1 Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.- This wide-chapp'd rascal;-'Would thou mightst lie drowning, The washing of ten tides! Gon. He'll be hang'd yet; Though every drop of water swear against it, [a confused noise within.] Mercy on us! - We [Exit. [Exit. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground; long heath, brown furze, any thing. The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. [Exit. Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA. Mir. If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them : The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek, Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel, Who had no doubt some noble creatures in her, Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er 1 It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and Pro. Be collected; No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, Mir. Pro. O, woe the day! 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, naught knowing Of whence I am; nor that I am more better 2 Mir. More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts. Pro. "Tis time I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand, 1 Before. So in our author's Cymbeline : or e'er I could Give him that parting kiss. 2 This ungrammatical expression is very frequent among our oldest writers. 3 A cell in a great degree of poverty. So in Antony and Cleopatra,' I am full sorry;' or, as we sometimes say, 'full well.' 4 Mix. The modern and familiar phrase, by which that of Miranda may be explained, is, 'never entered my thoughts.' And pluck my magic garment from me.—So; [lays down his mantle. Lie there my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort. The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd I have with such provision in mine art Betid to any creature in the vessel 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 Pro. The hour's now come; The very minute bids thee ope thine ear ; I do not think thou canst; for then thou wast 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; The essence, the most efficacious part. And rather like a dream, than an assurance is it, But how That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else If thou remember'st aught, ere thou camest here, 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 wast my daughter; and thy father Was duke of Milan; and his only heir A princess; Mir. -no worse issued. 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 heaved thence, But blessedly holp hither. Mir. O, my heart bleeds To think o' the teen 2 that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance! Please you, Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd An tonio, I pray thee, mark me,—that a brother should Without a parallel; those being all my study, And to my state grew stranger, being transported, Mir. Sir, most heedfully. Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom To trash 1 for over-topping; new created The creatures that were mine; I say, or changed them, Or else new form'd them having both the key And suck'd my verdure out on 't.-Thou attend'st |