The Tempest (5 page)

MIRANDA
    How came we ashore?

Prospero sits

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
¹⁹⁰
— did give us, with

Rich garments, linens,
stuffs
¹⁹¹
and necessaries,

Which since have
steaded much.
So, of his
gentleness
¹⁹²
,

Knowing I loved my books, he furnished me

From mine own library with volumes that

I prize above my dukedom.

MIRANDA
    
Would
¹⁹⁶
I might

But ever see that man.

PROSPERO
    Now I arise:

Prospero stands

Sit still
¹⁹⁹
, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow.

Here in this island we arrived, and here

Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee
more profit
²⁰¹

Than other princes can that have more time

For
vainer
hours, and tutors not so
careful.
²⁰³

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
²⁰⁹
— hath mine enemies

Brought to this shore: and by my
prescience
²¹⁰

I find my
zenith
²¹¹
doth depend upon

A most auspicious star, whose
influence
²¹²

If now I court not, but
omit
²¹³
, my fortunes

Will ever after droop. Here cease more questions:

Thou art inclined to sleep. ’Tis a good
dullness
²¹⁵
,

And give
it way
²¹⁶
: I know thou canst not choose.—

Miranda
sleeps

Come away, servant, come. I am ready now.

Approach, my
Ariel
²¹⁸
, come.

ARIEL
    All hail, great master!
Grave
²¹⁹
sir, hail! I come

To answer thy best pleasure; be’t to fly,

To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride

On the curled clouds: to thy strong bidding
task
²²²

Ariel and all his
quality.
²²³

PROSPERO
    Hast thou, spirit,

Performed
to point
²²⁵
the tempest that I bade thee?

ARIEL
    To every article.

I boarded the king’s ship: now on the
beak
²²⁷
,

Now in the
waist
²²⁸
, the deck, in every cabin,

I
flamed amazement
²²⁹
: sometime I’d divide

And burn in many places; on the topmast,

The
yards
and
bowsprit
²³¹
would I flame distinctly,

Then meet and join.
Jove’s lightning, the precursors
²³²

O’th’dreadful thunderclaps, more momentary

And
sight-outrunning
²³⁴
were not; the fire and cracks

Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty
Neptune
²³⁵

Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble,

Yea, his dread
trident
²³⁷
shake.

PROSPERO
    My brave spirit!

Who was so firm, so constant, that this
coil
²³⁹

Would not infect his reason?

ARIEL
    Not a soul

But felt a fever
of the mad
and
played
²⁴²

Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners

Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel,

Then
all afire
²⁴⁵
with me: the king’s son, Ferdinand,

With hair
up-staring
²⁴⁶
— then like reeds, not hair —

Was the first man that leaped; cried ‘Hell is empty

And all the devils are here.’

PROSPERO
    Why, that’s my spirit!

But was not this
nigh
²⁵⁰
shore?

ARIEL
    Close by, my master.

PROSPERO
    But are they, Ariel, safe?

ARIEL
    Not a hair perished:

On their
sustaining
²⁵⁴
garments not a blemish,

But fresher than before: and, as thou bad’st me,

In
troops
²⁵⁶
I have dispersed them ’bout the isle.

The king’s son have I landed by himself,

Whom I left
cooling of
²⁵⁸
the air with sighs

In an odd
angle
²⁵⁹
of the isle, and sitting,

His arms in this
sad knot.
²⁶⁰

Folds his arms

PROSPERO
    Of the king’s ship,

The mariners, say how thou hast disposed,

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
²⁶⁶

From the
still-vexed Bermudas
²⁶⁷
, there she’s hid;

The mariners all
under hatches
²⁶⁸
stowed,

Who, with a
charm
joined to their
suffered labour
²⁶⁹
,

I have left asleep: and for the rest o’th’fleet —

Which I dispersed — they all have met again,

And are upon the Mediterranean
float
²⁷²

Bound sadly home for Naples,

Supposing that they saw the king’s ship wrecked

And his great person perish.

PROSPERO
    Ariel, thy charge

Exactly is performed; but there’s more work:

What is the time o’th’day?

ARIEL
    Past the
mid season.
²⁷⁹

PROSPERO
    At least
two glasses.
²⁸⁰
The time ’twixt six and now

Must by us both be spent most
preciously.
²⁸¹

ARIEL
    Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me
pains
²⁸²
,

Let me
remember
²⁸³
thee what thou hast promised,

Which is not yet performed me.

PROSPERO
    How now?
Moody?
²⁸⁵

What is’t thou canst demand?

ARIEL
    My liberty.

PROSPERO
    Before the
time be out?
²⁸⁸
No more!

ARIEL
    I prithee,

Remember I have done thee worthy service,

Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, served

Without
or
²⁹²
grudge or grumblings: thou did promise

To
bate me
²⁹³
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
²⁹⁷

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 baked with frost.

ARIEL
    I do not, sir.

PROSPERO
    Thou liest, malignant thing. Hast thou forgot

The foul witch
Sycorax
³⁰⁴
, who with age and envy

Was grown into a
hoop?
³⁰⁵
Hast thou forgot her?

ARIEL
    No, sir.

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

ARIEL
    Sir, in
Algiers.
³⁰⁸

PROSPERO
    O, was she so? I must

Once in a month recount what thou hast been,

Which thou forget’st. This damned witch Sycorax,

For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible

To enter human hearing, from Algiers,

Thou know’st, was banished:
for one thing she did
³¹⁴

They would not take her life. Is not this true?

ARIEL
    Ay, sir.

PROSPERO
    This
blue-eyed
hag
was hither brought
with child
³¹⁷
,

And here was left by th’sailors. Thou, my slave,

As thou report’st thyself, was then her servant:

And,
for
thou wast a spirit too
delicate
³²⁰

To act her
earthy
³²¹
and abhorred commands,

Refusing her grand
hests
³²²
, she did confine thee

By help of her more potent
ministers
³²³
,

And in her most
unmitigable
³²⁴
rage,

Into a
cloven
³²⁵
pine, within which rift

Imprisoned 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.
³²⁹
Then was this island —

Save for the son that she did
litter
³³⁰
here,

A freckled
whelp
,
hag-born
³³¹
— not honoured with

A human shape.

ARIEL
    Yes:
Caliban
³³³
her son.

PROSPERO
    
Dull thing
³³⁴
, I say so: he, that Caliban

Whom now I keep
in service.
³³⁵
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;
³³⁷
it was a torment

To lay upon the damned, which Sycorax

Could not again undo. It was mine art,

When I arrived and heard thee, that made
gape
³⁴¹

The pine and let thee out.

ARIEL
    I thank thee, master.

PROSPERO
    If thou more
murmur’st
, I will
rend
³⁴⁴
an oak

And
peg
thee in his knotty
entrails
³⁴⁵
till

Thou hast howled away twelve winters.

ARIEL
    Pardon, master:

I will be
correspondent
³⁴⁸
to command

And do my
spriting
gently.
³⁴⁹

PROSPERO
    Do so: and after two days

I will
discharge
³⁵¹
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!

Awake, dear heart, awake. Thou hast slept well. Awake.

To Miranda

MIRANDA
    The strangeness of your story put

Heaviness
³⁶⁰
in me.

PROSPERO
    Shake it off. Come on:

We’ll visit Caliban, my slave, who never

Yields us kind answer.

MIRANDA
    ’Tis a
villain
³⁶⁴
, sir, I do not love to look on.

PROSPERO
    But, as ’tis,

We cannot
miss
³⁶⁶
him: he does make our fire,

Fetch in our wood and serves in
offices
³⁶⁷

That profit us. What, ho! Slave! Caliban!

Thou
earth
³⁶⁹
, thou! Speak!

CALIBAN
    There’s wood enough within.

Within

PROSPERO
    Come forth, I say! There’s other business for thee:

Come, thou tortoise! When?

Fine apparition: my
quaint
³⁷³
Ariel,

Hark in thine ear.

ARIEL
    My lord, it shall be done.

PROSPERO
    Thou poisonous slave,
got
³⁷⁶
by the devil himself

Upon thy wicked
dam
³⁷⁷
: come forth!