The Tempest - William Shakespeare (best book recommendations TXT) 📗

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 gods,
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 moe 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 I
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’d 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