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. 1 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.2 Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO. Yet again? what do you hear? Shall we give o'er and drown? Have you a mind to sink? Seb. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog! 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 nut-shell. Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! 3 set her two courses off to sea again; lay her off. Re-enter Mariners, wet. Mar. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost! [Exeunt. Boats. What, must our mouths be cold? 5 Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let us assist them. For our case is as theirs. To try with main-course.] To try whether she will clear the land by taking in all the tacking, hauling the mainsail close aft, &c. * Our office.] Our calls of direction to the seamen. Lay her a-hold.] To lay a ship a-hold is to bring her to lie as near the wind as she can, in order to keep clear of the land, and get her out to sea.' Steevens. Her two courses.] Mainsail and foresail. Be cold.] Be fruitless or of no force, speak in vain, Seb. I'm out of patience. Ant. We are merely1 cheated of our lives by drunkards.— This wide-chapped rascal,-would thou mightst lie drowning The washing of ten tides ! 2 Gon. [Exit Boatswain.] 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!' brother!' 'We split, we split, we split !'— Ant. Let's all sink with the king. Seb. Let's take leave of him. 'Farewell, [Exit. [Exit. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, anything. 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. have Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel Who had no doubt some noble creature in her Dashed all to pieces. 0, the cry did knock 1 Merely.] Absolutely. 2 The washing of ten tides.] While ten tides ebb and flow. Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er It should the good ship so have swallowed, and Pro. Be collected; No more amazement: tell your piteous heart There's no harm done. Mira. Pro. O, woe the day! No harm. I have done nothing but in care of thee,- Mira. More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts. Pro. 'T is time I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand, [Lays down his mantle. Lie there my art.2-Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort. The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touched The very virtue of compassion in thee, I have with such provision in mine art So safely ordered, that there is no soul 4- Full.] An abbreviation of to the full = very. Lie there my art.] Fuller, in his Holy State, iv. 6, says of Lord Burleigh, 'At night, when he put off his gown, he used to say, Lie there, Lord Treasurer,' and bidding adieu to all State affairs, disposed himself to his quiet rest.' The very virtue.] The very soul, the inmost source. • There is no soul.] This uncompleted assertion is in natural keeping with Prospero's ardency. Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down; For thou must now know further. Mira. You have often Begun to tell me what I am; but stopped Concluding, Stay, not yet. Pro. The hour's now come; The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not Mira. Certainly, sir, I can. Pro. By what? by any other house or person? Of anything 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 If thou rememberest aught ere thou cam'st here, 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 Abysm.] Abyss. Old Fr. abisme. 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? Pro. Both, both, my girl. By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heaved thence; But blessedly holp hither. Mira. Without a parallel; those being all my study, And to my state grew stranger, being transported Mira. Sir, most heedfully. Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them, who to advance, and who To trash3 for over-topping-new created The teen, &c.] So in 3 K. Henry VI. v. 5, And all the trouble thou hast turned me to.' Teen is grief: the word occurs again in Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3, and in Romeo and Juliet, i. 3. 2 It was the first.] Botero, in his Relations of the World (revised edition, 1630), says, 'Milan claims to be the first duchy in Europe.' To trash.] To check. To trash a hound was to restrain him |