READ STUDY GUIDE: Act I, scene i |
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Act I, Scene i:
On a ship at sea
On a ship at sea
| [A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard] |
| [Enter a SHIPMASTER and a BOATSWAIN severally] |
| MASTER : |
| Boatswain! |
| BOATSWAIN : |
| Here, master: what cheer? |
| MASTER : |
| Good! Speak to the mariners: fall to't yarely, or |
| we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir. |
| [Exit] |
| [Enter MARINERS] |
| BOATSWAIN : |
| 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 : |
| Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master? |
| Play the men. |
| BOATSWAIN : |
| I pray now, keep below. |
| ANTONIO : |
| Where is the master, boson? |
| BOATSWAIN : |
| Do you not hear him? You mar our labour: |
| keep your cabins: you do assist the storm. |
| GONZALO : |
| Nay, good, be patient. |
| BOATSWAIN : |
| When the sea is. Hence! What cares these |
| roarers for the name of king? To cabin! silence! Trouble |
| us not. |
| GONZALO : |
| Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard. |
| BOATSWAIN : |
| None that I more love than myself. You are |
| 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 lived 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 : |
| 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] |
| BOATSWAIN : |
| Down with the topmast! yare! lower, lower! |
| Bring her to try wi' th' maincourse.[A cry within]A |
| plague upon this howling! They are louder than the |
| weather or our office.— |
| [Re-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 : |
| A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, |
| incharitable dog! |
| BOATSWAIN : |
| Work you, then. |
| ANTONIO : |
| Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent noisemaker, |
| we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art. |
| GONZALO : |
| I'll warrant him for drowning, though the ship were |
| no stronger than a nutshell, and as leaky as an unstanched |
| wench. |
| BOATSWAIN : |
| Lay her a-hold, a-hold! set her two courses: off |
| to sea again: lay her off. |
| [Enter MARINERS, Wet] |
| MARINERS : |
| All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost! |
| [Exeunt] |
| BOATSWAIN : |
| What, must our mouths be cold? |
| GONZALO : |
| The King and Prince at prayers! let us assist them, |
| For our case is as theirs. |
| SEBASTIAN : |
| I am out of patience. |
| ANTONIO : |
| We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.— |
| This wide-chapp'd rascal—would thou might'st lie drowning |
| The washing of ten tides! |
| GONZALO : |
| 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!'—] |
| ANTONIO : |
| Let's all sink wi' the King. |
| [Exit] |
| SEBASTIAN : |
| Let's take leave of him. |
| [Exit] |
| GONZALO : |
| 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 |
| dry death. |
| [Exit] |
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