I find it in my nature, because my father has forbidden me.

Mir. Ay, there's it, sister; if he had said nothing, I had been quiet. Go softly, and if you see him first, be quick, and beckon me away.

Dor. Well, if he does catch me, I'll humble myself to him, and ask him pardon, as I do my father, when I have done a fault.

Mir. And if I can but escape with life, I had rather be in pain nine months, as my father threatened, than lose my longing. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Enter HIPPOLITO.

Hip. Prospero has often said, that nature makes Nothing in vain: Why then are women made? Are they to suck the poison of the earth, As gaudy coloured serpents are? I'll ask

That

question, when next I see him here.

Enter MIRANDA and DORINDA peeping. Dor. O sister, there it is! it walks about Like one of us.

Mir. Ay, just so, and has legs as we have too. Hip. It strangely puzzles me: Yet 'tis most likely,

Women are somewhat between men and spirits. Dor. Hark! it talks :--sure this is not it my father meant,

For this is just like one of us: Methinks,

I am not half so much afraid on't as

I was; see, now it turns this way.

Mir. Heaven! what a goodly thing it is!
Dor. I'll go nearer it.

Mir. O no, 'tis dangerous, sister! I'll go to it.

I would not for the world that you should venture. My father charged me to secure you from it.

Dor. I warrant you this is a tame man; dear sister,

He'll not hurt me, I see it by his looks.

Mir. Indeed he will! but go back, and he shall eat me first: Fie, are you not ashamed to be so inquisitive?

Dor. You chide me for it, and would give him yourself.

Mir. Come back, or I will tell my father.
Observe how he begins to stare already!
I'll meet the danger first, and then call you.

Dor. Nay, sister, you shall never vanquish me in kindness. I'll venture you no more than you will me.

Prosp. [within.] Miranda, child, where are you? Mir. Do you not hear my father call? Go in. Dor. 'Twas you he named, not me; I will but say my prayers, and follow you immediately.

Mir. Well, sister, you'll repent it. [Exit MIR. Dor. Though I die for it, I must have the other peep.

Hip. What thing is that? [Seeing her.] Sure 'tis some infant of

The sun, dressed in his father's gayest beams,
And comes to play with birds: My sight is dazzled,
And yet I find I'm loth to shut my eyes:

I must go nearer it;-but stay a while;

May it not be that beauteous murderer, woman, Which I was charged to shun? Speak, what art thou,

Thou shining vision!

Dor. Alas, I know not; but I'm told I am
A woman; do not hurt me, pray, fair thing.
Hip. I'd sooner tear my eyes out, than consent

To do you any harm; though I was told,
A woman was my enemy.

Dor. I never knew

What 'twas to be an enemy, nor can I e'er

Prove so to that, which looks like you: For though I've been charged by him (whom yet I ne'er disobeyed,)

To shun your presence, yet I'd rather die

Than lose it; therefore, I hope you will not have

the heart

To hurt me: Though I fear you are a man,

The dangerous thing of which I have been warned. Pray, tell me what you are?

Hip. I must confess, I was informed I am a man; But if I fright you, I shall wish I were some other

creature.

I was bid to fear you too.

Dor. Ah me! Heaven grant we be not poison to Each other! Alas, can we not meet, but we must

die?

Hin. I hope not so! for, when two poisonous crea

I've

tures,

Both of the same kind, meet, yet neither dies.
Seen two serpents harmless to each other,
Though they have twined into a mutual knot:
If we have any venom in us, sure, we cannot be
More poisonous, when we meet, than serpents are.
You have a hand like mine-may I not gently touch
[Takes her hand.

it?

Dor. I've touched my father's and my sister's

hands,

And felt no pain; but now, alas! there's something, When I touch yours, which makes me sigh: Just so I've seen two turtles mourning when they met: Yet mine's a pleasing grief; and so, methought,

Was theirs For still they mourned, and still they

seemed

To murmur too, and yet they often met.

Hip. Oh heavens! I have the same sense too : your hand,

Methinks, goes through me; I feel it at my heart,
And find it pleases, though it pains me.
Prosp. [within] Dorinda!

Dor. My father calls again; ah, I must leave

you.

Hip. Alas, I'm subject to the same command. Dor. This is my first offence against my father, Which he, by severing us, too cruelly does punish. Hip. And this is my first trespass too: But he Hath more offended truth, than we have him : He said our meeting would destructive be, But I no death, but in our parting, see.

[Exeunt severally.

SCENE IV.-A IVild Island.

Enter ALONZO, ANTONIO, and GONZALO. Gonz. 'Beseech your grace, be merry: You have

cause,

So have we all, of joy, for our strange escape;
Then wisely, good sir, weigh our sorrow with
Our comfort.

Alon. Pr'ythee peace; you cram these words
Into my ears, against my stomach; how
Can I rejoice, when my dear son, perhaps
This very moment, is made a meal to some strange
fish?

Anto. Sir, he may live;

I saw him beat the billows under him.

And ride upon their backs; I do not doubt
He came alive to land.

Alon. No, no, he's gone;

And you and I, Antonio, were those
Who caused his death.

Anto. How could we help it?

Alon. Then, then we should have helped it, When thou betray'dst thy brother Prospero, And Mantua's infant sovereign, to my power: And when I, too ambitious, took by force Another's right: Then lost we Ferdinand; Then forfeited our navy to this tempest.

Anto. Indeed we first broke truce with heaven; You to the waves an infant prince exposed, And on the waves have lost an only son. I did usurp my brother's fertile lands, And now am cast upon this desert-isle.

Gonz. These, sirs, 'tis true, were crimes of a black
dye;

But both of you have made amends to heaven,
By your late voyage into Portugal;

Where, in defence of christianity,

Your valour has repulsed the Moors of Spain.
Alon. O name it not, Gonzalo ;

No act but penitence can expiate guilt!

Must we teach heaven what price to set on mur

der?

What rate on lawless power and wild ambition?
Or clare we traffic with the

powers above, And sell by weight a good deed for a bad?

[A flourish of music. Gonz. Music! and in the air! sure we are ship

wrecked

On the dominions of some merry devil!

Anto. This isle's enchanted ground; for I have heard

Swift voices flying by my ear, and groans
Of lamenting ghosts.