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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; 'tis a good dulness,
And give it way;-I know thou canst not choose.-

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

Enter ARIEL.

(Miranda sleeps.)

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

To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride

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

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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. Sometimes, I'd divide,
And burn in many places; on the top-mast,
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 out-running were not: the fire and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune
Seemed to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble;
Yea, his dread trident shake.

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But felt a fever of the mind, 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.

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

Whom, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labor,
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 wreck'd,
And his great person perish.

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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 performed me.

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Remember, I have done thee worthy service;

Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, serv'd

Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst promise
To bate me a full year.

Pro.

Dost thou forget

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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 forget'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?

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

As thou report'st thyself, was 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 which she did litter here,

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

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Pro. Dull thing, I say so,-he, that Caliban,
Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st
What torments I did find thee in; thy groans
Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts
Of ever angry bears: it was a torment
To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax
Could not again undo; it was mine art,
When I arriv'd, and heard thee, that made gape
The pine and let thee out.

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

And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till

Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.

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What shall I do? say? what shall I do?

Pro. Go make thyself like to a nymph o' the sea;
Be subject to no sight but mine; invisible

To every eyeball else. Go, take this shape,
And hither come in 't: hence with diligence.

(Exit Ariel.)

Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well:
Awake!

Mira. The strangeness of your story put
Heaviness in me.

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We cannot miss him; he does make our fire,

Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices

That profit us. What ho! slave! Caliban !

Thou earth thou! speak.

Cali. (within.)-There's wood enough within.

Pro. Come forth, I say: there's other business for thee: Come forth, thou tortoise! when?

Re-enter ARIEL, like a water-nymph.

Fine apparition! my quaint Ariel!

Hark in thine ear.

Ari. My lord, it shall be done.

(Exit.)

Pro. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!

Enter CALIBAN.

Cali. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholesome fen

Drop on you both! a south-west blow on ye,

And blister you all o'er!

Pro. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps, Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins

Shall, for that vast of night that they may work,
All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch'd

As thick as honey-combs, each pinch more stinging
Than bees that made them.

Cali.

I must eat my dinner!

This island's mine, by Sycorax, my mother,

Which thou tak'st from me. When thou camest first,

Thou strok'dst me, and mad'st much of me; would'st give me Water with berries in 't; and teach me how

To name the bigger light, and how the less

That burn by day and night: and then I lov'd thee,

And show'd thee all the qualities o' the isle,

The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place, and fertile ;
Cursèd be I that did so! All the charms

Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!

For I am all the subjects that you have,

Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me

The rest of the island.

Pro.

Thou most lying slave,

Whom stripes may move, not kindness,-I have us'd thee,

Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodg'd thee

In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate

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Which any print of goodness will not take,

Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,

Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour

One thing or other; when thou didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble, like

A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes

With words that made them known: but thy vile race, Though thou didst learn, had that in 't which good natures Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou

Deservedly confin'd into this rock,

Who hadst deserv'd more than a prison.

Cali. You taught me language; and my profit on 't Is, I know how to curse: the red plague rid you,

For learning me your language!

Pro.

Hag-seed, hence!

Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou wert best,
To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice?
If thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly

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