Prospero: I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come. | All hail, Great master! Grave ma’am 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 her quality |
Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform’d to the point the tempest that I bade thee? | 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: sometime I’d divide, and burn in many places; on the topmast, the yards, the bowsprit, would I flame distinctly then meet and join. Jove’s lighting, the precursors of thy dreadful thunderclaps, more momentary and sight outrunning were not; the fire and cracks of sulfurous roaring the most mighty Neptune 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? | Not a soul but felt a fever of the mad and play’d some tricks of desperation. All but mariners plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel, then all afire with me; the kings son, Ferdinand, then 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.” |
Prospero: Why that’s my spirit! But was not this nigh shore? | Close by, my master. |
But are they, Ariel, safe? | Not a hair perish’d; on their sustaining garments not a blemish but fresher than before; and as thou badest me, in troops I have dispersed them ’bout the isle. The king’s son have I landed by himself; whom I left cooking of the air with sighs in an odd angle of the isle and sitting, his arms in this sad knot. |
Prospero: Of the king’s ship the mariners say how thou hast disposed and all the rest o’ the fleet. | Safely in harbor is the kings ship; in the deep nook, where once thou call’dst me up at midnight to fetch dew from the still vexed Bermoothers, there she’s hid; The mariners all under hatches stow’d; who with a charm join’d to their suffered labour, I have left asleep, and for the rest o’ the fleet which I dispersed, they have all met again bound sadly for Naples supposing that they saw the kings ship wreck’d and his great person perish. |
Prospero: What is the time o’ the day? | Past the mid season. |
Prospero: The time ‘twist six and now must by us both be spent most preciously. | Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains, let me remember thee what thou hast promised, which is not yet perform’d me? |
Prospero: How now? Moody? What is’t thou canst demand? | My liberty. |
Prospero: Before the time be out? No more! | I prithee, remember I have done thee worthy service; Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakes, served without or grudge or grumblings; thou didst promise to bade me a full year. |
Prospero: Dost thou forget from what a torment I did free thee? | No. |
Prospero: … when it is baked with frost. | I do not, Ma’am. |
Prospero: …hast thou forgot her? | No, Ma’am. |
Prospero: Thou hast. Where was she born? Speak; tell me. | Ma’am, in Argier. |
Prospero: They would not take her life. Is not this true? | Ay, Ma’am. |
Prospero: A freckled whelp hag- born- not honour’d with a human shape. | Yes, Caliban her son. |
Prospero: When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape the pine and let thee out. | I thank thee, master. |
Prospero: Thou hast howl’d away twelve winters. | Pardon master; I will be correspondent to command and do my spiriting gently. |
Prospero: After two days I will discharge thee. | That’s my noble master! What shall I do? say what; what shall I do? |
Prospero: Come, thou tortoise! When? (Ariel enters) Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel, Hark in thine ear. | My lord it shall be done. |
Prospero: But then exactly do all points of my command. | To the syllable. |
ACT TWO | ACT TWO |
Sebastian: O, but one word. | My master through her art forsees the danger that you, her friend, are in and sends me forth for else her project dies to keep them living |
Ariel’s lines: The Tempest
July 11, 2019