That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

50

If thou remember'st aught ere thou camest here,
How thou camest here thou mayst.

Mir.

But that I do not.

Pros. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year

since,

Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and
A prince of power.

Mir.

Sir, are not you my father? Pros. 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

Mir.

A princess, no worse issued.

O the heavens !

What foul play had we, that we came from

thence?

Or blessed was 't we did?

Pros.

60

Both, both, my girl: By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heaved

thence;

But blessedly holp thither.

Mir.

O, my heart bleeds

50. “abysm” was the old mode of spelling abyss; from its French original abisme.

This line is usually printed thus:

"A princess;-no worse issued":

which might indeed be admitted, but that there is no authority for it in the original; nor any need of the change, the sense being clear enough without it.-H. N. H.

59. "issued"; derived.-C. H. H.

To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance! Please you, farther.

I

Pros. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio,— pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should Be so perfidious!-he whom, next thyself,

Mir.

Of all the world I loved, and to him put

of

70

The manage
my state; as at that time
Through all the signories it was the first,
And Prospero the prime duke, being so 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 stranger, being trans-
ported

And rapt in secret studies.
Dost thou attend me?

Thy false uncle

Sir, most heedfully.

Pros. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them, who to advance, and who 80 To trash for over-topping, new created

The creatures that were mine, I say, or changed
'em,

Or else new form'd 'er; having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state
To what tune pleased his ear; that now he was
The ivy which had hid my princely trunk,
And suck'd my verdure out on 't. Thou at-
tend'st not.

Mir. O, good sir, I do.

Pros.

I

pray thee, mark me.

79. "perfected"; completely skilled.-C. H. H.

I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness and the bettering of my mind
mind 90
With that which, but my being so retired,
O'er-prized 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

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,
Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie, he did believe

100

He was indeed the duke; out o' the substitution,
And executing the outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative:-hence his ambition
growing,-

Mir.

Dost thou hear?

Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. Pros. To have no screen between this part he play'd And him he play'd it for, he needs will be Absolute Milan. Me, poor man, my library Was dukedom large enough: of temporal royalties

94. "like a good parent"; alluding to the observation that a father above the common rate of men has generally a son below it.— H. N. H.

100. "Who having into truth"; "into," used in the sense of “unto,” and so emended in most editions; the sentence though very involved is intelligible without any alteration; "into truth" depends upon "a sinner"; and "it" refers vaguely to "his own lie"; "to credit"="as to credit."-I. G.

109. "Milan"; duke of Milan.-C. H. H.

Mir.

He thinks me now incapable; confederates, 111
So dry he was for sway, wi' the 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 Mi-
lan!-

To most ignoble stooping.

O the heavens!

Pros. Mark his condition, and the event; then tell

Mir.

me

If this might be a brother.

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

Pros.

Now the condition. 120
This King of Naples, being an enemy
To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit;
Which was, that he, in lieu o' the 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 honors, on my brother: whereon,
A treacherous army levied, one midnight
Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open
The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of dark-

Mir.

ness,

The ministers for the purpose hurried thence
Me and thy crying self.

Alack, for pity!
I, not remembering how I cried out then,
Will
cry it o'er again: it is a hint
That wrings mine eyes to 't.

130

XXXVI-2

17

Pros.

Hear a little further,

And then I'll bring thee to the present busi

ness

Which now's upon 's; without the which, this

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not,

140

So dear the love my people bore me; nor set
A mark so bloody on the business; but
With colors fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark,
Bore us some leagues to sea; where they pre-
pared

A rotten carcass of a butt, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively have quit it: there they hoist us,
To cry to the sea that roar'd to us; to sigh
To the winds, whose pity, sighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

Mir.

Was I then to you!

Pros.

Alack, what trouble 151

O, a cherubin

Thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile,

Infused with a fortitude from heaven,

146. "butt"; (figuratively for) a broad, unwieldy boat, a "tub." That it was not literally a cask is shown by the description "not rigged," etc.-C. H. H.

148. "quit" was commonly used for quitted.-H. N. H.