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Seb.

I say, to night: 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.

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.1 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?
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 of

Our human generation you shall find

Many, nay, almost any.

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Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, ex

pressing

(Although they want the use of tongue) a kind

Of excellent dumb discourse.

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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? 2 which now we find,

Each putter out of one for five will bring us
Good warrant of.

Alon.

I will stand to, and feed,

Although my last: no matter, since I feel

1 Wonder.

2 The Blemmyi have no heads, but mouth and eyes in their breasts.'-Plin. Hist. Nat. book vi. chap. 8.

The best is past. Brother, my lord the duke,
Stand too, 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.

Ari. You are three men of sin, whom destiny (That hath to instrument this lower world And what is in 't) 1 the never-surfeited sea Hath caused to belch up; and on this island, Where man doth not inhabit; you 'mongst men Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad; [seeing Alon. Seb. &c. draw their swords. And even with such like valor, 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 dowle 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 it,

That makes use of this world, and every thing in it, as its instruments to bring about its ends.

2 Feather.

Him and his innocent child; for which foul deed,
The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
Incensed the sea 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 wraths to guard you
from,

(Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls
Upon your heads) is nothing, but heart's sorrow,
And a clear life ensuing.

2

He vanishes in thunder: then, to soft music, enter the shapes again, and dance with mops and mowes, and carry out the table.

Pro. [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,3
And observation strange, my meaner ministers
Their several kinds have done: 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, whilst I visit

1 Pure, blameless.

2 Making mouths, or wry faces.

3 With exact representation of their several characters: so

we say,

'acted to the life.'

SHAK.

I.

E

Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose is drown'd; And his and my loved darling.

[Exit Prospero from above. Gon. 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; The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder, That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced The name of Prosper; it did bass 1 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,
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
May now provoke them to.

Adr.

2

Follow, I pray you.

1 Told it me in a rough bass sound.

2 Alienation of mind.

[Exeunt.

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