Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me
From my own library, with volumes that
I prize above my Dukedom.

Mira. Would I might

But ever fee that man!

9 Pro. Now, I arife:

Sit ftill, and hear the laft of our fea-forrow.
Here in this island we arriv'd, and here

Have I, thy school-mafter, made thee more profit
Than other Princes can, that have more time
For vainer hours, and tutors not fo careful.

Mira. Heav'ns thank you for't! And now, I pray you, Sir,

(For still 'tis beating in my mind) your reason For raising this fea-storm?

Pro. Know thus far forth,

By accident most strange, bountiful fortune
(Now my dear lady) hath mine enemies
Brought to this fhore: and, by my prescience
I find, my Zenith doth depend upon
A most aufpicious ftar; whose Influence
If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes
Will ever after droop. Here cease more queftions;
Thou art inclin'd to fleep. 'Tis a good dulnefs,
And give it way; I know, thou canft not chufe

[Miranda Лleeps. Come away, fervant, come; I'm ready now: Approach, my Ariel.

Come.

9 Pro. Now I arife:] i. e. now I come to the principal part of my Story, for the fake of which I told the foregoing; namely this, that I have now my Enemies in my Power; and if I omit this Opportunity, I fhall never have another to recover my Dukedom. The word is used to usher in a matter of importance. So Richard III. when he comes to the murder of his Nephews, fays to Tirrel,

Rife, and lend an ear.

SCENE

SCEN E III.

Enter Ariel.

Ari. All hail, great master! grave Sir, hail! I come To answer thy best pleasure: Be't to fly;

To fwim; to dive into the fire; to ride

On the curl'd clouds: to thy ftrong bidding task
Ariel, and all his qualities.

Pro. Haft thou, Spirit,

Perform'd to point the tempeft that I bad thee?
Ari. To every Article.

I boarded the King's fhip: now on the beak,
Now in the wafte, 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-fprit, would I flame distinctly;
Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precurfers
Of dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary

And fight out-running were not; the fire and cracks
Of fulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune
Seem'd to befiege, and make his bold waves tremble;
Yea, his dread trident fhake.

Pro. My brave, brave spirit!

Who was fo firm, fo conftant, that this coyl
Would not infect his reafon?

Ari. Not a foul

But felt a feaver of the mind, and plaid

Some tricks of defperation: all, but mariners,
Plung'd in the foaming brine, and quit the veffel,
Then all a-fire with me: the King's fon Ferdinand
With hair up-staring (then like reeds, not hair)
Was the firft 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 fhore?

Ari. :Close by, my Master.
Pro. But are they, Ariel, fafe?
Ari. Not a hair perifh'd:

On their fuftaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before. And as thou badft me,
In troops I have difpers'd them 'bout the isle:
The King's fon have I landed by himself,
Whom I left cooling of the air with fighs,
In an odd angle of the ifle, and fitting,
His arms in this fad knot.

Pro. Of the King's fhip

The mariners, fay how thou haft difpos'd,
And all the reft o'th' fleet?

Ari. Safely in harbour

Is the King's fhip; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dft me up at midnight, to fetch dew
From the ftill-vext Bermoothes, there the's hid:
The mariners all under hatches ftow'd,

Who, with a charm join'd to their fuffered labour,
I've left asleep; and for the reft o'th' fleet
(Which I difpers'd) they all have met again,
And are upon the Mediterranean flote,

Bound fadly home for Naples;

Suppofing, that they faw the King's ship wreckt,
And his great perfon perish.

Pro. Ariel, thy charge

From the fill-vext Bermoothes,] Theobald fays Bermoothes is printed by mistake for Bermudas. No. That was the name by which the Iflands then went, as we may fee by the Voyagers of that time; and by our Author's contemporary Poets. Fletcher, in his Woman pleafed, fays, The Devil fhould think of purchafing that Eggshell to victual out a Witch for the Bermoothes. Smith, in his account of these Islands p. 172. fays, that the Bermudas were fo fearful to the world, that many call'd them the Ifle of Devils. ~P. 174. —to all Seamen no less terrible than an inchanted den of Furies. And no wonder, for the clime was extremely fubject to Storms and Hurricanes; and the Islands were furrounded with fcattered Rocks lying fhallowly hid under the Surface of the Water.

Exactly

Exactly is perform'd ; but there's more work:
What is the time o'th' day?

[ocr errors]

Ari. Paft the mid feason, at least two glasses.
Pro. The time 'twixt fix and now

Muft by us both be spent most preciously.

Ari. Is there more toil; fince thou doft give me pains,

Let me remember thee what thou haft 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, ferv'd
Without or grudge, or grumblings; thou didft promise
To bate me a full year.

Pro. Doft thou forget

From what a torment I did free thee?

Ari. No.

[ooze

Pro. Thou doft; and think'ft it much to tread the

Of the falt deep;

To run upon the fharp Wind of the North;

To do me business in the veins o'th' earth,

When it is bak'd with froft.

Ari. I do not, Sir.

Pro. Thou ly'ft, malignant thing! haft thou forgot The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy

2 Pro.

What is the time o'th' day?

Ari. Paft the mid feafon.

Pro. At least two glaffes.

In this reading, both the Queftion and the Anfwer are made impertinently. Profpero asks what time of day it was, when he knew it was two glaffes paft the mid feafon; And Ariel replies indefinitely, that it was paft the mid season.

The Question and Reply fhould be divided thus,

[ocr errors]

Pro. What is the time o'th' day?
Ari. Paft the mid season, at least, two glasses.

Was

Was grown into a hoop? haft thou forgot her?

Ari. No, Sir.

[tell me.

Pro. Thou haft: where was fhe born? fpeak; Ari. Sir, in Argier.

Pro. Oh, was she fo? I muft

Once in a month recount what thou hast been,
Which thou forget'ft. This damn'd witch Sycorax,
For mischiefs manifold and forceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier,

Thou know'ft, was banifh'd: for one thing fhe did,
They would not take her life. Is not this true?
Ari. Ay, Sir.

[child,
Pro. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought with
And here was left by th' failors; thou my flave
As thou report'ft thy felf, waft then her servant.
And, for thou waft a fpirit too delicate
To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands,
Refufing her grand hefts, fhe did confine thee,
By help of her more potent minifters,
And in her moft unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprifon'd, thou did ft painfully remain

A dozen years, within which space the dy'd,
And left thee there: where thou didit vent thy groans,
As faft as mill-wheels ftrike. Then was this Inland
(Save for the fon that fhe did litter here,

A freckled whelp, hag-born) not honour'd with
A human fhape.

Ari. Yes; Caliban her fon.

Pro. Dull thing, I fay fo: he, that Caliban, Whom now I keep in fervice. Thou best know'ft, What torment I did find thee in; thy groans Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breafts 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

[blocks in formation]

The

« ПредишнаНапред »