The Tempest
Act V.
Scene 1. Before Prospero's cell.
- Enter Prospero in his magic robes, and Ariel
- Prospero: Now does my project gather to a head:
- My charms crack not; my spirits obey; and time
- Goes upright with his carriage. How's the day?
- Ariel: On the sixth hour; at which time, my lord,
- You said our work should cease.
- Prospero: I did say so,
- When first I raised the tempest. Say, my spirit,
- How fares the king and's followers?
- Ariel: Confined together
- In the same fashion as you gave in charge,
- Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir,
- In the line-grove which weather-fends your cell;
- They cannot budge till your release. The king,
- His brother and yours, abide all three distracted
- And the remainder mourning over them,
- Brimful of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly
- Him that you term'd, sir, 'The good old lord Gonzalo;'
- His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops
- From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works 'em
- That if you now beheld them, your affections
- Would become tender.
- Prospero: Dost thou think so, spirit?
- Ariel: Mine would, sir, were I human.
- Prospero: And mine shall.
- Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
- Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,
- One of their kind, that relish all as sharply,
- Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art?
- Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,
- Yet with my nobler reason 'gaitist my fury
- Do I take part: the rarer action is
- In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent,
- The sole drift of my purpose doth extend
- Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel:
- My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore,
- And they shall be themselves.
- Ariel: I'll fetch them, sir.
- Exit
- Prospero: Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
- And ye that on the sands with printless foot
- Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
- When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
- By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
- Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime
- Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
- To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
- Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
- The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
- And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
- Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
- Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak
- With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
- Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up
- The pine and cedar: graves at my command
- Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth
- By my so potent art. But this rough magic
- I here abjure, and, when I have required
- Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
- To work mine end upon their senses that
- This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
- Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
- And deeper than did ever plummet sound
- I'll drown my book.
- Solemn music
- Re-enter Ariel before: then Alonso, with a frantic gesture, attended by Gonzalo; Sebastian and Antonio in like manner, attended by Adrian and Francisco they all enter the circle which Prospero had made, and there stand charmed; which Prospero observing, speaks:
- 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
- Must know and own; this thing of darkness!
- 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 found 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.
- Spoken By 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.
- --oOo-- -