Changes to a Part of the Inchanted Island near the
Cell of Profpero.

F*

Enter Profpero and Miranda.

Mir.] F# by your art (my deareft father) you have

Put the wild Waters in this roar, allay them: The fky, it seems, would pour down ftinking pitch, But that the Sea, mounting to th' welkin's cheek, Dafhes the fire out. O! I have fuffer'd

With thofe that I saw fuffer: a brave veffel
(Who had, no doubt, fome noble creatures in her)
Dafh'd all to pieces. O the cry did knock
Against my very heart poor fouls, they perifh'd!
Had I been any God of Pow'r, I would

Have funk the fea within the earth; or ere
It should the good ship fo have fwallow'd, and
The fraighting fouls within her.

Pro. Be collected;

No more amazement; tell your piteous heart,
There's no harm done.

Mira. O woe the day!

Pro. No harm.

I have done nothing but in care of thee,
(Of thee my dear one, thee my daughter) who
Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing
Of whence I am; nor that I am more better
Than Profpero, master of a full-poor cell,
And thy no greater father.

Mira. More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.

*If by your art, &c.] Nothing was ever better contrived to inform the Audience of the Story than this Scene: It is a Converfation that could not have happened before, and could not but happen

now.

Pro.

Pro. 'Tis time,

I fhould inform thee farther. Lend thy hand
And. pluck my magic garment from me: fo!

[Lays down his mantle. Lie there my Art. Wipe thou, thine eyes, have com

fort.

The direful fpectacle of the wreck, which touch'd
* The very virtue of compaffion in thee,
I have with fuch provifion in mine art
So fafely order'd, that there's no foul loft,
No, not fo much perdition as an hair,
Betid to any creature in the vessel

[down;

Which thou heard'ft cry, which thou faw'ft fink: fit For thou must now know farther.

Mira. You have often

Begun to tell me what I am, but ftopt,
And left me to a bootless 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 into this cell?

I do not think, thou canst; 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,

The very virtue of compaffion in thee,] We must not imagine that this was intended to fhew her Virtue, but rather Kindness for others in Diftrefs. Compaffion for others Misfortunes often arifes from a Senfe or Apprehenfion of the like: Therefore this was more Sympathy than Virtue.

That this lives in thy mind? what seest 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'ft.

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 Princess, 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'ft) were we heav'd thence; But bleffedly help'd hither.

Mira, O, my heart bleeds

To think o'th* teen that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance. Please you, farther.
Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Anthonio-
I pray thee, mark me;(that a brother should
Be fo perfidious!) he whom next thyself.
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 firft;
And Profpero the prime Duke, being so reputed
In dignity; and for the liberal arts,

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

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

Mira. Sir, moft heedfully.

teen, i. e. Sorrow.

Pro.

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

The creatures, that were mine; I fay, or chang'd 'em,
Or else 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 clofeness and the bettering of my mind,
With that which, but by being fo retired,
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my falfe brother
Awak'd an evil nature; and my trust,

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 pow'r might elfe 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 fubftitution,
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 fcreen 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

*To trah] fignifies to cut away the Trash or Superfluities; as, to top, fignifies, to cut off the Top.

B 5

(So

(So dry he was for sway) wi' th' 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.

Mira. O the heav'ns!

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

Mira. I fhould fin,

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

Pro. Now the condition:

The 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

[me,

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, i̇’th' dead of darkness,
The minifters for the purpose hurry'd thence
Me, and thy crying felf.

Mira. Alack, for pity!

'I, not remembering 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 present bufinefs, Which now's upon's; without the which this story

Were most impertinent.

Mira. Why did they not

That hour deftroy 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 business; but