Rather than want a spirit: appear, and pertly!
No tongue! all eyes! be silent.

Enter IRIS.

[Soft music.

Iris. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats and pease; Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep, And flat meads thatch'd with stover, them to keep; Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims, Which spongy April at thy hest betrims,

To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy broom-groves,

Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,

Being lass-lorn; thy pole-clipt vineyard;

And thy sea-marge, sterile and rocky-hard,

60

Where thou thyself dost air;-the queen o' the sky, 70 Whose watery arch and messenger am I,

Bids thee leave these, and with her sovereign

grace,

Here on this grass-plot, in this very place,

To come and sport: her peacocks fly amain:
Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain.

61. vetches, Ff fetches, an archaic and provincial form of the word.

63. stover, straw of rye, barley, or wheat, used as winter-fodder for cattle.

64. banks with pioned and twilled brims. Two interpretations still compete for the possession of this line. According to one, it refers to a river bank overgrown with 'marigolds' and 'reeds.' But the meanings thus given to pioned and twilled rest on very doubtful authority; while the following line implies that the banks are 'pioned and twilled' before they

are 'trimmed' with flowers. Hence the less picturesque but perhaps more logical interpretation has latterly gained ground, according to which the banks' are those of trenches or dykes dividing cornlands, artificially heaped up (pioned) and 'furrowed' or 'faced with mire' (Fr. fouiller). Can twilled describe the appearance of the two banks running in 'twinned' parallel lines between the meadows?

66. broom-groves, luxuriant copses of broom.

68. pole-clipt, having vines clinging about its poles.

Enter CERES.

Cer. Hail, many-colour'd messenger, that ne'er
Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter;

Who with thy saffron wings upon my flowers
Diffusest honey-drops, refreshing showers,
And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown
My bosky acres and my unshrubb'd down,
Rich scarf to my proud earth; why hath thy queen
Summon'd me hither, to this short-grass'd green?
Iris. A contract of true love to celebrate;
And some donation freely to estate

On the blest lovers.

Cer.

Tell me, heavenly bow,

If Venus or her son, as thou dost know,

Do now attend the queen? Since they did plot
The means that dusky Dis my daughter got,
Her and her blind boy's scandal'd company

Be not afraid I met her deity

Cutting the clouds towards Paphos and her son Dove-drawn with her. Here thought they to have

done

Some wanton charm upon this man and maid,
Whose vows are, that no bed-right shall be paid
Till Hymen's torch be lighted: but in vain;
Mars's hot minion is return'd again;

Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows,

80

90

Swears he will shoot no more but play with sparrows 100

And be a boy right out.

Cer.

Great Juno, comes; I know her by her gait.

85. freely estate, liberally bestow.

89. Dis, Pluto. Cf. Perdita's

High'st queen of state,

allusion to the story, Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 118.

Enter JUNO.

Juno. How does my bounteous sister? Go
with me

To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be
And honour'd in their issue.

[They sing:

Juno. Honour, riches, marriage-blessing,
Long continuance, and increasing,
Hourly joys be still upon you!
Juno sings her blessings on you.

Cer. Earth's increase, foison plenty,

Barns and garners never empty,
Vines with clustering bunches growing,
Plants with goodly burthen bowing;

Spring come to you at the farthest
In the very end of harvest!

Scarcity and want shall shun you;
Ceres' blessing so is on you.

Fer. This is a most majestic vision, and
Harmonious charmingly. May I be bold
To think these spirits?

Pros.

I have from their confines call'd to enact

My present fancies.

Fer.

Spirits, which by mine art 120

Let me live here ever;

So rare a wonder'd father and a wise

Makes this place Paradise.

[Juno and Ceres whisper, and send
Iris on employment.

119. charmingly, magically. 121. confines, abodes.

123. wise. Some copies of F1 read wife, which was adopted by Rowe, Pope, and some later editors. But that reading in

troduces a disturbing touch of banality. Ferdinand certainly did not mean that the island would be Paradise with any wife any more than with any father.

Pros.

Sweet, now, silence!

Juno and Ceres whisper seriously;

There's something else to do: hush, and be

mute,

Or else our spell is marr'd.

Iris. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the windring
brooks,

With your sedg'd crowns and ever-harmless looks,
Leave your crisp channels and on this green land
Answer your summons; Juno does command:
Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate
A contract of true love; be not too late.

Enter certain Nymphs.

You sunburnt sicklemen, of August weary,
Come hither from the furrow and be merry:
Make holiday; your rye-straw hats put on
And these fresh nymphs encounter every one
In country footing.

Enter certain Reapers, properly habited: they join with the Nymphs in a graceful dance; towards the end whereof PROSPERO starts suddenly, and speaks; after which, to a strange, hollow, and confused noise, they heavily vanish.

Pros. [Aside] I had forgot that foul conspiracy
Of the beast Caliban and his confederates
Against my life: the minute of their plot
Is almost come. [To the Spirits.] Well done!
avoid; no more!

128. windring; an otherwise unknown word, evidently meaning, and probably misprinted for, either winding or wandering.

129. sedg'd, sedge-woven. 130. crisp, curled; probably

130

140

said of the circling ripples and dimples of a meadow-brook; not of its winding course.

130. land, (probably) laund, lawn.

142. avoid, away!

Fer. This is strange: your father's in some

passion

That works him strongly.

Mir.
Never till this day
Saw I him touch'd with anger so distemper'd.
Pros. You do look, my son, in a moved sort,
As if you were dismay'd: be cheerful, sir.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air :
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex'd;

Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled :
Be not disturb'd with my infirmity:

If you be pleased, retire into my cell

And there repose: a turn or two I'll walk,

To still my beating mind.

Fer. Mir.

We wish you peace. [Exeunt.

Pros. Come with a thought. I thank thee,

Ariel: come.

145. distemper'd, excited.

148 f. This famous passage may have been suggested by one in The Tragedie of Darius, by W. Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling (1603):

Let greatnesse of her glascie scepters vaunt;

Not scepters, no, but reeds, soone bruis'd, soone broken;

And let this worldlie pomp our wits inchant.

All fades and scarcelie leaves behind

a token.

150

160

Those golden pallaces, those gorgeous halles,

With fourniture superfluouslie faire : Those statelie courts, those skyencountering walles

Evanish all like vapours in the aire.

154. inherit, possess.

156. rack, cloud. The word has no connection with 'wrack,' which Malone erroneously substituted.

158. rounded, embraced, encompassed.