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Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter :
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act;
Thou'rt pinch'd for't now, Sebastian.

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Flesh and blood,

You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition,

Expell'd remorse and nature; 15 who, with Sebastian, —
Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,

Would here have your King; I do forgive thee,

kill'd

Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding

Begins to swell; and the approaching tide

Will shortly fill the reasonable shore,16

That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them

That yet looks on me

would know me. — Ariel,

Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell:

I will discase me,17 and myself present

Thou shalt ere long be free.

As I was sometime Milan:-quickly, spirit;

[Exit ARIEL.

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ARIEL re-enters, singing, and helps to attire PROSPERO.

Ari. Where the bee sucks, there suck I:

In a cowslip's bell I lie,

There I couch: when owls do cry,

On the bat's back I do fly

After Summer, merrily.18

Merrily, merrily shall I live now

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

15 Here, as commonly in Shakespeare, remorse is pity or tenderness of heart. Nature is put for natural affection. Often so.

16"The reasonable shore" is the shore of reason.

17" Will put off my disguise." The Poet repeatedly uses case for clothes; also for skin. Sometime, in the next line, is formerly. Often so.

18 Ariel uses "the bat's back" as his pleasant vehicle, to pursue Summer in its progress to other regions, and thus live merrily under continual blossoms. Such appears the most natural as well as most poetical meaning

Pros. Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee;

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To the King's ship, invisible as thou art
There shalt thou find the mariners asleep
Under the hatches, the master and the boatswain
Being awaked, enforce them to this place,

And presently, pr'ythee.

Ari. I drink the air before me, and return

-Or e'er your pulse twice beat.

[Exit ARIEL. Gonza. All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement Inhabit here: some heavenly power guide us

Out of this fearful country!

Pros.

Behold, sir King,

The wrongèd Duke of Milan, Prospero:
For more assurance that a living prince

Does

now speak to thee, I embrace thy body; reaand to thee and thy company I bid A hearty welcome.

Alon.

Whêr 19 thou be'st he or no,

Or some enchanted trifle 20 to abuse me,

As late I have been, I not know: thy pulse

of this much disputed passage. As a matter of fact, however, bats do not migrate in quest of Summer, but become torpid in winter. Was the Poet ignorant of this, or did he disregard it, thinking that such beings as Ariel were not bound to observe the rules of natural history? See Critical Notes.

19 The Poet often so contracts whether. See Julius Cæsar, page 43, note 19.

20 Enchanted trifle probably means bewitching phantom. Enchanted for enchanting, in accordance with the usage, before noted, of active and passive forms indiscriminately. See page 60, note 59. Walker, however, thinks the meaning to be "some trifle produced by enchantment to abuse me." — Abuse, both verb and substantive, was often used in the sense of deceive, delude, or cheat.

Beats, as of flesh and blood, and, since I saw thee,
Th' affliction of my mind amends, with which,

I fear, a madness held me this must crave
An if this be at all 21 a most strange story.

Thy dukedom I resign 22 and do entreat

Thou pardon me my wrongs.23 But how should Prospero Be living and be here?

Pros.

First, noble friend,

Let me embrace thine age, whose honour cannot

Be measured or confined.

Gonza.

Or be not, I'll not swear.

Pros.

Whether this be

You do yet taste

Some subtilties 24 o' the isle, that will not let you

Believe things certain. — Welcome, my friends all:

[Aside to SEBAS. and ANTO.] But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded,

I here could pluck his Highness' frown upon you,
And justify you traitors: 25 at this time

I'll tell no tales.

Sebas. [Aside to ANTO.] The Devil speaks in him.

21 That is, if there be any reality in all this. An if, again, as before ex plained. See page 96, note 20.

22 The dukedom of Milan had been made tributary to Naples by Antonio, as the price of aid in his usurpation.

23 Still another instance of the construction mentioned in note 3 of this scene. "My wrongs" may mean either the wrongs I have done, or the wrongs I have suffered. Here it means the former.

24 Subtilties are quaint deceptive inventions; the word is common to ancient cookery, in which a disguised or ornamented dish is so termed. Fabyan's Chronicle, 1542, describes one made of pastry, " called a pelican sitting on his nest with his birds, and an image of Saint Catharine holding a book, and disputing with the doctors."

25 "Prove you traitors," or, "justify myself for calling you such."

Pros.

Now,

For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother

Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive
Thy rankest fault; all of them; and require
My dukedom of thee, which perforce,26 I know,
Thou must restore.

Alon.

If thou be'st Prospero,

Give us particulars of thy preservation ;

How thou hast met us here, who three hours since
Were wreck'd upon this shore; where I have lost-
How sharp the point of this remembrance is !-
My dear son Ferdinand.

Pros.

I'm woe 27 for't, sir.

Alon. Irreparable is the loss; and patience Says it is past her cure.

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You have not sought her help; of whose soft grace,
For the like loss I have her sovereign aid,

And rest myself content.

Alon.

You the like loss !

Pros. As great to me, as late ;28 and, portable To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker Than you may call to comfort you; for I

Have lost my daughter.

Alon. A daughter!

O Heavens, that they were living both in Naples,
The King and Queen there! that they were, I wish

26 Perforce is of force, that is, necessarily or of necessity.

27 Woe was often used thus with an adjective sense; sorry.

28 "As great to me, and as recent." Or the meaning may be, "As great to me as it is recent." Either explanation suits, but I prefer the first.Portable is endurable. The Poet has it repeatedly.

Myself were mudded in that oozy bed

Where my son lies.

When did you lose your daughter?

Pros. In this last tempest. I perceives these lords At this encounter do so much admire,29

That they devour their reason, and scarce think

Their eyes do offices of truth, these words.

Are natural breath: 30 but, howsoe'er you have
Been justled from your senses, know for certain
That I am Prospero, and that very Duke

Which was thrust forth of Milan; who most strangely
Upon this shore, where you were wreck'd, was landed,
To be the lord on't. No more yet of this ; 31
For 'tis a chronicle of day by day,

Not a relation for a breakfast, nor

Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir;
This cell's my Court: here have I few attendants,
And subjects none abroad: pray you, look in.
My dukedom since you've given me again,

I will requite you with as good a thing;
At least bring forth a wonder to content ye
As much as me my dukedom.

The entrance of the Cell opens, and discovers FERDINAND and
MIRANDA playing at chess.

Mira. Sweet lord, you play me false.

Ferd.

I would not for the world.

No, my dear'st love,

29 Shakespeare commonly uses admire and its derivatives in the Latin sense; that of wonder or amazement. The meaning here is, that their reason is swallowed up in wonder.

30"That these words which I am speaking are the words of a real living

man."

31 No more of this now, or for the present. So yet was often used.

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