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. Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, 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. SCENE III. Another part of the Island. Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISco, and others. Gon. By'r lakin, I can go no further, sir; My old bones ache: 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. No longer for my flatterer: he is drown'd, Whom thus we stray to find; and the sea mocks Ant. [Aside to SEB.] I am right glad that he's so out of hope. Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose Seb. The next advantage Will we take thoroughly. Ant. Let it be to-night; For, now they are oppress'd with travel, they 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 salutation; 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, heaven!-What were these? Seb. A living drollery: 3 Now I will believe, There is one tree, the phoenix' throne; one phoenix Ant. I'll believe both; And what does else want credit, come to me, And I'll be sworn 'tis true: Travellers ne'er did lie, Though fools at home condemn them. Gon. If in Naples I should report this now, would they believe me? (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. Honest lord, Thou hast said well; for some of you there present Are worse than devils. Alon. I cannot too much muse, [Aside. Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing (Although they want the use of tongue) a kind Of excellent dumb discourse. Pro. Praise in departing. Fran. They vanish'd strangely. Seb. No matter, since [Aside. [3] Shows, called drolleries, were in Shakspeare's time performed by puppets only. From these our modern drolls, exhibited at fairs, &c. took their name. STEEV. They have left their viands behind; for we have sto machs. 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, 4 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?5 which now, we find, Each putter-out on five for one will bring us Good warrant of. Alon. I will stand to, and feed, Although my last no matter, since I feel 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 [Seeing ALON. SEB. &c. draw their swords. Are ministers of fate; the elements, Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well One dowle that's in my plume; my fellow ministers [4] Whoever is curious to know the particulars relative to these mountaineers, may consult Maundeville's Travels, printed in 1503, by Wynken de Worde; but it is yet a known truth that the inhabitants of the Alps have been long accustomed to such excrescences or tumours. Quis tumidum guttur miratur in Alpibus? STEEV. [5] Our author might have had this intelligence likewise from the translation of Pliny, B. V. chap. 8: "The Blemmyi, by report, have no heads, but mouth and eies both in their breasts." STEEV. Or he might have had it from Hackluyt's Voyages,1598: "On that branch which is called Caora are a nation of people, whose heads appear not above their shoulders. They are reported to have their eyes in their shoulders, and their mouths in the middle of their breasts. MALONE. [6] Dowle is a feather, or rather the single particles of the down. STEE Your swords are now too massy for your strengths, You, and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from He vanishes in thunder: then, to soft music, enter the Shapes again, and dance with mops and mowes, and carry out the table. Pro. [Aside.] 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, In their distractions: they now are in my power; Young Ferdinand, (whom they suppose is drown'd,) Alon. O, it is monstrous! monstrous ! Seb. But one fiend at a time, I'll fight their legions o'er. Ant. I'll be thy second. [Exit. [Exe. Seb. and Ant. Gon. All three of them are desperate; their great guilt, Like poison given to work a great time after, 7 Now 'gins to bite the spirits :-I do beseech you That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly, And hinder them from what this ecstacy May now provoke them to. Adr. Follow, I pray you. ACT IV. [Exeunt. SCENE I-Before PROSPERO's Cell. Enter PROSPERO, FERDINAND, and MIRANDA. Prospero. IF I have too austerely punish'd you, Your compensation makes amends; for I Hast strangely stood the test : here, afore heaven, Do not smile at me, that I boast her off, Fer. I do believe it, Against an oracle. Pro. Then, as my gift, and thine own acquisition With full and holy rite be minister'd, No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall Fer. As I hope For quiet days, fair issue, and long life, [7] The natives of Africa have been supposed to be possessed of the secret how to temper poisons with such art as not to operate till several years after they were administered. Their drugs were then as certain in their effect, as subtle in their preparation. STEEV. 12 VOL, I. |