Act V
 
Scene I
 
 
[Dunsinane. Ante-room in the castle]
Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting Gentlewoman

  Doct.  I have two nights watch’d with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walk’d?   
  Gent.  Since his Majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon ’t, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.   
  Doct.  A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching! 1 In this slumb’ry agitation, besides her walking and other actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her say?   
  Gent.  That, sir, which I will not report after her.           4
  Doct.  You may to me: and ’tis most meet you should.   
  Gent.  Neither to you nor any one; having no witness to confirm my speech.   
 
Enter LADY MACBETH, with a taper

Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise; and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.
  Doct.  How came she by that light?   
  Gent.  Why, it stood by her. She has light by her continually; ’tis her command.           8
  Doct.  You see, her eyes are open.   
  Gent.  Ay, but their sense are shut.   
  Doct.  What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands.   
  Gent.  It is an accustom’d action with her, to seem thus washing her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.           12
  Lady M.  Yet here’s a spot.   
  Doct.  Hark! she speaks. I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.   
  Lady M.  Out, damned spot! out, I say!—One: two: why, then ’tis time to do ’t.—Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?   
  Doct.  Do you mark that?           16
  Lady M.  The thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now?—What, will these hands ne’er be clean?—No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that; you mar all with this starting.   
  Doct.  Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.   
  Gent.  She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that; Heaven knows what she has known.   
  Lady M.  Here’s the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!           20
  Doct.  What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charg’d. 2   
  Gent.  I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body.   
  Doct.  Well, well, well,—   
  Gent.  Pray God it be, sir.           24
  Doct.  This disease is beyond my practice; yet I have known those which have walk’d in their sleep who have died holily in their beds.   
  Lady M.  Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so pale.—I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on ’s grave.   
  Doct.  Even so?   
  Lady M.  To bed, to bed! there’s knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone.—To bed, to bed, to bed!  Exit.           28
  Doct.  Will she go now to bed?   
  Gent.  Directly.   
  Doct.  Foul whisp’rings are abroad; unnatural deeds
Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds   
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.           32
More needs she the divine than the physician.   
God, God, forgive us all! Look after her;   
Remove from her the means of all annoyance, 3   
And still keep eyes upon her. So, good-night!           36
My mind she has mated, 4 and amaz’d my sight.   
I think, but dare not speak.   
  Gent.        Good-night, good doctor.  Exeunt.   
 
Note 1. Actions of waking. [back]
Note 2. Burdened. [back]
Note 3. Injury. [back]
Note 4. Paralyzed. [back]

Scene II
 
 
[The country near Dunsinane]
Drum and colours. Enter MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, and Soldiers

  Ment.  The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,   
His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.   
Revenges burn in them; for their dear 1 causes   
Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm           4
Excite the mortified man. 2   
  Ang.        Near Birnam wood   
Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming.   
  Caith.  Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?           8
  Len.  For certain, sir, he is not; I have a file 3   
Of all the gentry. There is Siward’s son,   
And many unrough 4 youths that even now   
Protest 5 their first of manhood.           12
  Ment.        What does the tyrant?   
  Caith.  Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies.   
Some say he’s mad, others that lesser hate him   
Do call it valiant fury; but, for certain,           16
He cannot buckle his distemper’d cause 6   
Within the belt of rule.   
  Ang.        Now does he feel   
His secret murders sticking on his hands;           20
Now minutely 7 revolts upbraid his faith-breach;   
Those he commands move only in command,   
Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title   
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe           24
Upon a dwarfish thief.   
  Ment.        Who then shall blame   
His pester’d 8 senses to recoil and start,   
When all that is within him does condemn           28
Itself for being there?   
  Caith.        Well, march we on   
To give obedience where ’tis truly ow’d.   
Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal,           32
And with him pour we in our country’s purge   
Each drop of us.   
  Len.        Or so much as it needs   
To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.           36
Make we our march towards Birnam.  Exeunt, marching.   
 
Note 1. Intimately felt. [back]
Note 2. Hermit (?). Dead man (?). [back]
Note 3. List. [back]
Note 4. Beardless. [back]
Note 5. Declare. [back]
Note 6. Cause of his mad behavior. [back]
Note 7. Occurring every minute. [back]
Note 8. Perturbed. [back]

Scene III
 
 
[Dunsinane. A room in the castle]
Enter MACBETH, Doctor, and Attendants

  Macb.  Bring me no more reports; let them fly all;   
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane   
I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm?   
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know           4
All mortal 1 consequences have pronounc’d me thus:   
“Fear not, Macbeth; no man that’s born of woman   
Shall e’er have power upon thee.” Then fly, false thanes,   
And mingle with the English epicures!           8
The mind I sway by and the heart I bear   
Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.   
 
Enter a Servant

The devil damn thee black, thou cream-fac’d loon! 2   
Where got’st thou that goose look?           12
  Serv.  There is ten thousand—   
  Macb.        Geese, villain?   
  Serv.        Soldiers, sir.   
  Macb.  Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear,           16
Thou lily-liver’d boy. What soldiers, patch? 3   
Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine   
Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?   
  Serv.  The English force, so please you.           20
  Macb.  Take thy face hence.  [Exit Servant.]   
        Seyton!—I am sick at heart   
When I behold—Seyton, I say!—This push 4   
Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.           24
I have liv’d long enough. My way of life   
Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf;   
And that which should accompany old age,   
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,           28
I must not look to have; but, in their stead,   
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath   
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.   
Seyton!           32
 
Enter SEYTON

  Sey.  What’s your gracious pleasure?   
  Macb.        What news more?   
  Sey.  All is confirm’d, my lord, which was reported.   
  Macb.  I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack’d.           36
Give me my armour.   
  Sey.        ’Tis not needed yet.   
  Macb.  I’ll put it on.   
Send out moe 5 horses; skirr 6 the country round;           40
Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour.   
How does your patient, doctor?   
  Doct.        Not so sick, my lord,   
As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies,           44
That keep her from her rest.   
  Macb.        Cure her of that.   
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas’d,   
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,           48
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,   
And with some sweet oblivious 7 antidote   
Cleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff   
Which weights upon the heart?           52
  Doct.        Therein the patient   
Must minister to himself.   
  Macb.  Throw physic to the dogs; I’ll none of it.   
Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff.           56
Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me.   
Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast   
The water 8 of my land, find her disease,   
And purge it to a sound and pristine 9 health,           60
I would applaud thee to the very echo,   
That should applaud again.—Pull ’t off, I say.—   
What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug,   
Would scour these English hence? Hear’st thou of them?           64
  Doct.  Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation   
Makes us hear something.   
  Macb.        Bring it after me.   
I will not be afraid of death and bane, 10           68
Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane.   
  Doct.[Aside.]  Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,   
Profit again should hardly draw me here.  Exeunt.   
 
Note 1. Affecting men. [back]
Note 2. Fellow, rascal. [back]
Note 3. Fool. [back]
Note 4. Assault. [back]
Note 5. More. [back]
Note 6. Scour. [back]
Note 7. Causing forgetfulness. [back]
Note 8. Diagnose by inspecting urine. [back]
Note 9. Original. [back]
Note 10. Ruin. [back]

Scene IV
 
Towards which advance the war.  Exeunt, marching.
 
[Country near Birnam wood]
Drum and colours. Enter MALCOLM, old SIWARD and his Son, MACDUFF, MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, [LENNOX, ROSS,] and Soldiers, marching

  Mal.  Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand   
That chambers will be safe.   
  Ment.        We doubt it nothing.   
  Siw.  What wood is this before us?           4
  Ment.        The wood of Birnam.   
  Mal.  Let every soldier hew him down a bough   
And bear ’t before him; thereby shall we shadow   
The numbers of our host and make discovery 1           8
Err in report of us.   
  Soldiers.        It shall be done.   
  Siw.  We learn no other but the confident tyrant   
Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure           12
Our setting down before 2 ’t.   
  Mal.        ’Tis his main hope;   
For where there is advantage to be given,   
Both more and less 3 have given him the revolt,           16
And none serve with him but constrained things   
Whose hearts are absent too.   
  Macd.        Let our just censures 4   
Attend the true event, and put we on           20
Industrious soldiership.   
  Siw.        The time approaches   
That will with due decision make us know   
What we shall say we have and what we owe.           24
Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate,   
But certain issue strokes must arbitrate;   
 
Note 1. The scouts. [back]
Note 2. Besieging. [back]
Note 3. Great and small. [back]
Note 4. Let our opinions await the outcome. [back]
 

Scene V
 
 
[Dunsinane. Within the castle]
Enter MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers, with drum and colours

  Macb.  Hang out our banners on the outward walls;   
The cry is still, “They come!” Our castle’s strength   
Will laugh a siege to scorn; here let them lie   
Till famine and the ague eat them up.           4
Were they not forc’d 1 with those that should be ours,   
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,   
And beat them backward home.  A cry of women within.   
        What is that noise?           8
  Sey.  It is the cry of women, my good lord.   
  Macb.  I have almost forgot the taste of fears.   
The time has been, my senses would have cool’d   
To hear a night-shriek, and my fell 2 of hair           12
Would at a dismal treatise 3 rouse and stir   
As life were in ’t. I have supp’d full with horrors;   
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,   
Cannot once start me.           16
 
[Re-enter SEYTON]

        Wherefore was that cry?   
  Sey.  The Queen, my lord, is dead.   
  Macb.  She should have died hereafter;   
There would have been a time for such a word.           20
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,   
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day   
To the last syllable of recorded time;   
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools           24
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!   
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player   
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage   
And then is heard no more. It is a tale           28
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,   
Signifying nothing.   
 
Enter a Messenger

Thou com’st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.   
  Mess.  Gracious my lord,           32
I should report that which I say I saw,   
But know not how to do it.   
  Macb.        Well, say, sir.   
  Mess.  As I did stand my watch upon the hill,           36
I look’d toward Birnam, and anon, methought,   
The wood began to move.   
  Macb.        Liar and slave!   
  Mess.  Let me endure your wrath, if ’t be not so.           40
Within this three mile may you see it coming;   
I say, a moving grove.   
  Macb.        If thou speak’st false,   
Upon the next tree shall thou hang alive,           44
Till famine cling 4 thee; if thy speech be sooth,   
I care not if thou dost for me as much.   
I pull in resolution, and begin   
To doubt the equivocation of the fiend           48
That lies like truth. “Fear not, till Birnam wood   
Do come to Dunsinane;” and now a wood   
Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!   
If this which he avouches does appear,           52
There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.   
I gin to be aweary of the sun,   
And wish the estate o’ the world were now undone.   
Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack!           56
At least we’ll die with harness on our back.  Exeunt.   
 
Note 1. Reinforced. [back]
Note 2. Covering of hair. [back]
Note 3. Story. [back]
Note 4. Shrivel. [back]

Scene VI
 
 
[Dunsinane. Before the castle]
Drum and colours. Enter MALCOLM, old SIWARD, MACDUFF, and their Army, with boughs

  Mal.  Now near enough; your leavy screens throw down,   
And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle,   
Shall, with my cousin, your right noble son,   
Lead our first battle. 1 Worthy Macduff and we           4
Shall take upon’s what else remains to do,   
According to our order.   
  Siw.  Fare you well.   
Do we but find the tyrant’s power to-night,           8
Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight.   
  Macd.  Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath,   
Those clamorous harbingers 2 of blood and death.  Exeunt. Alarums continued.   
 
Note 1. Battalion. [back]
Note 2. Forerunners, announcers. [back]

Scene VII
 
 
[The same]
Enter MACBETH

  Macb.  They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly,   
But, bear-like, I must fight the course. 1 What’s he   
That was not born of woman? Such a one   
Am I to fear, or none.           4
 
Enter young SIWARD

  Y. Siw.  What is thy name?   
  Macb.        Thou’lt be afraid to hear it.   
  Y. Siw.  No; though thou call’st thyself a hotter name   
Than any is in hell.           8
  Macb.        My name’s Macbeth.   
  Y. Siw.  The devil himself could not pronounce a title   
More hateful to mine ear.   
  Macb.        No, nor more fearful.           12
  Y. Siw.  Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword   
I’ll prove the lie thou speak’st.  They fight and young SIWARD is slain.   
  Macb.        Thou wast born of woman.   
But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,           16
Brandish’d by man that’s of a woman born.  Exit.   
 
Alarums. Enter MACDUFF

  Macd.  That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face!   
If thou be’st slain and with no stroke of mine,   
My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still.           20
I cannot strike at wretched kerns, 2 whose arms   
Are hir’d to bear their staves; either thou, Macbeth,   
Or else my sword with an unbattered edge   
I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;           24
By this great clatter, one of greatest note   
Seems bruited. 3 Let me find him, Fortune!   
And more I beg not.  Exit. Alarums.   
 
Enter MALCOLM and old SIWARD

  Siw.  This way, my lord; the castle’s gently rend’red: 4           28
The tyrant’s people on both sides do fight;   
The noble thanes do bravely in the war;   
The day almost itself professes yours,   
And little is to do.           32
  Mal.        We have met with foes   
That strike beside us. 5   
  Siw.        Enter, sir, the castle.  [Exeunt. Alarums.   
 
Note 1. The attack of the dogs. [back]
Note 2. Light-armed foot-soldiers. [back]
Note 3. Announced. [back]
Note 4. Peaceably surrendered. [back]
Note 5. Over-confidence. [back]

Scene VIII
 
 
[The same]
Enter MACBETH

  Macb.  Why should I play the Roman fool, and die   
On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes   
Do better upon them.   
 
Enter MACDUFF

  Macd.        Turn, hell-hound, turn!           4
  Macb.  Of all men else I have avoided thee.   
But get thee back; my soul is too much charg’d   
With blood of thine already.   
  Macd.        I have no words,           8
My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain   
Than terms 1 can give thee out!  They fight. Alarum.   
  Macb.        Thou losest labour.   
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant 2 air           12
With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed.   
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;   
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield   
To one of woman born.           16
  Macd.        Despair thy charm;   
And let the angel whom thou still hast serv’d   
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb   
Untimely ripp’d.           20
  Macb.  Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,   
For it hath cow’d my better part of man!   
And be these juggling fiends no more believ’d   
That palter with us in a double sense,           24
That keep the word of promise to our ear,   
And break it to our hope. I’ll not fight with thee.   
  Macd.  Then yield thee, coward,   
And live to be the show and gaze o’ the time.           28
We’ll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,   
Painted upon a pole, 3 and underwrit,   
“Here may you see the tyrant.”   
  Macb.        I will not yield,           32
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet   
And to be baited with the rabble’s curse.   
Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,   
And thou oppos’d, being of no woman born,           36
Yet I will try the last. Before my body   
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,   
And damn’d be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!”  Exeunt, fighting. Alarums.   
 
Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD, ROSS, the other Thanes, and Soldiers

  Mal.  I would the friends we miss were safe arriv’d.           40
  Siw.  Some must go off; 4 and yet, by these I see,   
So great a day as this is cheaply bought.   
  Mal.  Macduff is missing, and your noble son.   
  Ross.  Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt.           44
He only liv’d but till he was a man;   
The which no sooner had his prowess confirm’d   
In the unshrinking station where he fought,   
But like a man he died.           48
  Siw.        Then he is dead?   
  Ross.  Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of sorrow   
Must not be measur’d by his worth, for then   
It hath no end.           52
  Siw.        Had he his hurts before?   
  Ross.  Ay, on the front.   
  Siw.        Why then, God’s soldier be he!   
Had I as many sons as I have hairs,           56
I would not wish them to a fairer death.   
And so, his knell is knoll’d.   
  Mal.        He’s worth more sorrow,   
And that I’ll spend for him.           60
  Siw.        He’s worth no more.   
They say he parted well, and paid his score;   
And so, God be with him! Here comes newer comfort.   
 
Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH’S head

  Macd.  Hail, king! for so thou art. Behold, where stands           64
The usurper’s cursed head. The time is free.   
I see thee compass’d with thy kingdom’s pearl,   
That speak my salutation in their minds;   
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:           68
Hail, King of Scotland!   
  All.        Hail, King of Scotland!  Flourish.   
  Mal.  We shall not spend a large expense of time   
Before we reckon with your several loves,           72
And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen,   
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland   
In such an honour nam’d. What’s more to do,   
Which would be planted newly with the time,           76
As calling home our exil’d friends abroad   
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;   
Producing forth the cruel ministers   
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,           80
Who, as ’tis thought, by self and violent hands   
Took off her life; this, and what needful else   
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,   
We will perform in measure, time, and place.           84
So, thanks to all at once and to each one,   
Whom we invite to see us crown’d at Scone.  Flourish. Exeunt.   
 
Note 1. Words. [back]
Note 2. Not to be injured by cutting. [back]
Note 3. A cloth hanging from a pole. [back]
Note 4. Die. [back]

Introductory Note
 
 
IT is entirely probable that the date of “The Tempest” is 1611, and that this was the last play completed by Shakespeare before he retired from active connection with the theater to spend the remainder of his life in leisure in his native town of Stratford-on-Avon.     1
  The main thread of the plot of the drama seems to have been some folk-tale of a magician and his daughter, which, in the precise form in which Shakespeare knew it, has not been recovered. The storm and the island were, it is believed, suggested by the wreck on the Bermudas in 1609 of one of the English expeditions to Virginia. Traces are found, too, of the author’s reading in contemporary books of travel.     2
  But the plot itself is of less importance than usual. Supernatural elements are introduced with great freedom, and the dramatist’s interest was clearly not in the reproduction of lifelike events. The presentation of character and the attractive picturing of the beauty of magnanimity and forgiveness are the things which, along with its delightful poetry, make the charm of this play. It is not to be wondered at that readers have frequently been led to find in the figure of the great magician, laying aside his robes and wonder-working rod in a spirit of love and peace toward all men, a symbol of the dramatist himself at the close of his great career; and it is surely legitimate to play with this idea without assuming that Shakespeare consciously embodied it. One can hardly conceive a more fitting epilogue to the volume which is the crown of the world’s dramatic literature than the romance of “The Tempest.”     3
 

Act I
 
Scene I
 
 
[On a ship at sea:] a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard
Enter a Ship-Master and a Boatswain

  Master  BOATSWAIN!   
  Boats.  Here, master; what cheer?   
  Mast.  Good; speak to the mariners. Fall to ’t, yarely, 1 or we run ourselves aground. Bestir, bestir.  Exit.   
 
Enter Mariners

  Boats.  Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare, 2 yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to the master’s whistle.—Blow till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!           4
 
Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO, and others

  Alon.  Good boatswain, have care. Where’s the master? Play the men.   
  Boats.  I pray now, keep below.   
  Ant.  Where is the master, boatswain?   
  Boats.  Do you not hear him? You mar our labour. Keep your cabins; you do assist the storm.           8
  Gon.  Nay, good, be patient.   
  Boats.  When the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin! silence! trouble us not.   
  Gon.  Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard.   
  Boats.  None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; 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.           12
  Gon.  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.   
 
Re-enter Boatswain

  Boats.  Down with the topmast! yare! lower, lower! Bring her to try 3 wi’ the main-course. A plague  A cry within.   
 
Enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO

upon this howling! They are louder than the weather or our office.—Yet again! What do you here? Shall we give o’er and drown? Have you a mind to sink?   
  Seb.  A pox o’ your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!           16
  Boats.  Work you, then.   
  Ant.  Hang, cur! hang, you whoreson, insolent noisemaker! We are less afraid to be drown’d than thou art.   
  Gon.  I’ll warrant him for drowning though the ship were no stronger than a nut-shell and as leaky as an unstanched wench.   
  Boats.  Lay her a-hold, 4 a-hold! Set her two courses 5 off to sea again! Lay her off.           20
 
Enter Mariners wet

  Mariners.  All lost! To prayers, to prayers! All lost!   
  Boats.  What, must our mouths be cold?   
  Gon.  The King and Prince at prayers! Let’s assist them, For our case is as theirs.   
  Seb.        I’m out of patience.           24
  Ant.  We are merely 6 cheated of our lives by drunkards.   
This wide-chapp’d rascal—would thou mightst lie drowning   
The washing of ten tides!   
  Gon.        He’ll be hang’d yet,           28
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!           32
Farewell, brother! We split, we split, we split!   
  Ant.  Let’s all sink wi’ the King.   
  Seb.  Let’s take leave of him.  Exit.   
  Gon.  Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, anything. The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death.  Exeunt.           36
 
Note 1. Smartly. [back]
Note 2. Smartly. [back]
Note 3. Close to the wind. [back]
Note 4. Bring her close to the wind. [back]
Note 5. The mainsail and foresail. [back]
Note 6. Absolutely. [back]