Our revels now are ended; these our actors
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air :

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,1
Leave not a rack 2 behind.

We are such stuff

As dreams are made of, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex'd;

Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled. Be not disturb'd with my infirmity:

If you be pleased, retire into my cell,

And there repose: a turn or two I'll walk,

To still my beating mind.

Fer. Mir.

We wish your peace. [Exeunt. Pro. Come with a thought:-I thank you:—

Ariel, come.

Enter ARIEL.

Ari. Thy thoughts I cleave to. What's thy

We must prepare to meet with Caliban.

Ari. Ay, my commander: when I presented Ceres,

I thought to have told thee of it; but I fear'd,

1 Vanished.

2 The last fleeting vestige of the highest clouds.

Lest I might anger thee.

Pro. Say again, where didst thou leave these varlets?

Ari. I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking;

So full of valor, that they smote the air
For breathing in their faces; beat the ground
For kissing of their feet; yet always bending
Towards their project. Then I beat my tabor,
At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their

ears,

Advanced their eye-lids, lifted up their noses,
As they smelt music; so I charm'd their ears,
That, calf like, they my lowing follow'd, through
Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss,1 and

thorns,

Which enter'd their frail shins: at last I left them I' the filthy mantled pool beyond your cell,

There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake O'erstunk their feet.

Pro.

This was well done, my bird:

Thy shape invisible retain thou still:

The trumpery in my house, go, bring it hither,
For stale 2 to catch these thieves.

Ari.

I go, I go.

[Eait.

Pro. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture 3
can never stick; on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost;

1 A kind of low furze.

2 Bait.

3 Education.

And as, with age, his body uglier grows,

So his mind cankers: I will plague them all,

Re-enter ARIEL loaden with glistering apparel, &c. Even to roaring :-Come, hang them on this line. Enter CA

PROSPERO and ARIEL remain invisible.

LIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, all wet. Cal. Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole may not

Hear a foot fall: we now are near his cell.

Ste. Monster, your fairy, which, you say, is a harmless fairy, has done little better than played the Jack 1 with us.

Trin. Monster, I do smell all horse-piss; at which my nose is in great indignation.

Ste. So is mine. Do you hear, monster? should take a displeasure against you; look you,Trin. Thou wert but a lost monster.

Cal. Good my lord, give me thy favor still:

If I

Be patient; for the prize I'll bring thee to Shall hood-wink this mischance: therefore, speak softly;

All's hush'd as midnight yet.

Trin. Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool,Ste. There is not only disgrace and dishonor in that, monster, but an infinite loss.

Trin. That's more to me than my wetting: yet this is your harmless fairy, monster.

1 Jack with a lantern.

Ste. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er ears for my labor.

Cal. Pr'ythee, my king, be quiet. Seest thou here?

This is the mouth o' the cell: no noise, and enter: Do that good mischief, which may make this island Thine own for ever, and I, thy Caliban,

For aye1 thy foot-licker.

Ste. Give me thy hand: I do begin to have bloody thoughts.

Trin. O king Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano! look, what a wardrobe here is for thee!

Cal. Let it alone, thou fool; it is but trash. Trin. O, ho, monster; we know what belongs to a frippery :-O king Stephano!

Ste. Put off that gown, Trinculo: by this hand, I'll have that gown.

Trin. Thy grace shall have it.

Cal. The dropsy drown this fool! what do you

mean,

To dote thus on such luggage? Let it alone,

And do the murder first: if he awake,

From toe to crown he'll fill our skins with pinches ; Make us strange stuff.

Ste. Be you quiet, monster.—Mistress line, is not this my jerkin? Now is the jerkin under the line : now, jerkin, you are like to lose your hair, and prove a bald jerkin.3

1 For ever.

A shop for the sale of old clothes.
An allusion to what often happens to people who pass

Trin. Do, do we steal by line and level, an't

like your grace.

:

Ste. I thank thee for that jest; here's a garment for 't: wit shall not go unrewarded, while I am king of this country. Steal by line and level,' is an excellent pass of pate;1 there's another garment for 't. Trin. Monster, come, put some lime upon your fingers, and away with the rest.

Cal. I will have none on 't: we shall lose our

time,

And all be turn'd to barnacles,3 or to apes

With foreheads villanous low.

Ste. Monster, lay-to your fingers; help to bear this away, where my hogshead of wine is, or I'll turn you out of my kingdom: go to, carry this. Trin. And this.

Ste. Ay, and this.

A noise of hunters heard.

Enter divers spirits, in

shape of hounds, and hunt them about; PROSPERO and ARIEL setting them on.

Pro. Hey, Mountain, hey!

Ari. Silver! there it goes, Silver !

Pro. Fury, Fury! there, Tyrant, there! hark, hark! [Cal. Ste. and Trin. are driven out.

the line. The violent fevers, which they contract in that hot climate, make them lose their hair.' Edwards' Mss.

1 A happy turn of thought.

2 Bird-lime.

3 A barnacle is a kind of shell-fish, which sticks to the bottoms of ships, and which was anciently supposed, when broken off, to become a Scottish goose.