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ACT V. SCENE 1

 

Before PROSPERO’S cell

 

Enter PROSPERO in his magic robes, and ARIEL

 

PROSPERO. Now does my project gather to a head; My charms crack not, my spirits obey; and time Goes upright with his carriage. How’s the day?

ARIEL. On the sixth hour; at which time, my lord, You said our work should cease.

PROSPERO. I did say so,

When first I rais’d the tempest. Say, my spirit, How fares the King and ‘s followers?

ARIEL. Confin’d together

In the same fashion as you gave in charge; Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir, In the line-grove which weather-fends your cell; They cannot budge till your release. The King, His brother, and yours, abide all three distracted, And the remainder mourning over them, Brim full of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly Him you term’d, sir, ‘the good old lord, Gonzalo’; His tears run down his beard, like winter’s drops From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works ‘em That if you now beheld them your affections Would become tender.

PROSPERO. Dost thou think so, spirit?

ARIEL. Mine would, sir, were I human.

PROSPERO. And mine shall.

Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling Of their afflictions, and shall not myself, One of their kind, that relish all as sharply, Passion as they, be kindlier mov’d than thou art?

Though with their high wrongs I am struck to th’ quick, Yet with my nobler reason ‘gainst my fury Do I take part; the rarer action is

In virtue than in vengeance; they being penitent, The sole drift of my purpose doth extend Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel; My charms I’ll break, their senses I’ll restore, And they shall be themselves.

ARIEL. I’ll fetch them, sir. Exit PROSPERO. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves;

And ye that on the sands with printless foot Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him When he comes back; you demi-puppets that By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid-Weak masters though ye be-I have be-dimm’d The noontide sun, call’d forth the mutinous winds, And ‘twixt the green sea and the azur’d vault Set roaring war. To the dread rattling thunder Have I given fire, and rifted Jove’s stout oak With his own bolt; the strong-bas’d promontory Have I made shake, and by the spurs pluck’d up The pine and cedar. Graves at my command Have wak’d their sleepers, op’d, and let ‘em forth, By my so potent art. But this rough magic I here abjure; and, when I have requir’d Some heavenly music-which even now I do-To work mine end upon their senses that This airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff, Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, And deeper than did ever plummet sound I’ll drown my book. [Solem music]

 

Here enters ARIEL before; then ALONSO, with frantic gesture, attended by GONZALO; SEBASTIAN

and ANTONIO in like manner, attended by ADRIAN

and FRANCISCO. They all enter the circle which PROSPERO had made, and there stand charm’d; which PROSPERO observing, speaks A solemn air, and the best comforter

To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains, Now useless, boil’d within thy skull! There stand, For you are spell-stopp’d.

Holy Gonzalo, honourable man,

Mine eyes, ev’n sociable to the show of thine, Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace, And as the morning steals upon the night, Melting the darkness, so their rising senses Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo, My true preserver, and a loyal sir

To him thou follow’st! I will pay thy graces Home both in word and deed. Most cruelly Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter; Thy brother was a furtherer in the act.

Thou art pinch’d for’t now, Sebastian. Flesh and blood, You, brother mine, that entertain’d ambition, Expell’d remorse and nature, who, with Sebastian-Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong-Would here have kill’d your king, I do forgive thee, Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding Begins to swell, and the approaching tide Will shortly fill the reasonable shore That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them That yet looks on me, or would know me. Ariel, Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell; Exit ARIEL

I will discase me, and myself present As I was sometime Milan. Quickly, spirit Thou shalt ere long be free.

 

ARIEL, on returning, sings and helps to attire him Where the bee sucks, there suck I;

In a cowslip’s bell I lie;

There I couch when owls do cry.

On the bat’s back I do fly

After summer merrily.

Merrily, merrily shall I live now

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

 

PROSPERO. Why, that’s my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee; But yet thou shalt have freedom. So, so, so.

To the King’s ship, invisible as thou art; There shalt thou find the mariners asleep Under the hatches; the master and the boatswain Being awake, enforce them to this place; And presently, I prithee.

ARIEL. I drink the air before me, and return Or ere your pulse twice beat. Exit GONZALO. All torment, trouble, wonder and amazement, Inhabits here. Some heavenly power guide us Out of this fearful country!

PROSPERO. Behold, Sir King,

The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero.

For more assurance that a living prince Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body; And to thee and thy company I bid

A hearty welcome.

ALONSO. Whe’er thou be’st he or no,

Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me, As late I have been, I not know. Thy pulse Beats, as of flesh and blood; and, since I saw thee, Th’ affliction of my mind amends, with which, I fear, a madness held me. This must crave-An if this be at all-a most strange story.

Thy dukedom I resign, and do entreat

Thou pardon me my wrongs. But how should Prospero Be living and be here?

PROSPERO. First, noble friend,

Let me embrace thine age, whose honour cannot Be measur’d or confin’d.

GONZALO. Whether this be

Or be not, I’ll not swear.

PROSPERO. You do yet taste

Some subtleties o’ th’ isle, that will not let you Believe things certain. Welcome, my friends all!

[Aside to SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO] But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded,

I here could pluck his Highness’ frown upon you, And justify you traitors; at this time I will tell no tales.

SEBASTIAN. [Aside] The devil speaks in him.

PROSPERO. No.

For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive Thy rankest fault-all of them; and require My dukedom of thee, which perforce I know Thou must restore.

ALONSO. If thou beest Prospero,

Give us particulars of thy preservation; How thou hast met us here, whom three hours since Were wreck’d upon this shore; where I have lost-How sharp the point of this remembrance is!-

My dear son Ferdinand.

PROSPERO. I am woe for’t, sir.

ALONSO. Irreparable is the loss; and patience Says it is past her cure.

PROSPERO. I rather think

You have not sought her help, of whose soft grace For the like loss I have her sovereign aid, And rest myself content.

ALONSO. You the like loss!

PROSPERO. As great to me as late; and, supportable To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker Than you may call to comfort you, for I Have lost my daughter.

ALONSO. A daughter!

O heavens, that they were living both in Naples, The King and Queen there! That they were, I wish Myself were mudded in that oozy bed

Where my son lies. When did you lose your daughter?

PROSPERO. In this last tempest. I perceive these lords At this encounter do so much admire

That they devour their reason, and scarce think Their eyes do offices of truth, their words Are natural breath; but, howsoe’er you have Been justled from your senses, know for certain That I am Prospero, and that very duke Which was thrust forth of Milan; who most strangely Upon this shore, where you were wrecked, was landed To be the lord on’t. No more yet of this; For ‘tis a chronicle of day by day,

Not a relation for a breakfast, nor

Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir; This cell’s my court; here have I few attendants, And subjects none abroad; pray you, look in.

My dukedom since you have given me again, I will requite you with as good a thing; At least bring forth a wonder, to content ye As much as me my dukedom.

 

Here PROSPERO discovers FERDINAND and MIRANDA, playing at chess

 

MIRANDA. Sweet lord, you play me false.

FERDINAND. No, my dearest love,

I would not for the world.

MIRANDA. Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle And I would call it fair play.

ALONSO. If this prove

A vision of the island, one dear son

Shall I twice lose.

SEBASTIAN. A most high miracle!

FERDINAND. Though the seas threaten, they are merciful; I have curs’d them without cause. [Kneels]

ALONSO. Now all the blessings

Of a glad father compass thee about!

Arise, and say how thou cam’st here.

MIRANDA. O, wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world That has such people in’t!

PROSPERO. ‘Tis new to thee.

ALONSO. What is this maid with whom thou wast at play?

Your eld’st acquaintance cannot be three hours; Is she the goddess that hath sever’d us, And brought us thus together?

FERDINAND. Sir, she is mortal;

But by immortal Providence she’s mine.

I chose her when I could not ask my father For his advice, nor thought I had one. She Is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan, Of whom so often I have heard renown

But never saw before; of whom I have

Receiv’d a second life; and second father This lady makes him to me.

ALONSO. I am hers.

But, O, how oddly will it sound that I Must ask my child forgiveness!

PROSPERO. There, sir, stop;

Let us not burden our remembrances with A heaviness that’s gone.

GONZALO. I have inly wept,

Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you gods, And on this couple drop a blessed crown; For it is you that have chalk’d forth the way Which brought us hither.

ALONSO. I say, Amen, Gonzalo!

GONZALO. Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue Should become Kings of Naples? O, rejoice Beyond a common joy, and set it down

With gold on lasting pillars: in one voyage Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis; And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife Where he himself was lost; Prospero his dukedom In a poor isle; and all of us ourselves When no man was his own.

ALONSO. [To FERDINAND and MIRANDA] Give me your hands.

Let grief and sorrow still embrace his heart That doth not wish you joy.

GONZALO. Be it so. Amen!

 

Re-enter ARIEL, with the MASTER and BOATSWAIN

amazedly following

 

O look, sir; look, sir! Here is more of us!

I prophesied, if a gallows were on land, This fellow could not drown. Now, blasphemy, That swear’st grace o’erboard, not an oath on shore?

Hast thou no mouth by land? What is the news?

BOATSWAIN. The best news is that we have safely found Our King and company; the next, our ship-Which but three glasses since we gave out split-Is tight and yare, and bravely rigg’d, as when We first put out to sea.

ARIEL. [Aside to PROSPERO] Sir,