ANT.
Very foul.
GON. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord,-
ANT. He'd sow 't with nettle-seed.
SEB.
Or docks, or mallows.
GON. And were the king on't, what would I do?
SEB. 'Scape being drunk, for want of wine.
GON. I' the commonwealth I would by con-
traries

Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
Would I admit ; no name of magistrate;
Letters should not be known: riches, poverty,
And use of service, none: contract, succession,
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.

Yet he would be king on't. ANT. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning.

GON. All things in common nature should

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

Enter ARIEL, invisible, solemn Music playing. SEB. We would so, and then go a bat-fowling.(2) 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 I 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

Will guard your person while you take your rest,
And watch your safety.
ALON.

Thank you.- -Wondrous heavy. [ALON. sleeps. Exit ARIEL. SEB. What a strange drowsiness possesses them!

And Mr. Collier's annotator changes the "at" of the previous line to as,

" as

Which end," &c.

b Foizon,-] Abundance, plenty.

dwells

ANT. She that is queen of Tunis; she that [Naples Ten leagues beyond man's life; she that from 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-swallow'd, 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.

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 That now hath seiz'd them; why, they were no [Naples Than now they are. There be that can rule As well as he that sleeps; lords that can prate As amply and unnecessarily

worse

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 kibe,

"T would 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, ere 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 for ever; 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 as a cat laps milk;
They'll tell the clock to any business that
We say befits the hour.

SEB.

a

Thy case, dear friend,
Shall be my precedent; as thou gott'st Milan,
I'll come by Naples. Draw thy sword; one
stroke

Shall free thee from the tribute which thou pay'st;
And I the king shall love thee.
ANT.

Draw together; you the like,

And when I rear my hand, do
To fall it on Gonzalo.
SEB. O, but one word. [They converse apart.

the king!

Why, how now? ho, awake! Why are you drawn?

Wherefore this ghastly looking?

a Suggestion-] Has before been explained to mean, temptation. b To keep them living.] Mr. Dyce reads, 64 to keep thee living," which is preferable to any alteration of the passage yet suggested; but we are not convinced that change is required.

c Why, how now? ho, awake! &c.] In the old copy, and in every subsequent edition, this speech is given to the king and the next to Gonzalo, but erroneously, as we think is evident from the language, the business of the scene, and from what Gonzalo

ALON. ARI. Prospero my lord shall know what I have done :

So, king, go safely on to seek thy son.

[Exit.

SCENE II.-Another Part of the Island.

Enter CALIBAN, with a burden of wood. A noise of thunder heard.

CAL. All the infections that the sun sucks up From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him By inch-meal a disease! His spirits hear me, And yet I needs must curse: but they'll nor

pinch,

Fright me with urchin-shows, pitch me i' the mire,
Nor lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark
Out of my way, unless he bid 'em ; but
For every trifle are they set upon me,
Sometime like apes, that moe and chatter at me,
And after, bite me; then like hedgehogs, which
Lie tumbling in my barefoot way, and mount
presently says:-

would shed his liquor. If it should thunder as it did before, I know not where to hide my head: yond same cloud cannot choose but fall by pailfuls. What have we here? a man or a fish? dead or alive? A fish: he smells like a fish: a very ancient and fish-like smell; a kind of, not of the newest, poor-John. A strange fish! Were I in England now (as once I was), and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of silver: there would this monster make a man; any strange beast there makes a man when they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.(3) Legged like a man! and his fins like arms! Warm, o' my troth! I do now let loose my opinion, hold it no longer,-this is no fish, but an islander, that hath lately suffered by a thunderbolt. [Thunder.] Alas, the storm is come again! my best way is to creep under his gaberdine; there is no other shelter hereabout: misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. I will here shroud till the dregs of the storm be past.

Enter STEPIANO, singing; a bottle in his hand.

STE. I shall no more to sea, to sea,
Here shall I die ashore ;-

a Gaberdine;] A loose over-garment, worn by the lower classes. See note (6), p. 438, Vol. I.

This is a very scurvy tune to sing at a man's funeral: well, here's my comfort. [Drinks.

The master, the swabber, the boatswain, and I,
The gunner, and his mate,

Lov'd Mall, Meg, and Marian, and Margery,
But none of us car'd for Kate:

For she had a tongue with a tang,
Would cry to a sailor, Go hang:

She lov'd not the savour of tar nor of pitch,
Yet a tailor might scratch her where'er she did
itch;

Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang!

This is a scurvy tune too: but here's my comfort.

CAL. Do not torment me:-0!

[Drinks.

STE. What's the matter? Have we devils here? Do you put tricks upon 's with salvages and men of Inde, ha? I have not 'scaped drowning, to be afeard now of your four legs; for it hath been said, As proper a man as ever went on four legs cannot make him give ground and it shall be said so again, while Stephano breathes at nostrils.

CAL. The spirit torments me :-0!

STE. This is some monster of the isle with four

legs, who hath got, as I take it, an ague. Where the devil should he learn our language? I will