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Enter Mariners, wet.

Mar. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost!

Boats. What, must our mouths be cold?

[Exeunt.

Gon. The king and prince at pray'rs ! let us as

sist them,

For our case is as theirs.

Seb. I am out of patience.

Ant. We are merely* cheated of our lives by drunkards.

This wide-chapped rascal ;-'Would, thou might'st lie drowning,

The washing of ten tides!

Gon.

He'll be hanged yet; Though every drop of water swear against it, And gape at wid'st to glut him.

[A confused noise within.] Mercy on us!-We split, we split !-Farewell, my wife and children !-Farewell, brother!-We split, we split, we split!Ant. Let's all sink with the king. Seb. Let's take leave of him.

[Exit. Exit.

Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground; long heath, brown furze, any thing: the wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death.

SCENE II.

The island: before the cell of Prospero.
Enter Prospero and Miranda.

[Exit.

Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them : The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek, Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd

With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel,

* Absolutely.

Who had no doubt some noble creatures 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 pow'r, I would

Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er*.

It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and
The freighting souls within her.

Be collected;

Pro.
No more amazement: tell your piteous heart,
There's no harm done.

Mira.

Pro.

O, woe the day!

I have done nothing but in care of thee,

No harm.

(Of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!) who Art ignorant of what thou art, nought 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 further. 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 wreck, 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'

Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink.

Sit down;

For thou must now know further.

You have often

Mira.
Began to tell me what I am; but stopp'd
And left me to a bootless inquisition;
Concluding, Stay, not yet.-

*Before.

Pro.

The hour's now come;

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;

Obey, and be attentive. Can'st thou remember A time before we came unto this cell?

I do not think thou can'st; for then thou wast not Out* three years old.

Mira.

Certainly, sir, I can.

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 had'st, and more, Miranda: but how is it,

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

since,

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

A princess;-no worse issued.

Mira.

O, the heavens!

What foul play had we, that we came from thence ? Or blessed was't we did?

Both, both, my girl:

Pro. By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence; But blessedly holp hither.

Mira.

O, my heart bleeds

To think o' the teen † that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance! Please you further.

* Quite.

+ Abyss.

+ Sorrow.

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