Before PROSPERO'S cell. Enter PROSPERO in his magic robes, and ARIEL PROSPERO Now does my project gather to a head:
My charms crack not; my spirits obey; and time Goes upright with his carriage. How's the day? ARIEL On the sixth hour; at which time, my lord, You said our work should cease. PROSPERO I did say so, When first I raised the tempest. Say, my spirit, How fares the king and's followers? ARIEL Confined together In the same fashion as you gave in charge, Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir, In the line-grove which weather-fends your cell;They cannot budge till your release. The king, His brother and yours, abide all three distracted And the remainder mourning over them, Brimful of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly Him that you term'd, sir, 'The good old lord Gonzalo;'
His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works 'em That if you now beheld them, your affections Would become tender. PROSPERO Dost thou think so, spirit? ARIEL Mine would, sir, were I human. PROSPERO And mine shall.
Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling Of their afflictions, and shall not myself, One of their kind, that relish all as sharply, Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art?
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick, Yet with my nobler reason 'gaitist my fury Do I take part: the rarer action is In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent, The sole drift of my purpose doth extend Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel:
My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore, And they shall be themselves. ARIEL I'll fetch them, sir.
Exit PROSPERO Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves, And ye that on the sands with printless foot Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him When he comes back; you demi-puppets that By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid, Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds, And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up The pine and cedar: graves at my command Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth By my so potent art. But this rough magic I here abjure, and, when I have required Some heavenly music, which even now I do, To work mine end upon their senses that This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff, Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, And deeper than did ever plummet sound I'll drown my book.
Solemn music Re-enter ARIEL before: then ALONSO, with a frantic gesture, attended by GONZALO; SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO in like manner, attended by ADRIAN and FRANCISCO they all enter the circle which PROSPERO had made, and there stand charmed; which PROSPERO observing, speaks:
A solemn air and the best comforter To an unsettled fancy cure thy brains, Now useless, boil'd within thy skull! There stand, For you are spell-stopp'd.
Holy Gonzalo, honourable man, Mine eyes, even sociable to the show of thine, Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace, And as the morning steals upon the night, Melting the darkness, so their rising senses Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo, My true preserver, and a loyal sir To him you follow'st! I will pay thy graces Home both in word and deed. Most cruelly Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter:
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act.
Thou art pinch'd fort now, Sebastian. Flesh and blood, You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition, Expell'd remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian, Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong, Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee, Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding Begins to swell, and the approaching tide Will shortly fill the reasonable shore That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them That yet looks on me, or would know me Ariel, Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell:
I will discase me, and myself present As I was sometime Milan: quickly, spirit;Thou shalt ere long be free.
ARIEL sings and helps to attire him Where the bee sucks. there suck I:
In a cowslip's bell I lie;There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. PROSPERO Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee:
But yet thou shalt have freedom: so, so, so.
To the king's ship, invisible as thou art:
There shalt thou find the mariners asleep Under the hatches; the master and the boatswain Being awake, enforce them to this place, And presently, I prithee. ARIEL I drink the air before me, and return Or ere your pulse twice beat.
Exit GONZALO All torment, trouble, wonder and amazement Inhabits here: some heavenly power guide us Out of this fearful country! PROSPERO Behold, sir king, The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero:
For more assurance that a living prince Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body;And to thee and thy company I bid A hearty welcome. ALONSO Whether thou best he or no, Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me, As late I have been, I not know: thy pulse Beats as of flesh and blood; and, since I saw thee, The affliction of my mind amends, with which, I fear, a madness held me: this must crave, An if this be at all, a most strange story.
Thy dukedom I resign and do entreat Thou pardon me my wrongs. But how should Prospero Be living and be here? PROSPERO First, noble friend, Let me embrace thine age, whose honour cannot Be measured or confined. GONZALO Whether this be Or be not, I'll not swear. PROSPERO You do yet taste Some subtilties o' the isle, that will not let you Believe things certain. Welcome, my friends all!
Aside to SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO
