Page images
PDF
EPUB

Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs
In an odd angle of the isle and sitting,

His arms in this sad knot.

Pros.

Of the king's ship

The mariners say how thou hast disposed
And all the rest o' the fleet.

Ari.
Safely in harbour
Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew
from the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid:
The mariners all under hatches stow'd;

Who with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour,
have left asleep and for the rest o' the fleet
Which I dispersed, they all have met again
And are upon the Mediterranean flote,
Bound sadly home for Naples,

Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd
And his great person perish.

Pros.
Ariel, thy charge
Exactly is performed: but there's more work.
What is the time o' the dry?

Ari.

Past the mid season.

230

Pros. At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six and now Must by us both be spent most preciously.

241

Ari. Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains, Let me remember thee what thou hast promised, Which is not yet perform'd me.

Pros.

What is't thou canst demand?

Ari.

How now ? moody?

My liberty.

Pros. Before the time be out? no more!
Ari.

I prithee,

Remember I have done thee worthy service;
Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, served
Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst promise
To bate me a full year.

Pros.

Dost thou forget

From what a torment I did free thee?

Ari.

No.

250

Pros. Thou dost, and think'st it much to tread the ooze Of the salt deep,

To run upon the sharp wind of the north,

To do me business in the veins o' the earth
When it is baked with frost.

[blocks in formation]

Pros. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou forgot The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy

Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her?

Ari. No, sir.
Pros.

tell me.

Thou hast. Where was she born? speak:

Ari. Sir, in Argier.

O, was she so? I must

Pros.
Once in a month recount what thou has been,
Which thou forget'st. This damned witch Sycorax,
For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible

To enter human hearing, from Argier,

Thou know'st was banish'd: for one thing she did
They would not take her life. Is not this true?
Ari. Av, sir.

260

Pros. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with child And here was left by the sailors.

Thou, my slave,

As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant;

And for thou wast a spirit too delicate

To act her earthly and abhorred commands,

Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee,
By help of her more potent ministers

And in her most unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprison'd thou didst painfully remain

A dozen years; within which space she died

270

And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy groans 280 As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this island-

Save for the son that she did litter here,

A freckled whelp hag-born—not honour'd with

A human shape.

Ari.

Yes, Caliban her son.

Pros. Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban Whom now I keep in service.

Thou best know'st

What torment I did find thee in; thy groans

Did make wolves howl and penetrate the breasts
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 arrived and heard thee, that made gape
The pine and let thee out.

I thank thee, master.

Ari.
Pros. If thou more murinur'st, I will rend an oak
And peg thee in its knotty entrails till

Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.

[blocks in formation]

290

Ari.

That's my noble master !

What shall I do? say what; what shall I do?

23

300

Pros. Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea: be sub

ject

To no sight but thine
To every eyeball else.
And hither come in't

and mine, invisible
Go take this shape
go, hence with diligence!

[Exit Ariel.

Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well; Awake! Mir. The strangeness of your story put

Heaviness in me.

Pros.

Shake it off. Come on;

We'll visit Caliban my slave, who never

Yields us kind answer.

Mir.

"Tis a villain, sir,

But as tis,

I do not love to look on.

Pros.

We cannot miss him: he does make our fire,
Fetch in our wood and serves in offices
That profit us. What, ho! slave! Caliban !
Thou earth, thou! speak.

Cal. [Within] There's wood enough within.

310

Pros. Come forth, I say! there's other business for thee; Come, thou tortoise! when?

Re-enter ARIEL like a water-nymph.

Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel,

Hark in thine ear.

Ari.

My lord, it shall be done.

[Exit.

320

Pros. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!

Enter CALIBAN.

Cal. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd

With raven's feather from unwholesome fen

Drop on you both! a south-west blow on ye

And blister you all o'er!

Pros. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps,
Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins
Shall, for that vast of night that they may work,
All exercise on thee; thou shalt be pinch'd

As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging
Than bees that made 'em.

[blocks in formation]

Cal.
This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou takest from me.

Thou strokedst me and madest much of me, wouldst give me

Water with berries in 't, and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night: and then I loved thee
And show'd thee all the qualities o' the isle,

The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile :
Cursed be I that did so! All the charms

Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have,

Which first was mine own king: and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me

The rest o' the island.

Pros.

Thou most lying slave,

340

Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have used thee, Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodged thee

In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate

The honour of my child.

Cal. O ho, O ho! would't had been done! Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled elso This isle with Calibans.

Abhorred slave,

Pros.
Which any print of goodness wilt not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,

Took pains to make theo speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other when thou didst not, savage,

Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like

A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes

With words that made them known. But thy vile race,

350

Though thou didst learn, had that in 't which good natures Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou

Deservedly confined into this rock,

Who hadst deserved more than a prison.

Cal. You taught me language; and my profit on 't Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you For learning me your language!

Pros.

Hag-seed, hence !

Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou 'rt best,

To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice?
If thou neglect'st or dost unwillingly
What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps,
Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar
That beasts shall tremble at thy din.

Cal.
No, pray thee.
[Aside] I must obey: his art is of such power,
It would control my dam's god, Setebos,
And make a vassal of him.

361

370

Pros.

So, slave; hence! [Erit Caliban.

Re-enter ARIEL, invisible, playing and singing; FERDINAND

[ocr errors]

following.

ARIEL'S song.

Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands:

Courtsied when you have and kiss'd
The wild waves whit,

Foot it featly here and there;
And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear.

Burthen [dispersedly]. Hark, hark!

[blocks in formation]

Bow-wow.

Bow-wow.

The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow.

380

Fer. Where should this music be! i' the air or the earth?

It sounds no more: and, sure, it waits upon
Some god o' the island. Sitting on a bank,
Weeping again the king my father's wreck,
This music crept by me upon the waters,
Allaying both their fury and my passion
With its sweet air: thence I have follow'd it,
Or it hath drawn me rather. But 'tis gone.
No it begins again.

ARIEL sings.

Full fathom five thy father lies;

Of his bones are coral made;

Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade

But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell :

Burthen. Ding-dong.

Ari, Hark! now I hear them,-Ding-dong, bell.

Fer. The ditty does remember my drown'd father.

This is no mortal business, nor no sound

That the earth owes. I hear it now above me.

Pros. The fringed curtains of thine eye advance And say what thou seest yond.

Mir.

What is't? a spirit?

Lord, how it looks about? Believe me, sir,
It carries a brave form. But 'tis a spirit.

390

400

410

« PreviousContinue »