TEMPEST. ACT I On a Ship at Sea. SCENE I. A tempestuous noife of thunder and lightning heard: Enter a Ship-mafter, and a Boatswain'. MASTER. B Oatfwain, Boats. Here, Mafter: what cheer? Maft. Good, fpeak to th' mariners.-Fall to't yarely, or we run ourselves aground; beftir, beftir. The Tempeft.] These two firft Plays, the Tempel and the Midfummer-night's Dream, are the nobleft Efforts of that fublime and amazing Imagination, peculiar to Shakespear, which foars above the Bounds of Nature with out forfaking Senfe or, more properly, carries Nature along with him beyond her established Limits. Fletcher feems particularly to have admired these two Plays, and hath wrote two in lmitation of them, the Sea-Voyage and the Faithful Shepherdess. But when he prefumes to break a Lance with Shakespear, and write in emulation of him, as he does B 1 Enter Mariners. Boat. Hey, my hearts; cheerly, my hearts; yare, yare; take in the top-fail; tend to th' mafter's whistle; blow, 'till thou burft thy wind, if room 2 enough. Enter Alonfo, Sebaftian, Anthonio, Ferdinand, Alon. Good Boatswain, have care: where's the mafter! play the men. Boats. I pray now, keep below. Ant. Where is the mafter, Boatswain ? Boatf. Do you not hear him? you mar our labour; keep your cabins: you do affift the storm. Gon. Nay, good, be patient. Boats. When the fea is. Hence what care these Roarers for the name of King? to cabin; filence, trouble us not. Gon. Good, yet remember whom thou haft aboard. Boatf. None, that I more love than myfelf. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to filence, and work the peace o'the prefent, we will not handle a rope more; ufe your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have lived fo long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mifchance of the hour, if it fo hap. Cheerly, good hearts. of our way, I fay. Out [Exit. 3 Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow; methinks he has no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand faft, good fate, to his hanging; make the rope 2 Perhaps it might be read, Blow till thou burst, wind, if room enough. 3 It may be obferved of Gonkal, that, being the only good of his destiny our ca Man that appears with the King, he is the only Man that preferves his Cheerfulness in the Wreck, and his Hope on the Island. ble, ble, for our own doth little advantage; if he be not born to be hanged, our cafe is miferable. Re-enter Boatswain. [Exeunt. Boats. Down with the top-mast: yare, lower, lower; bring her to try with main-course. A with main-course. A cry within. A plague upon this howling! Re-enter Sebaftian, Anthonio, and Gonzalo. they are louder than the weather, or our office. Yet again? what do you here? fhall we give o'er, and drown? have you a mind to fink? Sebaf. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blafphemous, uncharitable dog. Boats. Work you then. Ant. Hang, cur, hang; you whorefon, infolent, noifemaker; we are lefs afraid to be drown'd, than thou art. Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning, tho' the fhip were no ftonger than a nut-fhell, and as leaky as an unftanched wench. Boatf. Lay her a-hold, a hold; fet her two 4 courfes off to fea again, lay her off. Enter Mariners wet. Mar. All loft! to prayers, to prayers! all loft! [Exeunt. Boatf. What, muft our mouths be cold? 'em. For our cafe is as theirs. Seb. I'm out of patience. [kards. Ant. We're merely cheated of our lives by drunThis wide-chopt rascal-'Would, thou might'st lye The washing of ten tides! Gon. He'll be hang'd yet, Though every drop of water fwear against it, [A confufed noife within.] Mercy on us! We fplit, we fplit! Farewel, my Wife and Children! 6 Brother, farewel! we fplit, we fplit, we split! Ant. Let's all fink with the King. Seb. Let's take leave of him. [Exit. [Exit. Gen. Now would I give a thoufand furlongs of fea for an acre of barren ground, 7 long heath, brown farze, any thing. The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death! [Exit. SCENE II. Changes to a Part of the Inchanted Island, near the Cell of Profpero, Mira. Enter Profpero and Miranda. IF by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them: The fky, it feems, would pour down ftinking pitch, 5 - to glut him,] Shakepeare probably wrote, t'englut hm, to allow him; for which I know not that glut is ever ufed by him. In this Signification en glut, from engloutir, French, occurs frequently, as in Henry VI. -Thou art fo near the Gulf Thou needs must be englutted. And again in Timon, and Othello. Yet Milton writes glutted Offal for Swallowed, and therefore perhaps the prefent Text may stand. Brother, farewel!] As Gon zalo had no Brother in the Ship, this Line fhould, I think, be given to Alonfo the King, taking leave of his Brother Sebastian, to which the next Lines make the natural Anfwer, Gon zalo had indeed no Wife and Children there, but that Exclamation is the general cry in Wrecks. Brother is ufelefs,, unless fome Brother had been afterwards mentioned. 7 long heath.] This is the common name for the erica baccifera, WARBURTON, But But that the fea, mounting to th'welkin's cheek, With thofe that I faw fuffer: a brave veffel Pro. Be collected; No more amazement; tell your piteous heart, Mira. O wo the day! 8 Pro. No harm. I have done nothing but in care of thee, Mira. More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts. I fhould inform thee further. Lend thy hand, [Lays down his mantle. Lye there my Art. Wipe thou thine eyes, have com fort. 8 Profp. No harm.] I know not whether Shakespeare did not make Miranda fpeak thus, Owo the Day! no harm? I have done nothing but in care of thee. Miranda when he speaks the Words, Owo the Day, fuppofes, not that the Crew had escaped, but that her Father thought dif To which Profpero properly an- ferently from her, and counted fwers, their Deftruction no harm. |