Through forth-rights, and meanders! by your patience, 1 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 search on land. Well, let him go. Ant. 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. Will we take thoroughly. The next advantage Let it be to-night; For, now they are oppress'd with travel, they Seb. I say, to-night: no more.[Aside. 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, Heavens! What were these? Seb. A living drollery. 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? Many,-nay, almost any. Pro. -Honest lord, Thou hast said well; for some of you there present Are worse than devils. Alon. [Aside. I cannot too much muse Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing Pro. Praise in departing. [Aside. Fran. They vanished strangely. Seb. No matter, since They have left their viands behind; for we have stomachs. 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, 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? which now we find, Each putter-out on 15 five for one, will bring us Alon. I will stand to, and feed, The best is past. Brother, my lord the Duke, Thunder and lightning. Enter ARIEL like a harpy; claps his wings upon the table, and, with a quaint device, the Banquet vanishes. II. 0 0 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 caus'd to belch you up, and on this island Where man doth not inhabit; you 'mongst men Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad; [ALON. SEB. &c. draw their swords. And, even with such like valour, men hang and drown Their proper selves. 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 waters, as diminish One down16 that's in my plume; my fellow ministers Your swords are now too massy for your strengths, You, and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from He vanishes in thunder: then, to soft music, enter the Shapes again, and dance with mops and mowes, and carry out the table. Pro. -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 In their distractions: they now are in my power; you In this strange stare? Alon. Oh, 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 base 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. I'll fight their legions o'er. Ant. [Exit. But one fiend at a time, I'll be thy second. [Exeunt SEB. and ANT. Gon. All three of them are desperate; their great guilt, Like poison given to work a great time after, Adr. Follow, I pray you. [Exeunt. ACT IV. SCENE I. Before Prospero's Cell. Enter PROSPERO, FERDINAND, and MIRANDA. F I have too austerely punished you, Or that for which I live; whom once again For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise, Fer. Against an oracle. I do believe it, Pro. Then, as my gift, and thine own acquisition Worthily purchased, take my daughter; but If thou dost break her virgin-knot before Fer. As I hope For quiet days, fair issue, and long life, |