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ARIEL
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ARIEL
All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I comePROSPERO
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 his quality.
Hast thou, spirit,ARIEL
Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee?
To every article.PROSPERO
I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flamed amazement: sometime I'ld divide,
And burn in many places; on the topmast,
The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors
O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight-outrunning were not; the fire and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune
Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.
My brave spirit!ARIEL
Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil
Would not infect his reason?
Not a soulPROSPERO
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 king's son, Ferdinand,
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.'
Why that's my spirit!ARIEL
But was not this nigh shore?
Close by, my master.PROSPERO
But are they, Ariel, safe?ARIEL
Not a hair perish'd;PROSPERO
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 cooling of the air with sighs
In an odd angle of the isle and sitting,
His arms in this sad knot.
Of the king's shipARIEL
The mariners say how thou hast disposed
And all the rest o' the fleet.
Safely in harbourPROSPERO
Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid:
The mariners all under hatches stow'd;
Who, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour,
I have left asleep; and for the rest o' the fleet
Which I dispersed, they all have met again
And are upon the Mediterranean flote,
Bound sadly home for Naples,
Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd
And his great person perish.
Ariel, thy chargeARIEL
Exactly is perform'd: but there's more work.
What is the time o' the day?
Past the mid season.PROSPERO
At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six and nowARIEL
Must by us both be spent most preciously.
Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains,PROSPERO
Let me remember thee what thou hast promised,
Which is not yet perform'd me.
How now? moody?ARIEL
What is't thou canst demand?
My liberty.PROSPERO
Before the time be out? no more!ARIEL
I prithee,PROSPERO
Remember I have done thee worthy service;
Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, served
Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst promise
To bate me a full year.
Dost thou forgetARIEL
From what a torment I did free thee?
No.PROSPERO
Thou dost, and think'st it much to tread the oozeARIEL
Of the salt deep,
To run upon the sharp wind of the north,
To do me business in the veins o' the earth
When it is baked with frost.
I do not, sir.PROSPERO
Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou forgotARIEL
The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy
Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her?
No, sir.PROSPERO
Thou hast. Where was she born? speak; tell me.ARIEL
Sir, in Argier.PROSPERO
O, was she so? I mustARIEL
Once in a month recount what thou hast been,
Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch Sycorax,
For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier,
Thou know'st, was banish'd: for one thing she did
They would not take her life. Is not this true?
Ay, sir.PROSPERO
This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with childARIEL
And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my slave,
As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant;
And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate
To act her earthy and abhorr'd 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
Imprison'd 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,
A freckled whelp hag-born--not honour'd with
A human shape.
Yes, Caliban her son.PROSPERO
Dull thing, I say so; he, that CalibanARIEL
Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st
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 damn'd, which Sycorax
Could not again undo: it was mine art,
When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape
The pine and let thee out.
I thank thee, master.PROSPERO
If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oakARIEL
And peg thee in his knotty entrails till
Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.
Pardon, master;PROSPERO
I will be correspondent to command
And do my spiriting gently.
Do so, and after two daysARIEL
I will discharge thee.
That's my noble master!PROSPERO
What shall I do? say what; what shall I do?
Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea: be subject
To no sight but thine and mine, invisible
To every eyeball else. Go take this shape
And hither come in't: go, hence with diligence!
Exit ARIEL
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