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, even 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 you 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 fort 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:
I will discase me, and myself present
As I was sometime Milan: quickly, spirit;
Thou shalt ere long be free.
Ariel 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
Whether thou best 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,
The 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 measured or confined.
Gonzalo
Whether this be
Or be not, I’ll not swear.
Prospero
You do yet taste
Some subtilties o’ the 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 be’st Prospero,
Give us particulars of thy preservation;
How thou hast met us here, who 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 wreck’d, 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 dear’st 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 cursed them without cause.
Kneels
Alonso
Now all the blessings
Of a glad father compass thee about!
Arise, and say how thou camest 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
Received 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 burthen our remembrance with
A heaviness that’s gone.
Gonzalo
I have inly wept,
Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you god,
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, all this service
Have I done since I went.
Prospero
[Aside to Ariel] My tricksy spirit!
Alonso
These are not natural events; they strengthen
From strange to stranger. Say, how came you hither?
Boatswain
If I did think, sir, I were well awake,
I’ld strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep,
And — how we know not — all clapp’d under hatches;
Where but even now with strange and several noises
Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains,
And more diversity of sounds, all horrible,
We were awaked; straightway, at liberty;
Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld
Our royal, good and gallant ship, our master
Capering to eye her: on a trice, so please you,
Even in a dream, were we divided from them
And were brought moping hither.
Ariel
[Aside to Prospero] Was’t well done?
Prospero
[Aside to Ariel] Bravely, my diligence. Thou shalt be free.
Alonso
This is as strange a maze as e’er men trod
And there is in this business more than nature
Was ever conduct of: some oracle
Must rectify our knowledge.
Prospero
Sir, my liege,
Do not infest your mind with beating on
The strangeness of this business; at pick’d leisure
Which shall be shortly, single I’ll resolve you,
Which to you shall seem probable, of every
These happen’d accidents; till when, be cheerful
And think of each thing well.
Aside to Ariel
Come hither, spirit:
Set Caliban and his companions free;
Untie the spell.
Exit Ariel
How fares my gracious sir?
There are yet missing of your company
Some few odd lads that you remember not.
Re-enter Ariel, driving in Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo, in their stolen apparel
Stephano
Every man shift for all the rest, and let no man take care for himself; for all is but fortune. Coragio, bully-monster, coragio!
Trinculo
If these be true spies which I wear in my head, here’s a goodly sight.
Caliban
O Setebos, these be brave spirits indeed!
How fine my master is! I am afraid
He will chastise me.
Sebastian
Ha, ha!
What things are these, my lord Antonio?
Will money buy ’em?
Antonio
Very like; one of them
Is a plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable.
Prospero
Mark but the badges of these men, my lords,
Then say if they be true. This mis-shapen knave,
His mother was a witch, and one so strong
That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs,
And deal in her command without her power.
These three have robb’d me; and this demi-devil —
For he’s a bastard one — had plotted with them
To take my life. Two of these fellows you
Acknowledge mine.
Caliban
I shall be pinch’d to death.
Alonso
Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler?
Sebastian
He is drunk now: where had he wine?
Alonso
And Trinculo is reeling ripe: where should they
Find this grand liquor that hath gilded ’em?
How camest thou in this pickle?
Trinculo
I have been in such a pickle since I saw you last that, I fear me, will never out of my bones: I shall not fear fly-blowing.
Sebastian
Why, how now, Stephano!
Stephano
O, touch me not; I am not Stephano, but a cramp.
Prospero
You’ld be king o’ the isle, sirrah?
Stephano
I should have been a sore one then.
Alonso
This is a strange thing as e’er I look’d on.
Pointing to Caliban
Prospero
He is as disproportion’d in his manners
As in his shape. Go, sirrah, to my cell;
Take with you your companions; as you look
To have my pardon, trim it handsomely.
Caliban
Ay, that I will; and I’ll be wise hereafter
And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass
Was I, to take this drunkard for a god
And worship this dull fool!
Prospero
Go to; away!
Alonso
Hence, and bestow your luggage where you f
ound it.
Sebastian
Or stole it, rather.
Exeunt Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo
Prospero
Sir, I invite your highness and your train
To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest
For this one night; which, part of it, I’ll waste
With such discourse as, I not doubt, shall make it
Go quick away; the story of my life
And the particular accidents gone by
Since I came to this isle: and in the morn
I’ll bring you to your ship and so to Naples,
Where I have hope to see the nuptial
Of these our dear-beloved solemnized;
And thence retire me to my Milan, where
Every third thought shall be my grave.
Alonso
I long
To hear the story of your life, which must
Take the ear strangely.
Prospero
I’ll deliver all;
And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales
And sail so expeditious that shall catch
Your royal fleet far off.
Aside to Ariel
My Ariel, chick,
That is thy charge: then to the elements
Be free, and fare thou well! Please you, draw near.
Exeunt
EPILOGUE
Prospero
Now my charms are all o’erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint: now, ’tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got
And pardon’d the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands:
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardon’d be,
Let your indulgence set me free.
TITLE-PAGE OF THE FIRST FOLIO, 1628
The first collected edition of Shakespeare's Plays
(From the copy in the New York Public Library)
SCENE II. A ROOM OF STATE IN THE CASTLE.
Enter King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, Voltimand, Cornelius, Lords, and Attendants
King Claudius
Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death
The memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe,