SCENE IV.--_The Cypress-trees and Cave.

_Enter_ FERDINAND _and_ HIPPOLITO, _with their swords drawn_.

_Ferd._ Come, sir, our cave affords no choice of place, But the ground's firm and even: Are you ready?

_Hip._ As ready as yourself, sir.

_Ferd._ You remember On what conditions we must fight? Who first Receives a wound is to submit.

_Hip._ Come, come, This loses time; now for the women, sir. [_They fight a little_, FERDINAND _hurts him_.

_Ferd._ Sir, you are wounded.

_Hip._ No.

_Ferd._ Believe your blood.

_Hip._ I feel no hurt, no matter for my blood.

_Ferd._ Remember our conditions.

_Hip._ I will not leave, till my sword hits you too. [HIP. _presses on_, FERD. _retires and wards_.

_Ferd._ I'm loth to kill you; you are unskilful, sir.

_Hip._ You beat aside my sword, but let it come As near as yours, and you shall see my skill.

_Ferd._ You faint for loss of blood, I see you stagger; Pray, sir, retire.

_Hip._ No! I will ne'er go back.-- Methinks the cave turns round, I cannot find--

_Ferd._ Your eyes begin to dazzle.

_Hip._ Why do you swim so, and dance about me? Stand but still till I have made one thrust. [HIP. _thrusts and falls._

_Ferd._ O help, help, help! Unhappy man! what have I done?

_Hip._ I'm going to a cold sleep, but when I wake, I'll fight again. Pray stay for me. [_Swoons._

_Ferd._ He's gone! He's gone! O stay, sweet, lovely youth! Help! help!

_Enter_ PROSPERO.

_Prosp._ What dismal noise is that?

_Ferd._ O see, sir, see, What mischief my unhappy hand has wrought!

_Prosp._ Alas! how much in vain doth feeble art Endeavour to resist the will of heaven? [_Rubs_ HIP. He's gone for ever; O thou cruel son Of an inhuman father! all my designs Are ruined and unravelled by this blow. No pleasure now is left me but revenge.

_Ferd._ Sir, if you knew my innocence--

_Prosp._ Peace, peace! Can thy excuses give me back his life? What, Ariel? sluggish spirit, where art thou?

_Enter_ ARIEL.

_Ariel._ Here, at thy beck, my lord.

_Prosp._ Ay, now thou comest, When fate is past, and not to be recalled. Look there, and glut the malice of thy nature; For, as thou art thyself, thou canst not but Be glad to see young virtue nipt i' the blossom.

_Ariel._ My lord, the Being, high above, can witness, I am not glad; we airy spirits are not of A temper so malicious as the earthy, But of a nature more approaching good. For which we meet in swarms, and often combat Betwixt the confines of the air and earth.

_Prosp._ Why didst thou not prevent, at least foretel, This fatal action then?

_Ariel._ Pardon, great sir, I meant to do it, but I was forbidden By the ill genius of Hippolito, Who came and threatened me, if I disclosed it, To bind me in the bottom of the sea, Far from the lightsome regions of the air, (My native fields) above a hundred years.

_Prosp._ I'll chain thee in the north for thy neglect, Within the burning bowels of Mount Hecla; I'll singe thy airy wings with sulph'rous flames, And choke thy tender nostrils with blue smoke; At ev'ry hickup of the belching mountain, Thou shalt be lifted up to taste fresh air, And then fall down again.

_Ariel._ Pardon, dread lord.

_Prosp._ No more of pardon than just heaven intends thee, Shalt thou e'er find from me: Hence! fly with speed, Unbind the charms which hold this murderer's father, And bring him, with my brother, straight before me.

_Ariel._ Mercy, my potent lord! and I'll outfly Thy thought. [_Exit_ ARIEL.

_Ferd._ O heavens! what words are these I heard, Yet cannot see who spoke 'em? Sure the woman Whom I loved was like this, some airy vision.

_Prosp._ No, murderer! she's, like thee, of mortal mould, But much too pure to mix with thy black crimes; Yet she has faults, and must be punished for them. Miranda and Dorinda! where are ye? The will of heaven's accomplished: I have now No more to fear, and nothing left to hope; Now you may enter.

_Enter_ MIRANDA _and_ DORINDA.

_Mir._ My love! is it permitted me to see You once again?

_Prosp._ You come to look your last; I will for ever take him from your eyes. But, on my blessing, speak not, nor approach him.

_Dor._ Pray, father, is not this my sister's man? He has a noble form; but yet he's not So excellent as my Hippolito.

_Prosp._ Alas, poor girl! thou hast no man: Look yonder; There's all of him that's left.

_Dor._ Why, was there ever any more of him? He lies asleep, sir; shall I waken him? [_She kneels by_ HIPPOLITO, _and jogs him_.

_Ferd._ Alas! he's never to be waked again.

_Dor._ My love, my love! wilt thou not speak to me? I fear you have displeased him, sir, and now He will not answer me; he's dumb and cold too; But I'll run straight, and make a fire to warm him. [_Exit_ DORINDA, _running_.

_Enter_ ALONZO, GONZALO, ANTONIO; _and_ ARIEL _invisible_.

_Alon._ Never were beasts so hunted into toils, As we have been pursued by dreadful shapes.-- But is not that my son? O Ferdinand! If thou art not a ghost, let me embrace thee.

_Ferd._ My father! O sinister happiness! Is it decreed I should recover you Alive, just in that fatal hour, when this Brave youth is lost in death, and by my hand?

_Ant._ Heaven! what new wonder's this?

_Gonz._ This isle is full of nothing else.

_Prosp._ You stare upon me, as you ne'er had seen me; Have fifteen years so lost me to your knowledge, That you retain no memory of Prospero?

_Gonz._ The good old duke of Milan!

_Prosp._ I wonder less, That thou, Antonio, knowest me not, because Thou didst long since forget I was thy brother Else I had ne'er been here.

_Ant._ Shame choaks my words.

_Alonz._ And wonder mine.

_Prosp._ For you, usurping prince, [_To_ ALONZ. Know, by my art you were shipwrecked on this isle, Where, after I a while had punished you, My vengeance would have ended; I designed To match that son of yours with this my daughter.

_Alonz._ Pursue it still, I am most willing to it.

_Prosp._ So am not I. No marriages can prosper, Which are with murderers made; look on that corpse. This, whilst he lived, was young Hippolito; That infant duke of Mantua, sir, whom you Exposed with me; and here I bred him up, Till that blood-thirsty man, that Ferdinand---- But why do I exclaim on him, when justice Calls to unsheath her sword against his guilt?

_Alonz._ What do you mean?

_Prosp._ To execute heaven's laws. Here I am placed by heaven, here I am prince, Though you have dispossessed me of my Milan. Blood calls for blood; your Ferdinand shall die, And I, in bitterness, have sent for you, To have the sudden joy of seeing him alive, And then the greater grief to see him die.

_Alonz._ And think'st thou I, or these, will tamely stand, To view the execution? [_Lays hand upon his sword._

_Ferd._ Hold, dear father! I cannot suffer you to attempt against His life, who gave her being, whom I love.

_Prosp._ Nay, then appear my guards--I thought no more To use their aid; (I'm cursed because I used it.) [_He stamps, and many Spirits appear._ But they are now the ministers of heaven, Whilst I revenge this murder.

_Alonz._ Have I for this Found thee, my son, so soon again to lose thee? Antonio, Gonzalo, speak for pity.

_Ferd._ Adieu, my fairest mistress. [_To_ MIR.

_Mir._ Now I can hold no longer; I must speak, Though I am loth to disobey you, sir: Be not so cruel to the man I love, Or be so kind to let me suffer with him.

_Ferd._ Recall that prayer, or I shall wish to live, Though death be all the 'mends that I can make.

_Prosp._ This night I will allow you, Ferdinand, To fit you for your death; that cave's your prison.

_Alonz._ Ah, Prospero! hear me speak. You are a father:-- Look on my age, and look upon his youth.

_Prosp._ No more! all you can say is urged in vain, I have no room for pity left within me. Do you refuse? help, Ariel, with your fellows, To drive them in; Alonzo and his son Bestow in yonder cave, and here Gonzalo Shall with Antonio lodge. [_Spirits drive them in, as they are appointed._

_Enter_ DORINDA.

_Dor._ Sir, I have made a fire; shall he be warmed?

_Prosp._ He's dead, and vital warmth will ne'er return.

_Dor._ Dead, sir! what's that?

_Prosp._ His soul has left his body.

_Dor._ When will it come again?

_Prosp._ O never, never! He must be laid in earth, and there consume.

_Dor._ He shall not lie in earth; you do not know How well he loves me: Indeed he'll come again. He told me he would go a little while, But promised me he would not tarry long.

_Prosp._ He's murdered by the man who loved your sister. Now both of you may see what 'tis to break A father's precept; you would needs see man, And by that sight are made for ever wretched; Hippolito is dead, and Ferdinand Must die for murdering him.

_Mir._ Have you no pity?

_Prosp._ Your disobedience has so much incensed me, That I this night can leave no blessing with you. Help to convey the body to my couch, Then leave me to mourn over it alone. [_They bear off the body of_ HIP.

_Enter_ MIRANDA _and_ DORINDA _again_. ARIEL _behind them_.

_Ariel._ I've been so chid for my neglect by Prospero, That I must now watch all, and be unseen.

_Mir._ Sister, I say again, 'twas long of you, That all this mischief happened.

_Dor._ Blame not me For your own fault; your curiosity Brought me to see the man.

_Mir._ You safely might Have seen him, and retired, but you would needs Go near him, and converse; you may remember My father called me thence, and I called you.

_Dor._ That was your envy, sister, not your love; You called me thence, because you could not be Alone with him yourself; but I am sure My man had never gone to heaven so soon, But that yours made him go. [_Crying._

_Mir._ Sister, I could not wish that either of them Should go to heaven without us; but it was His fortune, and you must be satisfied.

_Dor._ I'll not be satisfied: My father says He'll make your man as cold as mine is now; And when he is made cold, my father will Not let you strive to make him warm again.

_Mir._ In spite of you, mine never shall be cold.

_Dor._ I'm sure 'twas he that made me miserable, And I will be revenged. Perhaps you think 'Tis nothing to lose a man.

_Mir._ Yes, but there is Some difference betwixt my Ferdinand, And your Hippolito.

_Dor._ Ay, there's your judgment: Your's is the oldest man I ever saw, Except it were my father.

_Mir._ Sister, no more; It is not comely in a daughter, when She says her father's old.

_Dor._ But why do I Stay here, whilst my cold love perhaps may want me? I'll pray my father to make yours cold too.

_Mir._ Sister, I'll never sleep with you again.

_Dor._ I'll never more meet in a bed with you, But lodge on the bare ground, and watch my love.

_Mir._ And at the entrance of that cave I'll lie, And echo to each blast of wind a sigh. [_Exeunt severally, looking discontentedly on one another._

_Ariel._ Harsh discord reigns throughout this fatal isle, At which good angels mourn, ill spirits smile. Old Prospero, by his daughters robbed of rest, Has in displeasure left them both unblest. Unkindly they abjure each other's bed, To save the living, and revenge the dead. Alonzo, and his son, are prisoners made, And good Gonzalo does their crimes upbraid. Antonio and Gonzalo disagree, And would, though in one cave, at distance be. The seamen all that cursed wine have spent, Which still renewed their thirst of government; And wanting subjects for the food of power, Each would, to rule alone, the rest devour. The monsters, Sycorax and Caliban, More monstrous grow by passions learned from man. Even I, not framed of warring elements, Partake and suffer in these discontents. Why should a mortal, by enchantments, hold In chains a spirit of etherial mould? Accursed magic we ourselves have taught, And our own power has our subjections wrought! [_Exit._