The Tempest: Act 1, Scene 2 Translation

Enter Prospero and Miranda.

MIRANDA
If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to th’ welkin’s cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered 5
With those that I saw suffer! A brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her,
Dashed all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished.
Had I been any god of power, I would 10
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallowed, and
The fraughting souls within her.

PROSPERO Be collected.
No more amazement. Tell your piteous heart 15
There’s no harm done.

MIRANDA O, woe the day!

PROSPERO No harm.
I have done nothing but in care of thee,
Of thee, my dear one, thee, my daughter, who 20
Art ignorant of what thou art, naught knowing
Of whence I am, nor that I am more better
Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell,
And thy no greater father.

MIRANDA More to know 25
Did never meddle with my thoughts.

PROSPERO ’Tis time
I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand
And pluck my magic garment from me.
Putting aside his cloak.
So, 30
Lie there, my art.—Wipe thou thine eyes. Have
comfort.
The direful spectacle of the wrack, which touched
The very virtue of compassion in thee,
I have with such provision in mine art 35
So safely ordered that there is no soul—
No, not so much perdition as an hair,
Betid to any creature in the vessel
Which thou heard’st cry, which thou saw’st sink. Sit
down, 40
For thou must now know farther. They sit.

MIRANDA You have often
Begun to tell me what I am, but stopped
And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding “Stay. Not yet.” 45

PROSPERO 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 50
Out three years old.

MIRANDA Certainly, sir, I can.

PROSPERO
By what? By any other house or person?
Of anything the image tell me that
Hath kept with thy remembrance. 55

MIRANDA ’Tis far off
And rather like a dream than an assurance
That my remembrance warrants. Had I not
Four or five women once that tended me?

PROSPERO
Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is it 60
That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?
If thou rememb’rest aught ere thou cam’st here,
How thou cam’st here thou mayst.

MIRANDA But that I do not. 65

PROSPERO
Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since,
Thy father was the Duke of Milan and
A prince of power.

MIRANDA Sir, are not you my father?

PROSPERO
Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and 70
She said thou wast my daughter. And thy father
Was Duke of Milan, and his only heir
And princess no worse issued.

MIRANDA O, the heavens!
What foul play had we that we came from thence? 75
Or blessèd was ’t we did?

PROSPERO Both, both, my girl.
By foul play, as thou sayst, were we heaved thence,
But blessedly holp hither.

MIRANDA O, my heart bleeds 80
To think o’ th’ teen that I have turned you to,
Which is from my remembrance. Please you,
farther.

PROSPERO
My brother and thy uncle, called Antonio—
I pray thee, mark me—that a brother should 85
Be so perfidious!—he whom next thyself
Of all the world I loved, and to him put
The manage of my state, as at that time
Through all the signories it was the first,
And Prospero the prime duke, being so reputed 90
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 stranger, being transported
And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle— 95
Dost thou attend me?

MIRANDA Sir, most heedfully.

PROSPERO
Being once perfected how to grant suits,
How to deny them, who t’ advance, and who
To trash for overtopping, new created 100
The creatures that were mine, I say, or changed ’em,
Or else new formed ’em, having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i’ th’ state
To what tune pleased his ear, that now he was
The ivy which had hid my princely trunk 105
And sucked my verdure out on ’t. Thou attend’st not.

MIRANDA
O, good sir, I do.

PROSPERO I pray thee, mark me.
I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness and the bettering of my mind 110
With that which, but by being so retired,
O’erprized all popular rate, in my false brother
Awaked an evil nature, and my trust,
Like a good parent, did beget of him
A falsehood in its contrary as great 115
As my trust was, which had indeed no limit,
A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded
But what my power might else exact, like one
Who, having into truth by telling of it, 120
Made such a sinner of his memory
To credit his own lie, he did believe
He was indeed the Duke, out o’ th’ substitution
And executing th’ outward face of royalty
With all prerogative. Hence, his ambition growing— 125
Dost thou hear?

MIRANDA
Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.

PROSPERO
To have no screen between this part he played
And him he played it for, he needs will be
Absolute Milan. Me, poor man, my library 130
Was dukedom large enough. Of temporal royalties
He thinks me now incapable; confederates,
So dry he was for sway, wi’ th’ King of Naples
To give him annual tribute, do him homage,
Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend 135
The dukedom, yet unbowed—alas, poor Milan!—
To most ignoble stooping.

MIRANDA O, the heavens!

PROSPERO
Mark his condition and th’ event. Then tell me
If this might be a brother. 140

MIRANDA I should sin
To think but nobly of my grandmother.
Good wombs have borne bad sons.

PROSPERO Now the condition.
This King of Naples, being an enemy 145
To me inveterate, hearkens my brother’s suit,
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, 150
With all the honors, on my brother; whereon,
A treacherous army levied, one midnight
Fated to th’ purpose did Antonio open
The gates of Milan, and i’ th’ dead of darkness
The ministers for th’ purpose hurried thence 155
Me and thy crying self.

MIRANDA 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 to ’t. 160

PROSPERO 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.

MIRANDA Wherefore did they not 165
That hour destroy us?

PROSPERO Well demanded, wench.
My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not,
So dear the love my people bore me, nor set
A mark so bloody on the business, but 170
With colors fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark,
Bore us some leagues to sea, where they prepared
A rotten carcass of a butt, not rigged,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats 175
Instinctively have quit it. There they hoist us
To cry to th’ sea that roared to us, to sigh
To th’ winds, whose pity, sighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

MIRANDA Alack, what trouble 180
Was I then to you!

PROSPERO O, a cherubin
Thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile,
Infusèd with a fortitude from heaven,
When I have decked the sea with drops full salt, 185
Under my burden groaned, which raised in me
An undergoing stomach to bear up
Against what should ensue.

MIRANDA How came we ashore?

PROSPERO By providence divine. 190
Some food we had, and some fresh water, that
A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,
Out of his charity, who being then appointed
Master of this design, did give us, with
Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries, 195
Which since have steaded much. So, of his
gentleness,
Knowing I loved my books, he furnished me
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom. 200

MIRANDA Would I might
But ever see that man.

PROSPERO, standing Now I arise.
Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow.
Here in this island we arrived, and here 205
Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit
Than other princes can, that have more time
For vainer hours and tutors not so careful.

MIRANDA
Heavens thank you for ’t. And now I pray you, sir—
For still ’tis beating in my mind—your reason 210
For raising this sea storm?

PROSPERO 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 215
I find my zenith doth depend upon
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 inclined to sleep. ’Tis a good dullness, 220
And give it way. I know thou canst not choose.

Miranda falls asleep.
Prospero puts on his cloak.

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

Enter Ariel.

ARIEL
All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail! I come
To answer thy best pleasure. Be ’t to fly, 225
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
On the curled clouds, to thy strong bidding task
Ariel and all his quality.

PROSPERO Hast thou, spirit,
Performed to point the tempest that I bade thee? 230

ARIEL To every article.
I boarded the King’s ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flamed amazement. Sometimes I’d divide
And burn in many places. On the topmast, 235
The yards, and bowsprit would I flame distinctly,
Then meet and join. Jove’s lightning, the precursors
O’ th’ dreadful thunderclaps, more momentary
And sight-outrunning were not. The fire and cracks
Of sulfurous roaring the most mighty Neptune 240
Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.

PROSPERO My brave spirit!
Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil
Would not infect his reason? 245

ARIEL Not a soul
But felt a fever of the mad, and played
Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners
Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel,
Then all afire with me. The King’s son, Ferdinand, 250
With hair up-staring—then like reeds, not hair—
Was the first man that leaped; cried “Hell is empty,
And all the devils are here.”

PROSPERO Why, that’s my spirit!
But was not this nigh shore? 255

ARIEL Close by, my master.

PROSPERO
But are they, Ariel, safe?

ARIEL Not a hair perished.
On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before; and, as thou bad’st me, 260
In troops I have dispersed them ’bout the isle.
The King’s son have I landed by himself,
Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs
In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting,
His arms in this sad knot. He folds his arms. 265

PROSPERO Of the King’s ship,
The mariners say how thou hast disposed,
And all the rest o’ th’ fleet.

ARIEL Safely in harbor
Is the King’s ship. In the deep nook, where once 270
Thou called’st me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still-vexed Bermoothes, there she’s hid;
The mariners all under hatches stowed,
Who, with a charm joined to their suffered labor,
I have left asleep. And for the rest o’ th’ fleet, 275
Which I dispersed, they all have met again
And are upon the Mediterranean float,
Bound sadly home for Naples,
Supposing that they saw the King’s ship wracked
And his great person perish. 280

PROSPERO Ariel, thy charge
Exactly is performed. But there’s more work.
What is the time o’ th’ day?

ARIEL Past the mid season.

PROSPERO
At least two glasses. The time ’twixt six and now 285
Must by us both be spent most preciously.

ARIEL
Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains,
Let me remember thee what thou hast promised,
Which is not yet performed me.

PROSPERO How now? Moody? 290
What is ’t thou canst demand?

ARIEL My liberty.

PROSPERO
Before the time be out? No more.

ARIEL I prithee,
Remember I have done thee worthy service, 295
Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, served
Without or grudge or grumblings. Thou did promise
To bate me a full year.

PROSPERO Dost thou forget
From what a torment I did free thee? 300

ARIEL No.

PROSPERO
Thou dost, and think’st it much to tread the ooze
Of the salt deep,
To run upon the sharp wind of the North,
To do me business in the veins o’ th’ Earth 305
When it is baked with frost.

ARIEL I do not, sir.

PROSPERO
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? 310

ARIEL No, sir.

PROSPERO
Thou hast. Where was she born? Speak. Tell me.

ARIEL
Sir, in Argier.

PROSPERO O, was she so? I must
Once in a month recount what thou hast been, 315
Which thou forget’st. This damned witch Sycorax,
For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier,
Thou know’st, was banished. For one thing she did
They would not take her life. Is not this true? 320

ARIEL Ay, sir.

PROSPERO
This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with child
And here was left by th’ sailors. Thou, my slave,
As thou report’st thyself, was then her servant,
And for thou wast a spirit too delicate 325
To act her earthy and abhorred 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 330
Imprisoned 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 that she did litter here, 335
A freckled whelp, hag-born) not honored with
A human shape.

ARIEL Yes, Caliban, her son.

PROSPERO
Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban
Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know’st 340
What torment 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 damned, which Sycorax
Could not again undo. It was mine art, 345
When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape
The pine and let thee out.

ARIEL I thank thee, master.

PROSPERO
If thou more murmur’st, I will rend an oak
And peg thee in his knotty entrails till 350
Thou hast howled away twelve winters.

ARIEL Pardon, master.
I will be correspondent to command
And do my spriting gently.

PROSPERO Do so, and after two days 355
I will discharge thee.

ARIEL That’s my noble master.
What shall I do? Say, what? What shall I do?

PROSPERO
Go make thyself like a nymph o’ th’ sea. Be subject
To no sight but thine and mine, invisible 360
To every eyeball else. Go, take this shape,
And hither come in ’t. Go, hence with diligence!

Ariel exits.

Awake, dear heart, awake. Thou hast slept well.
Awake.

Miranda wakes.

MIRANDA The strangeness of your story put 365
Heaviness in me.

PROSPERO Shake it off. Come on,
We’ll visit Caliban, my slave, who never
Yields us kind answer.

MIRANDA, rising ’Tis a villain, sir, 370
I do not love to look on.

PROSPERO But, as ’tis,
We cannot miss him. He does make our fire,
Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices
That profit us.—What ho, slave, Caliban! 375
Thou earth, thou, speak!

CALIBAN, within There’s wood enough within.

PROSPERO
Come forth, I say. There’s other business for thee.
Come, thou tortoise. When?

Enter Ariel like a water nymph.

Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel, 380
Hark in thine ear. He whispers to Ariel.

ARIEL My lord, it shall be done. He exits.

PROSPERO, to Caliban
Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself
Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!

Enter Caliban.

CALIBAN
As wicked dew as e’er my mother brushed 385
With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen
Drop on you both. A southwest blow on you
And blister you all o’er.

PROSPERO
For this, be sure, tonight thou shalt have cramps,
Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up. Urchins 390
Shall forth at vast of night that they may work
All exercise on thee. Thou shalt be pinched
As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging
Than bees that made ’em.

CALIBAN I must eat my dinner. 395
This island’s mine by Sycorax, my mother,
Which thou tak’st from me. When thou cam’st first,
Thou strok’st me and made much of me, wouldst
give me
Water with berries in ’t, and teach me how 400
To name the bigger light and how the less,
That burn by day and night. And then I loved thee,
And showed thee all the qualities o’ th’ isle,
The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place and
fertile. 405
Cursed 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 410
The rest o’ th’ island.

PROSPERO Thou most lying slave,
Whom stripes may move, not kindness, I have used
thee,
Filth as thou art, with humane care, and lodged 415
thee
In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate
The honor of my child.

CALIBAN
O ho, O ho! Would ’t had been done!
Thou didst prevent me. I had peopled else 420
This isle with Calibans.

MIRANDA Abhorrèd slave,
Which any print of goodness wilt not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each 425
hour
One thing or other. When thou didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes
With words that made them known. But thy vile 430
race,
Though thou didst learn, had that in ’t which good
natures
Could not abide to be with. Therefore wast thou
Deservedly confined into this rock, 435
Who hadst deserved more than a prison.

CALIBAN
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!

PROSPERO Hagseed, hence! 440
Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou ’rt best,
To answer other business. Shrugg’st thou, malice?
If thou neglect’st or dost unwillingly
What I command, I’ll rack thee with old cramps,
Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar 445
That beasts shall tremble at thy din.

CALIBAN No, pray thee.
Aside. I must obey. His art is of such power
It would control my dam’s god, Setebos,
And make a vassal of him. 450

PROSPERO So, slave, hence.

Caliban exits.

Enter Ferdinand; and Ariel, invisible,
playing and singing.

Song.
ARIEL
"Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands.
Curtsied when you have, and kissed
The wild waves whist. 455
Foot it featly here and there,
And sweet sprites bear
The burden. Hark, hark!
Burden dispersedly, within: Bow-wow.
The watchdogs bark. 460
Burden dispersedly, within: Bow-wow.
Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry cock-a-diddle-dow."

FERDINAND
Where should this music be? I’ th’ air, or th’ earth? 465
It sounds no more; and sure it waits upon
Some god o’ th’ island. Sitting on a bank,
Weeping again the King my father’s wrack,
This music crept by me upon the waters,
Allaying both their fury and my passion 470
With its sweet air. Thence I have followed it,
Or it hath drawn me rather. But ’tis gone.
No, it begins again.

Song.
ARIEL
"Full fathom five thy father lies.
Of his bones are coral made. 475
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell. 480
Burden, within: Ding dong.
Hark, now I hear them: ding dong bell."

FERDINAND
The ditty does remember my drowned father.
This is no mortal business, nor no sound
That the Earth owes. I hear it now above me. 485

PROSPERO, to Miranda
The fringèd curtains of thine eye advance
And say what thou seest yond.

MIRANDA What is ’t? A spirit?
Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir,
It carries a brave form. But ’tis a spirit. 490

PROSPERO
No, wench, it eats and sleeps and hath such senses
As we have, such. This gallant which thou seest
Was in the wrack; and, but he’s something stained
With grief—that’s beauty’s canker—thou might’st
call him 495
A goodly person. He hath lost his fellows
And strays about to find ’em.

MIRANDA I might call him
A thing divine, for nothing natural
I ever saw so noble. 500

PROSPERO, aside It goes on, I see,
As my soul prompts it. To Ariel. Spirit, fine spirit,
I’ll free thee
Within two days for this.

FERDINAND, seeing Miranda Most sure, the goddess 505
On whom these airs attend!—Vouchsafe my prayer
May know if you remain upon this island,
And that you will some good instruction give
How I may bear me here. My prime request,
Which I do last pronounce, is—O you wonder!— 510
If you be maid or no.

MIRANDA No wonder, sir,
But certainly a maid.

FERDINAND My language! Heavens!
I am the best of them that speak this speech, 515
Were I but where ’tis spoken.

PROSPERO How? The best?
What wert thou if the King of Naples heard thee?

FERDINAND
A single thing, as I am now, that wonders
To hear thee speak of Naples. He does hear me, 520
And that he does I weep. Myself am Naples,
Who with mine eyes, never since at ebb, beheld
The King my father wracked.

MIRANDA Alack, for mercy!

FERDINAND
Yes, faith, and all his lords, the Duke of Milan 525
And his brave son being twain.

PROSPERO, aside The Duke of Milan
And his more braver daughter could control thee,
If now ’twere fit to do ’t. At the first sight
They have changed eyes.—Delicate Ariel, 530
I’ll set thee free for this. To Ferdinand. A word,
good sir.
I fear you have done yourself some wrong. A word.

MIRANDA
Why speaks my father so ungently? This
Is the third man that e’er I saw, the first 535
That e’er I sighed for. Pity move my father
To be inclined my way.

FERDINAND O, if a virgin,
And your affection not gone forth, I’ll make you
The Queen of Naples. 540

PROSPERO Soft, sir, one word more.
Aside. They are both in either’s powers. But this
swift business
I must uneasy make, lest too light winning
Make the prize light. To Ferdinand. One word 545
more. I charge thee
That thou attend me. Thou dost here usurp
The name thou ow’st not, and hast put thyself
Upon this island as a spy, to win it
From me, the lord on ’t. 550

FERDINAND No, as I am a man!

MIRANDA
There’s nothing ill can dwell in such a temple.
If the ill spirit have so fair a house,
Good things will strive to dwell with ’t.

PROSPERO, to Ferdinand Follow me. 555
To Miranda. Speak not you for him. He’s a traitor.
To Ferdinand. Come,
I’ll manacle thy neck and feet together.
Sea water shalt thou drink. Thy food shall be
The fresh-brook mussels, withered roots, and husks 560
Wherein the acorn cradled. Follow.

FERDINAND No,
I will resist such entertainment till
Mine enemy has more power.

He draws, and is charmed from moving.

MIRANDA O dear father, 565
Make not too rash a trial of him, for
He’s gentle and not fearful.

PROSPERO What, I say,
My foot my tutor?—Put thy sword up, traitor,
Who mak’st a show, but dar’st not strike, thy 570
conscience
Is so possessed with guilt. Come from thy ward,
For I can here disarm thee with this stick
And make thy weapon drop.

MIRANDA Beseech you, father— 575

PROSPERO
Hence! Hang not on my garments.

MIRANDA Sir, have pity.
I’ll be his surety.

PROSPERO Silence! One word more
Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What, 580
An advocate for an impostor? Hush.
Thou think’st there is no more such shapes as he,
Having seen but him and Caliban. Foolish wench,
To th’ most of men this is a Caliban,
And they to him are angels. 585

MIRANDA My affections
Are then most humble. I have no ambition
To see a goodlier man.

PROSPERO, to Ferdinand Come on, obey.
Thy nerves are in their infancy again 590
And have no vigor in them.

FERDINAND So they are.
My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up.
My father’s loss, the weakness which I feel,
The wrack of all my friends, nor this man’s threats 595
To whom I am subdued, are but light to me,
Might I but through my prison once a day
Behold this maid. All corners else o’ th’ Earth
Let liberty make use of. Space enough
Have I in such a prison. 600

PROSPERO, aside It works.—Come on.—
Thou hast done well, fine Ariel.—Follow me.
To Ariel. Hark what thou else shalt do me.

MIRANDA, to Ferdinand Be of
comfort. 605
My father’s of a better nature, sir,
Than he appears by speech. This is unwonted
Which now came from him.

PROSPERO, to Ariel Thou shalt be as free
As mountain winds; but then exactly do 610
All points of my command.

ARIEL To th’ syllable.

PROSPERO, to Ferdinand
Come follow. To Miranda. Speak not for him.

They exit.