ACT THIRD
Scene One
[Before Prospero's Cell]
Enter Ferdinand, bearing a log.
Fer. There be some sports are painful, and their labour
Delight in them sets off: some kinds of baseness
Are nobly undergone, and most poor matters
Point to rich ends. This my mean task 4
Would be as heavy to me as odious; but
The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead
And makes my labours pleasures: O! she is 7
Ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed,
And he's compos'd of harshness. I must remove
Some thousands of these logs and pile them up,
Upon a sore injunction: my sweet mistress
Weeps when she sees me work, and says such baseness 12
Had never like executor. I forget:
But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours,
Most busy lest, when I do it.
Enter Miranda; and Prospero [at a distance].
Mira. Alas! now, pray you,
Work not so hard: I would the lightning had 16
Burnt up those logs that you are enjoin'd to pile!
Pray, set it down and rest you: when this burns,
'Twill weep for having wearied you. My father
Is hard at study; pray now, rest yourself: 20
He's safe for these three hours.
2 sets off: makes attractive
15 busy lest, when I do it; cf. n.
