PROSPERO Of the King’s ship, The mariners, say how thou hast dispos’d, And all the rest o’ th’ fleet? ARIEL Safely in harbour Is the King’s ship; in the deep nook, where once Thou call’dst me up at midnight to fetch dew From the still-vex’d Bermoothes, there she’s hid; The mariners all under hatches stowed, Who, with a charm join’d to their suff’red labour, I have left asleep; and for the rest o’ th’ fleet, Which I dispers’d, they all have met again, And are upon the Mediterranean flote Bound sadly home for Naples, Supposing that they saw the King’s ship wreck’d, And his great person perish.

PROSPERO Ariel, thy charge Exactly is perform’d; but there’s more work. What is the time o’ th’ day?

ARIEL Past the mid season. PROSPERO At least two glasses. The time ‘twixt six and now Must by us both be spent most preciously.

ARIEL Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains, Let me remember thee what thou hast promis’d, Which is not yet perform’d me.

PROSPERO How now, moody? What is’t thou canst demand? ARIEL My liberty.

PROSPERO Before the time be out? No more! ARIEL I prithee, Remember I have done thee worthy service, Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, serv’d

Without or grudge or grumblings. Thou didst promise To bate me a full year.

PROSPERO Dost thou forget From what a torment I did free thee? ARIEL No.

PROSPERO Thou dost; and think’st it much to tread the ooze Of the salt deep, To run upon the sharp wind of the north, To do me business in the veins o’ th’ earth When it is bak’d with frost.

ARIEL I do not, sir.

PROSPERO Thou liest, malignant thing. Hast thou forgot The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy Was grown into a hoop? Hast thou forgot her?

ARIEL No, sir. PROSPERO Thou hast. Where was she born? Speak; tell me. ARIEL Sir, in Argier.

PROSPERO O, was she so? I must Once in a month recount what thou hast been, Which thou forget’st. This damn’d witch Sycorax, For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible To enter human hearing, from Argier Thou know’st was banish’d; for one thing she did They would not take her life. Is not this true? ARIEL Ay, sir.

PROSPERO This blue-ey’d hag was hither brought with child, And here was left by th’sailors. Thou, my slave, As thou report’st thyself, wast then her servant; And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate To act her earthy and abhorr’d commands, Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee, By help of her more potent ministers, And in her most unmitigable rage, Into a cloven pine; within which rift Imprison’d thou didst painfully remain A dozen years; within which space she died, And left thee there,