The Tempest by William Shakespeare (the reading list book TXT) 📕

out then,
Will cry it o'er again: it is a hint
That wrings mine eyes to't.

PROSPERO.
Hear a little further,
And then I'll bring thee to the present business
Which now's upon us; without the which this story
Were most impertinent.

MIRANDA.
Wherefore did they not
That hour destroy us?

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

MIRANDA.
Alack! what trouble
Was I then to you!

PROSPERO.
O, a cherubin
Thou wast that did preserve me! Thou didst smile,
Infused with a fortitude from heaven,
When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt,
Under my burden groan'd: which rais'd in me
An undergoing stomach, to bear up
Against what should ensue.

MIRANDA.
How came we ashore?

PROSPERO.
By Providence divine.
Some food we had and some fresh water that
A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,
Out of his charity, - who being then appointed
Master of this design, - did give us, with
Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries,
Which since have steaded much: so, of his gentleness,
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me,
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.

MIRANDA.
Would I might
But ever see that man!

PROSPERO.
Now I arise: -

[Resumes his mantle]

Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow.
Here in this island we arriv'd: and here
Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit
Than other princes can, that have more time
For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.

MIRANDA.
Heavens thank you for't! And now, I pray you, sir, -
For still 'tis beating in my mind, - your reason
For raising this sea-storm?

PROSPERO.
Know thus far forth.
By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune,
Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies
Brought to this shore; and by my prescience
I find my zenith doth depend upon
A most auspicious star, whose influence
If now I court not but omit, my fortunes
Will ever after droop. Here cease more questions;
Thou art inclin'd to sleep; 'tis a good dulness,
And give it way; - I know thou canst not choose. -

[MIRANDA sleeps]

Come away, servant, come! I am ready now.
Approach, my Ariel; Come!

[Enter ARIEL]

ARIEL.
All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come
To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly,
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
On the curl'd clouds; to thy strong bidding task
Ariel and all his quality.

PROSPERO.
Hast thou, spirit,
Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee?

ARIEL.
To every article.
I boarded the King's ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flam'd amazement; sometime I'd divide,
And burn in many places; on the topmast,
The yards, and boresprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet and join: Jove's lightning, the precursors
O' th' dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight-outrunning 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.

PROSPERO.
My brave spirit!
Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil
Would not infect his reason?

ARIEL.
Not a soul
But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd
Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners
Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel,
Then all afire with me: the King's son, Ferdinand,
With hair up-staring - then like reeds, not hair -
Was the first man that leapt; cried 'Hell is empty,
And all the devils are here.'

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

ARIEL.
Close by, my master.

PROSPERO.
But are they, Ariel, safe?

ARIEL.
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.

PROSPERO.
Of the King's ship
The mariners, say how thou hast dispos'd,
And all the rest o' th' fleet?

ARIEL.
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; there she's hid:
The mariners all under hatches stowed;
Who, with a charm join'd to their suff'red labour,
I have left asleep: and for the rest o' th' 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 the king's ship wrack'd,
And his great person perish.

PROSPERO.
Ariel, thy charge
Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work:
What is the time o' th' day?

ARIEL.
Past the mid season.

PROSPERO.
At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six and now
Must by us both be spent most preciously.

ARIEL.
Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains,
Let me remember thee what thou hast promis'd,
Which is not yet perform'd me.

PROSPERO.
How now! moody?
What is't thou canst demand?

ARIEL.
My liberty.

PROSPERO.
Before the time be out! No more!

ARIEL.
I prithee,
Remember I have done thee worthy service;
Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, serv'd
Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst promise
To bate me a full year.

PROSPERO.
Dost thou forget
From what a torment I did free thee?

ARIEL.
No.

PROSPERO.
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' th' earth
When it is bak'd with frost.

ARIEL.
I do not, sir.

PROSPERO.
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?

ARIEL.
No, sir.

PROSPERO.
Thou hast. Where was she born?
Speak; tell me.

ARIEL.
Sir, in Argier.

PROSPERO.
O! was she so? I must
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?

ARIEL.
Ay, sir.

PROSPERO.
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 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 freckl'd whelp, hag-born - not honour'd with
A human shape.

ARIEL.
Yes; Caliban her son.

PROSPERO.
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.

ARIEL.
I thank thee, master.

PROSPERO.
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.

ARIEL.
Pardon, master:
I will be correspondent to command,
And do my spriting gently.

PROSPERO.
Do so; and after two days
I will discharge thee.

ARIEL.
That's my noble master!
What shall I do? Say what? What shall I do?

PROSPERO.
Go make thyself like a nymph o' th' 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!

MIRANDA.
[Waking] The strangeness of your story put
Heaviness in me.

PROSPERO.
Shake it off. Come on;
We'll visit Caliban my slave, who never
Yields us kind answer.

MIRANDA.
'Tis a villain, sir,
I do not love to look on.

PROSPERO.
But as 'tis,
We cannot miss 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.

CALIBAN.
[Within] There's wood enough within.

PROSPERO.
Come forth, I say; there's other business for thee:
Come, thou tortoise! when?

[Re-enter ARIEL like a water-nymph.]

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

ARIEL.
My lord, it shall be done.

[Exit]

PROSPERO.
Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself
Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!

[Enter CALIBAN]

CALIBAN.
As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd
With raven's feather from unwholesome fen
Drop on you both! A south-west blow on ye,
And blister you all o'er!

PROSPERO.
For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps,
Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins
Shall forth at vast of night that they may work
All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch'd
As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging
Than bees that made them.

CALIBAN.
I must eat my dinner.
This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou tak'st from me. When thou cam'st first,
Thou strok'st me and made much of me; wouldst give me
Water with berries in't; and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night: and then I lov'd thee,
And show'd thee all the qualities o' th' isle,
The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place, and fertile.
Curs'd be I that did so! All the charms
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have,
Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest o' th' island.

PROSPERO.
Thou most lying slave,
Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have us'd thee,
Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodg'd thee
In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate
The honour of my child.

CALIBAN.
Oh ho! Oh ho! Would it had been done!
Thou didst prevent me; I had peopl'd else
This isle with Calibans.

PROSPERO.
Abhorred slave,
Which any print of goodness wilt not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other: when thou