The Tempest Translation Act 1, Scene 1
Loud sounds of a storm with thunder and lightning. A ship’s MASTER and BOATSWAIN enter.
MASTER
Boatswain!
MASTER
Boatswain!
BOATSWAIN
Here, master. What cheer?
BOATSWAIN
Here I am, sir. What do you need?
MASTER
Good, speak to th' mariners. Fall to ’t yarely, or we run ourselves aground. Bestir, bestir.
MASTER
Good man, speak to the sailors to get them working harder. Do it quickly, or we’re going to be shipwrecked. Move, move!
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Get LitCharts A+The MASTER exits.
SAILORS enter.
BOATSWAIN
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!
BOATSWAIN
Come on, my boys! Cheer up, cheer up, my boys! Quickly! Quickly! Pull down the topmost sail. Follow the master’s whistled commands. Blow, you wind, until you have nothing left to blast! We’ll survive as long as we have enough room to maneuver without running aground.
ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO, and others enter.
ALONSO
Good Boatswain, have care. Where’s the Master?Play the men.
ALONSO
Good Boatswain, be careful! Where’s the Master? Urge these men to work harder.
BOATSWAIN
I pray now, keep below.
BOATSWAIN
I ask you, please stay below deck now.
ANTONIO
Where is the Master, Boatswain?
ANTONIO
Where is the Master, Boatswain?
BOATSWAIN
Do you not hear him? You mar our labor. Keep your cabins.You do assist the storm.
BOATSWAIN
Can’t you hear him shouting commands? You’re interfering with our work. Stay in your cabins. You’re helping the storm.
GONZALO
Nay, good, be patient.
GONZALO
Please be calm, my good man.
BOATSWAIN
When the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin, silence! Trouble us not.
BOATSWAIN
I’ll be calm when the sea is. Get out of here! These waves don’t care that someone here is a king. Get to your cabins and be quiet! Stop bothering us.
GONZALO
Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard.
GONZALO
Good man, please remember whom you’ve got on board.
BOATSWAIN
None that I more love than myself. You are a councilor.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.
BOATSWAIN
Not one person that I care about more than myself. You’re a king’s advisor. If you can order the storm to stop, or negotiate a peace with it, we sailors will all stop working with our ropes and take a rest. Use your authority and do it. If you can’t, be thankful that you’ve lived as long as you have, and go to your cabin and prepare yourself to face death, should the worst happen.
[To SAILORS] Work, my boys!
[To GONZALO] Now, I’m telling you, get out of our way.
The BOATSWAIN exits.
GONZALO
I have great comfort from this fellow. Methinks he hathno drowning mark upon him. His complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging. Make therope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage. If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable.
GONZALO
That man makes me feel a lot more confident. It seems to me that he doesn’t look like he’s fated to die by drowning. Instead he looks like he’s destined to die by hanging. Good Fate, hold strong, and make sure that man survives this storm so that one day he can hanged. May the rope fated to hold him by the neck save us, because the ropes we have on the ship don’t seem to be helping us much. If he’s not fated to be hanged, then things look bleak for us.
GONZALO exits with the other men of the royal court.
The BOATSWAIN enters.
BOATSWAIN
Down with the topmast! Yare, lower, lower! Bring her totry wi' th' main course.
BOATSWAIN
Bring down the top sail! Quickly, lower, lower! Bring the ship in line with the wind using the main sail.
A shout offstage.
BOATSWAIN
A plague upon this howling! They are louder than the weather or our office.
BOATSWAIN
Curse those men shouting below decks! They’re louder than the storm and distracting us from our duties.
SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO enter.
BOATSWAIN
Yet again? What do you here? Shall we give o'er and drown?Have you a mind to sink?
BOATSWAIN
You’re up on deck again? What are you doing here? Should we just give up and drown? Are you in the mood to sink?
SEBASTIAN
A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!
SEBASTIAN
Curse you! Shut up, you wimpy, offensive, ungenerous dog!
BOATSWAIN
Work you, then.
BOATSWAIN
Do some work, then.
ANTONIO
Hang, cur! Hang, you whoreson insolent noisemaker! We are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.
ANTONIO
Go hang yourself, you rascal! Hang yourself, you loud, disrespectful bastard! We’re less afraid of drowning than you are.
GONZALO
I’ll warrant him for drowning though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell and as leaky as an unstanched wench.
GONZALO
I guarantee he’ll never drown, not even if the ship were as fragile as a nutshell and as leaky as a menstruating woman.
BOATSWAIN
Lay her a-hold, a-hold! Set her two courses off to sea again.Lay her off!
BOATSWAIN
Turn the ship close to the wind! Set both sails to push us back out to sea! Push her away from the land!
Wet SAILORS enter
MARINERS
All lost! To prayers, to prayers, all lost!
MARINERS
We’re going to die! Pray, pray! We’re going to die!
The SAILORS exit.
BOATSWAIN
What, must our mouths be cold?
BOATSWAIN
What, must we drown in the cold water?
GONZALO
The king and prince at prayers. Let’s assist them, for our case is as theirs.
GONZALO
The king and the prince are praying. Let’s pray with them, since we share their situation.
SEBASTIAN
I’m out of patience.
SEBASTIAN
I’ve lost all my patience.
ANTONIO
We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards. This wide-chopped rascal—would thou mightst lie drowning the washing of ten tides!
ANTONIO
We’ve had our lives completely taken from us by a bunch of drunken sailors. As for this bigmouthed rascal of a boatswain—
[To BOATSWAIN] I hope you drown ten times!
GONZALO
He’ll be hanged yet, though every drop of water swear against it and gape at widest to glut him.
GONZALO
He’ll still end up hanged, even if every drop of water in the ocean swears he won't, and opens its mouth wide to try to swallow him.
A chaotic noise sounds offstage.
VOICES
[within] Mercy on us! We split, we split! Farewell, my wife and children! Farewell, brother! We split, we split, we split!
VOICES
[Offstage] God have mercy on us! The ship’s splitting apart; the ship's splitting! Goodbye, my wife and children! Goodbye, brother! The ship's splitting, splitting, splitting!
ANTONIO
Let’s all sink wi' th' king.
ANTONIO
Let’s all sink with the king.
SEBASTIAN
Let’s take leave of him.
SEBASTIAN
Let’s say goodbye to him.
ANTONIO and SEBASTIAN exit.
GONZALO
Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acreof barren ground: long heath, brown furze, anything. The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death.
GONZALO
I’d give 125 square miles of sea for a single acre of infertile ground: an empty plain, plants growing in bad soil, anything. What's fated to be will be, but I'd be happier to die a dry death.
They exit.
