Page 1037 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4
P. 1037
Approach, my Ariel, come.
Enter Ariel.
ARIEL
All hail, great master! grave sir, had! I come
To answer thy best pleasure; be ’t to fly, [190]
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
On the curl’d clouds, to thy strong bidding task
Ariel and all his quality.
PROSPERO
Hast thou, spirit,
Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee?
ARIEL
To every article. [195]
I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flam’d amazement: sometime I’d divide,
And burn in many places; on the topmast,
The yards and boresprit, would I flame distinctly, [200]
Then meet and join. Jove’s lightnings, the precursors
O’ th’ dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight-outrunning were not: the fire and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune
Seem to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble, [205]
Yea, his dread trident shake.
PROSPERO
My brave spirit!
Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil
Would not infect his reason?
ARIEL
Not a soul
But felt a fever of the mad, and play’d
Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners [210]
