Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 8Sylvester, Charles Herbert
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Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 8
Sylvester, Charles Herbert
Children's literature; Literature -- Collections
_Pros._ Abhorrèd slave,
Which any print of goodness wilt not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning,[387-96] but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes
With words that made them known. But thy vile race,
Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures
Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou
Deservedly confined into this rock,
Who hadst deserved more than a prison.
_Cal._ You taught me language; and my profit on't
Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid[387-97] you
For learning me your language!
_Pros._ Hag-seed, hence!
Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou'rt best,
To answer other business. Shrugg'st thou, malice?
If thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly
What I command, I'll rack thee with old[388-98] cramps,
Fill all thy bones with achès, make thee roar,
That beasts shall tremble at thy din.
_Cal._ No, pray thee.--
[_Aside._] I must obey: his art is of such power,
It would control my dam's god, Setebos,
And make a vassal of him.
_Pros._ So, slave; hence!
[_Exit CALIBAN._
_Re-enter ARIEL, invisible, playing and singing; FERDINAND
following._
ARIEL'S SONG
Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands:
Curtsied when you have, and kiss'd
The wild waves whist,[388-99]
Foot it featly here and there;
And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.
Hark, hark! { _Burden dispersedly._
The watch-dogs bark: { Bow-wow.
Hark, hark! I hear; { Bow-wow.
The strain of strutting {
chanticleer. { Cock-a-diddle-dow.
_Ferd._ Where should this music be? i' the air, or th' earth?
It sounds no more: and, sure, it waits upon
Some god o' the island. Sitting on a bank,
Weeping again the King my father's wreck,
This music crept by me upon the waters,
Allaying both their fury and my passion[389-100]
With its sweet air: thence I have follow'd it,
Or it hath drawn me rather. But 'tis gone.
No, it begins again.
_ARIEL sings._
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change[389-101]
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
_Burden._ Ding-Dong.
Hark! now I hear them,--Ding-Dong, bell.
_Ferd._ The ditty does remember my drown'd father.
This is no mortal business, nor no sound
That the earth owes.[389-102] I hear it now above me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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