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TEMPEST.

On a ship at sea.

ACT I.

SCENE 1.

A storm with thunder and

lightning.

Enter a SHIPMASTER and a BOATSWAIN.

Mast. Boatswain,——

Boat. Here, master: what cheer?

Mast. Good: Speak to the mariners: fall to 't yarely,1 or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir.

Enter MARINERS.

[Exit.

Boat. Heigh, my hearts; cheerly, cheerly, my hearts; yare, yare: Take in the top-sail; Tend to the master's whistle.-Blow till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!

Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO, and others.

Alon. Good boatswain, have care.

master? Play the men.2

1 Readily, nimbly, quickly.

2 Act with spirit, behave like men.

Where's the

So 2 Sam. x. 12. ' Be

of good courage, and let us play the men for our people.'

SHAK.

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Boat. I pray now, keep below.

Ant. Where is the master, boatswain ?

Boat. Do you not hear him? You mar Our labor: keep your cabins: you do assist the storm. Gon. Nay, good, be patient.

Boat. When the sea is.

Hence!

What care

these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence: trouble us not.

Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard.

Boat. None that I more love than myself. You are a 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 lived 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.

Gon. 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 hanged, our case is miserable. [Exeunt.

Re-enter BOATSWAIN.

Boat. Down with the top-mast; yare; lower,

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Of the present instant. So in 1 Cor. xv. 6. Of whom the greater part remain unto this present.'

lower; bring her to try with main-course. [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?

Seb. A pox o' your throat! you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!

Boat. Work you, then.

Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent noise-maker, we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.

Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nut-shell, and as leaky as an unstanched wench.

1

Boat. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; set her two courses; off to sea again, lay her off.

Enter MARINERS wet.

Mar. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost!

Boat. What, must our mouths be cold?

[Exeunt.

Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let us

assist them,

For our case is as theirs.

Seb. I am out of patience.

1 To lay a ship a-hold, is to bring her to lie as near the wind as she can, in order to keep clear of the land, and get her out to sea.

Ant. We are merely1 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,
And gape at widest to glut 2 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!Ant. Let's all sink with the king.

Seb. Let's take leave of him.

[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.

SCENE II.

The island: before the cell of Prospero.

Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.

have Mir. If by your art, my dearest father, you 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,

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Who had no doubt some noble creatures 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 e'er 1

It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and
The freighting souls within her.

Pro.

Be collected;

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

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
Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell,3
And thy no greater father.

Mir.

More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.

Pro.

'Tis time

I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand,

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.

A cell in a great degree of poverty. So in Antony and Cleopatra,' I am full sorry;' or, as we sometimes say, 'full well.'

♦ Mix. The modern and familiar phrase, by which that of Miranda may be explained, is, 'never entered my thoughts.'

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