SCENE III.
Changes to another part of the island.
Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Anthonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, Francisco, &c.
Gon.
1 noteBy'r lakin, I can go no further, Sir;
My old bones ache: 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,
-- 75 --
Whom thus we stray to find; and the sea mocks
Our frustrate search on land: Well, let him go.
Ant. [Aside to Sebastian.]
I am right glad that he's so out of hope.
Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose
That you resolv'd to 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 are fresh.
Seb.
I say, to-night: no more.
Solemn and strange musick; and Prospero on the top, 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.
2 note
A living drollery: Now I will believe,
That there are unicorns; that, in Arabia
There is one tree, the phœnix' throne3 note; one phœnix
At this hour reigning there.
-- 76 --
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, certes4 note
, these are people of the island)
Who though they are of monstrous shape,9Q0066 yet, note,
Their manners are more gentle, kind, 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 muse5 note
,
Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing
(Although they want the use of tongue) a kind
Of excellent dumb discourse.
Pro.
6 note
Praise in departing.
[Aside.
Fran.
They vanish'd strangely.
Seb.
No matter, since
-- 77 --
They have 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: When we were boys,
Who would believe 7 note
that there were mountaineers,
Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em
Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men,
Whose heads stood in their breasts8 note
? which now, we find,
9 note
Each putter out on five for one,9Q0067 will bring us
Good warrant of.9Q0068
-- 78 --
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.
Thunder and lightning. 1 note
Enter Ariel like a harpy; claps
his wings upon the table, and, with a quaint device, the
banquet vanishes.
Ari.
You are three men of sin, whom destiny,
(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;
And even with such like valour men hang and drown
Their proper selves.
[Alonso, Sebastian, and the rest draw their swords.
Ye 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't-at stabs
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish
-- 79 --
3 note
One dowle 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 wraths to guard you from9Q0070
(Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls
-- 80 --
Upon your heads) is nothing, but heart's sorrow,
And a 4 note
clear life ensuing.
He vanishes in thunder: then to soft musick, enter the
shapes again, and dance with mops and mowes5 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, 6 note
with good life,
And observation strange, my meaner ministers
-- 81 --
Their several kinds have done: 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 lov'd darling.
[Exit Prospero from above.
Gon.
I'the 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 7 note
bass my trespass.
Therefore my son i'the ooze is bedded; and
I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded,
And with him there lie 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,
8 noteLike poison given 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 ecstasy9 note
May now provoke them to.
Adri.
Follow, I pray you.
[Exeunt.
-- 82 --
Samuel Johnson [1778], The plays of William Shakspeare. In ten volumes. With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. The second edition, Revised and Augmented (Printed for C. Bathurst [and] W. Strahan [etc.], London) [word count] [S10901].
