Tempest by William Shakespeare

Act 5 - Scene 1

Before PROSPERO’S cell.

Prospero : Now does my project gather to a head: [p]My charms crack not; my
spirits obey; and time [p]Goes upright with his carriage. How's the
day?

Ariel : On the sixth hour; at which time, my lord, [p]You said our work should
cease.

Prospero : I did say so, [p]When first I raised the tempest. Say, my
spirit, [p]How fares the king and's followers?

Ariel : Confined together [p]In the same fashion as you gave in
charge, [p]Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir, [p]In the
line-grove which weather-fends your cell; [p]They cannot budge till
your release. The king, [p]His brother and yours, abide all three
distracted [p]And the remainder mourning over them, [p]Brimful of
sorrow and dismay; but chiefly [p]Him that you term'd, sir, 'The good
old lord Gonzalo;' [p]His tears run down his beard, like winter's
drops [p]From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works 'em [p]That
if you now beheld them, your affections [p]Would become tender.

Prospero : Dost thou think so, spirit?

Ariel : Mine would, sir, were I human.

Prospero : And mine shall. [p]Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a
feeling [p]Of their afflictions, and shall not myself, [p]One of their
kind, that relish all as sharply, [p]Passion as they, be kindlier
moved than thou art? [p]Though with their high wrongs I am struck to
the quick, [p]Yet with my nobler reason 'gaitist my fury [p]Do I take
part: the rarer action is [p]In virtue than in vengeance: they being
penitent, [p]The sole drift of my purpose doth extend [p]Not a frown
further. Go release them, Ariel: [p]My charms I'll break, their senses
I'll restore, [p]And they shall be themselves.

Ariel : I'll fetch them, sir.

Prospero : Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves, [p]And ye that
on the sands with printless foot [p]Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do
fly him [p]When he comes back; you demi-puppets that [p]By moonshine
do the green sour ringlets make, [p]Whereof the ewe not bites, and you
whose pastime [p]Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice [p]To
hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid, [p]Weak masters though ye be, I
have bedimm'd [p]The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous
winds, [p]And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault [p]Set roaring
war: to the dread rattling thunder [p]Have I given fire and rifted
Jove's stout oak [p]With his own bolt; the strong-based
promontory [p]Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up [p]The
pine and cedar: graves at my command [p]Have waked their sleepers,
oped, and let 'em forth [p]By my so potent art. But this rough
magic [p]I here abjure, and, when I have required [p]Some heavenly
music, which even now I do, [p]To work mine end upon their senses
that [p]This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff, [p]Bury it
certain fathoms in the earth, [p]And deeper than did ever plummet
sound [p]I'll drown my book. [p][Solemn music] [p][Re-enter ARIEL
before: then ALONSO, with a] [p]frantic gesture, attended by
GONZALO; [p]SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO in like manner, [p]attended by
ADRIAN and FRANCISCO they all [p]enter the circle which PROSPERO had
made, [p]and there stand charmed; which PROSPERO [p]observing,
speaks:] [p]A solemn air and the best comforter [p]To an unsettled
fancy cure thy brains, [p]Now useless, boil'd within thy skull! There
stand, [p]For you are spell-stopp'd. [p]Holy Gonzalo, honourable
man, [p]Mine eyes, even sociable to the show of thine, [p]Fall
fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace, [p]And as the morning
steals upon the night, [p]Melting the darkness, so their rising
senses [p]Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle [p]Their
clearer reason. O good Gonzalo, [p]My true preserver, and a loyal
sir [p]To him you follow'st! I will pay thy graces [p]Home both in
word and deed. Most cruelly [p]Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my
daughter: [p]Thy brother was a furtherer in the act. [p]Thou art
pinch'd fort now, Sebastian. Flesh and blood, [p]You, brother mine,
that entertain'd ambition, [p]Expell'd remorse and nature; who, with
Sebastian, [p]Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong, [p]Would
here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee, [p]Unnatural though
thou art. Their understanding [p]Begins to swell, and the approaching
tide [p]Will shortly fill the reasonable shore [p]That now lies foul
and muddy. Not one of them [p]That yet looks on me, or would know me
Ariel, [p]Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell: [p]I will discase
me, and myself present [p]As I was sometime Milan: quickly,
spirit; [p]Thou shalt ere long be free. [p][ARIEL sings and helps to
attire him] [p]Where the bee sucks. there suck I: [p]In a cowslip's
bell I lie; [p]There I couch when owls do cry. [p]On the bat's back I
do fly [p]After summer merrily. [p]Merrily, merrily shall I live
now [p]Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

Prospero : Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee: [p]But yet thou shalt
have freedom: so, so, so. [p]To the king's ship, invisible as thou
art: [p]There shalt thou find the mariners asleep [p]Under the
hatches; the master and the boatswain [p]Being awake, enforce them to
this place, [p]And presently, I prithee.

Ariel : I drink the air before me, and return [p]Or ere your pulse twice
beat.

Gonzalo : All torment, trouble, wonder and amazement [p]Inhabits here: some
heavenly power guide us [p]Out of this fearful country!

Prospero : Behold, sir king, [p]The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero: [p]For more
assurance that a living prince [p]Does now speak to thee, I embrace
thy body; [p]And to thee and thy company I bid [p]A hearty welcome.

Alonso : Whether thou best he or no, [p]Or some enchanted trifle to abuse
me, [p]As late I have been, I not know: thy pulse [p]Beats as of flesh
and blood; and, since I saw thee, [p]The affliction of my mind amends,
with which, [p]I fear, a madness held me: this must crave, [p]An if
this be at all, a most strange story. [p]Thy dukedom I resign and do
entreat [p]Thou pardon me my wrongs. But how should Prospero [p]Be
living and be here?

Prospero : First, noble friend, [p]Let me embrace thine age, whose honour
cannot [p]Be measured or confined.

Gonzalo : Whether this be [p]Or be not, I'll not swear.

Prospero : You do yet taste [p]Some subtilties o' the isle, that will not let
you [p]Believe things certain. Welcome, my friends all! [p][Aside to
SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO] [p]But you, my brace of lords, were I so
minded, [p]I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you [p]And
justify you traitors: at this time [p]I will tell no tales.

Sebastian : [Aside] The devil speaks in him.

Prospero : No. [p]For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother [p]Would even
infect my mouth, I do forgive [p]Thy rankest fault; all of them; and
require [p]My dukedom of thee, which perforce, I know, [p]Thou must
restore.

Alonso : If thou be'st Prospero, [p]Give us particulars of thy
preservation; [p]How thou hast met us here, who three hours
since [p]Were wreck'd upon this shore; where I have lost-- [p]How
sharp the point of this remembrance is!-- [p]My dear son Ferdinand.

Prospero : I am woe for't, sir.

Alonso : Irreparable is the loss, and patience [p]Says it is past her cure.

Prospero : I rather think [p]You have not sought her help, of whose soft
grace [p]For the like loss I have her sovereign aid [p]And rest myself
content.

Alonso : You the like loss!

Prospero : As great to me as late; and, supportable [p]To make the dear loss,
have I means much weaker [p]Than you may call to comfort you, for
I [p]Have lost my daughter.

Alonso : A daughter? [p]O heavens, that they were living both in Naples, [p]The
king and queen there! that they were, I wish [p]Myself were mudded in
that oozy bed [p]Where my son lies. When did you lose your daughter?

Prospero : In this last tempest. I perceive these lords [p]At this encounter do
so much admire [p]That they devour their reason and scarce
think [p]Their eyes do offices of truth, their words [p]Are natural
breath: but, howsoe'er you have [p]Been justled from your senses, know
for certain [p]That I am Prospero and that very duke [p]Which was
thrust forth of Milan, who most strangely [p]Upon this shore, where
you were wreck'd, was landed, [p]To be the lord on't. No more yet of
this; [p]For 'tis a chronicle of day by day, [p]Not a relation for a
breakfast nor [p]Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir; [p]This
cell's my court: here have I few attendants [p]And subjects none
abroad: pray you, look in. [p]My dukedom since you have given me
again, [p]I will requite you with as good a thing; [p]At least bring
forth a wonder, to content ye [p]As much as me my dukedom. [p][Here
PROSPERO discovers FERDINAND and MIRANDA] [p]playing at chess]

Miranda : Sweet lord, you play me false.

Ferdinand : No, my dear'st love, [p]I would not for the world.

Miranda : Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle, [p]And I would call
it, fair play.

Alonso : If this prove [p]A vision of the Island, one dear son [p]Shall I twice
lose.

Sebastian : A most high miracle!

Ferdinand : Though the seas threaten, they are merciful; [p]I have cursed them
without cause.

Alonso : Now all the blessings [p]Of a glad father compass thee
about! [p]Arise, and say how thou camest here.

Miranda : O, wonder! [p]How many goodly creatures are there here! [p]How
beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, [p]That has such people
in't!

Prospero : 'Tis new to thee.

Alonso : What is this maid with whom thou wast at play? [p]Your eld'st
acquaintance cannot be three hours: [p]Is she the goddess that hath
sever'd us, [p]And brought us thus together?

Ferdinand : Sir, she is mortal; [p]But by immortal Providence she's mine: [p]I
chose her when I could not ask my father [p]For his advice, nor
thought I had one. She [p]Is daughter to this famous Duke of
Milan, [p]Of whom so often I have heard renown, [p]But never saw
before; of whom I have [p]Received a second life; and second
father [p]This lady makes him to me.

Alonso : I am hers: [p]But, O, how oddly will it sound that I [p]Must ask my
child forgiveness!

Prospero : There, sir, stop: [p]Let us not burthen our remembrance with [p]A
heaviness that's gone.

Gonzalo : I have inly wept, [p]Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you
god, [p]And on this couple drop a blessed crown! [p]For it is you that
have chalk'd forth the way [p]Which brought us hither.

Alonso : I say, Amen, Gonzalo!

Gonzalo : Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue [p]Should become kings of
Naples? O, rejoice [p]Beyond a common joy, and set it down [p]With
gold on lasting pillars: In one voyage [p]Did Claribel her husband
find at Tunis, [p]And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife [p]Where he
himself was lost, Prospero his dukedom [p]In a poor isle and all of us
ourselves [p]When no man was his own.

Alonso : [To FERDINAND and MIRANDA] Give me your hands: [p]Let grief and sorrow
still embrace his heart [p]That doth not wish you joy!

Gonzalo : Be it so! Amen! [p][Re-enter ARIEL, with the Master and
Boatswain] [p]amazedly following] [p]O, look, sir, look, sir! here is
more of us: [p]I prophesied, if a gallows were on land, [p]This fellow
could not drown. Now, blasphemy, [p]That swear'st grace o'erboard, not
an oath on shore? [p]Hast thou no mouth by land? What is the news?

Boatswain : The best news is, that we have safely found [p]Our king and company;
the next, our ship-- [p]Which, but three glasses since, we gave out
split-- [p]Is tight and yare and bravely rigg'd as when [p]We first
put out to sea.

Ariel : [Aside to PROSPERO] Sir, all this service [p]Have I done since I
went.

Prospero : [Aside to ARIEL] My tricksy spirit!

Alonso : These are not natural events; they strengthen [p]From strange to
stranger. Say, how came you hither?

Boatswain : If I did think, sir, I were well awake, [p]I'ld strive to tell you. We
were dead of sleep, [p]And--how we know not--all clapp'd under
hatches; [p]Where but even now with strange and several noises [p]Of
roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains, [p]And more diversity of
sounds, all horrible, [p]We were awaked; straightway, at
liberty; [p]Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld [p]Our royal,
good and gallant ship, our master [p]Capering to eye her: on a trice,
so please you, [p]Even in a dream, were we divided from them [p]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 [p]And there is in this
business more than nature [p]Was ever conduct of: some oracle [p]Must
rectify our knowledge.

Prospero : Sir, my liege, [p]Do not infest your mind with beating on [p]The
strangeness of this business; at pick'd leisure [p]Which shall be
shortly, single I'll resolve you, [p]Which to you shall seem probable,
of every [p]These happen'd accidents; till when, be cheerful [p]And
think of each thing well. [p][Aside to ARIEL] [p]Come hither,
spirit: [p]Set Caliban and his companions free; [p]Untie the
spell. [p][Exit ARIEL] [p]How fares my gracious sir? [p]There are yet
missing of your company [p]Some few odd lads that you remember
not. [p][Re-enter ARIEL, driving in CALIBAN, STEPHANO] [p]and
TRINCULO, in their stolen apparel]

Stephano : Every man shift for all the rest, and [p]let no man take care for
himself; for all is [p]but fortune. Coragio, bully-monster, coragio!

Trinculo : If these be true spies which I wear in my head, [p]here's a goodly
sight.

Caliban : O Setebos, these be brave spirits indeed! [p]How fine my master is! I
am afraid [p]He will chastise me.

Sebastian : Ha, ha! [p]What things are these, my lord Antonio? [p]Will money buy
'em?

Antonio : Very like; one of them [p]Is a plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable.

Prospero : Mark but the badges of these men, my lords, [p]Then say if they be
true. This mis-shapen knave, [p]His mother was a witch, and one so
strong [p]That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs, [p]And
deal in her command without her power. [p]These three have robb'd me;
and this demi-devil-- [p]For he's a bastard one--had plotted with
them [p]To take my life. Two of these fellows you [p]Must know and
own; this thing of darkness! [p]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 [p]Find this grand
liquor that hath gilded 'em? [p]How camest thou in this pickle?

Trinculo : I have been in such a pickle since I [p]saw you last that, I fear me,
will never out of [p]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.

Prospero : He is as disproportion'd in his manners [p]As in his shape. Go,
sirrah, to my cell; [p]Take with you your companions; as you
look [p]To have my pardon, trim it handsomely.

Caliban : Ay, that I will; and I'll be wise hereafter [p]And seek for grace.
What a thrice-double ass [p]Was I, to take this drunkard for a
god [p]And worship this dull fool!

Prospero : Go to; away!

Alonso : Hence, and bestow your luggage where you found it.

Sebastian : Or stole it, rather.

Prospero : Sir, I invite your highness and your train [p]To my poor cell, where
you shall take your rest [p]For this one night; which, part of it,
I'll waste [p]With such discourse as, I not doubt, shall make it [p]Go
quick away; the story of my life [p]And the particular accidents gone
by [p]Since I came to this isle: and in the morn [p]I'll bring you to
your ship and so to Naples, [p]Where I have hope to see the
nuptial [p]Of these our dear-beloved solemnized; [p]And thence retire
me to my Milan, where [p]Every third thought shall be my grave.

Alonso : I long [p]To hear the story of your life, which must [p]Take the ear
strangely.

Prospero : I'll deliver all; [p]And promise you calm seas, auspicious
gales [p]And sail so expeditious that shall catch [p]Your royal fleet
far off. [p][Aside to ARIEL] [p]My Ariel, chick, [p]That is thy
charge: then to the elements [p]Be free, and fare thou well! Please
you, draw near. [p][Exeunt] [p]EPILOGUE

Prospero : Now my charms are all o'erthrown, [p]And what strength I have's mine
own, [p]Which is most faint: now, 'tis true, [p]I must be here
confined by you, [p]Or sent to Naples. Let me not, [p]Since I have my
dukedom got [p]And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell [p]In this bare island
by your spell; [p]But release me from my bands [p]With the help of
your good hands: [p]Gentle breath of yours my sails [p]Must fill, or
else my project fails, [p]Which was to please. Now I want [p]Spirits
to enforce, art to enchant, [p]And my ending is despair, [p]Unless I
be relieved by prayer, [p]Which pierces so that it assaults [p]Mercy
itself and frees all faults. [p]As you from crimes would pardon'd
be, [p]Let your indulgence set me free.

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Next: Act 5 - Scene 1

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