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

didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes
With words that made them known: but thy vile race,
Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures
Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou
Deservedly confin'd into this rock, who hadst
Deserv'd more than a prison.

CALIBAN.
You taught me language, and my profit on't
Is, I know how to curse: the red plague rid you,
For learning me your language!

PROSPERO.
Hag-seed, hence!
Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou 'rt best,
To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice?
If thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly
What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps,
Fill all thy bones with aches; make thee roar,
That beasts shall tremble at thy din.

CALIBAN.
No, pray thee. -
[Aside] I must obey. His art is of such power,
It would control my dam's god, Setebos,
And make a vassal of him.

PROSPERO.
So, slave: hence!

[Exit CALIBAN]

[Re-enter ARIEL invisible, playing and singing;
FERDINAND following]

[ARIEL'S SONG.]

Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands:
Curtsied when you have, and kiss'd, -
The wild waves whist, -
Foot it featly here and there;
And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.
Hark, hark!
[Burden: Bow, wow, dispersedly.]
The watch dogs bark:
[Burden: Bow, wow, dispersedly.]
Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting Chanticleer
[Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow.]

FERDINAND.
Where should this music be? i' th' air or th' earth?
It sounds no more; - and sure it waits upon
Some god o' th' island. Sitting on a bank,
Weeping again the king my father's wrack,
This music crept by me upon the waters,
Allaying both their fury and my passion,
With its sweet air: thence I have follow'd it, -
Or it hath drawn me rather, - but 'tis gone.
No, it begins again.

[ARIEL sings]
Full fathom five thy father lies:
Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
[Burden: Ding-dong.]
Hark! now I hear them - ding-dong, bell.

FERDINAND.
The ditty does remember my drown'd father.
This is no mortal business, nor no sound
That the earth owes: - I hear it now above me.

PROSPERO.
The fringed curtains of thine eye advance,
And say what thou seest yond.

MIRANDA.
What is't? a spirit?
Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir,
It carries a brave form: - but 'tis a spirit.

PROSPERO.
No, wench; it eats and sleeps, and hath such senses
As we have, such; this gallant which thou see'st
Was in the wrack; and but he's something stain'd
With grief, - that beauty's canker, - thou mightst call him
A goodly person: he hath lost his fellows
And strays about to find 'em.

MIRANDA.
I might call him
A thing divine; for nothing natural
I ever saw so noble.

PROSPERO.
[Aside] It goes on, I see,
As my soul prompts it. - Spirit, fine spirit! I'll free thee
Within two days for this.

FERDINAND.
Most sure, the goddess
On whom these airs attend! - Vouchsafe, my prayer
May know if you remain upon this island;
And that you will some good instruction give
How I may bear me here: my prime request,
Which I do last pronounce, is, - O you wonder! -
If you be maid or no?

MIRANDA.
No wonder, sir;
But certainly a maid.

FERDINAND.
My language! Heavens! -
I am the best of them that speak this speech,
Were I but where 'tis spoken.

PROSPERO.
How! the best?
What wert thou, if the King of Naples heard thee?

FERDINAND.
A single thing, as I am now, that wonders
To hear thee speak of Naples. He does hear me;
And, that he does, I weep: myself am Naples,
Who with mine eyes, - never since at ebb, - beheld
The King, my father wrack'd.

MIRANDA.
Alack, for mercy!

FERDINAND.
Yes, faith, and all his lords, the Duke of Milan,
And his brave son being twain.

PROSPERO.
[Aside.] The Duke of Milan,
And his more braver daughter could control thee,
If now 'twere fit to do't. - At the first sight [Aside.]
They have changed eyes; - delicate Ariel,
I'll set thee free for this! - [To FERDINAND] A word, good sir:
I fear you have done yourself some wrong: a word.

MIRANDA.
[Aside.] Why speaks my father so ungently? This
Is the third man that e'er I saw; the first
That e'er I sigh'd for; pity move my father
To be inclin'd my way!

FERDINAND.
[Aside.] O! if a virgin,
And your affection not gone forth, I'll make you
The Queen of Naples.

PROSPERO.
Soft, sir; one word more -
[Aside] They are both in either's powers: but this swift
business I must uneasy make, lest too light winning
Make the prize light. [To FERDINAND] One word more:
I charge thee
That thou attend me. Thou dost here usurp
The name thou ow'st not; and hast put thyself
Upon this island as a spy, to win it
From me, the lord on't.

FERDINAND.
No, as I am a man.

MIRANDA.
There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple:
If the ill spirit have so fair a house,
Good things will strive to dwell with't.

PROSPERO.
{To FERDINAND] Follow me. -
[To MIRANDA] Speak not you for him; he's a traitor. -
[To FERDINAND] Come;
I'll manacle thy neck and feet together:
Sea-water shalt thou drink; thy food shall be
The fresh-brook mussels, wither'd roots, and husks
Wherein the acorn cradled. Follow.

FERDINAND.
No;
I will resist such entertainment till
Mine enemy has more power.

[He draws, and is charmed from moving.]

MIRANDA.
O dear father!
Make not too rash a trial of him, for
He's gentle, and not fearful.

PROSPERO.
What! I say,
My foot my tutor? Put thy sword up, traitor;
Who mak'st a show, but dar'st not strike, thy conscience
Is so possess'd with guilt: come from thy ward,
For I can here disarm thee with this stick
And make thy weapon drop.

MIRANDA.
Beseech you, father!

PROSPERO.
Hence! Hang not on my garments.

MIRANDA.
Sir, have pity;
I'll be his surety.

PROSPERO.
Silence! One word more
Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What!
An advocate for an impostor? hush!
Thou think'st there is no more such shapes as he,
Having seen but him and Caliban: foolish wench!
To the most of men this is a Caliban,
And they to him are angels.

MIRANDA.
My affections
Are then most humble; I have no ambition
To see a goodlier man.

PROSPERO.
[To FERDINAND] Come on; obey:
Thy nerves are in their infancy again,
And have no vigour in them.

FERDINAND.
So they are:
My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up.
My father's loss, the weakness which I feel,
The wrack of all my friends, nor this man's threats,
To whom I am subdued, are but light to me,
Might I but through my prison once a day
Behold this maid: all corners else o' th' earth
Let liberty make use of; space enough
Have I in such a prison.

PROSPERO.
[Aside] It works. - [To FERDINAND] Come on. -
Thou hast done well, fine Ariel! [To FERDINAND] Follow me. -
[To ARIEL] Hark what thou else shalt do me.

MIRANDA.
Be of comfort;
My father's of a better nature, sir,
Than he appears by speech: this is unwonted,
Which now came from him.

PROSPERO.
Thou shalt be as free
As mountain winds; but then exactly do
All points of my command.

ARIEL.
To the syllable.

PROSPERO.
[To FERDINAND] Come, follow. - Speak not for him.

[Exeunt]


ACT 2

SCENE I. - Another part of the island

[Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO,
and OTHERS]

GONZALO.
Beseech you, sir, be merry; you have cause,
So have we all, of joy; for our escape
Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe
Is common: every day, some sailor's wife,
The masters of some merchant and the merchant,
Have just our theme of woe; but for the miracle,
I mean our preservation, few in millions
Can speak like us: then wisely, good sir, weigh
Our sorrow with our comfort.

ALONSO.
Prithee, peace.

SEBASTIAN.
He receives comfort like cold porridge.

ANTONIO.
The visitor will not give him o'er so.

SEBASTIAN.
Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit; by
and by it will strike.

GONZALO.
Sir, -

SEBASTIAN.
One: tell.

GONZALO.
When every grief is entertain'd that's offer'd,
Comes to the entertainer -

SEBASTIAN.
A dollar.

GONZALO.
Dolour comes to him, indeed: you have spoken
truer than you purposed.

SEBASTIAN.
You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should.

GONZALO.
Therefore, my lord, -

ANTONIO.
Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue!

ALONSO.
I prithee, spare.

GONZALO.
Well, I have done: but yet -

SEBASTIAN.
He will be talking.

ANTONIO.
Which, of he or Adrian, for a good wager, first
begins to crow?

SEBASTIAN.
The old cock.

ANTONIO.
The cockerel.

SEBASTIAN.
Done. The wager?

ANTONIO.
A laughter.

SEBASTIAN.
A match!

ADRIAN.
Though this island seem to be desert, -

SEBASTIAN.
Ha, ha, ha! So, you're paid.

ADRIAN.
Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible, -

SEBASTIAN.
Yet -

ADRIAN.
Yet -

ANTONIO.
He could not miss it.

ADRIAN.
It must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate
temperance.

ANTONIO.
Temperance was a delicate wench.

SEBASTIAN.
Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly delivered.

ADRIAN.
The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.

SEBASTIAN.
As if it had lungs, and rotten ones.

ANTONIO.
Or, as 'twere perfum'd by a fen.

GONZALO.
Here is everything advantageous to life.

ANTONIO.
True; save means to live.

SEBASTIAN.
Of that there's none, or little.

GONZALO.
How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!

ANTONIO.
The ground indeed is tawny.

SEBASTIAN.
With an eye of green in't.

ANTONIO.
He misses not much.

SEBASTIAN.
No; he doth but mistake the truth totally.

GONZALO.
But the rarity of it is, - which is indeed almost
beyond credit, -

SEBASTIAN.
As many vouch'd rarities are.

GONZALO.
That our garments, being, as they were, drenched
in the sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness and
glosses, being rather new-dyed than stain'd with salt
water.

ANTONIO.
If but one of his pockets could speak, would it
not say he lies?

SEBASTIAN.
Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report.

GONZALO.
Methinks, our garments are now as fresh as when
we put them on first in Afric, at the marriage of the
king's fair daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis.

SEBASTIAN.
'Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our return.

ADRIAN.
Tunis was never graced before with such a paragon
to their queen.

GONZALO.
Not since widow Dido's time.

ANTONIO.
Widow! a pox o' that! How came that widow in? Widow Dido!

SEBASTIAN.
What if he had said, widower Aeneas too?
Good Lord, how you take it!

ADRIAN.
Widow Dido said you? You make me study