1612
THE TEMPEST
by William Shakespeare
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
ALONSO, King of Naples
SEBASTIAN, his brother
PROSPERO, the right Duke of Milan
ANTONIO, his brother, the usurping Duke of Milan
FERDINAND, son to the King of Naples
GONZALO, an honest old counsellor
Lords
ADRIAN
FRANCISCO
CALIBAN, a
savage and deformed slave
TRINCULO, a jester
STEPHANO, a
drunken butler
MASTER OF A SHIP
BOATSWAIN
MARINERS
MIRANDA, daughter to Prospero
ARIEL, an airy spirit
Spirits
IRIS
CERES
JUNO
NYMPHS
REAPERS
Other Spirits attending on Prospero
SCENE:
A ship at sea; afterwards an uninhabited island
THE TEMPEST
ACT I. SCENE 1
On a ship at sea; a tempestuous noise of thunder
and
lightning heard
Enter a SHIPMASTER and a BOATSWAIN
MASTER. Boatswain!
BOATSWAIN. Here, master; what cheer?
MASTER. Good! Speak to th' mariners; fall to't yarely, or
we run ourselves aground; bestir, bestir. Exit
Enter MARINERS
BOATSWAIN. Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts!
yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to th' master's
whistle. Blow till thou burst thy wind, if room enough.
Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND
GONZALO, and OTHERS
ALONSO. Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master?
Play the men.
BOATSWAIN. I pray now, keep below.
ANTONIO. Where is the master, boson?
BOATSWAIN. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour;
keep your cabins; you do
assist the storm.
GONZALO. Nay, good, be patient.
BOATSWAIN. When the sea is. Hence! What cares these
roarers for the name of king? To cabin! silence! Trouble
us not.
GONZALO. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard.
BOATSWAIN. None that I more love than myself. You are
counsellor; if you can command these elements to
silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not
hand a rope more. Use your authority; if you cannot, give
thanks you have liv'd so long, and make yourself ready
in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so
hap.-Cheerly, good hearts!-Out of our way, I say.
Exit
GONZALO. I have great comfort from this fellow. Methinks
he hath no drowning mark upon him; his
complexion is
perfect
gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging;
make the rope of his
destiny our cable, for our own doth
little
advantage. If he be not born to be hang'd, our
case is
miserable. Exeunt
Re-enter BOATSWAIN
BOATSWAIN. Down with the topmast. Yare, lower, lower!
Bring her to try wi' th' maincourse. [A cry within] A
plague upon this howling! They are louder than the
weather or our office.
Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO
Yet again! What do you here? Shall we give o'er, and
drown? Have you a mind to sink?
SEBASTIAN. A pox o' your
throat, you bawling, blasphemous,
incharitable dog!
BOATSWAIN. Work you, then.
ANTONIO. Hang, cur; hang, you whoreson,
insolent noisemaker;
we are less afraid to be drown'd than thou art.
GONZALO. I'll
warrant him for drowning, though the ship were
no stronger than a nutshell, and as leaky as an unstanched
wench.
BOATSWAIN. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; set her two courses; off
to sea again; lay her off.
Enter MARINERS, Wet
MARINERS. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost!
Exeunt
BOATSWAIN. What, must our mouths be cold?
GONZALO. The King and Prince at prayers!
Let's
assist them,
For our case is as theirs.
SEBASTIAN. I am out of patience.
ANTONIO. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.
This wide-chopp'd rascal-would thou mightst lie drowning
The washing of ten tides!
GONZALO. He'll be hang'd yet,
Though every drop of water swear against it,
And gape at wid'st to glut him.
[A confused noise within: Mercy on us!
We split, we split! Farewell, my wife and children!
Farewell, brother! We split, we split, we split!]
ANTONIO. Let's all sink wi' th' King.
SEBASTIAN. Let's take leave of him.
Exeunt ANTONIO and SEBASTIAN
GONZALO. 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
dry death. Exeunt
SCENE 2
The Island. Before PROSPERO'S cell
Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA
MIRANDA. 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 th' welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer! A brave vessel,
Who had no doubt some noble creature in her,
Dash'd all to pieces! O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perish'd.
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallow'd and
The fraughting souls within her.
PROSPERO. Be conected;
No more
amazement; tell your piteous heart
There's no harm done.
MIRANDA. O, woe the day!
PROSPERO. 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 Prospero, master of a full poor cell,
And thy no greater father.
MIRANDA. More to know
Did never
meddle with my thoughts.
PROSPERO. 'Tis time
I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand,
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
The very
virtue of
compassion in thee,
I have with such
provision in mine art
So
safely ordered that there is no soul-
No, not so much perdition as an hair
Betid to any creature in the vessel
Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink.
Sit down, for thou must now know farther.
MIRANDA. You have often
Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd,
And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding 'Stay; not yet.'
PROSPERO. The hour's now come;
The very minute bids thee ope thine ear.
Obey, and be
attentive. Canst thou remember
A time before we came unto this cell?
I do not think thou canst; for then thou wast not
Out three years old.
MIRANDA. Certainly, sir, I can.
PROSPERO. By what? By any other house, or person?
Of any thing the image, tell me, that
Hath kept with thy
remembrance?
MIRANDA. 'Tis far off,
And rather like a dream than an assurance
That my
remembrancewarrants. Had I not
Four, or five, women once, that tended me?
PROSPERO. Thou hadst, 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 rememb'rest aught, ere thou cam'st here,
How thou cam'st here thou mayst.
MIRANDA. But that I do not.
PROSPERO. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since,
Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and
A
prince of power.
MIRANDA. Sir, are not you my father?
PROSPERO. 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
And
princess no worse issued.
MIRANDA. O, the heavens!
What foul play had we that we came from thence?
Or
blessed was't we did?
PROSPERO. Both, both, my girl.
By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence;
But
blessedly holp hither.
MIRANDA. O, my heart bleeds
To think o' th' teen that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my
remembrance. Please you, farther.
PROSPERO. 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
Through all the signories it was the first,