TEMPEST. ACT I, SCENE I. On a Ship at Sea. A Storm, with Thunder and Lightning. Enter a Shipmaster and a Boatswain. BOATSWAIN, Master. Boats. Here, master: what cheer? Mast. Good: Speak to the mariners: fall to't yarely1, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir. Enter Mariners. [Exit. Boats. Heigh, my hearts; cheerly, cheerly, my hearts; yare, yare: Take in the top-sail; Tend to the master's whistle.-Blow till thou burst thy wind, if room enough! Enter ALONZO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO, and others. Alon. Good Boatswain, have care, Where's the master? Play the men2. 1 That is, readily, nimbly. 2 That is, act with spirit, behave like men. Thus Baret in his Alvearie: "To play the man, or to show himself a valiant man in any matter. Se virum præbere." P. 399. "Viceroys and peers of Turkey play the men." Tamberlaine, 1590. Boats. I pray now, keep below. Ant. Where is the master, boatswain? Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour! keep your cabins: you do assist the storm. Gon. Nay, good, be patient. Boats. When the sea is. Hence! What care these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence: trouble us not. Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard. Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present 3, 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.-Cheerly, good hearts.-Out of our way, I say. [Exit. Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks, he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good fate, to his hanging! make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage! If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable. [Exeunt. Re-enter Boatswain. Boats. Down with the top-mast; yare; lower, lower; bring her to try with main course1. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather, or our office. 3 The present instant. 4 In Smith's Sea Grammar, 1627, 4to. under the article How to handle a Ship in a Storme :-" Let us lie as Trie with our main course; that is, to hale the tacke aboord, the sheat close aft, the boling set up, and the helm tied close aboord." Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO. Yet again! what do you here? Shall we give o'er, and drown? Have you a mind to sink? Seb. A pox o' your throat! you bawling, blasphemous, uncharitable dog! Boats. Work you, then. Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent noise-maker, we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art. Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nut-shell, and as leaky as an unstanched 5 wench. Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; set her two courses; off to sea again, lay her off. Enter Mariners, wet. Mar. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost! Boats. What, must our mouths be cold? [Exeunt. Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let us as sist them, For our case is as theirs. Seb. I am out of patience. 7 Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards. This wide-chapped rascal;-'Would, thou might'st lie drowning, The washing of ten tides! 5 Mr. Stevens says incontinent, but the meaning is evident. In Beaumont and Fletcher's Mad Lover, Chilas says to the frightened priestess: Down, you dog, then; Be quiet and be staunch too, no inundations. 6 The courses are the main sail and fore sail. To lay a ship ahold, is to bring her to lie as near the wind as she can, in order to keep clear of the land and get her out to sea. 7 Merely, absolutely, entirely; Merè, Lat. Gon. He'll be hanged yet; Though every drop of water swear against it, [A confused Noise within.] Mercy on us!-We split, Seb. Let's take leave of him. [Exit. [Exit. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground; long 9 heath, brown furze, any thing: The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. SCENE II. The Island: before the Cell of Prospero. Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA. Mira. If by your art, my [Exit. dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them: The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel, Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er1 8 To englut, to swallow him. 9 Instead of long heath, brown furze, &c. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads-ling, heath, broom, furze, &c. and I have no doubt rightly. 1 i. e. or ever, ere ever; signifying, in modern English, sooner than at any time. Or is a contraction of ere, aen, Sax. prius, antequam, priusquam; ever, from aerɲe, aliquando, unquam. 2 Instead of freighting the first folio reads fraughting. I have done nothing but in care of thee, Mira. 4 poor cell, More to know "Tis time Did never meddle with my thoughts. Pro. I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand, comfort. The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd down; which thou saw'st sink. Sit For thou must now know further. Mira. You have often Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd, Concluding, Stay, not yet. 3 The double superlative is in frequent use among our elder writers. say 4 To meddle, is to mix, or interfere with. 5 Lord Burleigh, when he put off his gown at night, used to "Lie there, Lord Treasurer."-Fuller's Holy State, p. 257. VOL. I. C |