Page:Tempest (1918) Yale.djvu/18

The Tempest, I. ii

Pro. My brother and thy uncle, call'd Antonio,—

I pray thee, mark me,—that a brother should

Be so perfidious!—he whom next thyself,

Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put

The manage of my state: as at that time.

Through all the signiories it was the first,

And Prospero the prime duke, being so reputed

In dignity, and for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel: those being all my study,

The government I cast upon my brother,

And to my state grew stranger, being transported

And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle—

Dost thou attend me?

Mira. Sir, most heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits,

How to deny them, who t' advance, and who

To trash for over-topping; new created

The creatures that were mine, I say, or chang'd 'em,

Or else new form'd 'em: having both the key

Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state

To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was

The ivy which had hid my princely trunk,

And suck'd my verdure out on 't.—Thou attend'st not.

Mira. O, good sir! I do.

Pro. I pray thee, mark me.

I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated

To closeness and the bettering of my mind

With that which, but by being so retir'd,

O'erpriz'd all popular rate, in my false brother

 70 as time: then

71 signiories: principalities

76 state: position as duke

77 secret: magical

81 trash for over-topping: check for outrunning [their privileges]

82 or: either

83 key: used punningly in the ordinary sense and as meaning tuning key

87 on 't: of it

90 closeness: retirement

91, 92 Cf. n.

