Imatges de pàgina
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And bring thee forth brave brood.

STE. Monster, I will kill this man: his daughter and I will be king and queen; (save our graces!) and Trinculo and thyself shall be viceroys :-Dost thou like the plot, Trinculo?

TRIN. Excellent.

STE. Give me thy hand; I am sorry I beat thee: but, while thou livest, keep

a good tongue in thy head.

CAL. Within this half-hour will he be asleep;

STE.

Wilt thou destroy him then?

ARI. This will I tell my master.

Ay, on mine honour.

CAL. Thou mak'st me merry: I am full of pleasure;

Let us be jocund: Will you troll the catch

You taught me but while-ere?

STE. At thy request, monster, I will do reason, any reason: Come on, Trinculo, let us sing.

Flout 'em, and cout 'em, and skout 'em, and flout 'em ;
Thought is free.

CAL. That 's not the tune.

[Sings.

[ARIEL plays the tune on a tabor and pipe.

STE. What is this same?

TRIN. This is the tune of our catch, played by the picture of Nobody".

STE. If thou beest a man, show thyself in thy likeness: if thou beest a devil,

take 't as thou list.

TRIN. O, forgive me my sins!

STE. He that dies pays all debts: I defy thee:-Mercy upon us!

CAL. Art thou afeard?

STE. No, monster, not I.

CAL. Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,

Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices,

That, if I then had wak'd after long sleep,

Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,

The clouds, methought, would open and show riches

Ready to drop upon me; that when I wak'd

I cried to dream again.

STE. This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I shall have my music for nothing.

CAL. When Prospero is destroyed.

STE. That shall be by and by: I remember the story.

TRIN. The sound is going away: let 's follow it, and after do our work.

STE. Lead, monster; we 'll follow.-I would I could see this taborer: he lays

it on.

TRIN. Wilt come? I'll follow Stephano.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.-Another part of the Island.

Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and others.

GON. By '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
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 to effect.

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[Aside to SEBASTIAN.

Solemn and strange music; 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 music!

ALON. Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these?
SEB. A living drollery: Now I will believe

ANT.

That there are unicorns; that in Arabia

There is one tree, the phoenix' throne; one phoenix
At this hour reigning there.

I'll believe both;

And what does else want credit, come to me,

And I'll be sworn 't is true: Travellers ne'er did lie,
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 islanders",

a Islanders. The original has islands.

(For, certes, these are people of the island,)

Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet, note,
Their manners are more gentle, kind, than of

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Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing (Although they want the use of tongue) a kind

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

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GON. Faith, sir, you need not fear: When we were boys,
Who would believe that there were mountaineers
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 breasts? which now we find,
Each putter-out of five for one will bring us

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[Aside.

Thunder and lightning. 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 world,
And what is in 't) the never-surfeited sea
Hath caus'd to belch up you, 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.

a This is the reading of the original-of five for one. Malone reads, of one to five; Steevens, on five to one. The putter-out is he who, being about to encounter the dangers of travel, deposits a sum of money to receive a larger sum if he returns in safety. Five for one appears to have been the rate for a very distant voyage. Five for one was therefore the technical term applied to a putter out. He puts out at the rate of five for one.

b You is omitted in all modern editions.

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 plume; my fellow-ministers
Are like invulnerable: 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,
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 life ensuing.

He vanishes in thunder: then, to soft music, enter the Shapes again, and dance with mops and mowes, and carry out the table.

b

PRO. 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 life,
And observation strange, my meaner ministers
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, while 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,

b

Mops. In the original, mocks.

a Dowle-a feather-a particle of down.
• Good life-alacrity-energy-spirit.

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GON. All three of them are desperate; their great guilt,

Like 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 ecstacy
May now provoke them to.

ADR.

Follow, I pray you.

[Exeunt.

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