Begun to tell me what I am, but stopt,
And left me to a bootless inquifition;
Concluding, Stay; not yet.

Pro. The hour's now come,

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;
Obey, and be attentive. Canst thou remember
A time, before we came unto this cell?

I do not think, thou canst; for then thou wast not
Out three years old. (2)

Mira. Certainly, Sir, I can.

Pro. By what? by any other house, or person?
Of any thing the image tell me, that
Hath kept in thy remembrance.

Mira. "Tis far off;

And rather like a dream, than an affurance
That my remembrance warrants. Had I not
Four, or five, women once, that tended me?

Pro. Thou hadit, and more, Miranda: but how is itį

That this lives in thy mind? what seest thou else
In the dark back-ward and abysme of time?
If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here;
How thou cam'st here, thou may'st.
Mira. But that I do not.

Pro. Tis twelve years since, Miranda; twelve year fince,

Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and
A Prince of Pow'r.

Mira. Sir, are not you my father ?

Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She said, thou wast my daughter; and thy father

Was Duke of Milan, and his only heir

A Princess, no worse issu'd.

Mira. O the heav'ns!

What foul play had we, that we came from thence?
Or blessed was't, we did?

Pro. Both, both, my girl:

(2) out three years old.] This is the old Reading: 'tis true, the Expression is obsolete, but it fupply'd the Sense of, full out, out-right, QI right-out..

B4

By

By foul play (as thou say'st) were we heav'd thence;
But blessedly help'd hither.

Mira. O, my heart bleeds

To think o'th' teene that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance. Please you, farther.
Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Anthonio-
I pray thee, mark me;- (that a brother should
Be so perfidious !) he whom next thy felf
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my state; (as, at that time,
Through all the fignories it was the firft;
And Prospero the prime Duke, being fo reputed
In dignity; and for the liberal arts,
Without a parallel; those being all my study:)
The government I cast upon my brother,
And to my state grew ftranger; being transported,
And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle
(Doft thou attend me?)

Mira. Sir, most heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits,
How to deny them; whom t'advance, and whom
To trash for over-topping; new-created
The creatures, that were mine; I say, or chang'd 'em,
Or else new form'd 'em; having both the key
Of officer and office, fet all hearts i'th' flate
To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was
'The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,
And fuckt my verdure out on't. -- Thou attend'st not.
Mira. Good Sir, I do.

Pro. I pray thee, mark me then.
I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness, and the bettering of my mind,
With that which, but by being so retired,
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother

Awak'd an evil nature; and my trust,
Like a good parent, did beget of him

A falshood in its contrary as great

As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence fans bound. He being thus lorded,

Not only with what my Revenue yielded,

;

But

But what my power might else exact; like one,
Who having into truth, by telling of it,
Made such a finner of his memory,
To credit his own lie, he did believe

He was, indeed, the Duke; from substitution,
And executing th' outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative. Hence his ambition growing -
Doft thou hear?

Mira. Your tale, Sir, would cure deafness.
Pro. To have no screen between this part he plaid,
And him he plaid it for, he needs will be
Absolute Milan. Me, poor man! - my library
Was Dukedom large enough; of temporal royalties
He thinks me now incapable: confederates
(So dry he was for fway) wi'th' King of Naples
To give him annual tribute, do him homage;
Subject his coronet to his crown; and bend
The Dukedom, yet unbow'd, (alas, poor Milan!)
To moft ignoble stooping.

Mira. O the heav'ns!

Pro. Mark his condition, and th'event; then tell me,

If this might be a Brother?

Mira. I should fin, (3)

To think but nobly of my grand-mother;

Good wombs have bore bad fons. (4)

(3)

B5

I should fin,

Pro

To think not nobly of my Grandmother ;) This is Mr. Pope's reading; from no Authority, I presume: All the Copies that I have feen, have it; To think but nobly i. e. otherwise than nobly; according to our Author's Usage.

(4) Good Wombs have bore bad Sons.

Pro. Now, the Condition:] Thus have all the Editions divided these Speeches; But, tho' I have not attempted to regulate them otherwise, I have great Sufpicion, that our Author plac'd them thus;

Pro. Good Wombs have bore bad Sons. Now, the Condition: How could Miranda, that came into this Defart Island an Infant, that had never feen any other Creatures of the World, but her Father and Caliban, with any Propriety be furnish'd Pro. Now the condition:

This King of Naples, being an enemy
To me inveterate, hearks my brother's fuit;
Which was, that he in lieu o'th' premises,
Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,
Should presently extirpate me and mine
Out of the Dukedom; and confer fair Milan,
With all the honours, on my brother. Whereon
A treacherous army levy'd, one mid-night
Fated to th' parpose, did Anthonio open
The gates of Milan; and, i'th' dead of darkness,
The minifters for the purpose hurry'd thence
Me, and thy crying felf.

Mira. Alack, for pity!

I, not remembring how I cry'd on't then,
Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint,
That wrings mine eyes to't.

Pro. Hear a little further,

And then I'll bring thee to the present business,
Which now's upon's; without the which this story
Were most impertinent.

Mira. Why did they not

That hour destroy us?

Pro. Well demanded, wench;

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not
(So dear the love my people bore me;) fet
A mark so bloody on the business; but
With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurry'd us aboard a bark;
Bore us fome leagues to Sea; where they prepar'd
A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, fail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively had quit it: there they hoift us
To cry to th' sea, that roar'd to us; to figh

to makesuch an Observation from Life, that the Issue has often degenerated from the Parent! But it comes very properly from Profpere, as a short Document, by the By, to his Daughter; implying, " that she did very well to think with Honour of her Ancestor; for that it was common in Life, for good "People to have bad Children."

،

To

To th' winds, whose pity, fighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

Mira. Alack! what trouble

Was I then to you?

Pro. O! a cherubim

Thou wast, that did preserve me: Thou didst smile, Infused with a fortitude from heav'n,

(When I have deck'd the fea with drops full-falt; Under my burthen groan'd;) which rais'd in me An undergoing ftomach, to bear up

Against what should ensue.

Mira. How came we a-shore ?

Pro. By providence divine.

Some food we had, and some fresh water, that

A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,
Out of his charity (being then appointed
Master of this design) did give us, with
Rich garments, linnens, stuffs, and necessaries,
Which fince have steeded much. So of his gentleness.
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me

From my own library, with volumes that

I prize above my Dukedom.

Mira. Would I might

But ever fee that man!

Pro. Now, I arife:

Sit still, and hear the last of our fea-forrow.
Here in this island we arriv'd, and here

Have I, thy school-master, made thee more profit
Than other Princes can, that have more time
For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.

Mira. Heav'ns thank you for't! And now, I pray.

you, Sir,

(For still 'tis beating in my mind) your reason

For raising this sea-storm?

Pro. Know thus far forth,

By accident most strange, bountiful fortune
(Now my dear lady) hath mine enemies
Brought to this shore: and, by my prescience
I find, my Zenith doth depend upon

A most auspicious star; whose Influence