Complete Plays, The
Page 40
No, it begins again.
Ariel sings
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell
Burthen Ding-dong
Hark! now I hear them,— Ding-dong, bell.
Ferdinand
The ditty does remember my drown’d father.
This is no mortal business, nor no sound
That the earth owes. I hear it now above me.
Prospero
The fringed curtains of thine eye advance
And say what thou seest yond.
Miranda
What is’t? a spirit?
Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir,
It carries a brave form. But ’tis a spirit.
Prospero
No, wench; it eats and sleeps and hath such senses
As we have, such. This gallant which thou seest
Was in the wreck; and, but he’s something stain’d
With grief that’s beauty’s canker, thou mightst call him
A goodly person: he hath lost his fellows
And strays about to find ’em.
Miranda
I might call him
A thing divine, for nothing natural
I ever saw so noble.
Prospero
[Aside] It goes on, I see,
As my soul prompts it. Spirit, fine spirit! I’ll free thee
Within two days for this.
Ferdinand
Most sure, the goddess
On whom these airs attend! Vouchsafe my prayer
May know if you remain upon this island;
And that you will some good instruction give
How I may bear me here: my prime request,
Which I do last pronounce, is, O you wonder!
If you be maid or no?
Miranda
No wonder, sir;
But certainly a maid.
Ferdinand
My language! heavens!
I am the best of them that speak this speech,
Were I but where ’tis spoken.
Prospero
How? the best?
What wert thou, if the King of Naples heard thee?
Ferdinand
A single thing, as I am now, that wonders
To hear thee speak of Naples. He does hear me;
And that he does I weep: myself am Naples,
Who with mine eyes, never since at ebb, beheld
The king my father wreck’d.
Miranda
Alack, for mercy!
Ferdinand
Yes, faith, and all his lords; the Duke of Milan
And his brave son being twain.
Prospero
[Aside] The Duke of Milan
And his more braver daughter could control thee,
If now ’twere fit to do’t. At the first sight
They have changed eyes. Delicate Ariel,
I’ll set thee free for this.
To Ferdinand
A word, good sir;
I fear you have done yourself some wrong: a word.
Miranda
Why speaks my father so ungently? This
Is the third man that e’er I saw, the first
That e’er I sigh’d for: pity move my father
To be inclined my way!
Ferdinand
O, if a virgin,
And your affection not gone forth, I’ll make you
The queen of Naples.
Prospero
Soft, sir! one word more.
Aside
They are both in either’s powers; but this swift business
I must uneasy make, lest too light winning
Make the prize light.
To Ferdinand
One word more; I charge thee
That thou attend me: thou dost here usurp
The name thou owest not; and hast put thyself
Upon this island as a spy, to win it
From me, the lord on’t.
Ferdinand
No, as I am a man.
Miranda
There’s nothing ill can dwell in such a temple:
If the ill spirit have so fair a house,
Good things will strive to dwell with’t.
Prospero
Follow me.
Speak not you for him; he’s a traitor. Come;
I’ll manacle thy neck and feet together:
Sea-water shalt thou drink; thy food shall be
The fresh-brook muscles, wither’d roots and husks
Wherein the acorn cradled. Follow.
Ferdinand
No;
I will resist such entertainment till
Mine enemy has more power.
Draws, and is charmed from moving
Miranda
O dear father,
Make not too rash a trial of him, for
He’s gentle and not fearful.
Prospero
What? I say,
My foot my tutor? Put thy sword up, traitor;
Who makest a show but darest not strike, thy conscience
Is so possess’d with guilt: come from thy ward,
For I can here disarm thee with this stick
And make thy weapon drop.
Miranda
Beseech you, father.
Prospero
Hence! hang not on my garments.
Miranda
Sir, have pity;
I’ll be his surety.
Prospero
Silence! one word more
Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What!
An advocate for an imposter! hush!
Thou think’st there is no more such shapes as he,
Having seen but him and Caliban: foolish wench!
To the most of men this is a Caliban
And they to him are angels.
Miranda
My affections
Are then most humble; I have no ambition
To see a goodlier man.
Prospero
Come on; obey:
Thy nerves are in their infancy again
And have no vigour in them.
Ferdinand
So they are;
My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up.
My father’s loss, the weakness which I feel,
The wreck of all my friends, nor this man’s threats,
To whom I am subdued, are but light to me,
Might I but through my prison once a day
Behold this maid: all corners else o’ the earth
Let liberty make use of; space enough
Have I in such a prison.
Prospero
[Aside] It works.
To Ferdinand
Come on.
Thou hast done well, fine Ariel!
To Ferdinand
Follow me.
To Ariel
Hark what thou else shalt do me.
Miranda
Be of comfort;
My father’s of a better nature, sir,
Than he appears by speech: this is unwonted
Which now came from him.
Prospero
Thou shalt be free
As mountain winds: but then exactly do
All points of my command.
Ariel
To the syllable.
Prospero
Come, follow. Speak not for him.
Exeunt
ACT II
SCENE I. ANOTHER PART OF THE ISLAND.
Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, Francisco, and others
Gonzalo
Beseech you, sir, be merry; you have cause,
So have we all, of joy; for our escape
Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe
Is c
ommon; every day some sailor’s wife,
The masters of some merchant and the merchant
Have just our theme of woe; but for the miracle,
I mean our preservation, few in millions
Can speak like us: then wisely, good sir, weigh
Our sorrow with our comfort.
Alonso
Prithee, peace.
Sebastian
He receives comfort like cold porridge.
Antonio
The visitor will not give him o’er so.
Sebastian
Look he’s winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.
Gonzalo
Sir,—
Sebastian
One: tell.
Gonzalo
When every grief is entertain’d that’s offer’d,
Comes to the entertainer —
Sebastian
A dollar.
Gonzalo
Dolour comes to him, indeed: you have spoken truer than you purposed.
Sebastian
You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should.
Gonzalo
Therefore, my lord,—
Antonio
Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue!
Alonso
I prithee, spare.
Gonzalo
Well, I have done: but yet,—
Sebastian
He will be talking.
Antonio
Which, of he or Adrian, for a good wager, first begins to crow?
Sebastian
The old cock.
Antonio
The cockerel.
Sebastian
Done. The wager?
Antonio
A laughter.
Sebastian
A match!
Adrian
Though this island seem to be desert,—
Sebastian
Ha, ha, ha! So, you’re paid.
Adrian
Uninhabitable and almost inaccessible,—
Sebastian
Yet,—
Adrian
Yet,—
Antonio
He could not miss’t.
Adrian
It must needs be of subtle, tender and delicate temperance.
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.
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!
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 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 glosses, being rather new-dyed than 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 when we put them on first in Afric, 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 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? 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?
Gonzalo
I assure you, Carthage.
Sebastian
His word is more than the miraculous harp; he hath raised the wall and houses too.
Antonio
What impossible matter will he make easy next?
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
Ay.
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.
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.
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,
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,
And ride upon their backs; he trod the water,
Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted
The surge most swoln that met him; his bold head
’Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar’d
Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke
To the shore, that o’er his wave-worn basis bow’d,
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,
But rather lose her to an African;
Where she at least is banish’d from your eye,
Who hath cause to wet the grief on’t.
Alonso
Prithee, peace.
Sebastian
You were kneel’d to and importuned otherwise
By all of us, and the fair soul herself
Weigh’d between loathness and obedience, at
Which end o’ the 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:
The fault’s your own.
Alonso
So is the dear’st o’ the 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.
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’ld sow’t with nettle-seed.
Sebastian
Or docks, or mallows.
Gonzalo
And were the king on’t, what would I do?
Sebastian
’Scape being drunk for want of wine.
Gonzalo
I’ the commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
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;
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
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.
Sebastian
No marrying ’mong his subjects?
Antonio
None, man; all idle: whores and knaves.
Gonzalo
I would with such perfection govern, sir,
To excel the golden age.
Sebastian
God save his majesty!
Antonio
Long live Gonzalo!
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 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.
Antonio
What a blow was there given!
Sebastian
An it had not fallen flat-long.
Gonzalo
You are gentlemen of brave metal; you would lift the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue in it five weeks without changing.
Enter Ariel, invisible, 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?