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An advocate for an impostor! hush!

Thou think'st there is no more such shapes as he,
Having seen but him and Caliban: foolish wench!
To the most of men this is a Caliban

And they to him are angels.

Mir.

My affections

Are then most humble; I have no ambition

To see a goodlier man.

Pros.

Thy nerves are in their infancy again

Come on; obey:

So they are;

And have no vigour in them.

Fer.
My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up.
My father's loss, the weakness which I feel,
The wreck of all my friends, nor this man's
threats,

To whom I am subdued, are but light to me,
Might I but through my prison once a day
Behold this maid: all corners else o' the earth
Let liberty make use of; space enough

Have I in such a prison.

Pros. [Aside] It works. [To Fer.] Come on. Thou hast done well, fine Ariel! [To Fer.] Follow

me.

[To Ari.] Hark what thou else shalt do me.

Mir.

My father's of a better nature, sir,

Be of comfort;

Than he appears by speech: this is unwonted

Which now came from him.

Pros.

Thou shalt be as free

As mountain winds: but then exactly do
All points of my command.

Ari.

To the syllable.

Pros. Come, follow. Speak not for him.

480

490

500

[Exeunt.

484. nerves, sinews.

VOL. IV

433

2 F

SCENE I.

ACT II.

Another part of the island.

Enter ALONSO, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo,
ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and others.

Gon. Beseech you, sir, be merry; you have

cause,

So have we all, of joy; for our escape

Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe
Is common; every day some sailor's wife,

The masters of some merchant and the merchant
Have just our theme of woe; but for the miracle,
I mean our preservation, few in millions

Can speak like us: then wisely, good sir, weigh
Our sorrow with our comfort.

Alon.

Prithee, peace.

Seb. He receives comfort like cold porridge.
Ant. The visitor will not give him o'er so.

Seb. Look, he's winding up the watch of his

wit; by and by it will strike.

Gon. Sir,

Seb. One: tell.

Gon. When every grief is entertain'd that's offer'd,

Comes to the entertainer

Seb. A dollar.

Gon. Dolour comes to him, indeed: you have spoken truer than you purposed.

3. hint, occasion.

5. masters of some merchant, i.e. merchantman.'

ΤΟ

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Seb. You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should,

Gon. Therefore, my lord,

Ant. Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue
Alon. I prithee, spare.

Gon. Well, I have done: but yet,—

Seb. He will be talking.

Ant. Which, of he or Adrian, for a good wager,

first begins to crow?

Seb. The old cock.

Ant. The cockerel.

Seb. Done.

The wager?

30

Ant. A laughter.

Seb. A match!

Adr. Though this island seem to be desert,—
Ant. Ha, ha, ha!

Seb. So, you're paid.

Adr. Uninhabitable and almost inaccessible,-
Seb. Yet,-

Adr. Yet,

Ant. He could not miss 't.

Adr. It must needs be of subtle, tender and delicate temperance.

Ant. Temperance was a delicate wench.

Seb. Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly delivered.

Adr. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.

Seb. As if it had lungs and rotten ones.

Ant. Or as 'twere perfumed by a fen.

Gon. Here is every thing advantageous to life.

35. (Ant.) Ha, ha, ha! (Seb.) So, you're paid. Ff give the first words to Sebastian, the second to Antonio. Theobald gave both to Sebastian. Adrian, 'the cockerel,' having first

40

spoken, Antonio wins the match, laughs in triumph, and 'a laughter' being the wager, is thereupon told by Sebastian that he is ' 'paid.'

42. temperance, temperature.

Ant. True; save means to live.

Seb. Of that there's none, or little.

Gon. How lush and lusty the grass looks! how

green!

Ant. The ground indeed is tawny.

Seb. With an eye of green in 't.

Ant. He misses not much.

Seb. No; he doth but mistake the truth totally. Gon. But the rarity of it is,—which is indeed almost beyond credit,

Seb. As many vouched rarities are.

Gon. That our garments, being, as they were, drenched in the sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness and glosses, being rather new-dyed than stained with salt water.

Ant. If but one of his pockets could speak, would it not say he lies?

Seb. Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report.

50

60

Gon. Methinks our garments are now as fresh as when we put them on first in Afric, at the marriage of the king's fair daughter Claribel to 70 the King of Tunis.

Seb. 'Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our return.

Adr. Tunis was never graced before with such

a paragon to their queen.

Gon. Not since widow Dido's time.

Ant. Widow! a pox o' that!

widow in? widow Dido!

How came that

Seb. What if he had said 'widower Æneas' too? Good Lord, how you take it!

Adr. 'Widow Dido' said you? you make me study of that she was of Carthage, not of Tunis.

:

55. an eye, a tinge.

75. to, for.

77. How came that widow

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in? i.e. seeing that Dido lost Æneas by his desertion, not by his death.

Gon. This Tunis, sir, was Carthage.

Adr. Carthage?

Gon. I assure you, Carthage.

Ant. His word is more than the miraculous

harp.

Seb. He hath raised the wall and houses too. Ant. What impossible matter will he make easy next?

Seb. I think he will carry this island home in his pocket and give it his son for an apple. Ant. And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring forth more islands.

Gon. Ay.

Ant. Why, in good time.

Gon. Sir, we were talking that our garments seem now as fresh as when we were at Tunis at the marriage of your daughter, who is now queen. Ant. And the rarest that e'er came there. Seb. Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido. Ant. O, widow Dido! ay, widow Dido. Gon. Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I wore it? I mean, in a sort.

Ant. That 'sort' was well fished for.

Gon. When I wore it at your daughter's marriage? Alon. You cram these words into mine ears against

86. the miraculous harp, viz. the harp with which Amphion raised the walls of Thebes.

94. Ay. This is best understood as addressed to AdrianGonzalo, who persistently ignores Antonio and Sebastian, reiterating his assurance that Tunis was Carthage. Staunton gave Ay to Alonso, interpreting it as an exclamation uttered by him on awaking from his trance

90

100

of grief. This has the merit of accounting for Gonzalo's sudden address to the King in line 96.

95. in good time, 'very good,' 'to be sure."

104. That sort' was well fished for, 'You have stumbled at last upon that needful qualification!'

106. against the stomach of my sense, though I loathe to hear them.

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