Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go.

10

Ant. [Aside to Seb.] I am right glad that he's so out of

hope.

Do not, for one repulse, forgo the purpose

That you resolved to effect.

Seb.

[Aside to Ant.] The next advantage

Will we take throughly.

Ant.

[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.

Seb.

[Aside to Ant.] I say, to-night: no more.

15

[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 salutation; and, inviting the King, &c. to eat, they depart.

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

Seb. A living drollery. Now I will believe

That there are unicorns; that in Arabia

There is one tree, the phenix' throne; one phenix

At this hour reigning there.

Ant.

I'll believe both; And what does else want credit, come to me, And I'll be sworn 'tis true:

were

20

25

Though fools at home condemn 'em.

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,

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.

Pros.

[Aside] Honest lord,

Thou hast said well; for some of you there present

35

Are worse than devils.

Alon.

I cannot too much muse

Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing

Although they want the use of tongue-a kind

Of excellent dumb discourse.

They have left their viands behind; for we have stomachs. —

Will't please you taste of what is here?

Alon.

Not I.

Gon. Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were boys, Who would believe that there were mountaineers

Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em 45 Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men

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.

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
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.

50

55

[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,

48 of five for one] Ff. on five for one Theobald. of one for five Malone (Thirlby conj.). of five for ten Thirlby conj. at five for one Daniel conj. See note (xv).

49-51 I will...past] Mason conjectured that these lines formed a rhyming couplet.

52 Stand to] F4. Stand too F1F2F3.

53 SCENE IV. Pope.

54 instrument] instruments F4

56 belch up you] F1F2F3. belch you up

VOL. I.

65

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

75

Can be at once-shall step by step attend

80

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

In their distractions: they now are in my power;

And in these fits I leave them, while I visit

85

90

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,
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced
The name of Prosper: it did bass my trespass.
Therefore my son i' th' 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.

95

100

[Exit. But one fiend at a time,

I'll be thy second.

[Exeunt Seb. and Ant.

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

Like poison given to work a great time after,

105

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.