42

Is so possess'd with guilt: come from thy ward;' For I can here disarm thee with this stick,

And make thy weapon drop.

Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What! An advocate for an impostor? hush!

Thou think'st there are no more such shapes as he, Having seen but him and Caliban: Foolish wench! To the most of men this is a Caliban,

And they to him are angels.

Mira.

My affections

Are then most humble: I have no ambition

To see a goodlier man.

Pro. [To FERD.]

Thy nerves are in their infancy again,

And have no vigor in them.

Fer.

Come on; obey:

So they are:

My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up.

My father's loss, the weakness which I feel,

The wreck of all my friends, or this man's threats,
To whom I am subdued, are but light to me,

Might I but through my prison once a day
Behold this maid: all corners else o' the earth
Let liberty make use of; space enough
Have I in such a prison.

Pro. [Aside.] It works. -[To FERD. and MIRA
Come on.

Thou hast done well, fine Ariel! - Follow me. [To ARIEL.] Hark, what thou else shalt do me. Be of comfort

Mira.

42 i. e. posture of defence.

My father's of a better nature, sir,

Than he appears by speech: this is unwonted,
Which now came from him.

Pro.

Thou shalt be as free

As mountain winds: but then exactly do
All points of my command.

Ari.

To the syllable.

Pro. Come, follow: Speak not for him. [Exeunt

SCENE I.

ACT II.

Another part of the Island.

Enter ALONZO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and others.

Gon. 'Beseech you, sir, be merry: you have

cause

(So have we all) of joy; for our escape

Is much beyond our loss: Our hint of woe'
Is common: every day, some sailor's wife,
The masters of some merchant,' and the merchant,
Have just our theme of woe; but for the miracle,
I mean our preservation, few in millions

Can speak like us: then wisely, good sir, weigh
Our sorrow with our comfort.

Alon.

Pr'ythee, peace

Seb. He receives comfort like cold porridge.
Ant. The visitor will not give him o'er so.
Seb. Look; he's winding up the watch of his
wit: by and by it will strike.

1 i. e. cause of sorrow.

It was usual to call a merchant-vessel a merchant, as we now say a merchant-man.

He calls Gonzalo the visitor, in allusion to the office of one who visits the sick to give advice and consolation.

Gon. Dolour comes to him, indeed: you have spoken truer than you purposed.

Seb. You have taken it wiselier than I mean you should.

Gon. Therefore, my lord,

-

Ant. Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue! Alon. I pr'ythee, spare.

Gon. Well, I have done: But yet—

Seb. He will be talking.

Ant. Which of them, he, or Adrian, for a good

Adr. Though this island seem to be desert, –

Ant. Ha, ha, ha!

Seb. So, you're paid.

Adr. Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible,-
Seb. Yet -

Adr. Yet

Ant. He coula not miss it.

Adr It must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate temperance.4

Ant. Temperance was a delicate wench.

By temperance Adrian means temperature, and Antonio plays upon the word; doubtless an allusion to the Puritan custom of bestowing the names of the cardinal virtues upon their children

Seb. Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly delivered.

Adr. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly
Seb. As if it had lungs, and rotten ones.
Ant. Or as 'twere perfum'd by a fen.

Gon. Here is every thing advantageous to life.
Ant. True; save means to live.

Seb. Of that there's none, or little.

Gon. How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!

Ant. The ground, indeed, is tawny.

Seb. With an eye of green in't.

Ant. He misses not much.

Seb. No; he doth but mistake the truth totally. Gon. But the rarity of it is, which is indeed almost beyond credit,

Seb. As many vouch'd rarities are.

Gon. that our garments, being, as they were, drenched in the sea, hold, notwithstanding, their freshness, and glosses; being rather new dyed than stain'd with salt water.

Ant. If but one of his pockets could speak. would it not say, he lies?

Seb. Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report. Gon. Methinks, our garments are now as fresh as when we put them on first in Afric, at the marriage of the king's fair daughter Claribel to the king of Tunis.

Seb. "Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our return.

Adr. Tunis was never grac'd before with such a paragon to their queen.

i. e. juicy, succulent.

A tint or tinge of green. So in Sandy's Travels: "Cloth of silver, tissued with an eye of green;" and Bayle says: "Red with an eye of blue makes a purple."

B

Gon. Not since widow Dido's time.

Ant. Widow? a pox o' that! How came that widow in? Widow Dido!

Seb. What if he had said widower Eneas too? good lord, how you take it!

Adr. Widow Dido, said you? you make me study of that she was of Carthage, not of Tunis. Gon. This Tunis, sir, was Carthage.

Adr. Carthage?

Gon. I assure you, Carthage.

Ant. His word is more than the miraculous harp.'

Seb. He hath rais'd the wall, and houses too. Ant. What impossible matter will he make easy next?

Seb. I think he will carry this island home in his pocket, and give it his son for an apple.

Ant. And sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring forth more islands.

Gon. Ay?

Ant. Why, in good time.

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

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

Gon. Is..., sir, my doublet as fresh as the first

day I wore it? I mean, in a sort.

Ant. That sort was well fish'd for.

Alluding to

"Th

to king Amphion

Th

..a..ed a city with its melody."

A lute was given to Amphion by Mercury, and with it he mar shalled the stones of Thebes into their places.

H