The Tempest (7 page)

PROSPERO
    Come on, obey:

To Ferdinand

Thy
nerves
⁵⁶⁸
are in their infancy again

And have no
vigour
⁵⁶⁹
in them.

FERDINAND
    So they are:

My
spirits
⁵⁷¹
, as in a dream, are all bound up.

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

The wreck of all my friends, nor this man’s threats,

To whom I am subdued, are but light to me,

Might I but
through
⁵⁷⁵
my prison once a day

Behold this maid:
all corners else
⁵⁷⁶
o’th’earth

Let liberty make use of: space enough

Have I in such a prison.

PROSPERO
    It works.— Come on.—

Thou hast done well, fine Ariel!— Follow me.—

Hark what thou else shalt
do me.
⁵⁸¹

MIRANDA
    Be of comfort:

To Ariel

My father’s of a better nature, sir,

Than he appears by speech: this is
unwonted
⁵⁸⁴

Which now came from him.

PROSPERO
    Thou shalt be as free

To Ariel

As mountain winds; but
then
⁵⁸⁷
exactly do

All points of my command.

ARIEL
    To th’syllable.

PROSPERO
    Come, follow.— Speak not for him.

GONZALO
    Beseech you, sir, be merry; you have cause —

So have we all — of joy, for our escape

To Alonso

Is
much beyond
our loss. Our
hint
³
of woe

Is common: every day some sailor’s wife,

The
masters of some merchant, and the merchant
⁵

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
⁸

Our sorrow with our comfort.

ALONSO
    Prithee,
peace.
¹⁰

SEBASTIAN
    He receives comfort like cold
porridge.
¹¹

ANTONIO
    The
visitor
¹²
will not give him o’er so.

SEBASTIAN
    Look, he’s winding up the watch of his
wit
¹³
:

by and by it will strike.

GONZALO
    Sir—

To Alonso

SEBASTIAN
    One:
tell.
¹⁶

GONZALO
    When every grief is
entertained
¹⁷
that’s offered,

comes to th’entertainer—

SEBASTIAN
    A
dollar.
¹⁹

Aside to Antonio, but overheard by Gonzalo

GONZALO
    
Dolour
²⁰
comes to him, indeed: you have spoken truer

than you
purposed.
²¹

SEBASTIAN
    You have taken it
wiselier
²²
than I meant you should.

GONZALO
    Therefore, my lord—

To Alonso

ANTONIO
    Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue!

ALONSO
    I prithee,
spare.
²⁵

To Gonzalo

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?
²⁹

SEBASTIAN
    The old cock.

ANTONIO
    The
cockerel.
³¹

SEBASTIAN
    Done. The
wager?
³²

ANTONIO
    
A laughter.
³³

SEBASTIAN
    A match!

ADRIAN
    Though this island seem to be
desert
³⁵
—

SEBASTIAN
    
Ha, ha, ha!
³⁶

ANTONIO
    
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
⁴²
, tender and delicate

temperance.
⁴³

ANTONIO
    Temperance was a
delicate
⁴⁴
wench.

SEBASTIAN
    Ay, and a
subtle
, as he most
learnedly delivered.
⁴⁵

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.
⁴⁸

GONZALO
    Here is everything advantageous to life.

ANTONIO
    True:
save
⁵⁰
means to live.

SEBASTIAN
    Of that there’s none, or little.

GONZALO
    How lush and
lusty
⁵²
the grass looks. How green!

ANTONIO
    The ground indeed is
tawny.
⁵³

SEBASTIAN
    With an
eye
⁵⁴
of green in’t.

ANTONIO
    He misses not much.

SEBASTIAN
    No: he doth but mistake the truth totally.

GONZALO
    But the
rarity
⁵⁷
of it is — which is indeed almost

beyond
credit
⁵⁸
—

SEBASTIAN
    As many
vouched
⁵⁹
rarities are.

GONZALO
    —That our garments, being, as they were,

drenched in the sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness

and glosses, being rather
new-dyed
⁶²
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
⁶⁶
his report.

GONZALO
    Methinks our garments are now as fresh as when

we put them on first in
Afric
⁶⁸
, at the marriage of the king’s

fair daughter Claribel to the King of
Tunis.
⁶⁹

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
⁷⁴
time.

ANTONIO
    Widow! A pox o’that!
How came that ‘widow’ in?
⁷⁵

Widow Dido!

SEBASTIAN
    What if he had said ‘
widower Aeneas’
⁷⁷
too? Good

lord, how you take it!

ADRIAN
    ‘Widow Dido’, said you? You make me
study of
⁷⁹
that:

she was of Carthage, not of Tunis.

GONZALO
    
This Tunis, sir, was Carthage.
⁸¹

ADRIAN
    Carthage?

GONZALO
    I assure you, Carthage.

ANTONIO
    His word is more than the
miraculous harp.
⁸⁴

SEBASTIAN
    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
⁸⁹
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.

To Alonso

ANTONIO
    And the
rarest
⁹⁶
that e’er came there.

SEBASTIAN
    
Bate
⁹⁷
, I beseech you, widow Dido.

ANTONIO
    O, widow Dido?
Ay, widow Dido.
⁹⁸

GONZALO
    Is not, sir, my
doublet
⁹⁹
as fresh as the first day I wore

it? I mean,
in a sort
¹⁰⁰
—

ANTONIO
    That
sort
¹⁰¹
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.
¹⁰⁴
Would I had never

Married my daughter there: for, coming thence,

My son is lost and — in my
rate
¹⁰⁶
— 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
¹¹²
under him,

And ride upon their backs; he trod the water,

Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted

The surge most swoll’n that met him: his bold head

’Bove the contentious waves he kept, and
oared
¹¹⁶

Himself with his good arms in
lusty
¹¹⁷
stroke

To th’shore, that o’er his
wave-worn basis
¹¹⁸
bowed,

As
¹¹⁹
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,

To Alonso

That would not bless our Europe with your daughter,

But rather
loose
¹²⁴
her to an African,

Where she, at least, is banished from your eye,

Who
hath cause to
wet the grief
¹²⁶
on’t.

ALONSO
    Prithee, peace.

SEBASTIAN
    You were kneeled to and
importuned
¹²⁸
otherwise

By all of us: and the fair soul herself

Weighed between
loathness
¹³⁰
and obedience at

Which end o’th’beam should bow.
¹³¹
We have lost your son,

I fear, forever: 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
¹³⁶
o’th’loss.

GONZALO
    My lord Sebastian,

The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness,

And
time
¹³⁹
to speak it in: you rub the sore,

When you should bring the plaster.

SEBASTIAN
    Very well.

ANTONIO
    And most
chirurgeonly.
¹⁴²

GONZALO
    It is foul weather in us all, good sir,

To Alonso

When you are cloudy.

SEBASTIAN
    Foul weather?

ANTONIO
    Very foul.

GONZALO
    Had I
plantation
¹⁴⁷
of this isle, my lord—

ANTONIO
    He’d sow’t with
nettle-seed.
¹⁴⁸

SEBASTIAN
    Or docks, or mallows.

GONZALO
    And were the king on’t, what would I do?

SEBASTIAN
    Scape being drunk for
want
¹⁵¹
of wine.

GONZALO
    I’th’commonwealth I would
by contraries
¹⁵²

Execute all things: for no kind of
traffic
¹⁵³

Would I admit: no name of magistrate:

Letters
¹⁵⁵
should not be known: riches, poverty,

And
use of service
, none: contract,
succession
¹⁵⁶
,

Bourn
, bound of land,
tilth
¹⁵⁷
, 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
¹⁶⁵
nature should produce

Without sweat or endeavour: treason, felony,

Sword,
pike
, knife, gun, or need of any
engine
¹⁶⁷
,

Would I not have: but nature should bring forth,

Of it own kind, all
foison
¹⁶⁹
, 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,

T’excel the
golden age.
¹⁷⁴

SEBASTIAN
    ’Save his majesty!