Complete Plays, The (54 page)

Now, forward with your tale. Prithee, stand farther off.

Caliban

Beat him enough: after a little time
I’ll beat him too.

Stephano

 
Stand farther. Come, proceed.

Caliban

Why, as I told thee, ’tis a custom with him,
I’ th’ afternoon to sleep: there thou mayst brain him,
Having first seized his books, or with a log
Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake,
Or cut his wezand with thy knife. Remember
First to possess his books; for without them
He’s but a sot, as I am, nor hath not
One spirit to command: they all do hate him
As rootedly as I. Burn but his books.
He has brave utensils,— for so he calls them —
Which when he has a house, he’ll deck withal
And that most deeply to consider is
The beauty of his daughter; he himself
Calls her a nonpareil: I never saw a woman,
But only Sycorax my dam and she;
But she as far surpasseth Sycorax
As great’st does least.

Stephano

Is it so brave a lass?

Caliban

Ay, lord; she will become thy bed, I warrant.
And bring thee forth brave brood.

Stephano

Monster, I will kill this man: his daughter and I will be king and queen — save our graces!— and Trinculo and thyself shall be viceroys. Dost thou like the plot, Trinculo?

Trinculo

Excellent.

Stephano

Give me thy hand: I am sorry I beat thee; but, while thou livest, keep a good tongue in thy head.

Caliban

Within this half hour will he be asleep:
Wilt thou destroy him then?

Stephano

Ay, on mine honour.

Ariel

This will I tell my master.

Caliban

Thou makest me merry; I am full of pleasure:
Let us be jocund: will you troll the catch
You taught me but while-ere?

Stephano

At thy request, monster, I will do reason, any reason. Come on, Trinculo, let us sing.

Sings

Flout ’em and scout ’em
And scout ’em and flout ’em
Thought is free.

Caliban

That’s not the tune.

Ariel plays the tune on a tabour and pipe

Stephano

What is this same?

Trinculo

This is the tune of our catch, played by the picture of Nobody.

Stephano

If thou beest a man, show thyself in thy likeness: if thou beest a devil, take’t as thou list.

Trinculo

O, forgive me my sins!

Stephano

He that dies pays all debts: I defy thee. Mercy upon us!

Caliban

Art thou afeard?

Stephano

No, monster, not I.

Caliban

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again.

Stephano

This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I shall have my music for nothing.

Caliban

When Prospero is destroyed.

Stephano

That shall be by and by: I remember the story.

Trinculo

The sound is going away; let’s follow it, and after do our work.

Stephano

Lead, monster; we’ll follow. I would I could see this tabourer; he lays it on.

Trinculo

Wilt come? I’ll follow, Stephano.

Exeunt

S
CENE
III. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
THE
ISLAND
.

Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, Francisco, and others

Gonzalo

By’r lakin, I can go no further, sir;
My old bones ache: here’s a maze trod indeed
Through forth-rights and meanders! By your patience,
I needs must rest me.

Alonso

Old lord, I cannot blame thee,
Who am myself attach’d with weariness,
To the dulling of my spirits: sit down, and rest.
Even here I will put off my hope and keep it
No longer for my flatterer: he is drown’d
Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks
Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go.

Antonio

[Aside to Sebastian]
 
I am right glad that he’s so out of hope.
Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose
That you resolved to effect.

Sebastian

[Aside to Antonio]
 
The next advantage
Will we take throughly.

Antonio

[Aside to Sebastian]
 
Let it be to-night;
For, now they are oppress’d with travel, they
Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance
As when they are fresh.

Sebastian

[Aside to Antonio]
 
I say, to-night: no more.

Solemn and strange music

Alonso

What harmony is this? My good friends, hark!

Gonzalo

Marvellous sweet music!

Enter 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

Alonso

Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these?

Sebastian

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.

Antonio

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.

Gonzalo

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.

Prospero

[Aside]
 
Honest lord,
Thou hast said well; for some of you there present
Are worse than devils.

Alonso

I cannot too much muse
Such shapes, such gesture and such sound, expressing,
Although they want the use of tongue, a kind
Of excellent dumb discourse.

Prospero

[Aside]
 
Praise in departing.

Francisco

They vanish’d strangely.

Sebastian

No matter, since
They have left their viands behind; for we have stomachs.
Will’t please you taste of what is here?

Alonso

Not I.

Gonzalo

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 ’em
Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men
Whose heads stood in their breasts? which now we find
Each putter-out of five for one will bring us
Good warrant of.

Alonso

 
I will stand to and feed,
Although my last: no matter, since I feel
The best is past. Brother, my lord the duke,
Stand to 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

Ariel

You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,
That hath to instrument this lower world
And what is in’t, the never-surfeited sea
Hath caused to belch up you; and on this island
Where man doth not inhabit; you ’mongst men
Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad;
And even with such-like valour men hang and drown
Their proper selves.

Alonso, Sebastian & c. draw their swords

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,
Him and his innocent child: for which foul deed
The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
Incensed the seas 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-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 carrying out the table

Prospero

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
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, while I visit
Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose is drown’d,
And his and mine loved darling.

Exit above

Gonzalo

I’ the name of something holy, sir, why stand you
In this strange stare?

Alonso

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 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.

Exit

Sebastian

But one fiend at a time,
I’ll fight their legions o’er.

Antonio

I’ll be thy second.

Exeunt Sebastian, and Antonio

Gonzalo

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.

Adrian

Follow, I pray you.

Exeunt

A
CT
IV

S
CENE
I. B
EFORE
P
ROSPERO
’
S
CELL
.

Enter Prospero, Ferdinand, and Miranda

Prospero

If I have too austerely punish’d you,
Your compensation makes amends, for I
Have given you here a third of mine own life,
Or that for which I live; who 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.

Ferdinand

I do believe it
Against an oracle.

Prospero

Then, as my gift and thine own acquisition
Worthily purchased take my daughter: but
If thou dost break her virgin-knot before
All sanctimonious ceremonies may
With full and holy rite be minister’d,
No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall
To make this contract grow: but barren hate,
Sour-eyed disdain and discord shall bestrew
The union of your bed with weeds so loathly
That you shall hate it both: therefore take heed,
As Hymen’s lamps shall light you.

Ferdinand

As I hope
For quiet days, fair issue and long life,
With such love as ’tis now, the murkiest den,
The most opportune place, the strong’st suggestion.
Our worser genius can, shall never melt
Mine honour into lust, to take away
The edge of that day’s celebration
When I shall think: or Phoebus’ steeds are founder’d,
Or Night kept chain’d below.

Prospero

Fairly spoke.
Sit then and talk with her; she is thine own.
What, Ariel! my industrious servant, Ariel!

Enter Ariel

Ariel

What would my potent master? here I am.

Prospero

Thou and thy meaner fellows your last service
Did worthily perform; and I must use you
In such another trick. Go bring the rabble,
O’er whom I give thee power, here to this place:
Incite them to quick motion; for I must
Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple
Some vanity of mine art: it is my promise,
And they expect it from me.

Ariel

Presently?

Prospero

Ay, with a twink.

Ariel

 
Before you can say ‘come’ and ‘go,’
And breathe twice and cry ‘so, so,’
Each one, tripping on his toe,
Will be here with mop and mow.
Do you love me, master? no?

Prospero

Dearly my delicate Ariel. Do not approach
Till thou dost hear me call.

Ariel

Well, I conceive.

Exit

Prospero

Look thou be true; do not give dalliance
Too much the rein: the strongest oaths are straw
To the fire i’ the blood: be more abstemious,
Or else, good night your vow!