The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (moboreader .TXT) 📕

TRINCULO. I did not give the lie. Out o’ your wits and hearing too? A pox o’ your bottle! This can sack and drinking do. A murrain on your monster, and the devil take your fingers!

CALIBAN. Ha, ha, ha!

STEPHANO. Now, forward with your tale.-Prithee stand further 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 seiz’d 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 liv’st, 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 mak’st 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 tabor and pipe]

STEPHANO. What is this same?

TRINCULO. This is the tune of our catch, play’d 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 sometimes voices, That, if I then had wak’d 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 wak’d, 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 destroy’d.

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 taborer; he lays it on.

TRINCULO. Wilt come? I’ll follow, Stephano. Exeunt

SCENE 3

Another 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 forthrights 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 th’ 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, forgo the purpose That you resolv’d t’ effect.

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

ANTONIO. [Aside to SEBASTIAN] Let it be tonight; 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, tonight; no more.

Solemn and strange music; and PROSPERO on the top, invisible. Enter several strange SHAPES, bringing in a banquet; and dance about it with gentle actions of salutations; and inviting the KING, etc., to eat, they depart ALONSO. What harmony is this? My good friends, hark!

GONZALO. Marvellous sweet music!

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, Dewlapp’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 caus’d 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 etc., 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; Expos’d unto the sea, which hath requit it, Him, and his innocent child; for which foul deed The pow’rs, delaying, not forgetting, have Incens’d the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures, Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso, They have bereft; and do pronounce by me Ling’ring 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’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 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 pow’r; And in these fits I leave them, while I visit Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose is drown’d, And his and mine lov’d darling. Exit above GONZALO. I’ th’ 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, pronounc’d The name of Prosper; it did bass my trespass.

Therefore my son i’ th’ 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

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ACT IV. SCENE 1

Before PROSPERO’S cell

Enter PROSPERO, FERDINAND, and MIRANDA

PROSPERO. If I have too austerely punish’d you, Your compensation makes amends; for

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 Wort’hily purchas’d, take my daughter. But If thou dost break her virgin-knot before All sanctimonious ceremonies may

With full and holy rite be minist’red, No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall To make this contract grow; but barren hate, Sour-ey’d 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.