Dukedom yet unbow'd

to most ignoble stooping

O the heavens!

Now the condition

The King of Naples, being an enemy

to me inveterate

hearkens my brother's suit

which was, that he, should presently

eradicate me and mine

out of the dukedom

and confer fair Milan with

all its honours upon my brother

whereon, one midnight

did Antonio open the gates of Milan

and, i' the dead of darkness his

ministers for the purpose hurried thence

me and thy crying self

Wherefore did they not

that hour destroy us?

Dear, they durst not

so dear the love my people bore me

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

that 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, did give us, with rich

garments, stuffs and necessaries

which since have steaded much

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!

I pray you, ma'am

for still 'tis beating in my mind, your

reason for raising this sea-storm?

By accident most strange

bountiful fortune now my dear lady, hath

mine enemies brought to this shore

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

All hail, great master!

Grave dame, 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

Hast thou, spirit, perform'd, to point,

the tempest that I bade thee?

To every article

I boarded the King's ship

Now on the beak, now in the

waist, the deck, in every cabin

I flamed amazement; sometime I'd

divide and burn in many places

the fire and cracks of sulphurous roaring

the most mighty Neptune

seem to besiege

and make his bold waves tremble

yea, his dread trident shake

Hi ho!

My brave spirit!

Who was so firm, so constant, that

this coil would not infect his reason?

Not a soul but felt a fever of the mad

and play'd some tricks of desperation

The king's son Ferdinand, with hair

up-staring was the first man that leap'd

cried; Hell is empty

and all the devils here!

Why that's my spirit!

But was not this nigh shore?

- Close by, my master

- But are they, Ariel, safe?

Not a hair perish'd

On their sustaining garments

not a blemish

but fresher than before

and, as thou badest me, in troops I have

dispersed 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

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