PROS. Ye elves of hills,' brooks, standing lakes,

and groves,

And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets2 that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets3 make,
Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,

1 Warburton pointed out the resemblance between this speech and Medeas incantation in Ov.d, Metamorphoses vii., 197-219, and Farmer, the fact that Shakspere used Golding s translation (1567), but as Boswell remarks, "It would be an injustice to our great poet, if the

40

reader were not to take notice that Ovid has not supplied him with anything resembling the exquisite fairy imagery with which he has enriched this speech." This is Golding's version, as quoted by Wright from the ed. of 1603 :

"Ye Ayres and Windes: ye Elues of Hilles, of Brookes, of Woods alone, Of standing Lakes, and of the Night approche ye eurychone.

Through helpe of whom (the crooked bankes much wondring at the

thing)

I haue compelled streames to run cleane backward to their spring.
By charmes I make the calme seas rough, & make the rough seas playne,
And couer all the Skie with clouds and chase them thence againe.
By charmes I raise and lay the windes, and burst the Vipers iaw,
And from the bowels of the earth both stones and trees do draw.
Whole woods and Forests I remooue: I make the Mountaines shake,
And euen the earth it selfe to grone and fearefully to quake.

1 call vp dead men from their graues and thee, O lightsome Moone,

I darken oft, through beaten brasse abate thy per.ll soone,

Our Sorcerie dimmes the Morning faire, and darkes the Sun at Noone.
The flaming breath of fierie Bulles ye quenched or my sake,
And caused their vnwieldy neckes the bended yoke to take.
Among the earth-bred brothers you a mortall warre did set,
And brought asleepe the Dragon fell wnose eyes were neuer shet."

2 Demi-puppets, half puppets, i.e., very tiny fairies.

3 Green sour ringlets, fairy rings. Rolfe has an interesting note:

They were long a mystery even to scientific men. Priestly (1767) ascribed them to the effects of lightning; Pennant (1776), and

others, to the burrowing of moles, by which the soil was loosened, and thus made more productive; Wollaston (1807) to the spreading of a kind of agaricum, or fungus, which enriches the ground by its decay. This last explanation is now known to be a correct one."

H

Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
And 'twixt the green sea and the azur'd' vault
Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt; the strong-bas'd promontory
Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up
The pine and cedar: graves at my command
Have wak'd their sleepers, op'd, and let 'em forth.
By my so potent art. But this rough magic
I here abjure, and when I have requir'd2
Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm3 is for, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I'll drown my book.

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[Solemn music.

Re-enter ARIEL before: then ALONSO, with a frantic gesture, attended by GONZALO; SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO in like manner, attended by ADRIAN and FRANCISCO: they all enter the circle which PROSPERO had made, and there stand charmed; which PROSPERO observing, speaks:

A solemn air and the best comforter

To an unsettled fancy cure thy brains,

1 Azur'd. Cp. Cymbeline iv., 2,

222:

"The azur'd harebell, like thy veins."

2 Requir'd, asked for, begged.

3 This airy charm, this charm worked by spirits of the air.

Now useless, boil'd' within thy skull! There

stand,

For you are spell-stopp'd.

Holy Gonzalo, honourable man,

Mine eyes, ev'n sociable to the show of thine,
Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace,
And as the morning steals upon the night,
Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo,
My true preserver, and a loyal sir

To him thou follow'st! I will pay thy graces
Home both in word and deed. Most cruelly
Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter:
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act.

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70

Thou art pinch'd for 't now, Sebastian. Flesh and blood,

You,3 brother mine, that entertain'd ambition,

Expell'd remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian, Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong, Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee, Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding Begins to swell, and the approaching tide

Will shortly fill the reasonable shore

That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them

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That yet looks on me, or would know me: Ariel,
Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell:
I will discase me, and myself present
As I was sometime Milan : quickly, spirit;
Thou shalt ere long be free.

ARIEL sings and helps to attire him.

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.'

Merrily, merrily shall I live now

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

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PROS. Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss

thee;

But yet thou shalt have freedom: so, so, so.

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 awake, enforce them to this place,

And presently, I prithee.

ARI. I drink the air3 before me, and return

Or ere your pulse twice beat.

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[Exit.

GON. All torment, trouble, wonder and amaze

Inhabits here: some heavenly power guide us

Out of this fearful country!

PROS.

Behold, sir king,

The wronged duke of Milan, Prospero :

For more assurance that a living prince

Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body;
And to thee and thy company I bid

A hearty welcome.

ALON.

Whether thou be'st he or no,

Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me,

As late I have been, I not know thy pulse

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, a most strange story.
Thy dukedom I resign and do entreat
Thou pardon me my wrongs.

Be living and be here?

PROS.

[Prospero

But how should

First, noble friend,

Let me embrace thine age, whose honour cannot
Be measur'd or confin'd.

Believe things certain.' Welcome, my friends all!

1 You still have a taste of, i.e., are under the spell of some of the illusions of the island, which pre

I 20

vents you from believing in the reality of things, which are no illusions at all.