Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down,

For thou must now know further...

Mir. You have often

Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd
And left me to a bootless inquisition;
Concluding, Stay, not yet.

Pro. The hour's now come;

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

I do not think thou can'st; for then thou wast

Out three years old.

not

Mir. Certainly, Sir, I can.

Pro. By what? by any other house, or person? Of any thing the image tell me, that

Hath kept with thy remembrance.

Mir. '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?

Pro. Thou had'st, 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 cam'st here How thou cam'st here, thou may'st.

Mir. But that I do not.

Pro. Twelve years since, Miranda, twelve years since,

Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and

A Prince of power.

Mir. Sir, are not you my father?

Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She said. thou vast my daughter; and thy father

Was Duke of Milan; and his only heir
A Princess; -no worse issu'd.

Mir. O the heavens !

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

Pro. Both, both, my girl :

By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence; But blessedly holp hither.

Mir. O, my heart bleeds

To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance! Please you, further.

Pro. 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 lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my state; as, at that time,
Trough all the signiories it was the first,
And Prospero the prime Duke; 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 rape in secret studies. Thy false uncle
Dost thou attend me?

Mir. Sir, most heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom To trash for over-topping; new created

The creatures that were mine; I say, or chang'd them
Or else new form'd them; having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts

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

I pray thee, mark me.

alot:

Mir. good Sir, I do.

Pro. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate
To closeness, and the bettering of my mind
With that, which, but by being so retir'd,
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother
Awak'd an evil nature: and my trust,

Like a good parent, did beget of him.
A falshood, 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, unto truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie, he did believe
He was the Duke; out of the substitution
And executing the outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative, Hence his ambition

Growing,

Mir. Your tale, Sir, would cure deafness.

Pro. 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 man!
my library
Was Dukedom large enough; of temporal royalties
He thinks me now incapable: confederates
(So dry he was for sway) with 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.

Mir. O the heavens!
Pro. Mark his condition,

If this might be a brother?
Mir. I should sin

and the event; then tell me,

To think but nobly of my grand mother:
Good wombs have born bad sons.

Pro. Now the condition:

This 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 levy'd, 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.

Mir. Alack, for pity!

I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then,
Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint,

That wrings mine eyes.

Pro. Hear a little further,

And then I'll bring thee to the present business Which now's upon us; without the which, this story

Were most impertinent.

Mir. Wherefore did they not

That hour destroy us?

Pro. 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 prepar'd
A rotten carcase of a boat, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, nor sail, nor mast; the very rats

In

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.

Mir. Alack! what trouble Was I then to you!

Pro. O a cherubim

Thou wast, that did preserve me!

smile

Infused with a fortitude from heaven,

Thou didst

When have deck'd the sea with drops full salt;
Under my burden groan'd; which rais'd in me
An undergoing stomach, to bear up

Against what should ensue.
Mir. How came we ashore?

Pro. By Providence divine.

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

Out of his charity, (who being then appointed Master of this design,) did give us; with

Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries, Which since have steaded much: 60, of his gent

leness,

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

Mir. 'Would I might

But ever sce that man!

Pro. Now I arise:

Sit still, and hear the last of our sea - sorrow.
Here in this island we arriv'd; and here.

Have I, thy school-master, made thee more proût
Than other princes can, that have more time
For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.
Mir. Heavens thank you for't! And now,
pray you, Sir,

I

VOL. I.