from: The Tempest; Act I, Scene II
MIRANDA
…O, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer: a
brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble
creature in her,
Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry
did knock
Against my very heart. Poor souls,
they perish'd.
Had I been any god of power, I
would
Have sunk the sea within the earth
or ere
It should the good ship so have
swallow'd and
The fraughting souls within her.
PROSPERO
Be collected:
No more amazement: tell your
piteous heart
There's no harm done.
MIRANDA
O, woe the day!
PROSPERO
No harm.
I have done nothing but in care of
thee,
Of thee, my dear one, thee, my
daughter, who
Art ignorant of what thou art,
nought knowing
Of whence I am, nor that I am more
better
Than Prospero, master of a full
poor cell,
And thy no greater father.
MIRANDA
More to know
Did never meddle with my thoughts.
PROSPERO
'Tis time
I should inform thee farther. Lend
thy hand,
And pluck my magic garment from me.
So:
(Lays down his mantle)
Lie there, my art. Wipe thou thine
eyes; have comfort.
The direful spectacle of the wreck,
which touch'd
The very virtue of compassion in
thee,
I have with such provision in mine
art
So safely ordered that there is no
soul--
No, not so much perdition as an
hair
Betid to any creature in the vessel
Which thou heard'st cry, which thou
saw'st sink. Sit down;
For thou must now know farther.
MIRANDA
You have often
Begun to tell me what I am, but
stopp'd
And left me to a bootless
inquisition,
Concluding 'Stay: not yet.'
PROSPERO
The hour's now come;
The very minute bids thee ope thine
ear;
Obey and be attentive. Canst thou
remember
A time before we came unto this
cell?
