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THE TEMPEST.

ACT I. SCENE I.

On a Ship at Sea.

A tempestuous noise of Thunder and Lightning.

Enter a Ship-master and a Boatswain1.

Master. Boatswain !

Boats. Here, master: what cheer??

Mast. Good. Speak to the mariners: fall to't yarely', or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir.

Enter Mariners.

[Exit.

Boats. Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare, yare. Take in the top-sail; tend to the master's whistle.-Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!

Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO, and others'.

Alon. Good boatswain, have a care'. Where's the master? Play the men.

1 Enter a Ship-master and a Boatswain.] The corr. fo. 1632 adds here the following explanatory words, "as on ship-board, shaking off wet:" they were probably intended as an instruction to the old performers how they were to conduct themselves at the opening of the play, in order to give the audience a proper notion of the scene on ship-board during a storm.

2

what cheer?] So in John Drout's unique poem, "The Pityfull Historie of two loving Italians," 8vo, 1570:

3

"Then mate to mate eache other calde,

And sayd, ho mate! what cheere?"

fall to't YARELY,] i. e. Readily, nimbly: see also Vol. ii. p. 699, and Vol. vi. pp. 194. 208. 248. In the next speech we have the adjective.

4 Gonzalo, and others.] "From the cabin," says the old annotator on the folio, 1632: the characters most likely ascended through a trap-door.

Good boatswain, have a care.] The article is from the margin of the corr. fo.

Boats. I pray now, keep below.

Ant. Where is the master, boatswain ?

Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour. Keep your cabins; you do assist the storm.

Gon. Nay, good, be patient.

Boats. When the sea is. Hence! What care these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence! trouble

us not.

Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard.

Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap.-Cheerly, good hearts! -Out of our way, I say. [Exit.

Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks, he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good fate, to his hanging! make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage! If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable. [Exeunt.

Re-enter Boatswain.

Boats. Down with the top-mast: yare; lower, lower. Bring her to try with main-course. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather, or our office.—

Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO.

Yet again! what do you here? Shall we give o'er, and drown? Have you a mind to sink ?

Seb. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!

1632, and there is no doubt that the familiar expression was "have a care," as we find it, among other places, in Fletcher's "Honest Man's Fortune," A. v. sc. 3, "Montague, have a care (Edit. Dyce, Vol. iii. p. 442).

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Bring her to try with main-course.] We make no change in the text here, nor is any suggested by the corr. fo. 1632; but it may be doubted whether this is the correct nautical phrase. Steevens quoted from Smith's "Sea Grammar," 1627, 1653, and 1692: "Let us lie as Trie with our maine course," &c., and in the folio, 1623, "Try" is printed with a capital letter; but so is "Maine-course." Steevens misquoted Smith, who has "Let us lie at Trie," and not "Let us lie as Trie." Mr. Singer, who goes no farther than Steevens, repeats Steevens's error.

Boats. Work you, then.

Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson insolent noisemaker, we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.

Gon. I'll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell, and as leaky as an unstanched wench.

. Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! Set her two courses: off to sea again; lay her off.

Enter Mariners, wet.

Mar. All lost to prayers, to prayers! all lost! [Exeunt. Boats. What! must our mouths be cold?

Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let us assist them, For our case is as their's.

Seb. I am out of patience.

Ant. We are merely' cheated of our lives by drunkards.- X This wide-chapp'd rascal,—would, thou mightst lie drown

ing,

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.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

The Island: before the Cell of PROSPERO.

Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.

Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.

7- MERELY] i. e. Absolutely: a common mode of using the word of old.

The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek",
Dashes the fire out. Oh! I have suffer'd
With those that I saw suffer a brave vessel,
Who had no doubt some noble creatures in her',
Dash'd all to pieces. Oh! the cry did knock
Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perish'd.
Had I been any god of power, I would

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

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

Pro.

Be collected:

No more amazement. Tell your piteous heart,
There's no harm done.

Mira.
Pro.

Oh, woe the day!

No harm.

I have done nothing but in care of thee,

(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

'Tis time

Did never meddle with my thoughts'.
Pro.

I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand,
And pluck my magic garment from me.-So:

[Laying 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 prevision in mine art2

8 - mounting to the welkin's CHEEK,] The corr. fo. 1632 has "cheek" erased in favour of heat; and it is very possible that heat may have been substituted by a performer in the time of the old annotator: we adhere however to the old text, recollecting the expressions "heaven's face," and "welkin's face," in " 'Love's Labour's Lost," and "cheeks of heaven" in "Richard II."

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9 some noble CREATURES in her,] Creature of the old copies is altered to "creatures in the corr. fo. 1632, which accords with the emendation made by Theobald. Miranda just afterwards calls them "poor souls," making it almost certain that " creatures" ought to be in the plural.

1 Did never MEDDLE with my thoughts.] i e. Mingle or mix with my thoughts. When" meddle "" was to be used as a monosyllable, it was sometimes spelt mell, as in Vol. ii. p. 605.

I have with such PREVISION in mine art] There is no doubt that "pre

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 farther.

Mira.

You have often

Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd,

And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding, "Stay, not yet."

Pro.

The hour's now come,

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;
Obey, and be attentive. Canst thou remember
A time before we came unto this cell?

[Sitting down. I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not Out three years old 3.

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 hadst, 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 mayst.

Mira.

But that I do not.

Pro. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since, Thy father was the duke of Milan, and

A prince of power.

vision" (misprinted provision in all the folios) was the poet's word, and we meet with it in the margin of the corr. fo. 1632. It is due to the Rev. Mr. Hunter to add, that he also proposed prevision" ("Discourse on The Tempest," 8vo, 1839, p. 125) at a time when he could not know that there was any such emendation of much earlier standing. As long since also as 1818, A. W. Schlegel translated the passage thus, and Prof. Mommsen, in his recent reprint (Berlin, 1854), has, very properly, seen no reason for altering the version:

"hab' ich mit solcher Vorsicht

Durch meine Kunst so sicher angeordnet."

3 OUT three years old.] i. e. Three years complete. It is altered to "Quite three years old" in the corr. fo. 1632, but unnecessarily, and probably only the word of a player. The previous stage-direction, "Sitting down," is from the same authority, but it is not said that Miranda sits, and probably she does not.

VOL. I.

C

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