I'll manacle thy neck and feet together:

Sea-water shalt thou drink; thy food shall be
The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots and husks
Wherein the acorn cradled.

Fer.

Follow.

No;

I will resist such entertainment till

460

Mir.

Mine enemy has more power,

[Draws, and is charmed from moving. O dear father,

What? I say,

Make not too rash a trial of him, for

He's gentle and not fearful.

Pros.

My foot my tutor? Put thy sword up, traitor; Who mak'st a show but dar'st not strike, thy conscience

Is so possess'd with guilt: come from thy ward,

For I can here disarm thee with this stick

And make thy weapon drop.

Mir.

Pros. Hence! hang not on my garments.

Mir.

I'll be his surety.

Pros.

470

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 is no more such shapes as he,
Having seen but him and Caliban: foolish wench!

463. entertainment = treatment.

466. gentle and not fearful: that is, of gentle birth, a gentle man, and therefore not cowardly. (Such was Mr. White's note later editors have taken fearful to mean "causing fear, terrible," which seems a more natural idea for Miranda in interceding for him.)

469. ward guard, with his sword.

To the most of men this is a Caliban

And they to him are angels.

Mir.

My affections

480

Are then most humble; I have no ambition

To see a goodlier man.

My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up.

My father's loss, the weakness which I feel,

The wrack of all my friends, nor this man's threats,
To whom I am subdued, are but light to me,
Might I but through my prison once a day
Behold this maid: all corners else o' th' earth
Let liberty make use of; space enough

Have I in such a prison.

490

Pros. [Aside.] It works. [To Fer.] Come on. Thou hast done well, fine Ariel! [To Fer.] Follow

me.

[To Ari.] Hark what thou else shalt do me.

Mir.

My father's of a better nature, sir,

Be of comfort;

Than he appears by speech: this is unwonted
Which now came from him.

Pros.

[To Ari.] Thou shalt be as free

As mountain winds: but then exactly do

All points of my command.

Ari.

To the syllable.

Pros. [To Mir. and Fer.] Come, follow. Speak

not for him.

[Exeunt.

499. Come, follow. The actors always had to leave the Elizabethan stage at the end of the act, for there was no curtain.

ACT II.

SCENE I. Another part of the island.

Enter ALONSO, 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 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.

Alon.

Prithee, peace.

Seb. He receives comfort like cold porridge.
Ant. The visitor will not give him o'er so.

ΙΟ

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 entertain'd that 's offer'd, Comes to the entertainer

Seb. A dollar.

Gon. Dolour comes to him, indeed; you have spoken truer than you purpos'd.

20

Act II. This act serves to exhibit the characters who are

brought into Prospero's power. It develops the hints given in

Act I. Sc. i.

9. Prithee, peace. Alonso wishes neither to speak nor to be spoken to.

11. visitor: probably means a visiting almoner. W.

13. by and by. Like presently, this expression used to mean "at once."

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 prithee, spare.

Gon. Well, I have done: but yet, —

Seb. He will be talking.

Ant. Which, of he or Adrian, for a good wager,

firsts begins to crow?

Seb. The old cock.

Ant. The cock'rel.

30

Seb. Done.

The wager?

Ant. A laughter.

Seb. A match!

Adr. Though this island seem to be desert, -
Seb. Ha, ha, ha! So, you're paid.

Adr. Uninhabitable and almost inaccessible, -
Seb. Yet, -

Adr. Yet,

Ant. He could not miss 't.

40

Adr. It must needs be of subtle, tender and delicate temperance.

Ant. Temperance was a delicate wench.

Seb. Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly deliver'd.

Adr. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.
Seb. As if it had lungs and rotten ones.
Ant. Or as 't were perfum'd 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.

50

Gon. How lush 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 vouch'd rarities are.

60

Gon. That our garments, being, as they were, drench'd in the sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness and glosses, being rather new-dy'd than stain'd 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.

71

Seb. 'T was a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our return.

Adr. Tunis was never grac'd 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 "widow Eneas" too? Good Lord, how you take it!

80

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?

Gon. I assure you, Carthage.