The Tempest - Act I

SCENE I. On a ship at sea: a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.

Enter a Master and a Boatswain

You mar our labour: keep your cabins: you do assist the storm.

You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap.

You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap.

I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows.

I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows.

A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather or our office.

A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!

Hang, cur! hang, you whoreson, insolent noisemaker!

And gape at widest to glut him.

Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any thing.

Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.

With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel,

No more amazement: tell your piteous heart

Of whence I am, nor that I am more better

Did never meddle with my thoughts.

And pluck my magic garment from me.

No, not so much perdition as an hair

And left me to a bootless inquisition,

Obey and be attentive.

Was Duke of Milan; and thou his only heir

Be so perfidious!--he whom next thyself

In dignity, and for the liberal arts

And rapt in secret studies.

Being once perfected how to grant suits,

And suck'd my verdure out on't.

I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated

With that which, but by being so retired,

Like a good parent, did beget of him

A falsehood in its contrary as great

Not only with what my revenue yielded,

Not only with what my revenue yielded,

With all prerogative: hence his ambition growing--

So dry he was for sway--wi' the King of Naples

To give him annual tribute, do him homage,

To most ignoble stooping.

To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit;

To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit;

Should presently extirpate me and mine

Out of the dukedom and confer fair Milan

A treacherous army levied, one midnight

The ministers for the purpose hurried thence

Were most impertinent.

Wherefore did they not

So dear the love my people bore me, nor set

Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepared

A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd,

O, a cherubim

Infused with a fortitude from heaven,

Infused with a fortitude from heaven,

Against what should ensue.

By Providence divine.

Resumes his mantle

For vainer hours and tutors not so careful.

By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune,

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

Here cease more questions:

Thou art inclined to sleep; 'tis a good dulness,

All hail, great master! grave sir, hail!

All hail, great master! grave sir, hail!

Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee?

Jove's lightnings, the precursors

Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble,

Yea, his dread trident shake.

Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel,

On their sustaining garments not a blemish,

From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid:

Who, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour,

Is there more toil?

My liberty.

From what a torment I did free thee?

Thou liest, malignant thing!

For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible

By help of her more potent ministers

And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy groans

Save for the son that she did litter here,

A freckled whelp hag-born--not honour'd with

Did make wolves howl and penetrate the breasts

If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak

And peg thee in his knotty entrails till

Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea: be subject

And hither come in't: go, hence with diligence!

My quaint Ariel,

Hark in thine ear.

Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins

The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile:

In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate

Abhorred slave,

A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes

A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes

Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou

Shrug'st thou, malice?

It would control my dam's god, Setebos, and make a vassal of him.

This gallant which thou seest

With grief that's beauty's canker, thou mightst call him

Vouchsafe my prayer

Who with mine eyes, never since at ebb, beheld

And his brave son being twain.

That thou attend me: thou dost here usurp

Good things will strive to dwell with't.

I'll manacle thy neck and feet together:

The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots and husks

Beseech you, father.

Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee.

An advocate for an imposter! hush!

An advocate for an imposter! hush!

Than he appears by speech: this is unwonted