ANT. [Aside to SEB.] Let it be to-night; SEB. [Aside to ANT.] I say, to-night: no more. Solemn and strange music; and PROSPERO above, Who would believe that there were mountaineers invisible. Enter several strange Shapes, Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging 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! Gox. Marvellous sweet music! ALON. Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these? SEB. A living drollery." 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 'em. 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. PRO. [Aside.] Honest lord, Thou hast said well; for some of you there present Are worse than devils. * A living drollery.] A puppet-show in Shakespeare's time was called a drollery. This, Sebastian says, is one played by living characters. Praise in departing.] A proverbial saying, equivalent to "Await the end before you commend your entertainment." So in "The Paradise of Dainty Devises," 1596,— "A good beginning oft we see, but seldome standing at one stay, For few do like the meane degree, then praise at parting some men say." • Each putter-out of five for one-] It was the custom of travellers, when about to make a long voyage, to put out, or invest, a sum of money, upon a guarantee that they should receive at the rate of five for one if they returned. This species of gambling became so much in vogue at one period that adventurers were in the practice of undertaking dangerous journeys solely upon the speculation of what their puttings-out would VOL. III. 33 at 'em 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,- One dowle that's in my plume; my fellow ministers yield if they got back safe. Of course when the journey ended fatally, the money they had invested went to the party who had engaged to pay the enormous interest on it. So, in Barnaby Riche's "Faults and Nothing but Faults," 1607: "Those whipsters, that, having spent the greatest part of their patrimony in prodigality, will give out the rest of their stocke to be paid two or three for one upon their return from Rome." See also Fynes Moryson's "Itinerary," Part I., p. 198, and Taylor, the waterpoet's pamphlet, called "The Scourge of Basenesse: or The Old Lerry, with a new Kicksey, and a new-cum twang, with the o'd Winsey." The ancient reading is usually altered in modern editions to "Each putter-out of one for five," or "Each putter out on five for one," but no change is called for; Shakespeare and his contemporaries commonly used of for on, "I'd put out moneys of being Mayor." "The Ordinary," Act I. £c. 1. d Dowle-] Feather; or particle of down. D Incens'd the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures, 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. He vanishes in thunder: then, to soft music, enter the Shapes again, and dance with mocks and mows, and carry out the table. PRO. [Aside.] Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring: And his and mine lov'd darling. [Exit from above. GON. I' the name of something holy, sir, why stand you In this strange stare? Like poison given to work a great time after, ADR. Follow, I pray you. [Exeunt. Enter PROSPERO, FERDINAND, and MIRANDA. PRO. If I have too austerely punish'd you, Your compensation makes amends; for I Have given you here a thread of mine own life, Or that for which I live; whom once again I tender to thy hand. All thy vexations Were but my trials of thy love, and thou Hast strangely stood the test: here, afore Heaven, I ratify this my rich gift. O, Ferdinand, Do not smile at me that I boast her off, For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise, And make it halt behind her! Worthily purchas'd, take my daughter: but As I hope mis-spelling, perhaps, of thred thread, which is oftentimes found in old writers. dbroom groves,-] Hanmer changes this to "brown groves,' as does Mr. Collier's annotator; and a more unhappy alteration can hardly be conceived, since it at once destroys the point of the allusion: yellow, the colour of the broom, being supposed especially congenial to the lass-lorn and dismissed bachelor. Thus Burton, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," Part III. Sec. 2, "So long as we are wooers, and may kiss and coll at our pleasure, nothing is so sweet; we are in heaven, as we think: but when we are once tied, and have lost our liberty, marriage is an hell: give me my yellow hose again." Enter Juxo. JUN. How does my bounteous sister? with me Go To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be, And honour'd in their issue. SONG. JUN. Honour, riches, marriage-blessing, CER. Earth's increase, foison plenty, Barns and garners never empty; Scarcity and want shall shun you; FER. This is a most majestic vision, and PRO. Spirits, which by mine art I have from their confines call'd to enact My present fancies. FER. Let me live here ever; Mr. Collier's annotator would alter this, strangely enough, to, "Rain come to you," &c. See the "Faiery Queen," B. III. C. 6, St. 42, "There is continuall spring, and harvest there See also Amos, c. ix. v. 13:-"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed." Harmonious charmingly :] Charmingly here imports magically, not delightfully. Enter certain Nymphs. You sun-burn'd sicklemen of August, weary, Come hither from the furrow, and be merry; Make holiday: your rye-straw hats put on, And these fresh nymphs encounter every one In country footing. Enter certain Reapers, properly habited; they join with the Nymphs in a graceful dance; towards the end whereof PROSPERO starts suddenly, and speaks; after which, to a strange, hollow, and confused noise, they heavily vanish. PRO. [Aside.] I had forgot that foul conspiracy Of the beast Caliban and his confederates, Against my life; the minute of their plot Is almost come.[To the Spirits.] Well done;avoid-no more! FER. This is strange: your father's in some passion That works him strongly. MIRA. If you be pleas'd, retire into my cell, In the ancient copies this reads, "So rare a wondred Father, and a wise and it is usually altered to, "So rare a wonder'd father and a wife, It is pretty evident that Ferdinand expresses a compliment to father and daughter; and equally so that the lines were intended to rhyme; with the very slight change we have ventured, the passage fulfils both conditions. It is noteworthy that the same rhyme occurs in the opening stanza of our author's "Passionate Pilgrim," "what fool is not so wise, To break an oath, to win a paradise?" a stanza quoted in "Love's Labour's Lost," Act IV. Sc. 3. |