And left me to a bootlefs inquifition;
Concluding, Stay; not yet..

Pro. The hour's now come.

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;
Obey, and be attentive. Canft thou remember
A time, before we came unto this cell?

I do not think, thou canft; for then thou waft not
Out three years old.

Mira. Certainly, Sir, I can.

Pro. By what? by any other house, or perfon?
Of any thing the image tell me, that
Hath kept in thy remembrance.

Mira. 'Tis far off;

And rather like a dream, than an affurance
That my remembrance warrants. Had I not

Four, or five, women once, that tended me?

"Pro. Thou hadft, and more, Miranda: but how is it,

That this lives in thy mind? what feeft thou elfe
In the dark back-ward and abyfme of time?
If thou remember'ft aught, ere thou cam'ft here;
How thou cam'ft here, thou may'st.

Mira. But that I do not.

Pro. 'Tis twelve years fince, Miranda; twelve years fince,

Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and

A Prince of Pow'r.

Mira. Sir, are not you my father?

Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and

She faid, thou waft my daughter; and thy father Was Duke of Milan, and his only heir

A Princefs, no worfe iffu'd.

Mira. O the heav'ns!

What foul play had we, that we came from thence ? Or bleffed was't, we did?

Pro. Both, both, my girl:

By foul play (as thou fay'st) were we heav'd thence; But bleffedly help'd hither.

Mira. O, my heart bleeds

To think o'th' teene that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance. Please you, farther. Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Anthonio---thee, mark me; (that a brother should

I

pray
Be fo perfidious!) he whom next thy felf

Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my ftate; (as, at that time,
Through all the fignories it was the first;
And Profpero the prime Duke, being fo reputed
In dignity; and for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel; thofe being all my study :)
The government I caft upon my brother,

And to my ftate grew ftranger; being tranfported,
And rapt in fecret ftudies. Thy falfe uncle-
(Doft thou attend me?)

Mira. Sir, moft heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant fuits, How to deny them; whom t'advance, and whom 5 To trash for over-topping; new-created

The creatures, that were mine; I fay, or chang'd 'em,
Or elfe new form'd 'em; having both the key
Of officer and office, fet all hearts i'th' ftate
To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,

[not.

And fuckt my verdure out on't. Thou attend'st Mira. Good Sir, I do.

Pro. I pray thee, mark me then.

I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness, and the bettering of my mind,
With that which, but by being fo retired,
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother

5 To trash] fignifies to cut away the trafh or fuperfluities; as, to top, fignifies, to cut off the top. The Oxford Editor alters it to plah, not confidering that to plab fignifies to bind and complicate branches together, and fo is only used to fignify the dreffing and pleating of an Hedge.

Awak'd

Awak'd an evil nature; and my truft,
Like a good parent, did beget of him
A falfhood in its contrary as great

As my truft was; which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence fans bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my Revenue yielded,
But what my power might else exact"; like one,
Who having, unto truth, by telling oft,
Made fuch a finner of his memory,

To credit his own lie, he did believe

He was, indeed, the Duke; from substitution,
And executing th' outward face of royalty,

With all prerogative. Hence his ambition growing-
Doft thou hear?

Mira. Your tale, Sir, would cure deafness.

Pro. To have no screen between this part he plaid, And him he plaid it for, he needs will be Abfolute Milan. Me, poor man!—my library Was Dukedom large enough; of temporal royalties He thinks me now incapable: confederates (So dry he was for fway) wi' th' King of Naples

6

like one

Who having INTO truth by telling of it,

Made fuch a Sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie.] The corrupted reading of the Second line has rendered this beautiful Similitude quite unintelligible. For what is [having into truth]? or what doth [it] refer to? not to [truth], becaufe if he told truth he could never credit a lie. yet there is no other correlative to which [it] can belong. I read and point it thus,

like one

Who having, UNTO truth, by telling OFT,
Made fuch a Sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie,

And

i. e. by often repeating the fame Story, made his memory fuch a Sinner unto truth as to give credit to his own lie. A miferable delufion to which Story-tellers are frequently fubject. The Oxford Editor having, by this Correction, been let into the Senfe of the Paffage, gives us this Sense in his own Words,

Who loving an untruth, and telling't oft,
Makes

Το

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 moft ignoble stooping.

Mira. O the heav'ns!

Pro. Mark his condition, and th' event; then tell me, If this might be a Brother?

Mira. I fhould fin,

To think but nobly of my grand-mother; 7 Good wombs have bore bad fons.

Pro. Now the condition:

This King of Naples, being an enemy
To me inveterate, hearks my brother's fuit;
Which was, that he in lieu o'th' premises,
Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,
Should prefently extirpate me and mine
Out of the Dukedom; and confer fair Milan,
With all the honours, on my brother. Whereon
A treacherous army levy'd, one mid-night
Fated to th' purpose, did Anthonio open

The gates of Milan; and, i'th' dead of darkness,
The minifters for the purpose hurry'd thence
Me, and thy crying self.

Mira. Alack, for pity!

I, not remembring how I cry'd out then,
Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint,

That wrings mine eyes to't.

Pro. Hear a little further,

And then I'll bring thee to the prefent business, Which now's upon's; without the which this story Were most impertinent.

7 Good wombs have bore bad fons ] Mr. Theobald would give these words to Profpero, because Miranda, bred up in the defart Iland from her infancy, could not be fuppos'd to be furnished with fuch an obfervation from life. An idle reafon. Profpero tells us, he had educated her more carefully than ufual. Would he then fuffer her to be ignorant of the most common cafes in human life? Yet the Oxford Editor follows Mr. Theobald.

Mira. Why did they not

That hour destroy us?

Pro. Well demanded, wench;

My tale provokes that queftion. Dear, they durft not
(So dear the love my people bore me ;) fet
A mark fo bloody on the bufinefs; but
With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurry'd us aboard a bark;
Bore us fome leagues to Sea; where they prepar'd
A rotten carcafs of a boat, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, fail, nor maft; the very rats
Instinctively had quit it: there they hoift us
To cry to th' fea, that roar'd to us; to figh
To th' winds, whose pity, fighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

Mira. Alack! what trouble

Was I then to you?

Pro. O! a cherubim

Thou waft, that did preferve me: Thou didst fmile, Infused with a fortitude from heav'n,

8

(When I have mock'd the fea with drops full-falt Under my burthen groan'd ;) which rais'd in me An undergoing ftomach, to bear up

Against what fhould enfue.

Mira. How came we a-fhore?

Pro. By providence divine.

Some food we had, and some fresh water, that
A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,

Out of his charity (being then appointed
Mafter of this defign) did give us, with

Rich garments, linnens, ftuffs, and neceffaries,
Which fince have fteeded much. So of his gentleness,

;

8 When I have DECK'D the fea] i. e. honour'd. But this is a poor thought. The Oxford Editor reads brack'd, which is ftill poorer. I imagine that Shakespear wrote мOCK'D, i. e. lent the Sea this trifling addition of falt-water: For when any thing is given or added, the effect of which is not felt or perceived, it was in the language of that time properly called mocking.

Knowing