The Tempest
Act II.
Scene 1. Another part of the island.
- Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, Francisco, and others
- Gonzalo: 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.
- Alonso: Prithee, peace.
- Sebastian: He receives comfort like cold porridge.
- Antonio: The visitor will not give him o'er so.
- Sebastian: Look he's winding up the watch of his wit;
- by and by it will strike.
- Gonzalo: Sir, —
- Sebastian: One: tell.
- Gonzalo: When every grief is entertain'd that's offer'd,
- Comes to the entertainer —
- Sebastian: A dollar.
- Gonzalo: Dolour comes to him, indeed: you
- have spoken truer than you purposed.
- Sebastian: You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should.
- Gonzalo: Therefore, my lord, —
- Antonio: Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue!
- Alonso: I prithee, spare.
- Gonzalo: Well, I have done: but yet, —
- Sebastian: He will be talking.
- Antonio: Which, of he or Adrian, for a good
- wager, first begins to crow?
- Sebastian: The old cock.
- Antonio: The cockerel.
- Sebastian: Done. The wager?
- Antonio: A laughter.
- Sebastian: A match!
- Adrian: Though this island seem to be desert, —
- Sebastian: Ha, ha, ha! So, you're paid.
- Adrian: Uninhabitable and almost inaccessible, —
- Sebastian: Yet, —
- Adrian: Yet, —
- Antonio: He could not miss't.
- Adrian: It must needs be of subtle, tender and delicate
- temperance.
- Antonio: Temperance was a delicate wench.
- Sebastian: Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly delivered.
- Adrian: The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.
- Sebastian: As if it had lungs and rotten ones.
- Antonio: Or as 'twere perfumed by a fen.
- Gonzalo: Here is everything advantageous to life.
- Antonio: True; save means to live.
- Sebastian: Of that there's none, or little.
- Gonzalo: How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!
- Antonio: The ground indeed is tawny.
- Sebastian: With an eye of green in't.
- Antonio: He misses not much.
- Sebastian: No; he doth but mistake the truth totally.
- Gonzalo: But the rarity of it is, — which is indeed almost
- beyond credit, —
- Sebastian: As many vouched rarities are.
- Gonzalo: That our garments, being, as they were, drenched in
- the sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness and
- glosses, being rather new-dyed than stained with
- salt water.
- Antonio: If but one of his pockets could speak, would it not
- say he lies?
- Sebastian: Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report
- Gonzalo: 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.
- Sebastian: 'Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our return.
- Adrian: Tunis was never graced before with such a paragon to
- their queen.
- Gonzalo: Not since widow Dido's time.
- Antonio: Widow! a pox o' that! How came that widow in?
- widow Dido!
- Sebastian: What if he had said 'widower Aeneas' too? Good Lord,
- how you take it!
- Adrian: 'Widow Dido' said you? you make me study of that:
- she was of Carthage, not of Tunis.
- Gonzalo: This Tunis, sir, was Carthage.
- Adrian: Carthage?
- Gonzalo: I assure you, Carthage.
- Sebastian: His word is more than the miraculous harp; he hath
- raised the wall and houses too.
- Antonio: What impossible matter will he make easy next?
- Sebastian: I think he will carry this island home in his pocket
- and give it his son for an apple.
- Antonio: And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring
- forth more islands.
- Gonzalo: Ay.
- Antonio: Why, in good time.
- Gonzalo: 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.
- Antonio: And the rarest that e'er came there.
- Sebastian: Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido.
- Antonio: O, widow Dido! ay, widow Dido.
- Gonzalo: Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I
- wore it? I mean, in a sort.
- Antonio: That sort was well fished for.
- Gonzalo: When I wore it at your daughter's marriage?
- Alonso: You cram these words into mine ears against
- The stomach of my sense. Would I had never
- Married my daughter there! for, coming thence,
- My son is lost and, in my rate, she too,
- Who is so far from Italy removed
- I ne'er again shall see her. O thou mine heir
- Of Naples and of Milan, what strange fish
- Hath made his meal on thee?
- Francisco: Sir, he may live:
- I saw him beat the surges under him,
- And ride upon their backs; he trod the water,
- Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted
- The surge most swoln that met him; his bold head
- 'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar'd
- Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke
- To the shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis bow'd,
- As stooping to relieve him: I not doubt
- He came alive to land.
- Alonso: No, no, he's gone.
- Sebastian: Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss,
- That would not bless our Europe with your daughter,
- But rather lose her to an African;
- Where she at least is banish'd from your eye,
- Who hath cause to wet the grief on't.
- Alonso: Prithee, peace.
- Sebastian: You were kneel'd to and importuned otherwise
- By all of us, and the fair soul herself
- Weigh'd between loathness and obedience, at
- Which end o' the beam should bow. We have lost your
- son,
- I fear, for ever: Milan and Naples have
- More widows in them of this business' making
- Than we bring men to comfort them:
- The fault's your own.
- Alonso: So is the dear'st o' the loss.
- Gonzalo: My lord Sebastian,
- The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness
- And time to speak it in: you rub the sore,
- When you should bring the plaster.
- Sebastian: Very well.
- Antonio: And most chirurgeonly.
- Gonzalo: It is foul weather in us all, good sir,
- When you are cloudy.
- Sebastian: Foul weather?
- Antonio: Very foul.
- Gonzalo: Had I plantation of this isle, my lord, —
- Antonio: He'ld sow't with nettle-seed.
- Sebastian: Or docks, or mallows.
- Gonzalo: And were the king on't, what would I do?
- Sebastian: 'Scape being drunk for want of wine.
- Gonzalo: I' the commonwealth I would by contraries
- Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
- Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
- Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
- And use of service, none; contract, succession,
- Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
- No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
- No occupation; all men idle, all;
- And women too, but innocent and pure;
- No sovereignty; —
- Sebastian: Yet he would be king on't.
- Antonio: The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the
- beginning.
- Gonzalo: All things in common nature should produce
- Without sweat or endeavour: treason, felony,
- Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,
- Would I not have; but nature should bring forth,
- Of its own kind, all foison, all abundance,
- To feed my innocent people.
- Sebastian: No marrying 'mong his subjects?
- Antonio: None, man; all idle: whores and knaves.
- Gonzalo: I would with such perfection govern, sir,
- To excel the golden age.
- Sebastian: God save his majesty!
- Antonio: Long live Gonzalo!
- Gonzalo: And, — do you mark me, sir?
- Alonso: Prithee, no more: thou dost talk nothing to me.
- Gonzalo: I do well believe your highness; and
- did it to minister occasion to these gentlemen,
- who are of such sensible and nimble lungs that
- they always use to laugh at nothing.
- Antonio: 'Twas you we laughed at.
- Gonzalo: Who in this kind of merry fooling am nothing
- to you: so you may continue and laugh at
- nothing still.
- Antonio: What a blow was there given!
- Sebastian: An it had not fallen flat-long.
- Gonzalo: You are gentlemen of brave metal; you would lift
- the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue
- in it five weeks without changing.
- Enter Ariel, invisible, playing solemn music
- Sebastian: We would so, and then go a bat-fowling.
- Antonio: Nay, good my lord, be not angry.
- Gonzalo: No, I warrant you; I will not adventure
- my discretion so weakly. Will you laugh
- me asleep, for I am very heavy?
- Antonio: Go sleep, and hear us.
- All sleep except Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio
- Alonso: What, all so soon asleep! I wish mine eyes
- Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts: I find
- They are inclined to do so.
- Sebastian: Please you, sir,
- Do not omit the heavy offer of it:
- It seldom visits sorrow; when it doth,
- It is a comforter.
- Antonio: We two, my lord,
- Will guard your person while you take your rest,
- And watch your safety.
- Alonso: Thank you. Wondrous heavy.
- Alonso sleeps. Exit Ariel
- Sebastian: What a strange drowsiness possesses them!
- Antonio: It is the quality o' the climate.
- Sebastian: Why
- Doth it not then our eyelids sink? I find not
- Myself disposed to sleep.
- Antonio: Nor I; my spirits are nimble.
- They fell together all, as by consent;
- They dropp'd, as by a thunder-stroke. What might,
- Worthy Sebastian? O, what might? — No more: —
- And yet me thinks I see it in thy face,
- What thou shouldst be: the occasion speaks thee, and
- My strong imagination sees a crown
- Dropping upon thy head.
- Sebastian: What, art thou waking?
- Antonio: Do you not hear me speak?
- Sebastian: I do; and surely
- It is a sleepy language and thou speak'st
- Out of thy sleep. What is it thou didst say?
- This is a strange repose, to be asleep
- With eyes wide open; standing, speaking, moving,
- And yet so fast asleep.
- Antonio: Noble Sebastian,
- Thou let'st thy fortune sleep — die, rather; wink'st
- Whiles thou art waking.
- Sebastian: Thou dost snore distinctly;
- There's meaning in thy snores.
- Antonio: I am more serious than my custom: you
- Must be so too, if heed me; which to do
- Trebles thee o'er.
- Sebastian: Well, I am standing water.
- Antonio: I'll teach you how to flow.
- Sebastian: Do so: to ebb
- Hereditary sloth instructs me.
- Antonio: O,
- If you but knew how you the purpose cherish
- Whiles thus you mock it! how, in stripping it,
- You more invest it! Ebbing men, indeed,
- Most often do so near the bottom run
- By their own fear or sloth.
- Sebastian: Prithee, say on:
- The setting of thine eye and cheek proclaim
- A matter from thee, and a birth indeed
- Which throes thee much to yield.
- Antonio: Thus, sir:
- Although this lord of weak remembrance, this,
- Who shall be of as little memory
- When he is earth'd, hath here almost persuade, —
- For he's a spirit of persuasion, only
- Professes to persuade, — the king his son's alive,
- 'Tis as impossible that he's undrown'd
- And he that sleeps here swims.
- Sebastian: I have no hope
- That he's undrown'd.
- Antonio: O, out of that 'no hope'
- What great hope have you! no hope that way is
- Another way so high a hope that even
- Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,
- But doubt discovery there. Will you grant with me
- That Ferdinand is drown'd?
- Sebastian: He's gone.
- Antonio: Then, tell me,
- Who's the next heir of Naples?
- Sebastian: Claribel.
- Antonio: She that is queen of Tunis; she that dwells
- Ten leagues beyond man's life; she that from Naples
- Can have no note, unless the sun were post —
- The man i' the moon's too slow — till new-born chins
- Be rough and razorable; she that — from whom?
- We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast again,
- And by that destiny to perform an act
- Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come
- In yours and my discharge.
- Sebastian: What stuff is this! how say you?
- 'Tis true, my brother's daughter's queen of Tunis;
- So is she heir of Naples; 'twixt which regions
- There is some space.
- Antonio: A space whose every cubit
- Seems to cry out, 'How shall that Claribel
- Measure us back to Naples? Keep in Tunis,
- And let Sebastian wake.' Say, this were death
- That now hath seized them; why, they were no worse
- Than now they are. There be that can rule Naples
- As well as he that sleeps; lords that can prate
- As amply and unnecessarily
- As this Gonzalo; I myself could make
- A chough of as deep chat. O, that you bore
- The mind that I do! what a sleep were this
- For your advancement! Do you understand me?
- Sebastian: Methinks I do.
- Antonio: And how does your content
- Tender your own good fortune?
- Sebastian: I remember
- You did supplant your brother Prospero.
- Antonio: True:
- And look how well my garments sit upon me;
- Much feater than before: my brother's servants
- Were then my fellows; now they are my men.
- Sebastian: But, for your conscience?
- Antonio: Ay, sir; where lies that? if 'twere a kibe,
- 'Twould put me to my slipper: but I feel not
- This deity in my bosom: twenty consciences,
- That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candied be they
- And melt ere they molest! Here lies your brother,
- No better than the earth he lies upon,
- If he were that which now he's like, that's dead;
- Whom I, with this obedient steel, three inches of it,
- Can lay to bed for ever; whiles you, doing thus,
- To the perpetual wink for aye might put
- This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence, who
- Should not upbraid our course. For all the rest,
- They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk;
- They'll tell the clock to any business that
- We say befits the hour.
- Sebastian: Thy case, dear friend,
- Shall be my precedent; as thou got'st Milan,
- I'll come by Naples. Draw thy sword: one stroke
- Shall free thee from the tribute which thou payest;
- And I the king shall love thee.
- Antonio: Draw together;
- And when I rear my hand, do you the like,
- To fall it on Gonzalo.
- Sebastian: O, but one word.
- They talk apart
- Re-enter Ariel, invisible
- Ariel: My master through his art foresees the danger
- That you, his friend, are in; and sends me forth —
- For else his project dies — to keep them living.
- Sings in Gonzalo's ear
- While you here do snoring lie,
- Open-eyed conspiracy
- His time doth take.
- If of life you keep a care,
- Shake off slumber, and beware:
- Awake, awake!
- Antonio: Then let us both be sudden.
- Gonzalo: Now, good angels
- Preserve the king.
- They wake
- Alonso: Why, how now? ho, awake! Why are you drawn?
- Wherefore this ghastly looking?
- Gonzalo: What's the matter?
- Sebastian: Whiles we stood here securing your repose,
- Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing
- Like bulls, or rather lions: did't not wake you?
- It struck mine ear most terribly.
- Alonso: I heard nothing.
- Antonio: O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear,
- To make an earthquake! sure, it was the roar
- Of a whole herd of lions.
- Alonso: Heard you this, Gonzalo?
- Gonzalo: Upon mine honour, sir, I heard a humming,
- And that a strange one too, which did awake me:
- I shaked you, sir, and cried: as mine eyes open'd,
- I saw their weapons drawn: there was a noise,
- That's verily. 'Tis best we stand upon our guard,
- Or that we quit this place; let's draw our weapons.
- Alonso: Lead off this ground; and let's make further search
- For my poor son.
- Gonzalo: Heavens keep him from these beasts!
- For he is, sure, i' the island.
- Alonso: Lead away.
- Ariel: Prospero my lord shall know what I have done:
- So, king, go safely on to seek thy son.
- Exeunt
Scene 2. Another part of the island.
- Enter Caliban with a burden of wood. A noise of thunder heard
- Caliban: All the infections that the sun sucks up
- From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall and make him
- By inch-meal a disease! His spirits hear me
- And yet I needs must curse. But they'll nor pinch,
- Fright me with urchin — shows, pitch me i' the mire,
- Nor lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark
- Out of my way, unless he bid 'em; but
- For every trifle are they set upon me;
- Sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me
- And after bite me, then like hedgehogs which
- Lie tumbling in my barefoot way and mount
- Their pricks at my footfall; sometime am I
- All wound with adders who with cloven tongues
- Do hiss me into madness.
- Enter Trinculo
- Lo, now, lo!
- Here comes a spirit of his, and to torment me
- For bringing wood in slowly. I'll fall flat;
- Perchance he will not mind me.
- Trinculo: Here's neither bush nor shrub, to bear off
- any weather at all, and another storm brewing;
- I hear it sing i' the wind: yond same black
- cloud, yond huge one, looks like a foul
- bombard that would shed his liquor. If it
- should thunder as it did before, I know not
- where to hide my head: yond same cloud cannot
- choose but fall by pailfuls. What have we
- here? a man or a fish? dead or alive? A fish:
- he smells like a fish; a very ancient and fish-
- like smell; a kind of not of the newest Poor-
- John. A strange fish! Were I in England now,
- as once I was, and had but this fish painted,
- not a holiday fool there but would give a piece
- of silver: there would this monster make a
- man; any strange beast there makes a man:
- when they will not give a doit to relieve a lame
- beggar, they will lazy out ten to see a dead
- Indian. Legged like a man and his fins like
- arms! Warm o' my troth! I do now let loose
- my opinion; hold it no longer: this is no fish,
- but an islander, that hath lately suffered by a
- thunderbolt.
- Thunder
- Alas, the storm is come again! my best way is to
- creep under his gaberdine; there is no other
- shelter hereabouts: misery acquaints a man with
- strange bed-fellows. I will here shroud till the
- dregs of the storm be past.
- Enter Stephano, singing: a bottle in his hand
- Stephano: I shall no more to sea, to sea,
- Here shall I die ashore —
- This is a very scurvy tune to sing at a man's
- funeral: well, here's my comfort.
- Drinks
- Sings
- The master, the swabber, the boatswain and I,
- The gunner and his mate
- Loved Mall, Meg and Marian and Margery,
- But none of us cared for Kate;
- For she had a tongue with a tang,
- Would cry to a sailor, Go hang!
- She loved not the savour of tar nor of pitch,
- Yet a tailor might scratch her where'er she did itch:
- Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang!
- This is a scurvy tune too: but here's my comfort.
- Drinks
- Caliban: Do not torment me: Oh!
- Stephano: What's the matter? Have we devils here? Do you put
- tricks upon's with savages and men of Ind, ha? I
- have not scaped drowning to be afeard now of your
- four legs; for it hath been said, As proper a man as
- ever went on four legs cannot make him give ground;
- and it shall be said so again while Stephano
- breathes at's nostrils.
- Caliban: The spirit torments me; Oh!
- Stephano: This is some monster of the isle with four legs, who
- hath got, as I take it, an ague. Where the devil
- should he learn our language? I will give him some
- relief, if it be but for that. if I can recover him
- and keep him tame and get to Naples with him, he's a
- present for any emperor that ever trod on neat's leather.
- Caliban: Do not torment me, prithee; I'll bring my wood home faster.
- Stephano: He's in his fit now and does not talk after the
- wisest. He shall taste of my bottle: if he have
- never drunk wine afore will go near to remove his
- fit. If I can recover him and keep him tame, I will
- not take too much for him; he shall pay for him that
- hath him, and that soundly.
- Caliban: Thou dost me yet but little hurt; thou wilt anon, I
- know it by thy trembling: now Prosper works upon thee.
- Stephano: Come on your ways; open your mouth; here is that
- which will give language to you, cat: open your
- mouth; this will shake your shaking, I can tell you,
- and that soundly: you cannot tell who's your friend:
- open your chaps again.
- Trinculo: I should know that voice: it should be — but he is
- drowned; and these are devils: O defend me!
- Stephano: Four legs and two voices: a most delicate monster!
- His forward voice now is to speak well of his
- friend; his backward voice is to utter foul speeches
- and to detract. If all the wine in my bottle will
- recover him, I will help his ague. Come. Amen! I
- will pour some in thy other mouth.
- Trinculo: Stephano!
- Stephano: Doth thy other mouth call me? Mercy, mercy! This is
- a devil, and no monster: I will leave him; I have no
- long spoon.
- Trinculo: Stephano! If thou beest Stephano, touch me and
- speak to me: for I am Trinculo — be not afeard — thy
- good friend Trinculo.
- Stephano: If thou beest Trinculo, come forth: I'll pull thee
- by the lesser legs: if any be Trinculo's legs,
- these are they. Thou art very Trinculo indeed! How
- camest thou to be the siege of this moon-calf? can
- he vent Trinculos?
- Trinculo: I took him to be killed with a thunder-stroke. But
- art thou not drowned, Stephano? I hope now thou art
- not drowned. Is the storm overblown? I hid me
- under the dead moon-calf's gaberdine for fear of
- the storm. And art thou living, Stephano? O
- Stephano, two Neapolitans 'scaped!
- Stephano: Prithee, do not turn me about; my stomach is not constant.
- Caliban
- Aside
- These be fine things, an if they be
- not sprites.
- That's a brave god and bears celestial liquor.
- I will kneel to him.
- Stephano: How didst thou 'scape? How camest thou hither?
- swear by this bottle how thou camest hither. I
- escaped upon a butt of sack which the sailors
- heaved o'erboard, by this bottle; which I made of
- the bark of a tree with mine own hands since I was
- cast ashore.
- Caliban: I'll swear upon that bottle to be thy true subject;
- for the liquor is not earthly.
- Stephano: Here; swear then how thou escapedst.
- Trinculo: Swum ashore. man, like a duck: I can swim like a
- duck, I'll be sworn.
- Stephano: Here, kiss the book. Though thou canst swim like a
- duck, thou art made like a goose.
- Trinculo: O Stephano. hast any more of this?
- Stephano: The whole butt, man: my cellar is in a rock by the
- sea-side where my wine is hid. How now, moon-calf!
- how does thine ague?
- Caliban: Hast thou not dropp'd from heaven?
- Stephano: Out o' the moon, I do assure thee: I was the man i'
- the moon when time was.
- Caliban: I have seen thee in her and I do adore thee:
- My mistress show'd me thee and thy dog and thy bush.
- Stephano: Come, swear to that; kiss the book: I will furnish
- it anon with new contents swear.
- Trinculo: By this good light, this is a very shallow monster!
- I afeard of him! A very weak monster! The man i'
- the moon! A most poor credulous monster! Well
- drawn, monster, in good sooth!
- Caliban: I'll show thee every fertile inch o' th' island;
- And I will kiss thy foot: I prithee, be my god.
- Trinculo: By this light, a most perfidious and drunken
- monster! when 's god's asleep, he'll rob his bottle.
- Caliban: I'll kiss thy foot; I'll swear myself thy subject.
- Stephano: Come on then; down, and swear.
- Trinculo: I shall laugh myself to death at this puppy-headed
- monster. A most scurvy monster! I could find in my
- heart to beat him, —
- Stephano: Come, kiss.
- Trinculo: But that the poor monster's in drink: an abominable monster!
- Caliban: I'll show thee the best springs; I'll pluck thee berries;
- I'll fish for thee and get thee wood enough.
- A plague upon the tyrant that I serve!
- I'll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee,
- Thou wondrous man.
- Trinculo: A most ridiculous monster, to make a wonder of a
- Poor drunkard!
- Caliban: I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs grow;
- And I with my long nails will dig thee pignuts;
- Show thee a jay's nest and instruct thee how
- To snare the nimble marmoset; I'll bring thee
- To clustering filberts and sometimes I'll get thee
- Young scamels from the rock. Wilt thou go with me?
- Stephano: I prithee now, lead the way without any more
- talking. Trinculo, the king and all our company
- else being drowned, we will inherit here: here;
- bear my bottle: fellow Trinculo, we'll fill him by
- and by again.
- Caliban
- Sings drunkenly
- Farewell master; farewell, farewell!
- Trinculo: A howling monster: a drunken monster!
- Caliban: No more dams I'll make for fish
- Nor fetch in firing
- At requiring;
- Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish
- 'Ban, 'Ban, Cacaliban
- Has a new master: get a new man.
- Freedom, hey-day! hey-day, freedom! freedom,
- hey-day, freedom!
- Stephano: O brave monster! Lead the way.
- Exeunt
- --oOo-- -