Текст книги "William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition"

Автор книги: William Shakespeare

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5.1 Enter Prospero, in his magic robes, and Ariel

PROSPERO

Now does my project gather to a head.

My charms crack not, my spirits obey, and time

Goes upright with his carriage. How’s the day?

ARIEL

On the sixth hour; at which time, my lord,

You said our work should cease.

PROSPERO

I did say so

When first I raised the tempest. Say, my spirit,

How fares the King and’s followers?

ARIEL

Confined together

In the same fashion as you gave in charge,

Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir,

In the lime-grove which weather-fends your cell.

They cannot budge till your release. The King,

His brother, and yours, abide all three distracted,

And the remainder mourning over them,

Brimful of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly

Him that you termed, sir, the good old lord Gonzalo:

His tears run down his beard like winter’s drops

From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works ’em

That if you now beheld them your affections

Would become tender.

PROSPERO

Dost thou think so, spirit?

ARIEL

Mine would, sir, were I human.

PROSPERO

And mine shall.

Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling

Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,

One of their kind, that relish all as sharply

Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art?

Though with their high wrongs I am struck to th’

quick,

Yet with my nobler reason ’gainst my fury

Do I take part. The rarer action is

In virtue than in vengeance. They being penitent,

The sole drift of my purpose doth extend

Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel.

My charms I’ll break, their senses I’ll restore,

And they shall be themselves.

ARIEL

I’ll fetch them, sir.

Exit

⌈Prospero draws a circle with his staff⌉

PROSPERO

Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,

And ye that on the sands with printless foot

Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him

When he comes back; you demi-puppets that

By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make

Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime

Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice

To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,

Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimmed

The noontide sun, called forth the mutinous winds,

And ‘twixt the green sea and the azured vault

Set roaring war—to the dread rattling thunder

Have I given fire, and rifted Jove’s stout oak

With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory

Have I made shake, and by the spurs plucked up

The pine and cedar; graves at my command

Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let ’em forth

By my so potent art. But this rough magic

I here abjure. And when I have required

Some heavenly music—which even now I do—

To work mine end upon their senses that

This airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff,

Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,

And deeper than did ever plummet sound

I’ll drown my book.

Solemn music. Here enters first Ariel, invisible; then Alonso, with a frantic gesture, attended by Gonzalo; Sebastian and Antonio, in like manner, attended by Adrian and Francisco. They all enter the circle which Prospero had made, and there stand charmed; which Prospero observing, speaks

(To Alonso) A solemn air, and the best comforter

To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains,

Now useless, boiled within thy skull.

(To Sebastian and Antonio) There stand,

For you are spelt-stopped.—

Holy Gonzalo, honourable man,

Mine eyes, ev’n sociable to the show of thine,

Fall fellowly drops. (Aside) The charm dissolves apace,

And as the morning steals upon the night,

Melting the darkness, so their rising senses

Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle

Their clearer reason.—O good Gonzalo,

My true preserver, and a loyal sir

To him thou follow’st, I will pay thy graces

Home both in word and deed.—Most cruelly

Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter.

Thy brother was a furtherer in the act.—

Thou art pinched for’t now, Sebastian.

(To Antonio) Flesh and blood,

You, brother mine, that entertained ambition,

Expelled remorse and nature, whom, with Sebastian—

Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,—

Would here have killed your king, I do forgive thee,

Unnatural though thou art. (Aside) Their understanding

Begins to swell, and the approaching tide

Will shortly fill the reasonable shores

That now lie foul and muddy. Not one of them

That yet looks on me, or would know me.—Ariel,

Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell.

I will disease me, and myself present

As I was sometime Milan. Quickly, spirit!

Thou shalt ere long be free.

Ariel sings and helps to attire him as Duke of Milan

ARIEL

Where the bee sucks, there suck I: In a cowslip’s bell I lie;

There I couch when owls do cry.

On the bat’s back I do fly

After summer merrily.

Merrily, merrily shall I live now

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

Merrily, merrily shall I live now

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

PROSPERO

Why, that’s my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee,

But yet thou shalt have freedom.—So, so, so.—

To the King’s ship, invisible as thou art!

There shalt thou find the mariners asleep

Under the hatches. The Master and the Boatswain

Being awake, enforce them to this place,

And presently, I prithee.

ARIEL

I drink the air before me, and return

Or ere your pulse twice beat.

Exit

GONZALO

All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement

Inhabits here. Some heavenly power guide us

Out of this fearful country!

PROSPERO

Behold, sir King,

The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero.

For more assurance that a living prince

Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body;

And to thee and thy company I bid

A hearty welcome.

He embraces Alonso

ALONSO

Whe’er thou beest he or no,

Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me,

As late I have been, I not know. Thy pulse

Beats as of flesh and blood; and since I saw thee

Th’affliction of my mind amends, with which

I fear a madness held me. This must crave—

An if this be at all—a most strange story.

Thy dukedom I resign, and do entreat

Thou pardon me my wrongs. But how should

Prospero

Be living and be here?

PROSPERO (to Gonzalo)

First, noble friend,

Let me embrace thine age, whose honour cannot

Be measured or confined.

He embraces Gonzalo

GONZALO

Whether this be

Or be not, I’ll not swear.

PROSPERO

You do yet taste

Some subtleties o’th’ isle that will not let you

Believe things certain.—Welcome, my friends all.

(Aside to Sebastian and Antonio)

But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded,

I here could pluck his highness’ frown upon you

And justify you traitors. At this time

I will tell no tales.

SEBASTIAN (to Antonio) The devil speaks in him.

PROSPERO No.

(To Antonio) For you, most wicked sir, whom to call

brother

Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive

Thy rankest fault, all of them, and require

My dukedom of thee, which perforce I know

Thou must restore.

ALONSO

If thou beest Prospero,

Give us particulars of thy preservation,

How thou hast met us here, whom three hours since

Were wrecked upon this shore, where I have lost—

How sharp the point of this remembrance is!—

My dear son Ferdinand.

PROSPERO

I am woe for’t, sir.

ALONSO

Irreparable is the loss, and patience

Says it is past her cure.

PROSPERO

I rather think

You have not sought her help, of whose soft grace

For the like loss I have her sovereign aid,

And rest myself content.

ALONSO

You the like loss?

PROSPERO

As great to me as late; and supportable

To make the dear loss have I means much weaker

Than you may call to comfort you, for I

Have lost my daughter.

ALONSO

A daughter?

O heavens, that they were living both in Naples,

The king and queen there! That they were, I wish

Myself were mudded in that oozy bed

Where my son lies. When did you lose your daughter?

PROSPERO

In this last tempest. I perceive these lords

At this encounter do so much admire

That they devour their reason, and scarce think

Their eyes do offices of truth, these words

Are natural breath. But howsoe’er you have

Been jostled from your senses, know for certain

That I am Prospero, and that very Duke

Which was thrust forth of Milan, who most strangely,

Upon this shore where you were wrecked, was landed

To be the lord on’t. No more yet of this,

For ’tis a chronicle of day by day,

Not a relation for a breakfast, nor

Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir.

This cell’s my court. Here have I few attendants,

And subjects none abroad. Pray you, look in.

My dukedom since you have given me again,

I will requite you with as good a thing;

At least bring forth a wonder to content ye

As much as me my dukedom.

Here Prospero discovers Ferdinand and Miranda, playing at chess

MIRANDA

Sweet lord, you play me false.

FERDINAND No, my dearest love,

I would not for the world.

MIRANDA

Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle,

An I would call it fair play.

ALONSO

If this prove

A vision of the island, one dear son

Shall I twice lose.

SEBASTIAN

A most high miracle.

FERDINAND (coming forward)

Though the seas threaten, they are merciful.

I have cursed them without cause.

He kneels

ALONSO

Now all the blessings

Of a glad father compass thee about.

Arise and say how thou cam’st here.

Ferdinand rises

MIRANDA (coming forward)

O wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world

That has such people in’t!

PROSPERO

’Tis new to thee.

ALONSO (to Ferdinand)

What is this maid with whom thou wast at play?

Your eld’st acquaintance cannot be three hours.

Is she the goddess that hath severed us,

And brought us thus together?

FERDINAND

Sir, she is mortal;

But by immortal providence she’s mine.

I chose her when I could not ask my father

For his advice, nor thought I had one. She

Is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan,

Of whom so often I have heard renown,

But never saw before; of whom I have

Received a second life; and second father

This lady makes him to me.

ALONSO

I am hers.

But O, how oddly will it sound, that I

Must ask my child forgiveness!

PROSPERO

There, sir, stop.

Let us not burden our remembrance with

A heaviness that’s gone.

GONZALO

I have inly wept,

Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you gods,

And on this couple drop a blessed crown,

For it is you that have chalked forth the way

Which brought us hither.

ALONSO

I say amen, Gonzalo.

GONZALO

Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue

Should become kings of Naples? O rejoice

Beyond a common joy! And set it down

With gold on lasting pillars: in one voyage

Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis,

And Ferdinand her brother found a wife

Where he himself was lost; Prospero his dukedom

In a poor isle; and all of us ourselves,

When no man was his own.

ALONSO (to Ferdinand and Miranda) Give me your hands.

Let grief and sorrow still embrace his heart

That doth not wish you joy.

GONZALO

Be it so! Amen!

Enter Ariel, with the Master and Boatswain amazedly following

O look, sir, look, sir, here is more of us!

I prophesied if a gallows were on land

This fellow could not drown. (To the Boatswain) Now,

blasphemy,

That swear’st grace o’erboard: not an oath on shore?

Hast thou no mouth by land? What is the news?

BOATSWAIN

The best news is that we have safely found

Our King and company. The next, our ship,

Which but three glasses since we gave out split,

Is tight and yare and bravely rigged, as when

We first put out to sea.

ARIEL (aside to Prospero) Sir, all this service

Have I done since I went.

PROSPERO (aside to Ariel)

My tricksy spirit!

ALONSO

These are not natural events; they strengthen

From strange to stranger. Say, how came you hither?

BOATSWAIN

If I did think, sir, I were well awake

I’d strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep,

And—how we know not—all clapped under hatches,

Where but even now, with strange and several noises

Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains,

And more diversity of sounds, all horrible,

We were awaked; straightway at liberty;

Where we in all her trim freshly beheld

Our royal, good, and gallant ship, our Master

Cap’ring to eye her. On a trice, so please you,

Even in a dream, were we divided from them,

And were brought moping hither.

ARIEL (aside to Prospero)

Was’t well done?

PROSPERO (aside to Ariel)

Bravely, my diligence. Thou shalt be free.

ALONSO

This is as strange a maze as e’er men trod,

And there is in this business more than nature

Was ever conduct of. Some oracle

Must rectify our knowledge.

PROSPERO

Sir, my liege,

Do not infest your mind with beating on

The strangeness of this business. At picked leisure,

Which shall be shortly, single I’ll resolve you,

Which to you shall seem probable, of every

These happened accidents; till when be cheerful,

And think of each thing well. (Aside to Ariel) Come

hither, spirit.

Set Caliban and his companions free.

Untie the spell.

Exit Ariel

(To Alonso) How fares my gracious sir?

There are yet missing of your company

Some few odd lads that you remember not.

Enter Ariel, driving in Caliban, Stefano, and Trinculo, in their stolen apparel

STEFANO Every man shift for all the rest, and let no man take care for himself, for all is but fortune. Coragio, bully-monster, coragio!

TRINCULO If these be true spies which I wear in my head, here’s a goodly sight.

CALIBAN

O Setebos, these be brave spirits indeed!

How fine my master is! I am afraid

He will chastise me.

SEBASTIAN

Ha, ha! What things are these, my lord Antonio?

Will money buy ’em?

ANTONIO

Very like; one of them

Is a plain fish, and no doubt marketable.

PROSPERO

Mark but the badges of these men, my lords,

Then say if they be true. This misshapen knave,

His mother was a witch, and one so strong

That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs,

And deal in her command without her power.

These three have robbed me, and this demi-devil,

For he’s a bastard one, had plotted with them

To take my life. Two of these fellows you

Must know and own. This thing of darkness I

Acknowledge mine.

CALIBAN

I shall be pinched to death.

ALONSO

Is not this Stefano, my drunken butler?

SEBASTIAN

He is drunk now. Where had he wine?

ALONSO

And Trinculo is reeling ripe. Where should they

Find this grand liquor that hath gilded ’em?

(To Trinculo) How cam’st thou in this pickle?

TRINCULO I have been in such a pickle since I saw you last that, I fear me, will never out of my bones. I shall not fear fly-blowing.

SEBASTIAN Why, how now, Stefano?

STEFANO O, touch me not! I am not Stefano, but a cramp.

PROSPERO You’d be king o’the isle, sirrah?

STEFANO I should have been a sore one, then.

ALONSO (pointing to Caliban) This is a strange thing as e’er I looked on.

PROSPERO

He is as disproportioned in his manners

As in his shape. (To Caliban) Go, sirrah, to my cell.

Take with you your companions. As you look

To have my pardon, trim it handsomely.

CALIBAN

Ay, that I will; and I’ll be wise hereafter,

And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass

Was I to take this drunkard for a god,

And worship this dull fooll

PROSPERO

Go to, away!

Exit Caliban

ALONSO (to Stefano and Trinculo)

Hence, and bestow your luggage where you found it.

SEBASTIAN Or stole it, rather.

Exeunt Stefano and Trinculo

PROSPERO (to Alonso)

Sir, I invite your highness and your train

To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest

For this one night; which part of it I’ll waste

With such discourse as I not doubt shall make it

Go quick away: the story of my life,

And the particular accidents gone by

Since I came to this isle. And in the morn

I’ll bring you to your ship, and so to Naples,

Where I have hope to see the nuptial

Of these our dear-belovèd solemnized;

And thence retire me to my Milan, where

Every third thought shall be my grave.

ALONSO I long

To hear the story of your life, which must

Take the ear strangely.

PROSPERO

I’ll deliver all,

And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales,

And sail so expeditious that shall catch

Your royal fleet far off. (Aside to Ariel) My Ariel, chick,

That is thy charge. Then to the elements

Be free, and fare thou well.

Exit Ariel

Please you, draw near.

Exeunt ⌈all but Prospero⌉

Epilogue

PROSPERO

Now my charms are all o’erthrown,

And what strength I have’s mine own,

Which is most faint. Now ’tis true

I must be here confined by you

Or sent to Naples. Let me not,

Since I have my dukedom got,

And pardoned the deceiver, dwell

In this bare island by your spell;

But release me from my bands

With the help of your good hands.

Gentle breath of yours my sails

Must fill, or else my project fails,

Which was to please. Now I want

Spirits to enforce, art to enchant;

And my ending is despair

Unless I be relieved by prayer,

Which pierces so, that it assaults

Mercy itself, and frees all faults.

As you from crimes would pardoned be,

Let your indulgence set me free.

He awaits applause, then exit

CARDENIO

A BRIEF ACCOUNT

MANY plays acted in Shakespeare’s time have failed to survive; they may easily include some that he wrote. The mystery of Love’s Labour’s Won is discussed elsewhere (pp. xxxvii, 337). Certain manuscript records of the seventeenth century suggest that at least one other play in which he had a hand may have disappeared. On 9 September 1653 the London publisher Humphrey Moseley entered in the Stationers’ Register a batch of plays including ‘The History of Cardenio, by Mr Fletcher and Shakespeare’. Cardenio is a character in Part One of Cervantes’ Don Quixote, published in English translation in 1612. Two earlier allusions suggest that the King’s Men owned a play on this subject at the time that Shakespeare was collaborating with John Fletcher (1579-1625). On 20 May 1613 the Privy Council authorized payment of £20 to John Heminges, as leader of the King’s Men, for the presentation at court of six plays, one listed as ‘Cardenno’. On 9 July of the same year Heminges received £6 13s. 4d. for his company’s performance of a play ‘called Cardenna’ before the ambassador of the Duke of Savoy.

No more information about this play survives from the seventeenth century, but in 1728 Lewis Theobald published a play based on the story of Cardenio and called Double Falsehood, or The Distrest Lovers, which he claimed to have ‘revised and adapted’ from one ‘written originally by W. Shakespeare’. It had been successfully produced at Drury Lane on 13 December 1727, and was given thirteen times up to 1 May 1728. Other performances are recorded in 1740, 1741, 1767 (when it was reprinted), 1770, and 1847. In 1770 a newspaper stated that ‘the original manuscript’ was ‘treasured up in the Museum of Covent Garden Playhouse’; fire destroyed the theatre, including its library, in 1808.

Theobald claimed to own several manuscripts of an original play by Shakespeare, and remarked that some of his contemporaries thought the style was Fletcher’s, not Shakespeare’s. When he himself came to edit Shakespeare’s plays he did not include either Double Falsehood or the play on which he claimed to have based it; he simply edited the plays of the First Folio, not adding either Pericles or The Two Noble Kinsmen, though he believed they were partly by Shakespeare. It is quite possible that Double Falsehood is based (however distantly) on a play of Shakespeare’s time; if so, the play is likely to have been the one performed by the King’s Men and ascribed by Moseley in 1653 to Fletcher and Shakespeare.

Double Falsehood is a tragicomedy; the characters’ names differ from those in Don Quixote, and the story is varied. Henriquez rapes Violante, then falls in love with Leonora, loved by his friend Julio. Her parents agree to the marriage, but Julio interrupts the ceremony. Leonora (who had intended to kill herself) swoons and later takes sanctuary in a nunnery. Julio goes mad with desire for vengeance on his false friend; and the wronged Violante, disguised as a boy, joins a group of shepherds, and is almost raped by one of them. Henriquez’s virtuous brother, Roderick, ignorant of his villainy, helps him to abduct Leonora. Leonora and Violante both denounce Henriquez to Roderick. Finally Henriquez repents and marries Violante, while Julio (now sane) marries Leonora.

Some of the motifs of Double Falsehood, such as the disguised heroine wronged by her lover and, particularly, the reuniting and reconciliation of parents with children, recall Shakespeare’s late plays. But most of the dialogue seems un-Shakespearian. Though the play deserved its limited success, it is now no more than an interesting curiosity.