_Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and
Others._
_Gonza._ By'r lakin,[430-1] I can go no further, sir;
My old bones ache: here's a maze trod, indeed,
Through forth-rights[430-2] and meanders![430-3] by your patience,
I needs must rest me.
_Alon._ Old lord, I cannot blame thee,
Who am myself attach'd with[430-4] weariness,
To th' 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[430-5] search on land. Well, let him go.
_Anto._ [_Aside to SEBAS._] I am right glad that he's so out of hope.
Do not, for one repulse, forgo the purpose
That you resolved t' effect.
_Sebas._ [_Aside to ANTO._] The next advantage
Will we take throughly.[430-6]
_Anto._ [_Aside to SEBAS._] Let it be to-night.
For, now they are oppress'd with travel, they
Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance
As when they're fresh.
_Sebas._ [_Aside to ANTO._] I say, to-night: no more.
[_Solemn and strange music._
_Alon._ What harmony is this? My good friends, hark!
_Gonza._ Marvellous sweet music!
_Enter PROSPERO above, invisible. Enter, below, 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._ Give us kind keepers, Heavens!--
What were these?
_Sebas._ A living drollery.[431-7] Now I will believe
That there are unicorns; that in Arabia
There is one tree, the phoenix throne;[431-8] one phoenix
At this hour reigning there.
_Anto._ 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 'em.
_Gonza._ If in Naples
I should report this now, would they believe me?
If I should say I saw such islanders,--
For, certes,[431-9] 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.
_Pros._ [_Aside._] Honest lord,
Thou hast said well; for some of you there present
Are worse than devils.
_Alon._ I cannot too much muse[432-10]
Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing--
Although they want the use of tongue--a kind
Of excellent dumb discourse.
_Pros._ [_Aside._] Praise in departing.[432-11]
_Fran._ They vanish'd strangely.
_Sebas._ No matter, since
They've left their viands behind; for we have stomachs.--
Will't please you taste of what is here?
_Alon._ Not I.
_Gonza._ Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were boys,
Who would believe that there were mountaineers
Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em
Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men
Whose heads stood in their breasts?[432-12] which now we find,
Each putter-out of one for five[432-13] 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 by a quaint device, the banquet vanishes._
_Ari._ You are three men of sin, whom Destiny--
That hath to instrument[433-14] this lower world
And what is in't--the never-surfeited sea
Hath caused to belch up; yea, and on this island
Where man doth not inhabit; you 'mongst men
Being most unfit to live. I've made you mad;
And even with such like valour men hang and drown
Their proper selves.
[_Seeing ALON., SEBAS., &c., draw their swords._
You fools! I and my fellows
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[433-15] waters, as diminish
One dowle[434-16] that's in my plume: my fellow-ministers
Are 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 three
From Milan did supplant good Prospero;
Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit[434-17] it,
Him and his innocent child: for which foul deed
The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
Incensed the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,
Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso,
They have bereft; and do pronounce, by me,
Lingering perdition--worse than any death
Can be at once--shall step by step attend
You and your ways; whose[434-18] wraths to guard you from,--
Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls
Upon 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 mowes, and carry out the table._
_Pros._ [_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.[435-19] 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, while I visit
Young Ferdinand,--who they suppose is drown'd,--
And his and my loved darling. [_Exit from above._
_Gonza._ 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;[435-20]
The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder,
That deep and dreadful organ pipe, pronounced
The name of Prosper: it did bass my trespass.[435-21]
Therefore my son i' the ooze is bedded;[435-22] and
I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded,
And with him there lie mudded.[435-23] [_Exit._
_Sebas._ But one fiend at a time,
I'll fight their legions o'er.
_Anto._ I'll be thy second.
[_Exeunt SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO._
_Gonza._ All three of them are desperate: their great guilt,
Like poison given to work a long time after,[436-24]
Now 'gins to bite the spirits.--I do beseech you,
That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly,
And hinder them from what this ecstasy[436-25]
May now provoke them to.
_Adri._ Follow, I pray you. [_Exeunt._