Gon. 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.

Ant. And the rarest that e'er came there.
Seb. Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido.

Ant. O, widow Dido; ay, widow Dido.

Gon. Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I wore it? I mean, in a sort.

Ant. That sort was well fished for.3

Gon. When I wore it at your daughter's marriage?
Alon. 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 5 shall see her. O thou mine heir
Of Naples and of Milan,6 what strange fish
Hath made his meal on thee !

Fran.

Sir, he may live ;7

1 Ay!] An old form of the interjection ah! which Staunton here rightly assigns to Alonso, the preceding editors of Shakspeare giving it erroneously to Gonzalo.

2 Why, in good time.] You come out of your silent trance in good time.

That sort was well fished for.] There is here a punning allusion to chance or luck as one of the meanings of the word sort.

4 In my rate, &c.] I ne'er again.] 6 And of Milan.] the king of Naples.

In my reckoning she too is lost.

That I never again.

This refers to Antonio's bond of vassalage to

7 Sir, he may live, &c.] From the rhetorical style of this speech of Francisco we may understand why he is afterwards described by Antonio as 'a spirit of persuasion,' one who 'professes to persuade.'

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 oared
Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke

To the shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis bowed,
As stooping to relieve him: I not doubt

He came alive to land.

Alon.

No, no, he's gone !

Seb. 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 banished from your eye,

Who hath cause to wet the grief on't.1

Alon.

Pr'ythee, peace.

Seb. You were kneeled to, and importuned otherwise By all of us; and the fair soul herself

Weighed between loathness and obedience, at

Which end o' the beam she'd 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.

Alon. So is the dearest o' the loss.

Gon.

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.

Seb.

Very well.4

Who hath cause, &c.] Which hath cause to weep for the grievance of it, i. e., of being denied the sight of so beautiful an object.

2

Weighed.] Deliberated.

Ant. And most chirurgeonly.

Gon. It is foul weather in us all, good sir,

When you are cloudy.

Seb.

Ant.

Foul weather!

Very foul.1

Gon. Had I plantation2 of this isle, my lord—
Ant. He'd sow it with nettle-seed.
Seb.
Or docks, or mallows.
Gon. And were the king on't, what would I do?
Seb. 'Scape being drunk for want of wine.

Gon. 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

Seb.

And yet he would be king on 't!

Ant. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning.

Gon. 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,3 all abundance,
To feed my innocent people.

1 Very foul.] That is, very foul wit.

2 Plantation.] The colonising.

* Foison.] A French word, meaning plenty. We must not imagine Gonzalo to be serious in his scheme of a new commonwealth; he was trying to beguile Alonso's sorrow, and designed, as he afterwards says, 'to minister occasion' of laughter to Antonio and Sebastian.

Seb. No marrying 'mong his subjects?

Ant. None, man; all idle whores and knaves. Gon. I would with such perfection govern, sir, To excel the golden age.

Seb.

Save his majesty !

Ant. Long live Gonzalo !
Gon.

sir

And, do you mark me, 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:2 so you may continue, and laugh at nothing still. Ant. What a blow was there given !

Seb. An it had not fallen flat-long.3

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.4

Gonzalo's discourse is derived from Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essays, i. 30, where we find the following passage:'It is a nation, would I answer Plato, that hath no kind of traffic, no knowledge of letters, no intelligence of numbers, no name of magistrate nor of politic superiority; no use of service, of riches, or of poverty; no contracts, no succession, no partitions; no occupation, but idle; no respect of kindred, but common; no apparel, but natural; no use of wine, corn, or metal. The very words that import lying, falsehood, treason, dissimulations, covetousness, envy, detraction, and pardon, were never heard amongst them.'

1 of such sensible and nimble lungs.] Of such exciteable lungs. See Hamlet, ii. 2, and the present Editor's note in loc. 'The clown

shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o' the sere.'

2 To you.] Compared to you.

4

Flat-long.] Flatly, not with any edge or point.

If she would continue, &c.] If she took five weeks instead of four from change to change.

Enter ARIEL invisible; solemn music playing.

Seb. We would so, and then go a bat-fowling.'

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 They are inclined to do so.

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 dropped, as by a thunder-stroke. What might,
Worthy Sebastian-O, what might2-No more!—

1 Bat-fowling.] A method of taking birds in the dark by rousing them from their nests and stupefying them with a sudden blaze of light, was called bat-fowling.

2 What might.] Antonio is here venturing to suggest what might now be done, viz. the murder of Sebastian's brother Alonso.