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Home > Tempest > ACT II - SCENE I. Another part of the island.

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ACT II - SCENE I. Another part of the island.
GONZALO
1    Beseech you, sir, be merry; you have cause,
2    So have we all, of joy; for our escape
3    Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe
4    Is common; every day some sailor's wife,
5    The masters of some merchant and the merchant
6    Have just our theme of woe; but for the miracle,
7    I mean our preservation, few in millions
8    Can speak like us: then wisely, good sir, weigh
9    Our sorrow with our comfort.
ALONSO
10   Prithee, peace.
SEBASTIAN
11   He receives comfort like cold porridge.
ANTONIO
12   The visitor will not give him o'er so.
SEBASTIAN
13   Look he's winding up the watch of his wit;
14   by and by it will strike.
GONZALO
15   Sir,--
SEBASTIAN
16   One: tell.
GONZALO
17   When every grief is entertain'd that's offer'd,
18   Comes to the entertainer--
SEBASTIAN
19   A dollar.
GONZALO
20   Dolour comes to him, indeed: you
21   have spoken truer than you purposed.
SEBASTIAN
22   You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should.
GONZALO
23   Therefore, my lord,--
ANTONIO
24   Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue!
ALONSO
25   I prithee, spare.
GONZALO
26   Well, I have done: but yet,--
SEBASTIAN
27   He will be talking.
ANTONIO
28   Which, of he or Adrian, for a good
29   wager, first begins to crow?
SEBASTIAN
30   The old cock.
ANTONIO
31   The cockerel.
SEBASTIAN
32   Done. The wager?
ANTONIO
33   A laughter.
SEBASTIAN
34   A match!
ADRIAN
35   Though this island seem to be desert,--
SEBASTIAN
36   Ha, ha, ha! So, you're paid.
ADRIAN
37   Uninhabitable and almost inaccessible,--
SEBASTIAN
38   Yet,--
ADRIAN
39   Yet,--
ANTONIO
40   He could not miss't.
ADRIAN
41   It must needs be of subtle, tender and delicate
42   temperance.
ANTONIO
43   Temperance was a delicate wench.
SEBASTIAN
44   Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly delivered.
ADRIAN
45   The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.
SEBASTIAN
46   As if it had lungs and rotten ones.
ANTONIO
47   Or as 'twere perfumed by a fen.
GONZALO
48   Here is everything advantageous to life.
ANTONIO
49   True; save means to live.
SEBASTIAN
50   Of that there's none, or little.
GONZALO
51   How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!
ANTONIO
52   The ground indeed is tawny.
SEBASTIAN
53   With an eye of green in't.
ANTONIO
54   He misses not much.
SEBASTIAN
55   No; he doth but mistake the truth totally.
GONZALO
56   But the rarity of it is,--which is indeed almost
57   beyond credit,--
SEBASTIAN
58   As many vouched rarities are.
GONZALO
59   That our garments, being, as they were, drenched in
60   the sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness and
61   glosses, being rather new-dyed than stained with
62   salt water.
ANTONIO
63   If but one of his pockets could speak, would it not
64   say he lies?
SEBASTIAN
65   Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report
GONZALO
66   Methinks our garments are now as fresh as when we
67   put them on first in Afric, at the marriage of
68   the king's fair daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis.
SEBASTIAN
69   'Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our return.
ADRIAN
70   Tunis was never graced before with such a paragon to
71   their queen.
GONZALO
72   Not since widow Dido's time.
ANTONIO
73   Widow! a pox o' that! How came that widow in?
74   widow Dido!
SEBASTIAN
75   What if he had said 'widower AEneas' too? Good Lord,
76   how you take it!
ADRIAN
77   'Widow Dido' said you? you make me study of that:
78   she was of Carthage, not of Tunis.
GONZALO
79   This Tunis, sir, was Carthage.
ADRIAN
80   Carthage?
GONZALO
81   I assure you, Carthage.
SEBASTIAN
82   His word is more than the miraculous harp; he hath
83   raised the wall and houses too.
ANTONIO
84   What impossible matter will he make easy next?
SEBASTIAN
85   I think he will carry this island home in his pocket
86   and give it his son for an apple.
ANTONIO
87   And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring
88   forth more islands.
GONZALO
89   Ay.
ANTONIO
90   Why, in good time.
GONZALO
91   Sir, we were talking that our garments seem now
92   as fresh as when we were at Tunis at the marriage
93   of your daughter, who is now queen.
ANTONIO
94   And the rarest that e'er came there.
SEBASTIAN
95   Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido.
ANTONIO
96   O, widow Dido! ay, widow Dido.
GONZALO
97   Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I
98   wore it? I mean, in a sort.
ANTONIO
99   That sort was well fished for.
GONZALO
100  When I wore it at your daughter's marriage?
ALONSO
101  You cram these words into mine ears against
102  The stomach of my sense. Would I had never
103  Married my daughter there! for, coming thence,
104  My son is lost and, in my rate, she too,
105  Who is so far from Italy removed
106  I ne'er again shall see her. O thou mine heir
107  Of Naples and of Milan, what strange fish
108  Hath made his meal on thee?
FRANCISCO
109  Sir, he may live:
110  I saw him beat the surges under him,
111  And ride upon their backs; he trod the water,
112  Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted
113  The surge most swoln that met him; his bold head
114  'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar'd
115  Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke
116  To the shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis bow'd,
117  As stooping to relieve him: I not doubt
118  He came alive to land.
ALONSO
119  No, no, he's gone.
SEBASTIAN
120  Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss,
121  That would not bless our Europe with your daughter,
122  But rather lose her to an African;
123  Where she at least is banish'd from your eye,
124  Who hath cause to wet the grief on't.
ALONSO
125  Prithee, peace.
SEBASTIAN
126  You were kneel'd to and importuned otherwise
127  By all of us, and the fair soul herself
128  Weigh'd between loathness and obedience, at
129  Which end o' the beam should bow. We have lost your
130  son,
131  I fear, for ever: Milan and Naples have
132  More widows in them of this business' making
133  Than we bring men to comfort them:
134  The fault's your own.
ALONSO
135  So is the dear'st o' the loss.
GONZALO
136  My lord Sebastian,
137  The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness
138  And time to speak it in: you rub the sore,
139  When you should bring the plaster.
SEBASTIAN
140  Very well.
ANTONIO
141  And most chirurgeonly.
GONZALO
142  It is foul weather in us all, good sir,
143  When you are cloudy.
SEBASTIAN
144  Foul weather?
ANTONIO
145  Very foul.
GONZALO
146  Had I plantation of this isle, my lord,--
ANTONIO
147  He'ld sow't with nettle-seed.
SEBASTIAN
148  Or docks, or mallows.
GONZALO
149  And were the king on't, what would I do?
SEBASTIAN
150  'Scape being drunk for want of wine.
GONZALO
151  I' the commonwealth I would by contraries
152  Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
153  Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
154  Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
155  And use of service, none; contract, succession,
156  Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
157  No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
158  No occupation; all men idle, all;
159  And women too, but innocent and pure;
160  No sovereignty;--
SEBASTIAN
161  Yet he would be king on't.
ANTONIO
162  The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the
163  beginning.
GONZALO
164  All things in common nature should produce
165  Without sweat or endeavour: treason, felony,
166  Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,
167  Would I not have; but nature should bring forth,
168  Of its own kind, all foison, all abundance,
169  To feed my innocent people.
SEBASTIAN
170  No marrying 'mong his subjects?
ANTONIO
171  None, man; all idle: whores and knaves.
GONZALO
172  I would with such perfection govern, sir,
173  To excel the golden age.
SEBASTIAN
174  God save his majesty!
ANTONIO
175  Long live Gonzalo!
GONZALO
176  And,--do you mark me, sir?
ALONSO
177  Prithee, no more: thou dost talk nothing to me.
GONZALO
178  I do well believe your highness; and
179  did it to minister occasion to these gentlemen,
180  who are of such sensible and nimble lungs that
181  they always use to laugh at nothing.
ANTONIO
182  'Twas you we laughed at.
GONZALO
183  Who in this kind of merry fooling am nothing
184  to you: so you may continue and laugh at
185  nothing still.
ANTONIO
186  What a blow was there given!
SEBASTIAN
187  An it had not fallen flat-long.
GONZALO
188  You are gentlemen of brave metal; you would lift
189  the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue
190  in it five weeks without changing.
Enter ARIEL, invisible, playing solemn music

SEBASTIAN
191  We would so, and then go a bat-fowling.
ANTONIO
192  Nay, good my lord, be not angry.
GONZALO
193  No, I warrant you; I will not adventure
194  my discretion so weakly. Will you laugh
195  me asleep, for I am very heavy?
ANTONIO
196  Go sleep, and hear us.
All sleep except ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, and ANTONIO

ALONSO
197  What, all so soon asleep! I wish mine eyes
198  Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts: I find
199  They are inclined to do so.
SEBASTIAN
200  Please you, sir,
201  Do not omit the heavy offer of it:
202  It seldom visits sorrow; when it doth,
203  It is a comforter.
ANTONIO
204  We two, my lord,
205  Will guard your person while you take your rest,
206  And watch your safety.
ALONSO
207  Thank you. Wondrous heavy.
ALONSO sleeps. Exit ARIEL

SEBASTIAN
208  What a strange drowsiness possesses them!
ANTONIO
209  It is the quality o' the climate.
SEBASTIAN
210  Why
211  Doth it not then our eyelids sink? I find not
212  Myself disposed to sleep.
ANTONIO
213  Nor I; my spirits are nimble.
214  They fell together all, as by consent;
215  They dropp'd, as by a thunder-stroke. What might,
216  Worthy Sebastian? O, what might?--No more:--
217  And yet me thinks I see it in thy face,
218  What thou shouldst be: the occasion speaks thee, and
219  My strong imagination sees a crown
220  Dropping upon thy head.
SEBASTIAN
221  What, art thou waking?
ANTONIO
222  Do you not hear me speak?
SEBASTIAN
223  I do; and surely
224  It is a sleepy language and thou speak'st
225  Out of thy sleep. What is it thou didst say?
226  This is a strange repose, to be asleep
227  With eyes wide open; standing, speaking, moving,
228  And yet so fast asleep.
ANTONIO
229  Noble Sebastian,
230  Thou let'st thy fortune sleep--die, rather; wink'st
231  Whiles thou art waking.
SEBASTIAN
232  Thou dost snore distinctly;
233  There's meaning in thy snores.
ANTONIO
234  I am more serious than my custom: you
235  Must be so too, if heed me; which to do
236  Trebles thee o'er.
SEBASTIAN
237  Well, I am standing water.
ANTONIO
238  I'll teach you how to flow.
SEBASTIAN
239  Do so: to ebb
240  Hereditary sloth instructs me.
ANTONIO
241  O,
242  If you but knew how you the purpose cherish
243  Whiles thus you mock it! how, in stripping it,
244  You more invest it! Ebbing men, indeed,
245  Most often do so near the bottom run
246  By their own fear or sloth.
SEBASTIAN
247  Prithee, say on:
248  The setting of thine eye and cheek proclaim
249  A matter from thee, and a birth indeed
250  Which throes thee much to yield.
ANTONIO
251  Thus, sir:
252  Although this lord of weak remembrance, this,
253  Who shall be of as little memory
254  When he is earth'd, hath here almost persuade,--
255  For he's a spirit of persuasion, only
256  Professes to persuade,--the king his son's alive,
257  'Tis as impossible that he's undrown'd
258  And he that sleeps here swims.
SEBASTIAN
259  I have no hope
260  That he's undrown'd.
ANTONIO
261  O, out of that 'no hope'
262  What great hope have you! no hope that way is
263  Another way so high a hope that even
264  Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,
265  But doubt discovery there. Will you grant with me
266  That Ferdinand is drown'd?
SEBASTIAN
267  He's gone.
ANTONIO
268  Then, tell me,
269  Who's the next heir of Naples?
SEBASTIAN
270  Claribel.
ANTONIO
271  She that is queen of Tunis; she that dwells
272  Ten leagues beyond man's life; she that from Naples
273  Can have no note, unless the sun were post--
274  The man i' the moon's too slow--till new-born chins
275  Be rough and razorable; she that--from whom?
276  We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast again,
277  And by that destiny to perform an act
278  Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come
279  In yours and my discharge.
SEBASTIAN
280  What stuff is this! how say you?
281  'Tis true, my brother's daughter's queen of Tunis;
282  So is she heir of Naples; 'twixt which regions
283  There is some space.
ANTONIO
284  A space whose every cubit
285  Seems to cry out, 'How shall that Claribel
286  Measure us back to Naples? Keep in Tunis,
287  And let Sebastian wake.' Say, this were death
288  That now hath seized them; why, they were no worse
289  Than now they are. There be that can rule Naples
290  As well as he that sleeps; lords that can prate
291  As amply and unnecessarily
292  As this Gonzalo; I myself could make
293  A chough of as deep chat. O, that you bore
294  The mind that I do! what a sleep were this
295  For your advancement! Do you understand me?
SEBASTIAN
296  Methinks I do.
ANTONIO
297  And how does your content
298  Tender your own good fortune?
SEBASTIAN
299  I remember
300  You did supplant your brother Prospero.
ANTONIO
301  True:
302  And look how well my garments sit upon me;
303  Much feater than before: my brother's servants
304  Were then my fellows; now they are my men.
SEBASTIAN
305  But, for your conscience?
ANTONIO
306  Ay, sir; where lies that? if 'twere a kibe,
307  'Twould put me to my slipper: but I feel not
308  This deity in my bosom: twenty consciences,
309  That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candied be they
310  And melt ere they molest! Here lies your brother,
311  No better than the earth he lies upon,
312  If he were that which now he's like, that's dead;
313  Whom I, with this obedient steel, three inches of it,
314  Can lay to bed for ever; whiles you, doing thus,
315  To the perpetual wink for aye might put
316  This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence, who
317  Should not upbraid our course. For all the rest,
318  They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk;
319  They'll tell the clock to any business that
320  We say befits the hour.
SEBASTIAN
321  Thy case, dear friend,
322  Shall be my precedent; as thou got'st Milan,
323  I'll come by Naples. Draw thy sword: one stroke
324  Shall free thee from the tribute which thou payest;
325  And I the king shall love thee.
ANTONIO
326  Draw together;
327  And when I rear my hand, do you the like,
328  To fall it on Gonzalo.
SEBASTIAN
329  O, but one word.
They talk apart

Re-enter ARIEL, invisible

ARIEL
330  My master through his art foresees the danger
331  That you, his friend, are in; and sends me forth--
332  For else his project dies--to keep them living.
Sings in GONZALO's ear
333  While you here do snoring lie,
334  Open-eyed conspiracy
335  His time doth take.
336  If of life you keep a care,
337  Shake off slumber, and beware:
338  Awake, awake!
ANTONIO
339  Then let us both be sudden.
GONZALO
340  Now, good angels
341  Preserve the king.
They wake

ALONSO
342  Why, how now? ho, awake! Why are you drawn?
343  Wherefore this ghastly looking?
GONZALO
344  What's the matter?
SEBASTIAN
345  Whiles we stood here securing your repose,
346  Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing
347  Like bulls, or rather lions: did't not wake you?
348  It struck mine ear most terribly.
ALONSO
349  I heard nothing.
ANTONIO
350  O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear,
351  To make an earthquake! sure, it was the roar
352  Of a whole herd of lions.
ALONSO
353  Heard you this, Gonzalo?
GONZALO
354  Upon mine honour, sir, I heard a humming,
355  And that a strange one too, which did awake me:
356  I shaked you, sir, and cried: as mine eyes open'd,
357  I saw their weapons drawn: there was a noise,
358  That's verily. 'Tis best we stand upon our guard,
359  Or that we quit this place; let's draw our weapons.
ALONSO
360  Lead off this ground; and let's make further search
361  For my poor son.
GONZALO
362  Heavens keep him from these beasts!
363  For he is, sure, i' the island.
ALONSO
364  Lead away.
ARIEL
365  Prospero my lord shall know what I have done:
366  So, king, go safely on to seek thy son.
Exeunt

< (Previous) ACT I, SCENE IIACT II, II (Next) >
Scene Index
ACT I
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II


  • ACT II
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II


  • ACT III
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III


  • ACT IV
  • SCENE I


  • ACT V
  • SCENE I
  • EPILOGUE

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