And pluck my magic garment from me.-So;

[lays down his mantle. Lie there my art.-Wipe thou tline eyes; have

comfort.

The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd
The very virtue1 of compassion in thee,

I have with such provision in mine art
So safely order'd, that there is no soul-
No, not so much perdition as a 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 further.

Mir.

You have often

Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd
And left me to a bootless inquisition; 2
Concluding, Stay, not yet.'

Pro.

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 3 three years old.

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;

1 The essence, the most efficacious part.
Useless inquiry.
3 Quite.

And rather like a dream, than an assurance
That my remembrance warrants: Had I not
Four or five women once, that tended me?

Pro. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how

is it,

That this lives in thy mind?

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm1 of time?

If thou remember'st aught, ere thou camest here,
How thou camest here thou mayst.

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 ;

-no worse issued.

Mir.

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, further.

.

Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd An-
tonio,-

I pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should
Be so perfidious!-he, whom, next thyself,
Of all the world I loved, and to him put

The manage of my state: as, at that time,

Through all the signiories it was the first,

And Prospero the prime duke; being so reputed
In dignity, and, for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel; those being all my study,
The government I cast upon my brother,

And to my state grew stranger, being transported,
And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle—
Dost thou attend me?

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
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' th' state
To what tune pleased his ear; that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,

And suck'd my verdure out on 't.-Thou attend'st

To closeness, and the bettering of my mind
With that, which, but by being so retired,
O'er-prized all popular rate, in my false brother
Awaked an evil nature: and my trust,
Like a good parent, did beget of him

A falsehood, in its contrary as great

As my trust was, which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence sans 1 bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded,
But what my power might else exact,—like one,
Who having, unto truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie,-he did believe

He was indeed the duke; out of the substitution,2
And executing the outward face of royalty,

With all prerogative :-Hence his ambition
Growing,-Dost hear?

Mir.

Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. Pro. To have no screen between this part he play'd

And him he play'd it for, he needs will be
Absolute Milan: Me, poor man !-my library
Was dukedom large enough; of temporal royalties
He thinks me now incapable: confederates
(So dry he was for sway) with the 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.

Without.

2 From being the substitute.

Mir.

O the heavens !

Pro. Mark his condition, and the event; then

tell me,

If this might be a brother.

Mir.

I should sin

To think but1 nobly of my grandmother :
Good wombs have borne bad sons.

Pro.

Now the condition.

This king of Naples, being an enemy

To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit;
Which was, that he in lieu o' the premises,2→
Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,—
Should presently extirpate me and mine

Out of the dukedom; and confer fair Milan,
With all the honors, on my brother: Whereon,
A treacherous army levied, one midnight
Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open

The gates of Milan; and, i̇' the dead of darkness,
The ministers for the purpose hurried thence
Me, and thy crying self.

Mir.

Will

Alack, for pity!

I, not remembering how I cried out then,
cry it o'er again; it is a hint 3
That wrings mine eyes 1 to 't.

Pro.

Hear a little further,

And then I'll bring thee to the present business Which now's upon us; without the which, this story

1 Otherwise than.

2 In consideration of the foregoing.

3 Suggestion.

4 Squeezes the water out of them.