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And sight-out-running were not: The fire, and

cracks

Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune Seem to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble, Yea, his dread trident shake.

Pro.

My brave spirit!

Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil 22
Would not infect his reason?

Ari.
Not a soul
But felt a fever of the mad,23 and play'd
Some tricks of desperation: All, but mariners,
Plung'd in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel,
Then all a-fire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand,
With hair up-staring, (then like reeds, not hair,)
Was the first man that leap'd; cried, "Hell is
empty,

And all the devils are here."

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On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before and as thou bad'st me,
In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle :
The king's son have I landed by himself;
Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs,
In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting,
His arms in this sad knot.

Pro.

Of the king's ship,

The mariners, say, how thou hast dispos'd,

And all the rest o' the fleet ?

22 Coil is bustle, tumult.

23 That is, such a fever as madmen feel when the frantic fit is on them.

Ari.

Safely in harbour

Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew From the still-vex'd Bermoothes,2 there she's hid:

The mariners all under hatches stow'd;

Whom, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour,

I have left asleep and for the rest o' the fleet,
Which I dispers'd, they all have met again;
And are upon the Mediterranean flote,2

Bound sadly home for Naples ;

25

Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd, And his great person perish.

Pro.

Ariel, thy charge Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work:

What is the time o' the day?

Ari.

Past the mid season.'

Pro. At least two glasses: The time 'twixt six

and now

Must by us both be spent most preciously.

Ari. Is there more toil? Since thou must give

me pains,

Let me remember thee what thou hast promis'd,
Which is not yet perform'd me.

Pro.

What is't thou canst demand?

Ari.

How now! moody?

My liberty.

Pro. Before the time be out? no more.
Ari.

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24 The epithet here applied to the Bermudas will be best understood by those who have seen the chafing of the sea over the rugged rocks by which they are surrounded, and which renders access to them so difficult. It was then the current opinion that the Bermudas were inhabited by monsters and devils.

25 i. e. wave, or the sea. Flot, FR.

Remember, I have done thee worthy service;
Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, serv'd
Without or grudge or grumblings: Thou didst
promise

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Pro. Thou dost; and think'st it much, to tread

the ooze

Of the salt deep;

To run upon the sharp wind of the north;
To do me business in the veins o' the earth,
When it is bak'd with frost.

Ari.

I do not, sir.

Pro. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou

forgot

The foul witch, Sycorax, who, with age and envy, Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her?

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Once in a month, recount what thou hast been,
Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch, Sycorax,
For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier,

Thou know'st, was banish'd: for one thing she did,
They would not take her life: Is not this true?
Ari. Ay, sir.

Pro. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought with

child,

And here was left by the sailors: Thou, my slave,

26 The old English name of Algiers.

As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant :
And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate

To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands,
Refusing her grand hests," she did confine thee,
By help of her more potent ministers,
And in her most unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprison'd, thou didst painfully remain
A dozen years; within which space
she died,
And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy

groans,

As fast as mill-wheels strike: Then was this island, (Save for the son that she did litter here,

A freckled whelp, hag-born), not honour'd with
A human shape.

Ari.

Yes; Caliban her son.

Pro. Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban, Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st What torment I did find thee in: thy groans Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts Of ever-angry bears: It was a torment To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax Could not again undo: it was mine art, When I arriv'd, and heard thee, that made gape The pine, and let thee out.

Ari.

I thank thee, master. Pro. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak, And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till

Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.

Ari.

Pardon, master :

I will be correspondent to command,

And do my spriting gently.

Pro.

I will discharge thee.

Do so; and after two days

27 Behests, commands.

Ari.

That's my noble master!.

What shall I do? say what: what shall I do?

Pro. Go, make thyself like a nymph o' the sea: be subject

To no sight but thine and mine ; invisible

To every eyeball else. Go, take this shape,
And hither come in't: go; hence, with diligence.
[Exit ARIEL.
Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well ;
Awake!

Mira. The strangeness of your story put

Heaviness in me.

Pro.

Shake it off: Come on:

We'll visit Caliban, my slave, who never

Yields us kind answer.

Mira.

I do not love to look on.

Pro.

"Tis a villain, sir,

But, as 'tis,

We cannot miss 28 him: he does make our fire,
Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices
That profit us. What ho! slave! Caliban !
Thou earth, thou! speak.

Cal. [Within.] There's wood enough within. Come forth, I say there's other business for thee:

Pro.

Come forth, thou tortoise! when?

29

Re-enter ARIEL, like a Water-nymph.

Fine apparition! My quaint 30 Ariel,
Hark in thine ear.

Ari.

My lord, it shall be done. [Exit.

28 i. e. we cannot do without him. The phrase is still common in the midland counties.

29 This is a common expression of impatience.

30 Quaint here means brisk, from the French cointe.

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