What, I say, Make not too rash a trial of him, for He's gentle, and not fearful.1 Pro. My foot my tutor!-Put thy sword up, traitor; Who mak'st a show, but dar'st not strike, thy conscience Is so possessed with guilt: come from thy ward; Mira. Pro. Hence; hang not on my garments. I'll be his surety. Pro. Beseech you, father! Sir, have pity; Silence: one word more 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. Come on; obey: [To FERD. So they are: Thy nerves are in their infancy again; Fer. My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up. The wreck of all my friends, or this man's threats, Might I but through my prison once a day 1 Fearful was sometimes used in the sense of formidable, terrible, dreadful, like the French epouvantable. Shakspeare almost always uses it in this sense. Behold this maid: all corners else o' the earth Have I in such a prison. Pro. It works:-Come on. Thou hast done well, fine Ariel!-Follow me. [To FERD. and MIRA. Hark, what thou else shalt do me. Mira. My father's of a better nature, sir, Than he appears by speech; Pro. [To ARIEL. Be of comfort; this is unwonted, 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. ACT II. SCENE I. 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 wo Is common; every day, some sailor's wife, The masters of some merchant,2 and the merchant, Can speak like us: then wisely, good sir, weigh Alon. 1 Cause or subject. Pr'ythee, peace. 2 It was usual to call a merchant-vessel a merchant, as we now say a merchant-man. Seb. He receives comfort like cold porridge. Ant. The visitor1 will not give him o'er so. Seb. Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike. Gon. Sir, Seb. One-Tell. Gon. When every grief is entertained, that's offered, Comes to the entertainer Seb. A dollar. Gon. Dolor comes to him, indeed; you have spoken truer than you purposed. Seb. You have taken it wiselier than I meant 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: But yet Seb. He will be talking. Ant. Which of them, he, or Adrian, for a good wager, first begins to crow? Seb. The old cock. Ant. The cockerel. Seb. Done: The wager? Ant. A laughter. Seb. A match. Adr. Though this island seem to be desert, Seb. Ha, ha, ha! Ant. So you've payed. Adr. Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible, Seb. Yet, Adr. Yet. Ant. He could not miss it. Adr. It must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate temperance.2 Ant. Temperance was a delicate wench. Seb. Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly delivered. 1 In allusion to the office of one who visits the sick to give advice and consolation. 2 Temperance is here used for temperature, or temperateness. Adr. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly. Seb. As if it had lungs, and rotten ones. Ant. Or, as 'twere perfumed 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 lush1 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 vouched 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 stained 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 graced before with such a paragon to their queen. 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? 1 Luxuriant. Gon. I assure you, Carthage. Ant. His word is more than the miraculous harp. Seb. He hath raised 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 marraige of your daughter, who is now queen. Ant. And the rarest that e'er came there. Gon. Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I wore it? I mean, in a sort. Ant. That sort was well fished for. Gon. When I wore it at your daughter's marriage? I ne'er again shall see her. O thou mine heir Hath made his meal on thee! Fran. Sir, he may live; I saw him beat the surges under him, And ride upon their backs; he trod the water, The surge most swoln that met him: his bold head To the shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis bowed, He came alive to land. Alon. No, no, he's gone. |