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PROSPERO 'Tis
time
I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand
And pluck my magic garment from me.
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PROSPERO It’s time for you to know the whole story. Give me a
hand and help me off with this magic cloak.
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MIRANDA helps
PROSPERO remove his mantle
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MIRANDA helps
PROSPERO remove his cloak.
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So,
25Lie there, my art.—Wipe thou thine eyes. Have comfort.
The direful spectacle of the wrack, which touched
The very virtue of compassion in thee,
I have with such provision in mine art
So safely ordered that there is no soul—
30No, not so much perdition as an hair
Betid to any creature in the vessel—
Which thou heard’st cry, which thou sawst sink. Sit
down.
For thou must now know farther.
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(to the cloak) So, lie there, my
magic. (to
MIRANDA) Wipe your eyes. Take
comfort. I arranged the horrible sight of this shipwreck, which
moved you to such pity, so carefully that not a single person was
hurt—no, not so much as a hair on anyone’s
head was destroyed in the ship that you saw sink. Sit down.
It’s time for you to know more.
(they sit)
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MIRANDA You
have often
Begun to tell me what I am, but stopped
35And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding, “Stay. Not yet.”
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MIRANDA You’ve often started to tell me who I am, but then
suddenly stopped, leaving me asking questions that never get
answered, telling me, “Wait. Not yet.”
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PROSPERO The
hour’s now come.
The very minute bids thee ope thine ear.
Obey and be attentive. Canst thou remember
A time before we came unto this cell?
40I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not
Out three years old.
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PROSPERO Well, the time has come. This is the moment for you to listen hard
and pay close attention. Can you remember the time before you came
to live in this shack? I doubt it, since you weren’t even
three at the time.
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MIRANDA Certainly, sir, I
can.
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MIRANDA Sure I can, father.
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PROSPERO By what? By any other house or person?
Of anything the image tell me that
Hath kept with thy remembrance.
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PROSPERO What do you remember? A house, a person? Tell me anything you
remember.
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