Chapter 1
604 Words
MASTER
BOATSWAIN
MASTER
He exits.
BOATSWAIN
ALONSO
BOATSWAIN
ANTONIO
BOATSWAIN
GONZALO
BOATSWAIN A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.
Enter a Shipmaster and a Boatswain.
Boatswain!
Here, master. What cheer?
Good, speak to th’ mariners. Fall to ’t yarely,
or we run ourselves aground. Bestir, bestir!
Enter Mariners.
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.
Good boatswain, have care. Where’s the Master?
Play the men.
I pray now, keep below.
Where is the Master, boatswain?
Do you not hear him? You mar our labor.
Keep your cabins. You do assist the storm.
Nay, good, be patient.
When the sea is. Hence! What cares these
GONZALO
BOATSWAIN
He exits.
GONZALO
He exits with Alonso, Sebastian,
and the other courtiers.
BOATSWAIN
SEBASTIAN
BOATSWAIN
ANTONIO
roarers for the name of king? To cabin! Silence!
Trouble us not.
Good, yet remember whom thou hast
aboard.
None that I more love than myself. You are
a councillor; 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!
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.
Enter Boatswain.
Down with the topmast! Yare! Lower, lower!
Bring her to try wi’ th’ main course. (A cry
within.) A plague upon this howling! They are
louder than the weather or our office.
Enter Sebastian, Antonio, and Gonzalo.
Yet again? What do you here? Shall we give o’er and
drown? Have you a mind to sink?
A pox o’ your throat, you bawling, blasphemous,
incharitable dog!
Work you, then.
Hang, cur, hang, you whoreson, insolent
noisemaker! We are less afraid to be drowned than
thou art.
GONZALO
BOATSWAIN
MARINERS
Mariners exit.
BOATSWAIN
GONZALO
SEBASTIAN
ANTONIO
Boatswain exits.
GONZALO
ANTONIO
SEBASTIAN
He exits with Antonio.
GONZALO
He exits.
I’ll warrant him for drowning, though the
ship were no stronger than a nutshell and as leaky
as an unstanched wench.
Lay her ahold, ahold! Set her two courses.
Off to sea again! Lay her off!
Enter more Mariners, wet.
All lost! To prayers, to prayers! All lost!
What, must our mouths be cold?
The King and Prince at prayers. Let’s assist
them, for our case is as theirs.
I am out of patience.
We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.
This wide-chopped rascal—would thou
mightst lie drowning the washing of ten tides!
He’ll be hanged 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!”
Let’s all sink wi’ th’ King.
Let’s take leave of him.
Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea
for an acre of barren ground: long heath, brown
furze, anything. The wills above be done, but I
would fain die a dry death.
- Writer
