My true preserver and a loyal sir
To him thou follow’st, I will pay thy graces
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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 pinched for’t now, Sebastian! – Flesh and blood,
You, brother mine, that entertained ambition,
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Expelled remorse and nature, whom with Sebastian
(Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong)
Would here have killed your king, I do forgive thee,
Unnatural though thou art. [aside] Their understanding
Begins to swell, and the approaching tide
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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;
Exit Ariel and returns immediately.
I will discase me and myself present
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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.
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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,
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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,
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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
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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
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A hearty welcome.
ALONSO Whe’er thou be’st 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,
Th’affliction of my mind amends, with which
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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?
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PROSPERO [to Gonzalo] 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 subtleties o’th’ isle that will not let you
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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 The devil speaks in him.
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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,
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Give us particulars of thy preservation,
How thou hast met us here, whom three hours since
Were wrecked 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.
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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?
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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,
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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
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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 jostled from your senses, know for certain
That I am Prospero and that very duke
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Which was thrust forth of Milan, who most strangely
Upon this shore where you were wrecked, 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
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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,
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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 dearest love,
I would not for the world.
MIRANDA
Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle,
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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 [Sees Alonso and the others.]
Though the seas threaten, they are merciful.
I have cursed them without cause. [Kneels.]
ALONSO Now all the blessings
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Of a glad father compass thee about!
Arise and say how thou cam’st 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.
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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 severed us
And br
ought us thus together?
FERDINAND Sir, she is mortal,
But by immortal providence she’s mine;
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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
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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 burden our remembrances with
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A heaviness that’s gone.
GONZALO I have inly wept,
Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you gods,
And on this couple drop a blessed crown,
For it is you that have chalked forth the way
Which brought us hither.
ALONSO I say ‘amen’, Gonzalo.
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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;
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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
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That doth not wish you joy.
GONZALO Be it so; amen.
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. [to Boatswain] Now, blasphemy,
That swear’st grace o’erboard, not an oath on shore?
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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 rigged as when
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We first put out to sea.
ARIEL [to Prospero] Sir, all this service
Have I done since I went.
PROSPERO 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,
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I’d strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep
And – how we know not – all clapped under hatches,
Where but even now with strange and several noises
Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains
And more diversity of sounds, all horrible,
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We were awaked; straightway at liberty,
Where we, in all our trim, freshly beheld
Our royal, good and gallant ship; our master
Cap’ring to eye her. On a trice, so please you,
Even in a dream, were we divided from them
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And were brought moping hither.
ARIEL [to Prospero] Was’t well done?
PROSPERO 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
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Must rectify our knowledge.
PROSPERO Sir, my liege,
Do not infest your mind with beating on
The strangeness of this business. At picked leisure,
Which shall be shortly, single I’ll resolve you
(Which to you shall seem probable) of every
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These happened 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.
[to Alonso] How fares my gracious sir?
There are yet missing of your company
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Some few odd lads that you remember not.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 479
