The pine, and cedar: graves, at my command, [Solemn music. Re-enter ARIEL: after him, ALONZO, with a frantic gesture, attended by GONZALO; SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO in like manner, attended by ADRIAN and FRANCISCO: They all enter the circle which PROSPERO had made, and there stand charmed; which PROSPERO observing, speaks. A solemn air, and the best comforter To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains, Now useless, boil'd within thy skull! There stand, For you are spell-stopp'd. Holy Gonzalo, honourable man, Mine eyes, even sociable to the show of thine, Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace; To him thou follow'st, I will pay thy graces 5 So in A Midsummer-Night's Dream: "Lovers and madmen have such seething brains." Thy brother was a furtherer in the act; Thou'rt pinch'd for't now, Sebastian. Flesh and blood, 6 You brother mine, that entertain'd ambition, Expell'd remorse and nature; who with Sebastian, (Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,) Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee, Unnatural though thou art!- Their understanding Begins to swell; and the approaching tide Will shortly fill the reasonable shores, That now lie foul and muddy. Not one of them, That yet looks on me, or would know me : - Ariel, Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell; [Exit ARIEL.. I will discase me, and myself present, ARIEL re-enters, singing, and helps to attire Ari. Where the bee sucks, there suck I; In a cowslip's bell I lie; There I couch when owls do cry: On the bat's back I do fly After summer, merrily.7 Merrily, merrily, shall I live now, Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. 8 Remorse is pity, tenderness of heart; nature is natural affection. "At night, when owls do cry,' Ariel couches in a cowslip's bell;' and he uses the bat's back' as his pleasant vehicle, to pursue summer in its progress round the world, and thus live merrily under continual blossoms." Such appears the most nat. ural as well as most poetical meaning of this much disputed pas sage. As a matter of fact, however, bats do not migrate in quest of summer, but become torpid in winter. Was the Poet ignorant of this, or did he disregard it, thinking that such beings as Ariel were not bound to observe the rules of natural history? H. 8 This was the received opinion: so in Fairfax's Tasso. Book stanza 18 Pro. Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee; But yet thou shalt have freedom: so, so, so. — To the king's ship, invisible as thou art: There shalt thou find the mariners asleep Under the hatches: the master and the boatswain Being awake, enforce them to this place, And presently, I pr'ythee. Ari. I drink the air before me, and return Or e'er your pulse twice beat. [Exit ARIEL Gon. All torment, trouble, wonder, and amaze ment Inhabit here: Some heavenly power guide us Out of this fearful country! Pro. Behold, sir king, For more assurance that a living prince A hearty welcome. Alon. 9 Whe'r thou beest he, or no, Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me, As late I have been, I not know: thy pulse Beats, as of flesh and blood; and, since I saw thee, The affliction of my mind amends, with which, I fear, a madness held me: This must crave, (An if this be at all,) a most strange story. Thy dukedom I resign; and do entreat Thou pardon me my wrongs: — - But how should Prospero Be living, and be here? The goblins, fairies, fiends, and furies mad, Whether. Some subtilties 10 o' the isle, that will not let you Believe things certain. all: Welcome, my friends [Aside to SEB. and ANT.] But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded, I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you, And justify you traitors: at this time I'll tell no tales. Seb. [Aside.] The devil speaks in him. Pro. No: For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother Alon. If thou beest Prospero, How thou hast met us here, who three hours since Pro. I am woe" for't, sir. Alon. Irreparable is the loss; and Patience Says, it is past her cure. Pro. I rather think, You have not sought her help; of whose soft grace, 10 Subtilties are quaint deceptive inventions; the word is com mon to ancient cookery, in which a disguised or ornamented disb "I am sorry for it. is so termed. For the like loss, I have her sovereign aid, Alon. You the like loss? Pro. As great to me, as late; 12 and supportable To make the dear loss, have I means much weake' Than you may call to comfort you; for I Have lost my daughter. Alon. A daughter? O heavens! that they were living both in Naples, The king and queen there! that they were, I wish Myself were mudded in that oozy bed Where my son lies. When did daughter? you lose your Pro. In this last tempest. I perceive, these lords At this encounter do so much admire, That they devour their reason; and scarce think Which was thrust forth of Milan; who most strangely Upon this shore, where you were wreck'd, was landed. To be the lord on't. No more yet of this; Not a relation for a breakfast, nor Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir; 12 i. c. as great to me, and as late. |