Cal. Art thou afeard?

140

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 waked 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 waked,

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.

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;

Alon.

150

[Exeunt.

My old bones ache: here's a maze trod, indeed,
Through forth-rights and meanders! By your patience,
I needs must rest me.

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

ΙΟ

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

Seb.

Ant.

Seb.

That you resolved to effect.

[Aside to Ant.] The next advantage

Will we take throughly.

[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.

[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 saluta-
tion; and, inviting the King, &c. to eat,
they depart.

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,

21

Gon.

Pros.

Alon.

Pros.

And I'll be sworn 'tis true: travellers ne'er did lie,
Though fools at home condemn 'em.

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,—

30

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.

[Aside] Honest lord,

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

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.

Fran. They vanish'd strangely.

Seb.

Alon.

They have left their viands behind; for we have

stomachs.

Will't please you taste of what is here?

Not I.

When we were boys, were mountaineers

Gon. Faith, sir, you need not fear.
Who would believe that there
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

Alon.

Each putter-out of five for one will bring us
Good warrant of.

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.

50

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. &c. draw their swords.

You fools! I and my fellows 60

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 ;

Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit it,

Him and his innocent child: for which foul deed

70

The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
Incensed 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
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

80

In their distractions: they now are in my power; 90
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,