William Shakespeare: The Tempest

ACT 1
2. SCENE II. The Island. Before the cell of PROSPERO (continued)

PROSPERO.
Shake it off. Come on;
We'll visit Caliban my slave, who never
Yields us kind answer.

MIRANDA.
'Tis a villain, sir,
I do not love to look on.

PROSPERO.
But as 'tis,
We cannot miss him: he does make our fire,
Fetch in our wood; and serves in offices
That profit us.--What ho! slave! Caliban!
Thou earth, thou! Speak.

CALIBAN.
[Within] There's wood enough within.

PROSPERO.
Come forth, I say; there's other business for thee:
Come, thou tortoise! when?

[Re-enter ARIEL like a water-nymph.]

Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel,
Hark in thine ear.

ARIEL.
My lord, it shall be done.

[Exit]

PROSPERO.
Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself
Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!

[Enter CALIBAN]

CALIBAN.
As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd
With raven's feather from unwholesome fen
Drop on you both! A south-west blow on ye,
And blister you all o'er!

PROSPERO.
For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps,
Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins
Shall forth at vast of night that they may work
All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch'd
As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging
Than bees that made them.

CALIBAN.
I must eat my dinner.
This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou tak'st from me. When thou cam'st first,
Thou strok'st me and made much of me; wouldst give me
Water with berries in't; and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night: and then I lov'd thee,
And show'd thee all the qualities o' th' isle,
The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place, and fertile.
Curs'd be I that did so! All the charms
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have,
Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest o' th' island.

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