I do beseech thy greatness, give him blows
And take his bottle from him: when that’s gone
He shall drink nought but brine; for I’ll not show him
Where the quick freshes are.
STEPHANO Trinculo, run into no further danger:
interrupt the monster one word further, and,
by this hand, I’ll turn my mercy out o’ doors
and make a stock-fish of thee.
TRINCULO Why, what did I? I did nothing. I’ll go farther
off.
STEPHANO Didst thou not say he lied?
ARIEL Thou liest.
STEPHANO Do I so? take thou that.
Beats TRINCULO
As you like this, give me the lie another time.
TRINCULO I did not give the lie. Out o’ your
wits and bearing 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 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
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 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