Page 1045 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

Thou most lying slave,
Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have us’d thee,
Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodg’d thee,
In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate

The honour of my child. [350]

CALIBAN
O ho, O ho! would ’t had been done!
Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled else
This isle with Calibans.

MIRANDA
Abhorred slave,

Which any print of goodness wilt not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee, [355]
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage,

Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endow’d thy purposes
With words that made them known. But thy vile race, [360]
Though thou didst learn, had that in ’t which good natures

Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou
Deservedly confin’d into this rock,
Who hadst deserv’d more than a prison.

CALIBAN
You taught me language; and my profit on’t [365]
Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you

For learning me your language!

PROSPERO
Hag-seed, hence!
Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou ’rt best,
To answer other business. Shrug’st thou, malice?

If thou neglect’st, or dost unwillingly [370]
What I command, I’ll rack thee with old cramps,
Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar,
That beasts shall tremble at thy din.