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James Boswell [1821], The plays and poems of William Shakspeare, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators: comprehending A Life of the Poet, and an enlarged history of the stage, by the late Edmond Malone. With a new glossarial index (J. Deighton and Sons, Cambridge) [word count] [S10201].
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SCENE III. Another part of the Island. Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, Francisco, and others.

Gon.
By'r lakin4 note, I can go no further, sir;
My old bones ake: here's a maze trod, indeed,
Through forth-rights, and meanders! by your patience,
I needs must rest me.

Alon.
Old lord, I cannot blame thee,
Who am myself attach'd with weariness,
To the dulling of my spirits; sit down, and rest.
Even here I will put off my hope, and keep it
No longer for my flatterer: he is drown'd,

-- 122 --


Whom thus we stray to find; and the sea mocks
Our frustrate search5 note

on land: Well let him go.

Ant.
I am right glad that he's so out of hope. [Aside to Sebastian.
Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose
That you resolv'd to effect.

Seb.
The next advantage
Will we take thoroughly.

Ant.
Let it be to-night;
For, now they are oppress'd with travel, they
Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance,
As when they are fresh.

Seb.
I say, to-night: no more.
Solemn and strange musick; and Prospero above, invisible. Enter several strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet; they dance about it with gentle actions of salutation; and, inviting the King, &c. to eat, they depart.

Alon.
What harmony is this? my good friends, hark!

Gon.
Marvellous sweet musick!

Alon.
Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these?

Seb.
A living drollery6 note


: Now I will believe,
That there are unicorns; that, in Arabia

-- 123 --


There is one tree, the phœnix' throne7 note



; one phœnix
At this hour reigning there.

Ant.
I'll believe both;
And what does else want credit, come to me,
And I'll be sworn 'tis true: Travellers ne'er did lie8 note



,
Though fools at home condemn them.

Gon.
If in Naples
I should report this now, would they believe me?
If I should say, I saw such islanders9 note,
(For, certes1 note

, these are people of the island,)
Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet, note,

-- 124 --


Their manners are more gentle, kind2 note, than of
Our human generation you shall find
Many, nay, almost any.

Pro.
Honest lord,
Thou hast said well; for some of you there present,
Are worse than devils.
[Aside.

Alon.
I cannot too much muse3 note


,
Such shapes, such gestures, and such sound, expressing
(Although they want the use of tongue,) a kind
Of excellent dumb discourse.

Pro.
Praise in departing4 note



. [Aside.

Fran.
They vanish'd strangely.

Seb.
No matter, since
They have left their viands behind; for we have stomachs.—
Will't please you taste of what is here?

Alon.
Not I.

-- 125 --

Gon.
Faith, sir, you need not fear: When we were boys,
Who would believe that there were mountaineers5 note

,
Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at them
Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men,
Whose heads stood in their breasts6 note

? which now we find,
Each putter-out of one for five7 note









, will bring us
Good warrant of.

-- 126 --

Alon.
I will stand to, and feed,
Although my last: no matter, since I feel
The best is past8 note



:—Brother, my lord the duke,
Stand too, and do as we.
Thunder and lightning. Enter Ariel like a harpy9 note








; claps his wings upon the table, and, with a quaint device, the banquet vanishes1 note.

Ari.
You are three men of sin, whom destiny

-- 127 --


(That hath to instrument this lower world2 note,
And what is in't,) the never-surfeited sea
Hath caused to belch up; and on this island
Where man doth not inhabit; you 'mongst men
Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad; [Seeing Alon. Seb. &c. draw their swords.
And even with such like valour, men hang and drown
Their proper selves. You fools! I and my fellows
Are ministers of fate; the elements
Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish
One dowle that's in my plume3 note



; my fellow-ministers

-- 128 --


Are like invulnerable4 note








: if you could hurt,
Your swords are now too massy for your strengths,
And will not be uplifted: But, remember,
(For that's my business to you,) that you three
From Milan did supplant good Prospero;
Expos'd unto the sea, which hath requit it,
Him, and his innocent child: for which foul deed
The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
Incens'd the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,

-- 129 --


Against your peace: Thee, of thy son, Alonso,
They have bereft; and do pronounce by me,
Ling'ring perdition (worse than any death
Can be at once,) shall step by step attend
You, and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from
(Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls
Upon your heads,) is nothing, but heart's sorrow,
And a clear life5 note

ensuing6 note
. He vanishes in thunder: then, to soft musick, enter the Shapes again, and dance with mops and mowes7 note


, and carry out the table.

Pro. [Aside.]
Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou
Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring:
Of my instruction hast thou nothing 'bated,
In what thou hadst to say: so, with good life8 note











,

-- 130 --


And observation strange, my meaner ministers
Their several kinds have done9 note: my high charms work,
And these, mine enemies, are all knit up
In their distractions: they now are in my power;
And in these fits I leave them, whilst I visit
Young Ferdinand, (whom they suppose is drown'd,)
And his and my loved darling. [Exit Prospero from above.

Gon.
I' the name of something holy, sir, why stand you
In this strange stare?

-- 131 --

Alon.
O, it is monstrous! monstrous!
Methought, the billows spoke, and told me of it;
The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder,
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd
The name of Prosper; it did bass my trespass1 note







.
Therefore my son i' the ooze is bedded; and
I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded,
And with him there lie mudded2 note

. [Exit.

Seb.
But one fiend at a time,
I'll fight their legions o'er.

Ant.
I'll be thy second.
[Exeunt Seb. and Ant.

Gon.
All three of them are desperate; their great guilt,
Like poison given3 note to work a great time after,
Now 'gins to bite the spirits:—I do beseech you
That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly,

-- 132 --


And hinder them from what this ecstacy4 note



May now provoke them to.

Adr.
Follow, I pray you.
[Exeunt.
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James Boswell [1821], The plays and poems of William Shakspeare, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators: comprehending A Life of the Poet, and an enlarged history of the stage, by the late Edmond Malone. With a new glossarial index (J. Deighton and Sons, Cambridge) [word count] [S10201].
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