FER

Other Spirits attending on Prospero.

SCENE.-The Sea with a Ship; afterwards an uninhabited Island.

With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature 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
It should the good ship so have swallowed, and
The fraughting souls within her.
Be collected:
No more amazement. Tell your piteous heart,
There's no harm done.

Pro.

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

More to know
Did never meddle with my thoughts.
Pro.
'Tis time
I should inform thee farther. 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 wrack, 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-
No, not so much perdition as an hair,
Betid to any creature in the vessel

To think o' th' teen that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance. Please you,
farther.
[nio,-

Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, called Anto-
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,
(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?
Mira.
Sir, most heedfully.
Pro.-Being once perfected how to grant suits,
How to deny them, whom to advance, and whom
To trash for over-topping, new created ['em,
The creatures that were mine, I say, or chang'd
Or else new form'd 'em: having both the key.
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' th' State
To what tune pleas'd his ear, that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk, [not.
And suck'd my verdure out on't.-Thou attend'st
Mira. O good sir: I do.
Pro.

I pray thee, mark me.
I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate
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 brother
Awak'd an eyil nature; and my trust,

Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Like a good parent, did beget of him

Sit down;

Mira.
Pro. By what? by any other house, or person?
Of any thing the image tell me, that
Hath kept with thy remembrance.
Mira.
'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?
Pro. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But
how is it,

[since,

That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?
If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam❜st here,
How thou cam'st here, thou may'st.
Mira.
But that I do not.
Pro. Twelve years since, Miranda, twelve years
Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and
A Prince of power.
Mira.
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
And Princess, no worse issued.

Mira.
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 heav'd thence;
But blessedly holp hither.
Mira.

O! my heart bleeds

A falsehood, in its contrary as great

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 indeed the Duke; out o' th' substitution,
And executing th' outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative:-hence his ambition
Growing,-Dost thou 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, 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) wi' th' 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!
[tell me,
Pro. Mark his condition, and th' event; then
If this might be a brother.
Mira.
I should sin
To think but nobly of my grandmother.
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' th' premises,
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 honours, on my brother. Whereon,
A treacherous army levied, one midnight,
Fated to th' purpose, did Antonio open
The gates of Milan; and, i' th' dead of darkness
The ministers for th' purpose hurried thenee
Me, and thy crying self.

t

Ariel. All hail, great master; grave sir, hail. What is 't thou canst demand?