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.

160

[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!

patience,

I needs must rest me.

Alon.

By your

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. [Aside to Seb.] I am right glad that he's
so out of hope.

Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose
That you resolved to effect.

Seb.

[Aside to Ant.] The next advantage

Will we take throughly.

156. by and by, immedi

ately.

1. By'r lakin, by our ladykin, i.e. the Virgin.

ΙΟ

Ant. [Aside to Seb.] 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. [Aside to Ant.] I say, to-night: no more.
[Solemn and strange music.
Alon. What harmony is this? My good friends,
hark!

Gon. Marvellous sweet music!

Enter PROSPERO above, invisible. Enter several strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet; they dance about it with gentle actions of salutation; and, inviting the King, etc., to eat, tney depart.

Alon. Give us kind keepers, heavens!

were these?

Seb. A living drollery.

What

20

Now I will believe

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;

Ant.
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, though 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.

30

Thou hast said well; for some of you there present
Are worse than devils.

Alon.

I cannot too much muse

Such shapes, such gesture and such sound, ex

pressing

Although they want the use of tongue-a kind
Of excellent dumb discourse.

They have left their viands behind; for we have

stomachs.

Will 't please you taste of what is here?

Alon.

Gon. Faith, sir, you need not fear.

were boys,

Not I.

When we

Who would believe 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 breasts? which now we find

Each putter-out of five for one will bring us

Good warrant of.

36. muse, wonder at.

39. Praise in departing, a proverbial phrase, meaning: Do not praise till the entertainment is over.

44. mountaineers, savages.

48. Each putter-out of five for one, i.e. every adventurous traveller. This refers to a kind of Life Insurance then customary. The traveller deposited a certain sum before starting, receiving, if he returned safely, repayment at a certain rate, usually five to VOL. IV

465

·

one, upon what he had 'put-out,' and losing all claim to it if he miscarried. The locus classicus on the subject is in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of His Humour, ii. 1, where Puntarvolo proposes to put forth some five thousand pounds to be paid me, five for one, upon the return of myself, my wife, and my dog from the Turk's court at Constantinople.' But it is incredible that so high a rate can have been obtained for less complicated risks or shorter journeys.

2 H

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. 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 caused 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;

And even with such-like valour men hang and

drown

Their proper selves.

[Alon., Seb. etc. draw their swords.
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

three

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
From Milan did supplant good Prospero;
Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit it,
Him and his innocent child: for which foul deed
The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
Incensed the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,

54. to instrument, as its instrument, or organ.

65. dowle, film of down.

50

60

70

Against your peace.

Thee of thy son, Alonso,

They have bereft; and do pronounce by me
Lingering 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-sorrow
And a clear life ensuing.

He vanishes in thunder; then, to soft music, enter the Shapes again, and dance, with mocks and mows, and carrying out the table.

Pros. 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 mine loved darling. [Exit 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, pronounced
The name of Prosper: it did bass my trespass.

82. clear, blameless.

86. good life and observation strange, lifelike precision and rare attention.

80

90

99. bass my trespass, proclaimed my offence with its deep roll.