Which now's upon us; without the which, this story

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not

(So dear the love my people bore me) nor set;

A mark so bloody on the business; but

With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark;

Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepar'd
A rotten carcase of a butt,a not rigg'd,

Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively have quit it: there they hoist us,
To cry to the sea that roar'd to us; to sigh
To the winds, whose pity, sighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

Mira.

Alack! what trouble

O! a cherubim

Was I then to you!

Pro.

Thou wast that did preserve me! Thou didst smile,
Infused with a fortitude from heaven,

When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt;
Under my burthen groan'd; which rais'd in me
An undergoing stomach, to bear up

Against what should ensue.

Mira.

How came we ashore?

Pro. By Providence divine,"

Some food we had, and some fresh water, that

a Butt is the reading of the original copies. It is clear that we are not justified in adopting the modern substitution of boat. Whether the idea of a wine-butt was

literally meant to be conveyed may be questionable; but the word, as it stands in the original, gives us the notion of a vessel even more insecure than the most rotten boat. Mr. Hunter would adopt Butt, (which is the word of the first and second folios, and with a capital) upon "the great critical canon of the “Durior Lectio præferenda.” b Deck'd. In the glossary of the Craven dialect we find that to deg is to sprinkle. Ray, in his catalogue of north-country words, refers us from deg to leck, which is interpreted "pour on." We cannot certainly receive deck'd in the usual sense of adorned. Its other meaning of covered still gives us a forced idea.

To Miranda's question of "How came we ashore ?" the modern editors make Prospero answer " By Providence divine;" but his entire narrative is the answer.

A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,

Out of his charity (who being then appointed
Master of this design) did give us; with

Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries,
Which since have steaded much; so, of his gentleness,
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me,
From mine own library, with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.

Mira.

But ever see that man!

Pro.

'Would I might

Now I arise :

Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow.
Here in this island we arriv'd; and here
Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit
Than other princess can, that have more time
For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.

Mira. Heavens thank you for 't! And now, I pray you, sir,

(For still 't is beating in my mind,) your reason

For raising this sea-storm?

Know thus far forth.

Pro.
By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune,
Now my dear lady," hath mine enemies
Brought to this shore: and by my prescience
I find my zenith doth depend upon

A most auspicious star; whose influence
If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes

Will ever after droop.-Here cease more questions;
Thou art inclin'd to sleep; 't is a good dulness,
And give it way;-I know thou canst not choose.

[MIRANDA sleeps.

Come away, servant, come: I am ready now;
Approach, my Ariel; come.

Enter ARIEL.

Ari. All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come To answer thy best pleasure; be 't to fly,

a Princess. This is the reading of the original-" princesse."

b Now my dear lady. The antecedent is Fortune, now Prospero's bountiful lady.

To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride

On the curl'd clouds; to thy strong bidding task
Ariel, and all his quality.

Pro.

Hast thou, spirit,

Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee?
Ari. To every article.

I boarded the king's ship: now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flam'd amazement: Sometime I'd divide
And burn in many places; on the topmast,

The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet, and join: Jove's lightnings, the precursors
O'the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight-outrunning were not: The fire, and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune
Seem to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.

a

Pro.

My brave spirit! Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil

Would not infect his reason?

But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd

Some tricks of desperation: All but mariners
Plung'd in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel,
Then all a-fire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand,
With hair up-staring, (then like reeds, not hair,)
Was the first man that leap'd; cried, "Hell is empty,
And all the devils are here."

On their sustaining garments not a blemish,

But fresher than before: and, as thou bad'st me,

In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle:

a Seem. So the original-in modern editions seem'd. Mr. Hunter observes that Shakspere's intention to realize the scene, by making the past present, is thus defeated by the intermeddling of injudicious editors.

The king's son have I landed by himself;
Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs,
In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting,
His arms in this sad knot.

Pro.

Of the king's ship,

The mariners, say, how thou hast dispos'd,
And all the rest o' the fleet.

Ari.

Safely in harbour

Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid:
The mariners all under hatches stow'd;

Whom, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour,
I have left asleep and for the rest o' the fleet,
Which I dispers'd, they all have met again;
And are upon the Mediterranean flote,

Bound sadly home for Naples;

Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrack'd,
And his great person perish.

Pro.

Ariel, thy charge

Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work:

What is the time o' the day?

Ari.

Past the mid season.

Pro. At least two glasses: The time 'twixt six and now Must by us both be spent most preciously.

Ari. Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains, Let me remember thee what thou hast promis'd,

Which is not yet perform'd me.

Pro.

What is 't thou canst demand?

Ari.

How now? moody?

My liberty.

Pro. Before the time be out? no more.a

Ari.

I prithee
Remember, I have done thee worthy service;
Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, serv'd
Without or grudge, or grumblings: thou didst promise

To bate me a

full

year.

Pro.

Dost thou forget

From what a torment I did free thee?

Ari.

No.

Pro. Thou dost; and think'st it much to tread the ooze

Of the salt deep;

To run upon the sharp wind of the north;

To do me business in the veins o' the earth,
When it is bak'd with frost.

Pro. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou forgot
The foul witch Sycorax, who, with age and envy,

Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her?
Ari. No, sir.

Pro. Thou hast: Where was she born? speak; tell me.
Ari. Sir, in Argier.

Pro.

O, was she so? I must,

Once in a month, recount what thou hast been,

Which thou forgett'st. This damn'd witch, Sycorax,
For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible

To enter human hearing, from Argier,

Thou know'st, was banish'd; for one thing she did
They would not take her life: Is not this true?

Ari. Ay, sir.

Pro. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with child, And here was left by the sailors: Thou, my slave,

As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant:
And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate
To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands,
Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee,
By help of her more potent ministers,
And in her most unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprison'd, thou didst painfully remain

A dozen years, within which space she died,

And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy groans,

As fast as mill-wheels strike: Then was this island

(Save for the son that she did litter here,

A freckled whelp, hag-born) not honour'd with
A human shape.