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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.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices,
That, if I then had wak'd after long sleep,

Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds, methought, would open, and shew riches
Ready to drop upon me; that, when I wak'd,
I cry❜d to dream again.

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.
Even here I will put off my hope, and keep it

No longer for my flatterer: he is drown'd,

Whom thus we stray to find; and the sea mocks
Our frustrate searcli on land: Well, let him go.

Ant. [Aside to SEB.] I am right glad that he's so out of hope.

Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose
That you resolv'd to effect.

Seb. The next advantage

Will we take thoroughly.

Ant. Let it be to-night;

For, now they are oppress'd with travel, they
Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance,

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,
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 '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?
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.

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
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,
And what is in't,) the never-surfeited sea
Hath caused to belch up; 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. You fools! I and my fellows

[Seeing ALON. SEB. &c. draw their swords. 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,

[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,
And will not be uplifted: But, remember,
(For that's my business to you,) that you three
From Milan did supplant good Prospero;
Expos'd unto the sea, which hath requit it,
Him, and his innocent child: for which foul deed
The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
Incens'd the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,
Against your peace: Thee, of thy son, Alonso,
They have bereft; and do pronounce by me,
Ling'ring 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's sorrow,
And a clear life ensuing.

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,
And these, mine enemies, are all knit up

In their distractions: they now are in my power;
And in these fits I leave them, whilst I visit

Young Ferdinand, (whom they suppose is drown'd,)
And his and my lov'd darling. [Exit PRO. from 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, pronounc'd
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. 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
Have given you here a thread of mine own life,
Or that for which I live; whom 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. I do believe it,

Against an oracle.

Pro. Then, as my gift, and thine own acquisition
Worthily purchas'd, take my daughter: But
If thou dost break her virgin knot, before
All sanctimonious ceremonies may

With full and holy rite be minister'd,

No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall
To make this contract grow; but barren hate,
Sour-ey'd disdain, and discord, shall bestrew
The union of your bed, with weeds so loathly,
That you shall hate it both: therefore, take heed,
As Hymen's lamps shall light you.

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.

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