No longer for my flatterer: he is drown'd,
Whom thus we stray to find; and the sea mocks
Our frustrate search on land: Well, let him go.

Ant. I am right glad that he's so out of hope.

[Aside to Sebastian.

Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose
That you resolv'd to effect.

Seb.

Will we take thoroughly.

Ant.

The next advantage

Let it be to-night;

For, now they are oppress'd with travel, they
Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance,

As when they are fresh.

I say, to-night: no more.

Seb. Solemn and strange musick; and Prospero above, invisible. Enter several strange shapes, bringing in a banquet; they dance about it with gentle actions of salutatim; and, inviting the king, &c. to eat, they depart.

Alon. What harmony is this? my good friends, hark!

Gon. Marvellous sweet musick!

Alon. Give us kind keepers, heavens ! What were these?

Seb. A living drollery: Now I will believe,

That there are unicorns; that, in Arabia

There is one tree, the phoenix' throne; one phoenix At this hour reigning there.

Ant.

I'll believe both;

And what does else want credit, come to me,

And I'll be sworn 'tis true: Travellers ne'er did lie, Though fools at home condemn them.

Gon.

If in Naples

I should report this now, would they believe me? If I should say, I saw such islanders,

(For, certes, these are people of the island,)

Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet, note,

Their manners are more gentle-kind, than of

Our human generation you shall find

Many, nay, almost any.

Pro.

Thou hast said well; for some of you

Are worse than devils.

Alon.

Honest lord,

there present,

[Aside.

I cannot too much muse,

Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing (Although they want the use of tongue) a kind

Of excellent dumb discourse.

Pro.

Praise in departing.

No matter, since

Fran. They vanish'd strangely.

Seb.

They have left their viands behind; for we have

stomachs.

Will't please you taste of what is here?

Alon.

Not I.

Gon. Faith, sir, you need not fear: When we

were boys,

Who would believe that there were mountaineers, Dew-lapp'd like bulls 36, whose throats had hanging at them

Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men,

Whose heads stood in their breasts? which now we

find,

Each putter-out on five for one 37, will bring us

Good warrant of.

Alon.

I will stand to, and feed,

Although my last: no matter, since I feel
The best is past :-Brother, my lord the duke,
Stand too, and do as we.

Thunder and lightning. Enter ARIEL like a harpy ; claps his wings upon the table, and, with a quaint device, the banquet vanishes.

Ari. You are three men of sin, whom destiny (That hath to instrument this lower world, And what is in't) the never-surfeited sea Hath caused to belch up; and on this island Where man doth not inhabit; you 'mongst men Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad; [Seeing Alon. Seb. &c. draw their swords. And even with such like valour, men hang and drown Their proper selves. You fools! I and my fellows Are ministers of fate; the elements

Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs

Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish

One dowle 38 that's in my plume; my fellow mi

nisters

Are like invulnerable: if you could hurt,

Your swords are now too massy for your strengths,

And will not be uplifted: But, remember,
(For that's my business to you,) that you three
From Milan did supplant good Prospero ;

Expos'd unto the sea, which hath requit it,
Him, and his innocent child: for which foul deed
The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
Incens'd the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,
Against your peace: Thee, of thy son, Alonso,
They have bereft ; and do pronounce by me,
Ling'ring perdition (worse than any death
Can be at once) shall step by step attend

You, and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from
(Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls
Upon your heads) is nothing, but heart's sorrow,
And a clear life 39 ensuing.

He vanishes in thunder: then, to soft musick, enter the Shapes again, and dance with mops and mowes and carry out the table.

Pro. [Aside.] Bravely the figure of this harpy hast

thou

Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring:
Of my instruction hast thou nothing 'bated,

In what thou hadst to say so, with good life,

And observation strange, my meaner ministers

Their several kinds have done: my high charms work,

And these, mine enemies, are all knit up

In their distractions: they now are in my power;
And in these fits I leave them, whilst I visit

Young Ferdinand (whom they suppose is drown'd) And his and my lov'd darling.

[Exit Prospero from above. Gon. I the name of something holy, sir, why

stand you

In this strange stare?

Alon. O, it is monstrous! monstrous! Methought, the billows spoke, and told me of it; The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder, That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd The name of Prosper; it did bass my trespass 40. Therefore my son i' the ooze is bedded; and I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded, And with him there lie mudded.

Seb.

I'll fight their legions o'er.

Ant.

[Exit.

But one fiend at a time,

I'll be thy second.

[Exeunt Seb. and Ant.

Gon. All three of them are desperate; their great

guilt,

Like poison given to work a great time after ",
Now 'gins to bite the spirits :-I do beseech you
That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly,

And hinder them from what this ecstacy

May now provoke them to.

Adri.

Follow, I pray you.

[Exeunt.