The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 473
SEBASTIAN The old cock.
ANTONIO The cockerel.
SEBASTIAN Done! The wager?
ANTONIO A laughter.
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SEBASTIAN A match!
ADRIAN Though this island seem to be desert –
ANTONIO Ha, ha, ha.
SEBASTIAN So, you’re paid.
ADRIAN Uninhabitable and almost inaccessible –
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SEBASTIAN Yet –
ADRIAN Yet –
ANTONIO He could not miss’t.
ADRIAN It must needs be of subtle, tender and delicate
temperance.
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ANTONIO Temperance was a delicate wench.
SEBASTIAN Ay, and a subtle, as he most learnedly
delivered.
ADRIAN The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.
SEBASTIAN As if it had lungs, and rotten ones.
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ANTONIO Or, as ’twere perfumed by a fen.
GONZALO Here is everything advantageous to life.
ANTONIO True, save means to live.
SEBASTIAN Of that there’s none, or little.
GONZALO How lush and lusty the grass looks! How green!
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ANTONIO The ground indeed is tawny.
SEBASTIAN With an eye of green in’t.
ANTONIO He misses not much.
SEBASTIAN No; he doth but mistake the truth totally.
GONZALO But the rarity of it is, which is indeed almost
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beyond credit –
SEBASTIAN As many vouched rarities are.
GONZALO That our garments being, as they were,
drenched in the sea, hold notwithstanding their
freshness and gloss, being rather new-dyed than
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stained with salt water.
ANTONIO If but one of his pockets could speak, would it
not say he lies?
SEBASTIAN Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report.
GONZALO Methinks our garments are now as fresh as
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when we put them on first in Africa, at the marriage of
the King’s fair daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis.
SEBASTIAN ’Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper
well in our return.
ADRIAN Tunis was never graced before with such a
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paragon to their queen.
GONZALO Not since widow Dido’s time.
ANTONIO Widow? A pox o’that. How came that widow
in? Widow Dido!
SEBASTIAN What if he had said widower Aeneas too?
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Good lord, how you take it!
ADRIAN Widow Dido, said you? You make me study of
that. She was of Carthage, not of Tunis.
GONZALO This Tunis, sir, was Carthage.
ADRIAN Carthage?
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GONZALO I assure you, Carthage.
ANTONIO His word is more than the miraculous harp.
SEBASTIAN He hath raised the wall, and houses too.
ANTONIO What impossible matter will he make easy
next?
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SEBASTIAN I think he will carry this island home in his
pocket and give it his son for an apple.
ANTONIO And sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring
forth more islands!
GONZALO I –
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ANTONIO Why, in good time.
GONZALO Sir, we were talking that our garments seem
now as fresh as when we were at Tunis at the marriage
of your daughter, who is now Queen.
ANTONIO And the rarest that e’er came there.
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SEBASTIAN Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido.
ANTONIO O, widow Dido? Ay, widow Dido.
GONZALO Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first
day I wore it? I mean, in a sort.
ANTONIO That sort was well fished for.
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GONZALO When I wore it at your daughter’s marriage.
ALONSO You cram these words into mine ears, against
The stomach of my sense. Would I had never
Married my daughter there, for coming thence
My son is lost and (in my rate) she too,
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Who is so far from Italy removed
I ne’er again shall see her. O thou mine heir
Of Naples and of Milan, what strange fish
Hath made his meal on thee?
FRANCISCO Sir, he may live.
I saw him beat the surges under him
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And ride upon their backs. He trod the water,
Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted
The surge most swoll’n that met him. His bold head
’Bove the contentious waves he kept and oared
Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke
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To th’ shore, that o’er his wave-worn basis bowed,
As stooping to relieve him. I not doubt
He came alive to land.
ALONSO No, no, he’s gone.
SEBASTIAN
Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss,
That would not bless our Europe with your daughter
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But rather loose her to an African,
Where she at least is banished from your eye,
Who hath cause to wet the grief on’t.
ALONSO Prithee, peace.
SEBASTIAN
You were kneeled to and importuned otherwise
By all of us, and the fair soul herself
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Weighed between loathness and obedience, at
Which end o’th’ beam should bow. We have lost your son,
I fear, for ever. Milan and Naples have
More widows in them of this business’ making
Than we bring men to comfort them.
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The fault’s your own.
ALONSO So is the dear’st o’th’ loss.
GONZALO My lord Sebastian,
The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness,
And time to speak it in. You rub the sore
When you should bring the plaster.
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SEBASTIAN Very well.
ANTONIO And most chirurgeonly!
GONZALO It is foul weather in us all, good sir,
When you are cloudy.
SEBASTIAN Foul weather?
ANTONIO Very foul.
GONZALO Had I plantation of this isle, my lord –
ANTONIO He’d sow’t with nettle-seed.
SEBASTIAN Or docks, or mallows.
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GONZALO And were the king on’t, what would I do?
SEBASTIAN ’Scape being drunk, for want of wine.
GONZALO I’th’ commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things, for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
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Letters should not be known; riches, poverty
And use of service, none; contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard – none;
No use of metal, corn, or wine or oil;
No occupation, all men idle, all;
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And women, too, but innocent and pure;
No sovereignty –
SEBASTIAN Yet he would be king on’t.
ANTONIO The latter end of his commonwealth forgets
the beginning.
GONZALO
All things in common nature should produce
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Without sweat or endeavour; treason, felony,
Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine
Would I not have; but nature should bring forth
Of its own kind all foison, all abundance,
To feed my innocent people.
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; SEBASTIAN No marrying ’mong his subjects?
ANTONIO None, man, all idle – whores and knaves.
GONZALO I would with such perfection govern, sir,
T’excel the Golden Age.
SEBASTIAN ’Save his majesty!
ANTONIO Long live Gonzalo!
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GONZALO And – do you mark me, sir? –
ALONSO Prithee, no more.
Thou dost talk nothing to me.
GONZALO I do well believe your highness, and did it to
minister occasion to these gentlemen, who are of such
sensible and nimble lungs that they always use to
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laugh at nothing.
ANTONIO ’Twas you we laughed at.
GONZALO Who, in this kind of merry fooling, am
nothing to you, so you may continue and laugh at
nothing still.
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ANTONIO What a blow was there given!
SEBASTIAN An it had not fallen flat-long.
GONZALO You are gentlemen of brave mettle. You
would lift the moon out of her sphere, if she would
continue in it five weeks without changing.
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Enter ARIEL playing solemn music.
SEBASTIAN We would so, and then go a bat-fowling.
ANTONIO Nay, good my lord, be not angry.
GONZALO No, I warrant you, I will not adventure my
discretion so weakly. Will you laugh me asleep, for I
am very heavy.
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ANTONIO Go sleep, and hear us.
[All sleep except Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio.]
ALONSO What, all so soon asleep? I wish mine eyes
Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts. I find
They are inclined to do so.
SEBASTIAN Please you, sir,
Do not omit the heavy offer of it.
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It seldom visits sorrow; when it doth,
It is a comforter.
ANTONIO We two, my lord,
Will guard your person while you take your rest,
And watch your safety.
ALONSO Thank you. Wondrous heavy.
[Alonso sleeps. Exit Ariel.]
SEBASTIAN What a strange drowsiness possesses them!
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ANTONIO It is the quality o’th’ climate.
SEBASTIAN Why
Doth it not then our eyelids sink? I find not
Myself disposed to sleep.
ANTONIO Nor I. My spirits are nimble.
They fell together all, as by consent;
They dropped, as by a thunderstroke. What might,
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Worthy Sebastian, O, what might –? No more;
And yet, methinks I see it in thy face
What thou shouldst be. Th’occasion speaks thee, and
My strong imagination sees a crown
Dropping upon thy head.
SEBASTIAN What, art thou waking?
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ANTONIO Do you not hear me speak?
SEBASTIAN I do, and surely
It is a sleepy language, and thou speak’st
Out of thy sleep. What is it thou didst say?
This is a strange repose, to be asleep
With eyes wide open – standing, speaking, moving,
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And yet so fast asleep.
ANTONIO Noble Sebastian,
Thou let’st thy fortune sleep – die rather; wink’st
Whiles thou art waking.
SEBASTIAN Thou dost snore distinctly.
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There’s meaning in thy snores.
ANTONIO I am more serious than my custom. You
Must be so too, if heed me, which to do
Trebles thee o’er.
SEBASTIAN Well, I am standing water.
ANTONIO I’ll teach you how to flow.
SEBASTIAN Do so. To ebb
Hereditary sloth instructs me.
ANTONIO O,
If you but knew how you the purpose cherish
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Whiles thus you mock it, how in stripping it
You more invest it. Ebbing men, indeed,
Most often do so near the bottom run
By their own fear or sloth.
SEBASTIAN Prithee, say on;
The setting of thine eye and cheek proclaim
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A matter from thee, and a birth, indeed,
Which throes thee much to yield.
ANTONIO Thus, sir:
Although this lord of weak remembrance – this
Who shall be of as little memory