Gon.
By'r lakin, 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 th' dulling of my spirits: sit down, and rest.
Ev'n here I will put off my hope, and keep it
No longer for my flatterer: he is drown'd,
Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks
Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go.

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

Seb.
The next advantage
Will we take throughly.

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're fresh.

Seb.
I say, to-night: no more. Solemn and strange musick.

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

Gon.
Marvellous sweet musick!

Alon.
Give us kind keepers, heaven! what were these? [A dance of fantastic spirits.

Seb.
A living drollery. Now I will believe,
That there are unicorns; that, in Arabia,
There is one tree, the phœnix' throne; 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 lie,
Though fools at home condemn 'em.

Gon.
If in Naples,
I should report this now, would they believe me?
If I should say, I saw such islanders,
(For, certes, these are people of the island)
Who tho' they are of monstrous shape, yet, note,
Their manners are more gentle-kind, than of
Our human generation you shall find
Many; nay, almost any.

Alon.
I cannot too much muse,
Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing
(Although they want the use of tongue) a kind
Of excellent dumb discourse.

Fran.
They vanish'd strangely. [Thunder. Two Devils rise out of the Stage, with a Table decorated.

Seb.
No matter since

They've left their viands behind; for we have stomachs.
Will't please you taste of what is here?

Alon.
Not I.

Gon.
Faith, sir, you need not fear.

Alon.
I will stand to, and feed,
Although my last; no matter, since I feel
The best is past. Brother, my Lord the Duke,
Stand to, and do as we. [The Devils vanish with the Table. Thunder and Lightning. Enter Ariel.

Ari.
You are three men of sin, whom destiny
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;
And ev'n 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 bemockt-at stabs,
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish
One down that's in my plume: my fellow-ministers
Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt,
Your swords are now too massy for your strengths,
And will not be up-lifted. 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,
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 wrath 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 life ensuing* ^note. [Ex. Ariel.

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

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 base my trespass.
Therefore, my son i'th' ooze is bedded; and
I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded,
And with him there lye mudded. [Exit.

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

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

Gon.
All three of them are desperate; their great guilt,
Like poison giv'n to work a great time after,
Now 'gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you,
That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly;
And hinder them from what this ecstasy
May now provoke them to. [Exeunt.† ^note

Previous section