Ant. Long live Gonzalo !

Gon.

And, do you mark me, sir?. Alon. Pr'ythee, no more; thou dost talk nothing

to me.

Gon. 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.

Ant. "Twas you we laughed at.

Gon. Who, in this kind of merry fooling, am nothing to you; so you may continue, and laugh at nothing still.

Ant. What a blow was there given !

Seb. An it had not fallen flat-long.

Gon. 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.

Enter ARIEL invisible, playing solemn music. Seb. We would so, and then go a bat-fowling.1 Ant. Nay, good my lord, be not angry.

Gon. No, I warrant you; I will not adventure my discretion so weakly. Will you laugh me asleep, for I am very heavy?

Ant. Go sleep, and hear us.

[all sleep but Alon. Seb. and Ant. Alon. What, all so soon asleep! I wish mine eyes Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts: I find

1 Bird-catching in the night time.

They are inclined to do so.

Seb.

Please you, sir,

Do not omit the heavy offer of it:

It seldom visits sorrow; when it doth,

It is a comforter.

Ant.

We two, my lord,

Will guard your person, while

And watch your safety.

Alon.

take you

your rest,

Thank you: wondrous heavy.-
[Alonso sleeps. Exit Ariel.

Seb. What a strange drowsiness possesses them!
Ant. It is the quality o' the climate.

Seb.

Why

Doth it not then our eyelids sink? I find not

Myself disposed to sleep.

Ant.

Nor I; my spirits are nimble.

They fell together all, as by consent;

They dropp'd, as by a thunder-stroke. What might, Worthy Sebastian ?-O, what might ?—No more :— And yet, methinks, I see it in thy face,

1

What thou shouldst be: the occasion 1 speaks thee;

and

My strong imagination sees a crown

Dropping upon thy head.

Seb.

What, art thou waking?

I do; and, surely

Ant. Do you not hear me speak?

Seb.

It is a sleepy language, and thou speak'st
Out of thy sleep. What is it thou didst say?

1 Opportunity.

This is a strange repose, to be asleep

With eyes wide open; standing, speaking, moving, And yet so fast asleep.

There's meaning in thy snores.

Ant. I am more serious than my custom: you

Must be so too, if heed me; which to do,

If

Ant.

you

but knew, how you the purpose cherish, Whiles thus you mock it! how, in stripping it, You more invest it! 2 Ebbing men, indeed,

Most often do so near the bottom run,

By their own fear, or sloth.

Seb.

Pr'ythee, say on:

The setting of thine eye, and cheek, proclaim
A matter from thee; and a birth, indeed,
Which throes thee much to yield.

If you bestow attention, it will in the end make you thrice what you are.

2 How, in stripping the words of their common mearing, and using them figuratively, you adapt them to your own situation!

Ant.

Thus, sir:

Although this lord of weak remembrance, this

(Who shall be of as little memory,

When he is earth'd) hath here almost persuaded (For he's a spirit of persuasion, only

Professes to persuade) the king, his son's alive; "Tis as impossible that he's undrown'd,

As he that sleeps here, swims.

Seb.

That he's undrown'd.

Ant.

I have no hope

O, out of that no hope,

What great hope have you! no hope, that way, is Another way so high a hope, that even

Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,

But doubts discovery there. Will you grant, with

Ant. She that is queen of Tunis; she that dwells Ten leagues beyond man's life; 1 she that from

Naples

Can have no note, unless the sun were post,

(The man i̇' the moon's too slow) till new-born

chins

1 At a greater distance than the life of man is long enough to reach. 2 Notice, information

Be rough and razorable: she, from whom 1

We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast

again;

And, by that, destiny to perform an act,

Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come,
In yours and my discharge.

Seb.

What stuff is this?-How say you?

'Tis true, my brother's daughter's queen of Tunis ; So is she heir of Naples; 'twixt which regions There is some space.

Ant.

A space, whose every cubit Seems to cry out, 'How shall that Claribel Measure us back to Naples ?'-Keep in Tunis, And let Sebastian wake!-Say, this were death That now hath seized them; why, they were no

worse

Than now they are: there be, that can rule
Naples,

As well as he that sleeps; lords, that can prate
As amply, and unnecessarily,

As this Gonzalo : I myself could make

3

A chough of as deep chat. O, that you bore
The mind that I do! what a sleep were this

1 In coming from whom.

2 Depends on what you and I are to perform.

A bird of the jackdaw kind.