The Tempest
Act I, Scene 1
On a ship at sea.
- A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.
- Enter a Ship-Master and a Boatswain.
Master
1- Boatswain!
Boatswain
2- Here, master; what cheer?
Master
3 - 4- Good; speak to th’ mariners. Fall to’t, yarely, or we run
- ourselves aground. Bestir, bestir.
- Exit.
- Enter Mariners.
Boatswain
5 - 7- Heigh, my hearts! Cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! Yare, yare!
- Take in the topsail. Tend to th’ master’s whistle.—Blow till
- thou burst thy wind, if room enough!
- Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and
- others.
Alonso
8- Good boatswain, have care. Where’s the master? Play the men.
Boatswain
9- I pray now keep below.
Antonio
10- Where is the master, bos’n?
Boatswain
11 - 12- Do you not hear him? You mar our labor. Keep your cabins;
- you do assist the storm.
Gonzalo
13- Nay, good, be patient.
Boatswain
14 - 15- When the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers for the
- name of king? To cabin! Silence! Trouble us not.
Gonzalo
16- Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard.
Boatswain
17 - 23- None that I more love than myself. You are a councillor; 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 liv’d 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
24 - 28- 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 hang’d, our case is miserable.
- Exeunt.
- Enter Boatswain.
Boatswain
29 - 34- 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.
- 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
35 - 36- A pox o’ your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable
- dog!
Boatswain
37- Work you then.
Antonio
38 - 39- Hang, cur! Hang, you whoreson, insolent noisemaker! We are
- less afraid to be drown’d than thou art.
A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard
From: The Tempest, arranged for representation at the Princess's Theatre
First performed on Wednesday, July 1, 1857
John K. Chapman and Co., 1857
Gonzalo
40 - 42- I’ll warrant him for drowning, though the ship were no
- stronger than a nutshell, and as leaky as an unstanch’d
- wench.
Boatswain
43 - 44- Lay her a-hold, a-hold! Set her two courses off to sea
- again! Lay her off.
- Enter Mariners wet.
Mariners
45- All lost! To prayers, to prayers! All lost!
- Exeunt.
Boatswain
46- What, must our mouths be cold?
Gonzalo
47 - 48- The King and Prince at prayers, let’s assist them,
- For our case is as theirs.
Sebastian
49- I am out of patience.
Antonio
50 - 52- We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.
- This wide-chopp’d rascal—would thou mightst lie drowning
- The washing of ten tides!
Gonzalo
53 - 58- He’ll be hang’d yet,
- Though every drop of water swear against it,
- And gape at wid’st 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!”
- Exit Boatswain.
Antonio
59- Let’s all sink wi’ th’ King.
Sebastian
60- Lee’s take leave of him.
- Exit with Antonio.
Gonzalo
61 - 63- 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.
- Exit.
Miranda ~ The Tempest
John William Waterhouse, 1916