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
Good warrant of.
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.
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, 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. You fools! I and my fellows
Are ministers of fate: the elements,
I cannot too much muse, [ing
Such shapes, such gestures, and such sounds,' express-
Although they want the use of tongue) a kind
Of excellent dumb discourse.
[ALON., SEB., &c., draw their Swords.
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,
Lingering perdition (worse than any death
Can be at once) shall step by step attend
[Aside.] Praise in departing.
Fran. They vanish'd strangely.
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 mocks and mowes, and
carry out the table.
Pro. [Above."] 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.
Gon. I' the name of something holy, sir, why stand you
They have left their viands behind, for we have sto- In this strange stare?
Will't please you taste of what is here?
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,
Gon. Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd
By our lady-kin. 2 gesture: in f. e.
The name of Prosper: it did base my trespass.
A custom of old travellers to put out a sum of money at interest, at the
cateet of a journer, for which they received at the rate of five to one, if they returned.
ALOS, SEB., &c., draw their Swords.
A feather or particle of down.
5 f. e. insert here this direction: Seeing Aside in f. e.
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