Good, speak to the mariners: fall we run ourselves aground: [Exit. Enter MARINERS. to 't, yarely, or The Tempest is one of Shakespeare's maturest productions, and is commonly assigned to the year 1610 or 1611. It may have had its origin in the spur given to the imagination by the widespread interest in the newly discovered Bermudas, where in the year 1609 the vessel of Sir George Somers was wrecked. mantic play, with elements of both tragedy and comedy, and an included masque (if that Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDIbe Shakespeare's); and with characters ranging from a brutish monster through the lowest and highest ranks of men to a creature BOATS. Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tends to the master's whistle. Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!5 A ro of the spirit world, it contains perhaps in itself the best epitome of its creator's varied powers. NAND, GONZALO, and others. I pray now, keep below. 11 ANT. Where is the master, boatswain? storm. "The persons in this play," writes Edward Dowden, "while remaining real and living. are conceived in a more abstract way, more as types, than those in any other work of labour: keep your cabins: you do assist the Shakespeare. Prospero is the highest wisdom and moral attainment; Gonzalo is humorous common-sense incarnated; all that is meanest and most despicable appears in the wretched conspirators; Miranda, whose name seems to suggest wonder, is almost an elemental being, framed in the purest and simplest type of womanhood, yet made substantial by contrast with Ariel, who is an unbodied joy, too much a creature of light and air to know human affection or human sorrow: Caliban (the name formed from cannibal) stands at the other extreme, with all the elements in him-appetites, intellect, even imagination-out of which man emerges into early civilization, but with a moral nature that is still gross and malignant. Over all presides Prospero like a providence. And the spirit of reconciliation, of forgiveness, harmonizing the contentions of men, appears in The Tempest in the same noble manner that it appears in The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, and Henry VIII." GON. Nay, good, be patient. BOATS. When the sea is. carest these roarers for the name of king? To Hence! What cabin: silence! trouble us not. 19 GON. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard. "Nowhere." says Sidney Lee, "did Shakespeare give rein to his imagination with more imposing effect than in The Tempest. As in A Midsummer Night's Dream. magical or supernatural agencies are the mainsprings of the plot. But the tone is marked at all points by a solemnity and profundity of thought and sentiment which are lacking in the early comedy. In Prospero, the guiding providence of the romance, who resigns his magic power in the closing scene. traces have been sought of the lineaments of the dramatist himself, who in this play probably bade farewell to the enchanted work of his life." BOATS. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; these elements to silence, and work the peace of if you can command the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the 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? SEB. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog! BOATS. Work you, then. [Exeunt ANT. and SEB. 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. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The island. Before PROSPERO's cell. MIR. If by your art,14 my dearest father, 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 Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd Poor souls, they ANT. Hang, cur! hang, you insolent noise- Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did' knock Against my very heart! perish'd! maker. We are less afraid to be drown'd than thou art. GON. I'll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nut shell. 50 10 Had I been any god of power, I would Be collected: I have done nothing but in care of thee, ANT. We are merely 12 cheated of our lives by drunkards: This wide-chapped rascal,-would thou mightst The washing of ten tides!‡ "Tis time I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand, He'll be hang'd yet, And pluck my magic garment from me.-So: Though every drop of water swear against it, [A confused noise within: Mercy on us!' [Lays down his mantle.* Lie there, my art. Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort. The direful spectacle of the wreck, which The very virtue of compassion in thee, 14 magic (Note the re- 16 Collective for "creatures." 17 sooner than 18 freight-composing 19 mingle 20 foresight mantle only in his capacity 'Tis far off, And rather like a dream than an assurance That my remembrance warrants. Had I not Four or five women once that tended me? PROS. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. how is it But 70 I pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle- Sir, most heedfully. Or else new form'd 'em; having both the key That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou And suck'd my verdure out In the dark backward and abysm of time? 50 attend 'st not. on't.30 Thou 90 I pray thee, mark me. brother He was indeed the duke; out o' the37 substitu- | My tale provokes that question. Dear, they tion, And executing the outward face of royalty, With all prerogative-hence his ambition growing, Dost thou hear? MIR. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. PROS. To have no screen between this part he play'd And him he play'd it for, he needs will be He thinks me now incapable; confederates, 111 durst not, PROS. Mark his condition,39 and the event; 40 When I have deck'd the sea with drops full then tell me If this might be a brother. MIR. PROS. of 130 The ministers for the purpose hurried thence Me and thy crying self. MIR. Alack, for pity! salt, Under my burthen groan'd; which raised in me An undergoing stomach,48 to bear up Against what should ensue. MIR. 161 How came we ashore? PROS. By Providence divine. Some food we had, and some fresh water, that A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo, Out of his charity, who being then appointed Master of this design, did give us, with Rich garments, linens, stuffs and necessaries, Which since have steaded much; so, of his gentleness, Would I might Knowing I loved my books, he furnish'd me For still 'tis beating in my mind, your reason PROS. Know thus far forth. By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune, Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies Brought to this shore; and by my prescience 180 I find my zenith doth depend upon A most auspicious star, whose influence If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes Will ever after droop. Here cease more ques- In troops I have dispersed them 'bout the isle. tions: Thou art inclined to sleep; 'tis a good dulness, ARI. All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! 221 The king's son have I landed by himself; ARI. Safely in harbour Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once 190 Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew From the still-vex'd Bermoothes,53 there she's hid: To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly, 200 Who, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd I have left asleep and for the rest o' the fleet, Supposing that they saw the king's ship And his great person perish. I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak, Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, I flamed amazement: sometime I'ld divide, And burn in many places; on the topmast, The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,51 Ariel, thy charge Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the Exactly is perform 'd: but there's more work. precursors What is the time o' the day? ARI. Past the mid season. PROS. At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six and now 240 O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary cracks But was not this nigh shore? Close by, my master. Of the salt deep, Not a hair perish'd; To run upon the sharp wind of the north, 53 the ever tempestuous I do not, sir. 54 flood, sea |