The Tempest E-Book

William Shakespeare

• Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 80

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

William Shakespeare needs no formal introduction. In his 52 years of life Shakespeare wrote dozens of the most famous plays in history which have earned him the reputation as the finest writer the English language has ever had. This version of Shakespeares The Tempest includes a table of contents.

Leseprobe

The Tempest

Characters of the Play

Alonso, King of Naples.Sebastian, his brother.Prospero, the right Duke of Milan.Antonio, his brother, the usurping Duke of Milan.Ferdinand, son to the King of Naples.Gonzalo, an honest old counsellor.

Lords.Adrian.Francisco.Caliban, a savage and deformed slave.Trinculo, a jester.Stephano, a drunken butler.Master Of A Ship.Boatswain.Mariners.

Miranda, daughter to Prospero.

Ariel, an airy spirit.

Spirits.Iris.Ceres.Juno.Nymphs.Reapers.Other Spirits attending on Prospero.

Scene: A ship at sea; afterwards an uninhabited island.

Act I

Scene I. On a ship at sea: a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.

Enter a Master and a Boatswain 

Master

Boatswain!

Boatswain

Here, master: what cheer?

Master

Good, speak to the mariners: fall to’t, yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir.

Exit 

Enter Mariners 

Boatswain

Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to the master’s whistle. Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!

Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and others 

Alonso

Good boatswain, have care. Where’s the master?Play the men.

Boatswain

I pray now, keep below.

Antonio

Where is the master, boatswain?

Boatswain

Do you not hear him? You mar our labour: keep your cabins: you do assist the storm.

Gonzalo

Nay, good, be patient.

Boatswain

When the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence! trouble us not.

Gonzalo

Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard.

Boatswain

None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap. Cheerly, good hearts! Out of our way, I say.

Exit 

Gonzalo

I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging: make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage. If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable.

Exeunt 

Re-enter Boatswain 

Boatswain

Down with the topmast! yare! lower, lower! Bring her to try with main-course.

A cry within 

A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather or our office.

Re-enter Sebastian, Antonio, and Gonzalo 

Yet again! what do you here? Shall we give o’er and drown? Have you a mind to sink?

Sebastian

A pox o’ your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!

Boatswain

Work you then.

Antonio

Hang, cur! hang, you whoreson, insolent noisemaker!We are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.

Gonzalo

I’ll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell and as leaky as an unstanched wench.

Boatswain

Lay her a-hold, a-hold! set her two courses off to sea again; lay her off.

Enter Mariners wet 

Mariners

All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost!

Boatswain

What, must our mouths be cold?

Gonzalo

The king and prince at prayers! let’s assist them,For our case is as theirs.

Sebastian

I’m out of patience.

Antonio

We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards:This wide-chapp’d rascal — would thou mightst lie drowningThe washing of ten tides!

Gonzalo

He’ll be hang’d yet,Though every drop of water swear against itAnd gape at widest to glut him.

A confused noise within: ‘Mercy on us!’— ‘We split, we split!’—‘Farewell, my wife and children!’— ‘Farewell, brother!’—‘We split, we split, we split!’ 

Antonio

Let’s all sink with the king.

Sebastian

Let’s take leave of him.

Exeunt Antonio and Sebastian 

Gonzalo

Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any thing. The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death.

Exeunt 

Scene II. The island. Before Prospero's cell.

Enter Prospero and Miranda 

Miranda

If by your art, my dearest father, you havePut the wild waters in this roar, allay them.The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,But that the sea, mounting to the welkin’s cheek,Dashes the fire out. O, I have sufferedWith those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel,Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her,Dash’d all to pieces. O, the cry did knockAgainst my very heart. Poor souls, they perish’d.Had I been any god of power, I wouldHave sunk the sea within the earth or ereIt should the good ship so have swallow’d andThe fraughting souls within her.

Prospero

Be collected:No more amazement: tell your piteous heartThere’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, whoArt ignorant of what thou art, nought knowingOf whence I am, nor that I am more betterThan Prospero, master of a full poor cell,And thy no greater father.

Miranda

More to knowDid never meddle with my thoughts.

Prospero

’Tis timeI should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand,And pluck my magic garment from me. So:

Lays down his mantle 

Lie there, my art. Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort.The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch’dThe very virtue of compassion in thee,I have with such provision in mine artSo safely ordered that there is no soul —No, not so much perdition as an hairBetid to any creature in the vesselWhich thou heard’st cry, which thou saw’st sink. Sit down;For thou must now know farther.

Miranda

You have oftenBegun to tell me what I am, but stopp’dAnd left me to a bootless inquisition,Concluding ‘stay: not yet.’

Prospero

The hour’s now come;The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;Obey and be attentive. Canst thou rememberA time before we came unto this cell?I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast notOut three years old.

Miranda

Certainly, sir, I can.

Prospero

By what? by any other house or person?Of any thing the image tell me thatHath kept with thy remembrance.

Miranda

’Tis far offAnd rather like a dream than an assuranceThat my remembrance warrants. Had I notFour or five women once that tended me?

Prospero

Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is itThat this lives in thy mind? What seest thou elseIn the dark backward and abysm of time?If thou remember’st aught ere thou camest here,How thou camest here thou mayst.

Miranda

But that I do not.

Prospero

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

Miranda

Sir, are not you my father?

Prospero

Thy mother was a piece of virtue, andShe said thou wast my daughter; and thy fatherWas Duke of Milan; and thou his only heirAnd princess no worse issued.

Miranda

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

Prospero

Both, both, my girl:By foul play, as thou say’st, were we heaved thence,But blessedly holp hither.

Miranda

O, my heart bleedsTo think o’ the teen that I have turn’d you to,Which is from my remembrance! Please you, farther.

Prospero

My brother and thy uncle, call’d Antonio —I pray thee, mark me — that a brother shouldBe so perfidious! — he whom next thyselfOf all the world I loved and to him putThe manage of my state; as at that timeThrough all the signories it was the firstAnd Prospero the prime duke, being so reputedIn dignity, and for the liberal artsWithout a parallel; those being all my study,The government I cast upon my brotherAnd to my state grew stranger, being transportedAnd rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle —Dost thou attend me?

Miranda

Sir, most heedfully.

Prospero

Being once perfected how to grant suits,How to deny them, who to advance and whoTo trash for over-topping, new createdThe creatures that were mine, I say, or changed ’em,Or else new form’d ’em; having both the keyOf officer and office, set all hearts i’ the stateTo what tune pleased his ear; that now he wasThe ivy which had hid my princely trunk,And suck’d 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 dedicatedTo closeness and the bettering of my mindWith that which, but by being so retired,O’er-prized all popular rate, in my false brotherAwaked an evil nature; and my trust,Like a good parent, did beget of himA falsehood in its contrary as greatAs 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 oneWho having into truth, by telling of it,Made such a sinner of his memory,To credit his own lie, he did believeHe was indeed the duke; out o’ the substitutionAnd executing the outward face of royalty,With all prerogative: hence his ambition growing —Dost thou hear?

Miranda

Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.

Prospero

To have no screen between this part he play’dAnd him he play’d it for, he needs will beAbsolute Milan. Me, poor man, my libraryWas dukedom large enough: of temporal royaltiesHe thinks me now incapable; confederates —So dry he was for sway — wi’ the King of NaplesTo give him annual tribute, do him homage,Subject his coronet to his crown and bendThe dukedom yet unbow’d — alas, poor Milan! —To most ignoble stooping.

Miranda

O the heavens!

Prospero

Mark his condition and the event; then tell meIf this might be a brother.

Miranda

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

Prospero