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THE TEMPEST.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE.

THE supernatural agency which forms so leading a feature in this fanciful play, is built (according to Mr. Warton) on the peculiar tenets of the Rosicrucian philosophy; the name of Ariel being derived from It was one of the Talmudistic mysteries with which the more learned Jews connected that science. Warburton considers it Shakspeare's latest productions, and probably founded on some Italian novel. "Jue of the noblest efforts of his sublime and amazing imagination:" a negative species of praise, since the pleasure which it creates arises from a boundless diversity of invention, from a continued succession of supernatural occurrences, devoid of application and destitute of moral, because the end is obtained by means beyond the ordinary compass of belief. In representation it is greatly dependent on the scenery and mechanism. The language, however, is throughout most forcible, and much of the sentiment chaste and magnificent. Caliban is an original creation; whimsical, monstrous, and impressive: but that men, saved as it were by miracle from death, should immediately plot the destruction of their companions, to obtain dominions which there was no probability of their aver re-visiting, is a suggestion at variance with nature, and inconsistent with the spirit of the piece. Johnson says of The Tempest--- "In a single drama are here exhibited princes, courtiers, and sailors, all speaking in their real characters. There is the agency of airy spirits, and of an earthly goblin. The operations of magic, the tumults of a storm, the adventures of a desert island, the native effusion of untaught affection, the punishment of guilt, and are equally interested." the final happiness of the pair for whom our passions and reason

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

ALONSO, King of Naples.

SEBASTIAN, his Brother.

Master of a Ship, Boatswain, and Mariners.
MIRANDA, Daughter to Prospero.

PROSPERO, the rightful Duke of Milan.

ANTONIO, his Brother, the usurping Duke of ARIEL, an Airy Spirit.

Milan.

FERDINAND, Son to the King of Naples.
GONZALO, an honest old Counsellor of Naples.

IRIS,

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ADRIAN,

FRANCISCO,

} Lords.

NYMPHS,

REAPERS,

CALIBAN, a savage and deformed Slave.

TRINCULO, a Jester.

STEPHANO, a drunken Butler.

Other Spirits attending on PROSPERO.

SCENE-The Sea with a ship: afterwards an uninhabited Island.

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Gon. Nay, good, be patient. Boats. When the sea is. Hence! these roarers for the name of king? To cabin : silence: trouble us not.

Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard.

Boats. None that I more love than myself. can command You are a counsellor; if you 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 bap,-Cheerly, good hearts.-Out of our way, [Exit.

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good fate, to his hanging! make the rope of his | No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, destiny our cable, for our own doth little advan- There's no harın done. tage! If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable.

Re-enter BOATSWAIN.

[Exeunt.

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Gon. He'll be hanged yet; Though every drop of water swear against it, And gape at wid'st to glut him.

thou

[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. [Exit. Seb. Let's take leave of him. 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.

Mira. 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 the welkin's

cheek,

Dashes the fire out. Oh! I have suffer'd
With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel,
Who had no doubt some noble creatures in
her,

Dash'd all to pieces, Oh! 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 t
It should the good ship so have swallowed,
and

The freighting souls within her.
Pro. Be collected;

Mira. O woe the day! Pro. 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 know. ing

Of whence I am; nor that I am more better
Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell,
And the no greater father.

Mira. More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.
Pro. 'Tis time

I should inform thee further. 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 order'd, that there is no soul-
Nɔ, 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 further.
Mira. You have often

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

Pro. The hour's now come;

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; Obey, and be attentive. Can'st thou remem. ber

A time before we came unto this cell?

I do not think thou can'st; for then thou wast not Out three years old.

Mira. Certainly, Sir, I can.

Pro. By what? by any other house, or per

son ?

Of any thing the image tell me, that Hath kept with thy remembrance.

Mira. 'Tis far off:

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Which is from my remembrance! Please you [Of homage, and I know not how much trifurther.

bute,

Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd An- | Should presently extirpate me and mine

tonio,

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 signiories it was the first,

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

The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of dark

ness,

And Prospero the prime duke; being so re- The ministers for the purpose hurried thence

puted

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 trans-
ported,

And wrapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle-
Dost thou attend me ?

Mira. Sir, most heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits,

How to deny them; whom to advance, and
whoi

To trash for over-topping: new created
The creatures that were mine; I say, or chang'a
them,

Or else new-form'd them: having both the
key

Of officer and office, set all hearts

To what tune pleased his ear; that now he was
The ivy, which had bid my princely trunk,
And suck'd my verdure out on't.-Thon
tend'st not:

I pray thee, mark me.

Mira. O good Sir, I do.

Pro. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all

cate

To closeness, and the bettering of my mind
With that, which, but by being so retir'd,
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false

ther

Awak'd an evil nature and my trust,
Like a good parent, did beget of him

A falsehood, in its contrary as great

at

Me and thy crying seit.

Mira, Alack, for pity!

1, not rememb'ring how I cried out then,
Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint,
That wrings mine eyes.

Pro. Hear a little further,

Aud then I'll bring thee to the present busi

ness

Which now's upon us; without the which, this story

Were most impertinent.

Mira. Wherefore did they not
That hour destroy us?

Pro. Well demanded, wench;

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they
durst not;

(So dear the love my people bore me) nor set
A mark so bloody on the business; but
With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark;
Bore us some leagues to sea; where they pre-
pared

A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively had quit it: there they hoist us,
dedi-To cry to the sea that roar'd to us; to sigh
To the winds, whose pity sighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

bro

As my trust was which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence sans + 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 the duke; out of the substitution,
And executing the outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative ;-Hence his ambition
Growing, Dost hear?

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

And him he play'd it for, needs he 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.

Mira. O the heavens I

Pro. Mark his coudition, and the event; then tell me,

If this might be a brother.

Mira. I should sin

To think but 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,-

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Will ever after droop.-Here cease more questions:

Tho art inclin'd to sleep; 'tis a good dul-
ness,

And give it way;-I know thou canst not
choose.-
[Miranda sleeps.
Come away, servant, come: I am ready now;
Approach, my Ariel; come.

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Ariel, and all bis quality.

Pro. Hast thou, spirit,

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Pro. Before the time be out? no more.
Ari. I pray thee

Remember, I have done thee worthy service;

Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, serv'd

thee?

Ari. To every article.

I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck in every cabin,
flam'd amazeinent: Sometimes I'd divide,
And burn in many places; on the top-mast,
The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame dis-
tinctly,

Then meet, and join: Jove's lightnings, the
precursors

O' the dreadful thunder-claps,' more momentary

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

Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Nep

tune

Seem'd to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble,

Yea, his dread tridert shake.

Pro. My brave spirit !

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

Ari. Not a soul

But felt a fever of the mad, 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, Fer-
dinand,

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.

Pro. Why, that's my spirit? But was not this nigh shore?

Ari. Close by, my master.

Pro. But are they, Ariel, safe?
Ari. Not a hair perish'd;

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?

Ari. Sately 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 there she's hid:

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
Bound sadly home for Naples;
Supposing that they saw

wreck'd,

And bis great person perish.

The minutest article

1 Bermudas.

the king's ship

Bustle, tumult.
6 Wave.

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recount what thou hast

been,
Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch, Sy.
corax,

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 f
Ari. Ay, Sir.

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

And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my

slave,

As thou report'st thyself, wast then her ser-
vant,

And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate
To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands,
Refusing her grand bests, t, 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 did'st 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-boru) 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,

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Pro. Thou most lying slave,

When I arriv'd, and heard thee, that made gape The pine, and let thee out.

Ari. I thank thee, master.

Whom stripes may move, not kindness: I have us'd thee,

Pro. If thou more murmur st, I will rend an Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodg'd

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 spiriting gently.

Pro. Do so; and after two days

I will discharge thee.

Ari. That's my noble master !

What shall I do? say what? what shall I do. Pro. Go make thyself like to a nymph o' the

sea;

Be subject to no sight but mine; invisible
To every eye-ball else, Go, take this shape,
And bither come in't: 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. 'Tis a villain, Sir,

I do not love to look on.

Pro. But, as 'tis,

We cannot miss him he does light 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. Pro. Come forth, I say; there's other business for thee:

Come forth, thou tortoise! when?

Re-enter ARIEL, like a Water-Nymph.

Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel,

Hark in thing ear.

Ari. My lord, it shall be done.

thee

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[Exit.I must obey his art is of such power,

[Aside.

Pro. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil It would control my dam's god, Setebos, t

himself

Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!

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first,

When thou camest

And make a vassal of him.

Pro. So, slave; hence ! [Exit Caliban Re-enter ARIEL invisible, playing and sing ing; FERDINAND following him.

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or the earth?

Thou strokd'st me, and mad'st much of me; It sounds no more:-and sure, it waits upon

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