Wilt thou destroy him then ?

Ste.

Ay, on mine honour.

Ari. This will I tell my master.

Cal. Thou mak'st me merry: I am full of pleasure. Let us be jocund: will you troll the catch

You taught me but while-ere?

Ste. At thy request, monster, I will do reason, any reason. Come on, Trinculo, let us sing.

[Sings. Flout 'em, and scout 'em; and scout 'em, and flout 'em ;

Thought is free.

Cal. That's not the tune.

[ARIEL plays a tune on a Tabor and Pipe.

Ste. What is this same ?

Trin. This is the tune of our catch, played by the picture of No-body.

Ste. If thou beest a man, show thyself in thy likeness if thou beest a devil, take 't as thou list.Trin. O, forgive me my sins!

Ste. He that dies, pays all debts: I defy thee.Mercy upon us!

Cal. Art thou afeard?

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 sometimes' voices, That, if I then had wak'd 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 wak'd

I cry'd 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. [Exeunt.

1 sometime: in f. e.

SCENE III-Another part of the Island.
Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO,
ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and Others.

Gon. By'r la'kin,' I can go no farther, sir;
My old bones ake: here's a maze trod, indeed,
Through forth-rights, and meanders! by your patience,
I needs must rest me.

Alon.
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. I am right glad that he's so out of hope.

[Aside to SEBASTIAN.

Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose
That you resolv'd to effect.

Seb.

Will we take thoroughly.

Ant.

The next advantage

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. I say, to-night: no more. [Solemn and strange music; and PROSPERO above, invisible. Enter several strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet: they dance about it with gentle actions of salutations; and, inviting the King, &c. to eat, they depart.]

Alon. What harmony is this? my good friends, hark! Gon. Marvellous sweet music!

Alon. Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these?

Seb. A living drollery. 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 't is true: travellers ne'er did lie,
Though fools at home condemn them.

1 By our lady-kin.

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.

Pro.

[Aside.] Honest lord,

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

Alon.

2

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.

Pro.

[Aside.] Praise in departing.

Fran. They vanish'd strangely.

Seb.

No matter, since

They have left their viands behind, for we have sto

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 one3 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.

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

1 gesture: in f. e. 2 sound in f. e. 3 A custom of old travellers to put out a sum of money at interest, at the outset of a journey, for which they received at the rate of five to one, if they returned.

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 :1
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,

[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 dowle3 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

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

1 f. e. insert here this direction: Seeing ALON., SEB., &c., draw their Swords. 2 Omitted in f. e. 3 A feather or particle of down. 4 Aside: in f..e.

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 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, pronounc'd The name of Prosper it did base my trespass. Therefore my son i' the ooze is bedded; and I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded, And with him there lie mudded.

Seb.

I'll fight their legions o'er.

Ant. I'll be thy second.

[Exit. But one fiend at a time,

[Exeunt SEB. and ANT.

Gon. All three of them are desperate: their great guilt,

Like poison given to work a great time after,

Now 'gins to bite the spirits.—I do beseech you,

That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly,
And hinder them from what this ecstasy

May now provoke them to.

Adr. Follow, I pray you.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.-Before PROSPERO'S Cell.

[Exeunt.

Enter PROSPERO, FERDINAND, and MIRANDA.
Pro. If I have too austerely punish'd you,
Your compensation makes amends; for I

Have given you here a thread' of mine own life,
Or that for which I live: whom once again

I tender to thy hand. All thy vexations
Were but my trials of thy love, and thou

Hast strangely stood the test: here, afore Heaven,
I ratify this my rich gift! O Ferdinand!

Do not smile at me that I boast her off,

For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise,
And make it halt behind her.

Fer.

Against an oracle.

I do believe it,

Pro. Then, as my gift, and thine own acquisition

VOL. I.-5

1 third in f. e.