Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none:

No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil:
No occupation; all men idle, all;

And women too; but innocent and pure:
No sovereignty:-

Seb.

And yet he would be king on't. Ant. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning.

Gon. All things in common nature should produce Without sweat or endeavor: treason, felony, Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,1 Would I not have; but nature should bring forth, Of its own kind, all foison, all abundance, To feed my innocent people.

Seb. No marrying among his subjects?

Ant. None, man; all idle; whores, and knaves. Gon. I would with such perfection govern, sir, To excel the golden age.

Seb.

'Save his majesty!

Ant. Long live Gonzalo !
Gon.
And, do you mark me, sir?—
Alon. Pr'ythee, no more: thou dost talk nothing

to me.

Gon. I do well believe your highness; and did it to minister occasion to these gentlemen, who are of such sensible and nimble lungs, that they always use to laugh at nothing.

Ant. 'Twas you we laughed at.

Gon. Who, in this kind of merry fooling, am nothing to you; so you may continue, and laugh at nothing still.

Ant. What a blow was there given?

Seb. An it had not fallen flat-long.

Gon. You are gentlemen of brave mettle: you

1 An engine was a term applied to any kind of machine in Shakspeare's age.

2 Foison is only another word for plenty or abundance of provision, but chiefly of the fruits of the earth. In a subsequent scene we have

"Earth's increase, and foison plenty."

would lift the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue in it five weeks without changing.'

Enter ARIEL, invisible, playing solemn music. Seb. We would so, and then go bat-fowling. Ant. Nay, good my lord, be not angry.

Gon. No, I warrant you; I will not adventure my discretion so weakly. Will you laugh me asleep, for 1 am very heavy?

Ant. Go sleep, and hear us.

[All sleep but ALON. SEB. and ANT. Alon. What, all so soon asleep! I wish mine eyes Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts: I find, They are inclined to do so.

Seb.

Please you, sir,

Do not omit the heavy offer of it :
It seldom visits sorrow; when it doth,
It is a comforter.

Ant.

We two, my lord,

Will guard your person,
And watch your safety.

Alon.

while you take your rest,

Thank you: Wondrous heavy. [ALONZO sleeps. Exit ARIEL.

Seb. What a strange drowsiness possesses them! Ant. It is the quality o' the climate.

Why

Seb.
Doth it not then our eye-lids sink? I find not

Myself disposed to sleep.

Nor I; my spirits are nimble.

Ant.
They fell together all, as by consent;

They dropped, as by a thunder-stroke.

What might,

Worthy Sebastian ?-O, what might ?-No more ;And yet, methinks, I see it in thy face,

What thou should'st be: the occasion speaks thee; and My strong imagination sees a crown

Dropping upon thy head.

Seb.

What, art thou waking?

1 Warburton remarks that "all this dialogue is a fine satire on the Utopian Treatise of Government, and the impracticable, inconsistent schemes therein recommended."

I do; and, surely,

It is a sleepy language; and thou speak'st

Out of thy sleep: What is it thou didst say?
This is a strange repose, to be asleep

With eyes wide open; standing, speaking, moving,
And yet so fast asleep.

Ant.

Noble Sebastian,

Thou let'st thy fortune sleep-die rather; wink'st
Whiles thou art waking.

Seb.

Thou dost snore distinctly;

There's meaning in thy snores.

Ant. I am more serious than my custom: you

Must be so too, if heed me; which to do,

Trebles thee o'er.1

Seb.

Ant. I'll teach you how to flow.

Seb.

Well; I am standing water.

Do so: to ebb,

0,

Hereditary sloth instructs me.

Ant.

If you but knew how you the purpose cherish,
Whiles thus you mock it! how, in stripping it,
You more invest it!2 Ebbing men, indeed,
Most often do so near the bottom run,

By their own fear, or sloth.

Seb.

Pr'ythee, say on:

The setting of thine eye, and cheek, proclaim
A matter from thee; and a birth, indeed,

Which throes thee much to yield.

Thus, sir:

Ant. Although this lord of weak remembrance, this (Who shall be of as little memory,

1 Antonio apparently means to say, "You must be more serious than you usually are, if you would pay attention to my proposals; which attention, if you bestow it, will in the end make you thrice what you are."

2 Sebastian introduces the simile of water. It is taken up by Antonio, who says he will teach his stagnant waters to flow. "It has already learned to ebb," says Sebastian. To which Antonio replies "O, if you but knew how much even that metaphor, which you use in jest, encourages the design which I hint at; how, in stripping it of words of their common meaning, and using them figuratively, you adapt them to your own situation."-Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786.

"

When he is earthed,) hath here almost persuaded
(For he's a spirit of persuasion, only

Professes to persuade) the king, his son's alive;
'Tis as impossible that he's undrowned,

As he that sleeps here, swims.

Seb.

That he's undrowned.

Ant.

I have no hope

O, out of that no hope,

What great hope have you! no hope, that way, is
Another way so high in hope, that even

Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,

But doubts discovery there. Will you grant, with me,
That Ferdinand is drowned?

Seb.
Ant.

He's gone.

Then tell me,

Claribel.

Ant. She that is queen of Tunis; she that dwells Ten leagues beyond man's life; she that from Naples Can have no note,' unless the sun were post,

(The man i' the moon's too slow,) till new-born chins
Be rough and razorable: she, from whom

We all were sea-swallowed, though some cast again;
And, by that destiny, to perform an act,

Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come,

In yours and my discharge.2

Seb.

What stuff is this?-How say you?
'Tis true, my brother's daughter's queen of Tunis;
So is she heir of Naples; 'twixt which regions
There is some space.

Ant.
A space whose every cubit
Seems to cry out, How shall that Claribel
Measure us back to Naples?-Keep in Tunis,
And let Sebastian wake!—Say, this were death

1 The commentators have treated this as a remarkable instance of Shakspeare's ignorance of geography; but though the real distance between Naples and Tunis is not so immeasurable, the intercourse in early times between the Neapolitans and the Tunisians was not so frequent as to make it popularly considered less than a formidable voyage.

2 What is past is the prologue to events which are to come; that depends on what you and I are to perform.

That now hath seized them; why they were no worse
Than now they are: There be, that can rule Naples,
As well as he that sleeps; lords, that can prate
As amply, and unnecessarily,

As this Gonzalo; I myself could make

A chough1 of as deep chat. O, that you bore
The mind that I do! what a sleep were this
For your advancement!
advancement! Do you understand me?
Seb. Methinks, I do.

Ant.

And how does your content Tender your own good fortune?

Seb.

I remember, You did supplant your brother Prospero.

True:

Ant.
And, look, how well my garments sit upon me;
Much feater than before: My brother's servants
Were then my fellows, now they are my men.
Seb. But, for your conscience-

Ant. Ay, sir; where lies that? if it were a kybe,
'Twould put me to my slipper; but I feel not
This deity in my bosom: twenty consciences,
That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candied be they,
And melt, e'er they molest! Here lies your brother,
No better than the earth he lies upon,

If he were that which now he's like, that's dead;
Whom I, with this obedient steel, three inches of it,
Can lay to bed forever: whiles you, doing thus,
To the perpetual wink for aye might put
This ancient morsel, this sir Prudence, who
Should not upbraid our course. For all the rest,
They'll take suggestion,2 as a cat laps milk;
They'll tell the clock to any business that
We say befits the hour.

Seb.

Shall be my precedent;
I'll come by Naples.

Thy case, dear friend, as thou got'st Milan, Draw thy sword: one stroke

1 A chough is a bird of the jackdaw kind.

2 Suggestion is frequently used in the sense of temptation, or seduction, by Shakspeare and his contemporaries. The sense here is, that they will adopt and bear witness to any tale that may be dictated to them.