Act 1

Scene I

On a ship at sea: a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.

	Enter a Ship-Master* and a Boatswain.*
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 the 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, boatswain?
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 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 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 hanged, our case is miserable. Exeunt.
	Reenter Boatswain.
Boatswain	Down with the topmast! yare! lower, lower! Bring her to try with main-course. A cry within. A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather or our office.
	Reenter 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!
Boatswain	What, must our mouths be cold?
Gonzalo	The king and prince at prayers! let’s assist them, For our case is as theirs.
Sebastian	I’m out of patience.
Antonio	We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards: This wide-chapp’d rascal⁠—would thou mightst 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 widest 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 with the king.
Sebastian	Let’s take leave of him. Exeunt Antonio* and Sebastian.*
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 a dry death. Exeunt.