With those that I faw fuffer! a brave vessel, Have funk the sea within the earth, or e'er It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and PRO. Be collected; No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, MIRA. O, woe the day! PRO. No harm. I have done nothing but in care of thee, (Of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!) whơ Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing Of whence I am; nor that I am more better Than Profpero, mafter of a full And thy no greater father. MIRA. More to know poor cell, Did never meddle with my thoughts. I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand, Lie there my art. [Lays down his mantle. Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd Which thou heard 'ft cry, which thou faw'ft fink. Sit down; For thou must now know further. MIRA. You have often Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd PRO. The hour's now come; The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; I do not think thou can'ft; for then thou waft not years old. MIRA. Certainly, fir, I can, PRO. By what? by any other house, or person? Hath kept with thy remembrance, And rather like a dream, than an assurance Four or five women once, that 'tended me? PRO, Thou had'st, and more, Miranda: But how is it, That this lives in thy mind? What feeft thou elfe In the dark backward and abysm of time? If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'ft here,' MIRA. But that I do not, PRO. Twelve years fince, Miranda, twelve years since, Thy father was the duke of Milan, and A prince of power, MIRA. Sir, are not you my father? PRO. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She faid-thou waft my daughter; and thy father Was duke of Milan; and his only heir A princess;-no worse issued. MIRA. O the heavens ! What foul play hàd we, that we came from thence ? Or bleffed was't, we did? PRO. Both, both, my girl: By foul play, as thou fay'st, were we heav'd thence ; I MIRA. O, my heart bleeds pray To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to,' Without a parallel; thofe being all my ftudy, The government I caft And to my state grew ftranger, being transported, MIRA. Sir, moft heedfully. PRO. Being once perfected how to grant fuits, How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom To trash for over-topping; new created The creatures that were mine; I fay, or chang'd them, Or elfe new-form'd them: having both the key Of officer and office, fet all hearts To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk, And fuck'd my verdure out on't.-Thou attend'st not: I pray thee, mark me. MIRA. O good fir, I do. PRO. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate As my truft was; which had, indeed, no limit, But what my power might elfe exact,—like one, To credit his own lie,-he did believe he play'd MIRA. Your tale, fir, would cure deafnefs. MIRA. O the heavens ! PRO. Mark his condition, and the event; then tell me, If this might be a brother. VOL. I. B MIRA. I fhould fin To think but nobly of my grandmother : PRO. Now the condition. This king of Naples, being an enemy Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of darkness, MIRA. Alack, for pity! I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then, Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint That wrings mine eyes. PRO. Hear a little further, And then I'll bring thee to the present business Which now's upon us; without the which, this story Were most impertinent. MIRA. Wherefore did they not That hour destroy us? PRO. Well demanded, wench; My tale provokes that queftion. Dear, they durft not; (So dear the love my people bore me) nor fet A mark fo bloody on the business; but With colours fairer painted their foul ends. In few, they hurried us aboard a bark; Bore us fome leagues to fea; where they prepar'd L |