Pro. Come with a thought:
Ariel, come.

Enter ARIEL.

I thank you:

Ari. Thy thoughts I cleave to: What's thy pleasure? Pro.

Spirit,

We must prepare to meet 18 with Caliban.

Ari. Ay, my commander: when I presented Ceres, I thought to have told thee of it; but I fear'd, Lest I might anger thee.

Pro. Say again, where didst thou leave these varlets?

Ari. I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking; So full of valour, that they smote the air For breathing in their faces; beat the ground For kissing of their feet: yet always bending Towards their project: then I beat my tabor, At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their ears, Advanc'd their eye-lids, lifted up their noses, As they smelt music; so I charm'd their ears, That, calf-like, they my lowing follow'd, through Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss, and thorns, Which enter'd their frail shins: at last I left them I' the filthy mantled pool beyond your cell, There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake O'er-stunk their feet.

Pro.

This was well done, my bird: Thy shape invisible retain thou still:

The trumpery in my house, go, bring it hither, For stale 19 to catch these thieves.

Ari. 1 go, I go. [Exit. Pro. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature Nurture 20 can never stick; on whom my pains, Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost;

18 To counteract, to play stratagem against stratagem. You may meet

With her abusive malice, and exempt

Yourself from the suspicion of revenge."

Cynthia's Revenge, 1613.

19 Stale, in the art of fowling, signified a bait or lure to decoy birds. 20 Nurture is Education, in our old language.

And as, with age, his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers: I will plague them all,
Re-enter ARIEL loaden with glistering apparel, etc.
Even to roaring:- Come, hang them on this line.

PROSPERO and ARIEL remain invisible. Enter
CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO; all wet.
Cal. Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole
may not

Hear a foot fall: we now are near his cell.

Ste. Monster, your fairy, which, you say, is a harmless fairy, has done little better than play'd the Jack 21 with us.

Trin. Monster, I do smell all horse-piss; at which my nose is in great indignation.

Ste. So is mine. Do you hear, monster? If I should take a displeasure against you; look you,— Trin. Thou wert but a lost monster.

Cal. Good my lord, give me thy favour still: Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to Shall hood-wink this mischance; therefore, speak softly,

All's hush'd as midnight yet.

Trin. Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool,Ste. There is not only disgrace and dishonour in that, monster, but an infinite loss.

Trin. That's more to me than my wetting: yet this is your harmless fairy, monster.

Ste. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er ears for my labour.

Cal. Pr'ythee, my king, be quiet; Seest thou here, This is the mouth of the cell: no noise, and enter: Do that good mischief, which may make this island Thine own for ever, and I, thy Caliban,

For aye thy foot-licker,

Ste. Give me thy hand; for I do begin to have bloody thoughts.

21 To play the Jack, was to play the Knave.

Trin. O king Stephano! O peer 22! O worthy Stephano! look, what a wardrobe here is for thee! Cal. Let it alone, thou fool: it is but trash. Trin. O, ho, monster; we know what belongs to a frippery 23-0 king Stephano!

Ste. Put off that gown, Trinculo; by this hand, I'll have that gown.

Trin. Thy grace shall have it.

Cal. The dropsy drown this fool! what do you

mean,

To doat thus on such luggage? Let it alone 24, And do the murder first: if he awake,

From toe to crown he'll fill our skins with pinches; Makes strange stuff.

Ste. Be you quiet, monster.-Mistress line, is not this, my jerkin? Now is the jerkin under the line: now, jerkin, you are like to lose your hair, and prove a bald jerkin.

Trin. Do, do: We steal by line and level, and't like your grace.

Ste. I thank thee for that jest; here's a garment for't: wit shall not go unrewarded, while I am king of this country: Steal by line and level, is an excellent pass of pate; there's another garment for't. Trin. Monster, come, put some lime 25 fingers, and away with the rest.

upon your

Cal. I will have none on't: we shall lose our time, And all be turn'd to barnacles 26, or to apes With foreheads villainous low,

22 This is a humorous allusion to the old ballad "King Stephen was a worthy peer," of which lago sings a verse in Othello. 23 A shop for the sale of old clothes.-Fripperie, Fr.

24 The old copy reads "Let's alone."

25 Bird-lime.

26 The barnacle is a kind of shell-fish, lepas anatifera, which ancient credulity believed to produce the barnacle-goose. Bishop Hall refers to it in the second Satire of his fourth Book

"That Scottish barnacle, if I might choose,
That of a worm doth wax a winged goose,"

Gerrard, in his Herbal, 1597, p. 1391, |
gives a full description of
it; and the worthy Dr. Bullein treats those as ignorant and in-
credulous who do not believe in the transformation.-Bulwarke of
Defence, 1562. Caliban's Barnacle is the clakis, or tree-goose.
VOL. I.

Ste. Monster, lay-to your fingers; help to bear this away, where my hogshead of wine is, or I'll turn you out of my kingdom: go to, carry this. Trin. And this.

Ste. Ay, and this.

A noise of Hunters heard 21. Enter divers Spirits in shape of hounds, and hunt them about; PROSPERO and ARIEL setting them on.

Pro. Hey, Mountain, hey!

Ari. Silver! there it goes, Silver!

Pro. Fury! Fury! there, Tyrant, there! hark, hark! [CAL. STE. and TRIN. are driven out. Go, charge my goblins that they grind their oints With dry convulsions; shorten up their sinews With aged cramps; and more pinch-spotted make

them,

Than pard 28, or cat o' mountain.

Ari.

Hark, they roar.

Pro. Let them be hunted soundly: At this hour Lie at my mercy all mine enemies:

Shortly shall all my labours end, and thou
Shalt have the air at freedom; for a little,
Follow, and do me service.

[Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE I. Before the Cell of Prospero.

Enter PROSPERO in his magic robes, and ARIEL.
Pro. Now does my project gather to a head:
My charms crack not; my spirits obey; and time
Goes upright with his carriage. How's the day?
Ari. On the sixth hour; at which time, my lord,
You
our work should cease.

27 See Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, Note on v. 6441. 28. Pard, i. e. Leopard.

Pro.

localidade I did say so,

When first I rais'd the tempest. Say, my spirit, How fares the king and his followers?

Ari. Confin'd together

In the same fashion as you gave in charge;
Just as you left them, sir; all prisoners

In the lime-grove which weather-fends 1

your

cell:
They cannot budge, till your release 2. The king,
His brother, and yours, abide all three distracted:
And the remainder mourning over them,
Brim-full of sorrow, and dismay; but chiefly
Him you term'd, sir, The good old lord, Gonzalo ;
His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops
From eaves of reeds: your charm so strongly works
them, w

That if you now beheld them, your affections
Would become tender.

Pro.

Dost thou think so, spirit?

Ari. Mine would, sir, were I human. Pro. And mine shall. Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling Of their afflictions? and shall not myself, One of their kind, that relish all as sharply, Passion as they, be kindlier mov'd than thou art?

Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,

Yet, with my nobler reason, 'gainst my fury,
Do I take y
part: the rarer action is
In virtuo
than

The

sole drift of Vengeance: they being penitent,

my purpose doth extend Not a frown further: Go, release them, Ariel; My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore, And they shall be themselves.

Ari.

I'll fetch them, sir. [Exit.