Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance
As when they are fresh.

Seb. [Aside to Ant.] I say, to-night: no more.
[Solemn and strange music.
Alon. What harmony is this? My good friends,

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, etc. to eat, they depart

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.

Ant.

I'll believe both;

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 '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

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

Are worse than devils.

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30

Alon.

I cannot too much muse

Such shapes, such gesture and such sound, express

ing,

Although they want the use of tongue, a kind

Of excellent dumb discourse.

Pros.

[Aside] Praise in departing.

No matter, since 40

Fran. They vanish'd strangely.

Seb.

They have left their viands behind; for we have

stomachs.

Will 't please you taste of what is here?

Alon.

Not 1. 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

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 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

50

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
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.

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80

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; 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, That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced The name of Prosper: it did bass 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.

[Exit.

But one fiend at a time,

I'll be thy second.

[Exeunt Seb. and Ant.

Gon. All three of them are desperate: their

100

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. [Exeunt.

ACT IV

SCENE I-Before PROSPERO's cell

Enter PROSPERO, FERDINAND, and MIRANDA Pros. If I have too austerely punish'd you, Your compensation makes amends, for I Have given you here a third of mine own life, Or that for which I live; who 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

Pros. Then, as my gift and thine own acquisition

Worthily purchased, take my daughter: but

If thou dost break her virgin-knot before

All sanctimonious ceremonies may

With full and holy rite be minister'd,

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