Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, Francisco, &c.
GONZALO
By ’r lakinan oath meaning ‘by Our Lady’., I can go no further, sir;My old bones ache: here’s a maze trod, indeed,Through forth-rightsA straight path or direct course. and meanders! By your patience,I needs must rest me.
ALONSO
Old lord, I cannot blame thee,Who am myself attach’d with wearinessTo th’ dulling of my spirits: sit down, and rest.Even here I will put off my hope, and keep itNo longer for my flatterer: he is drown’dWhom thus we stray to find; and the sea mocksOur frustrate search on land. Well, let him go.
ANTONIO
I am right glad that he’sso out of hope.Do not, for one repulse, forgo the purposeThat you resolv’d to effect.
SEBASTIAN
The next advantageWill we take throughly.
ANTONIO
Let it be tonight;For, now they are oppress’d with travel, theyWill not, nor cannot, use such vigilanceAs when they are fresh.
SEBASTIAN
I say, tonight: 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.
ALONSO
What harmony is this? My good friends, hark!
GONZALO
Marvellous sweet music!
ALONSO
Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these?
SEBASTIAN
A living drollery. Now I will believeThat there are unicorns; that in ArabiaThere is one tree, the phoenix’ throne; one phoenixAt this hour reigning there.
ANTONIO
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.
GONZALO
If in NaplesI 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 ofOur human generation you shall findMany, nay, almost any.
PROSPERO
Honest lord,Thou hast said well; for some of you there presentAre worse than devils.
ALONSO
I cannot too much museSuch shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing—Although they want the use of tongue—a kindOf excellent dumb discourse.
PROSPERO
Praise in departingto reserve judgement until the outcome is known..
FRANCISCO
They vanish’d strangely.
SEBASTIAN
No matter, sinceThey have left their viands behind; for we have stomachs.—Will’t please you taste of what is here?
ALONSO
Not I.
GONZALO
Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were boys,Who would believe that there were mountaineersDewlapp’d like bulls, whose throats had hanging at ’emWallets of flesh? Or that there were such menWhose heads stood in their breasts? which now we findEach putter-out of five for onea traveller who deposits money before a voyage under an agreement to receive five times the sum if he returns. will bring usGood warrant of.
ALONSO
I will stand to, and feed,Although my last, no matter, since I feelThe 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.
ARIEL
You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,That hath to instrument this lower worldAnd what is in’t,—the never-surfeited seaHath caused to belch up you; and on this islandWhere man doth not inhabit; you ’mongst menBeing most unfit to live. I have made you mad;And even with such-like valour men hang and drownTheir proper selves.
Seeing Alonso, Sebastian &c., draw their swords.
ARIEL
You fools! I and my fellowsAre ministers of Fate: the elementsOf whom your swords are temper’d may as wellWound the loud winds, or with bemock’d-at stabsKill the still-closing waters, as diminishOne dowleA small feather or particle of down. that’s in my plume. My fellow-ministersAre like invulnerable. If you could hurt,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 threeFrom Milan did supplant good Prospero;Expos’d unto the sea, which hath requit it,Him and his innocent child: for which foul deedThe powers, delaying, not forgetting, haveIncens’d the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso,They have bereft; and do pronounce, by meLing’ring perdition,—worse than any deathCan be at once,—shall step by step attendYou and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from—Which here, in this most desolate isle, else fallsUpon your heads,—is nothing but heart-sorrow,And a clear life ensuing.
He vanishes in thunder: then, to soft music, enter the Shapes again, and dance, with mocks and mowsA grimace or contorted facial expression., and carry out the table.
PROSPERO
Bravely the figure of this Harpy hast thouPerform’d, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring.Of my instruction hast thou nothing batedIn what thou hadst to say: so, with good lifeAnd observation strange, my meaner ministersTheir several kinds have done. My high charms work,And these mine enemies are all knit upIn their distractions; they now are in my power;And in these fits I leave them, while I visitYoung Ferdinand,—whom they suppose is drown’d,—And his and mine lov’d darling.
Exit above.
GONZALO
I’ the name of something holy, sir, why stand youIn this strange stare?
ALONSO
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’dThe name of Prosper: it did bass my trespass.Therefore my son i’ th’ ooze is bedded; andI’ll seek him deeper than e’er plummet sounded,And with him there lie mudded.
Exit.
SEBASTIAN
But one fiend at a time,I’ll fight their legions o’er.
ANTONIO
I’ll be thy second.
Exeunta stage direction meaning that two or more characters leave the stage. Sebastian and Antonio.
GONZALO
All three of them are desperate: their great guilt,Like poison given to work a great time after,Now ’gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech youThat are of suppler joints, follow them swiftlyAnd hinder them from what this ecstasyMay now provoke them to.