Alonso
Antonio
Boatswain 
Ferdinand
Gonzalo
Master
Sebastian


Scene 1
A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.
Enter a Shipmaster and a Boatswain.

MASTER Boatswain!
BOATSWAIN Here, master. What cheer?
MASTER Good, speak to th’ mariners. Fall to ’t yarely,
or we run ourselves aground. Bestir, bestir!
He exits.

Enter Mariners.

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!

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 labor.
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 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!He exits.
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.
He exits with Alonso, Sebastian,
and the other courtiers.

Enter Boatswain.

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?
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 ahold, ahold! Set her two courses.
Off to sea again! Lay her off!

Enter more Mariners, wet.

MARINERS All lost! To prayers, to prayers! All lost!
Mariners exit.
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 am out of 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!
Boatswain exits.
GONZALO 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!”

ANTONIO Let’s all sink wi’ th’ King.
SEBASTIAN Let’s take leave of him.
He exits with Antonio.
GONZALO 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.
He exits.