THE TEMPEST

Act 3 Scene 3

(Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, and Francisco)
l1l	Gonzalo	(to Alonso)
		 By ’r la’kin, I can go no further, sir.
l2l		My old bones ache. Here’s a maze trod indeed
l3l		Through forthrights and meanders. By your patience,
l4l		I needs must rest me.
	Alonso	Old lord, I cannot blame thee,
l5l		Who am myself attached with weariness
l6l		To th’ dulling of my spirits. Sit down and rest.
l7l		Even here I will put off my hope, and keep it
l8l		No longer for my flatterer. He is drowned
l9l		Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks
l10l		Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go.
		(They sit)
l11l	Antonio	(aside to Sebastian)
		 I am right glad that he’s so out of hope.
l12l		Do not for one repulse forgo the purpose
l13l		That you resolved t’ effect.
	Sebastian	
		(aside to Antonio)
		 The next advantage
l14l		Will we take throughly.
	Antonio	
		(aside to Sebastian)
		 Let it be tonight,
l15l		For now they are oppressed with travel. They
l16l		Will not nor cannot use such vigilance
l17l		As when they are fresh.
	Sebastian	
		(aside to Antonio)
		 I say tonight. No more.
		(Solemn and strange music. Enter Prospero on the top, invisible)
l18l	Alonso	 What harmony is this? My good friends, hark.
l19l	Gonzalo	Marvellous sweet music.
		(Enter spirits, in several strange shapes, bringing in a table and a banquet, and dance about it with gentle actions of salutations, and, inviting the King and his companions to eat, they depart)
l20l	Alonso	 Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these?
l21l	Sebastian	A living drollery. Now I will believe
l22l		That there are unicorns# that in Arabia
l23l		There is one tree, the phoenix’ throne, one phoenix
l24l		At this hour reigning there.
	Antonio	I’ll believe both#
l25l		And what does else want credit come to me,
l26l		And I’ll be sworn ’tis true. Travellers ne’er did lie,
l27l		Though fools at home condemn ’em.
	Gonzalo	If in Naples
l28l		I should report this now, would they believe me—
l29l		If I should say I saw such islanders?
l30l		For certes these are people of the island,
l31l		Who though they are of monstrous shape, yet note
l32l		Their manners are more gentle-kind than of
l33l		Our human generation you shall find
l34l		Many, nay, almost any.
	Prospero	
		(aside)
		 Honest lord,
l35l		Thou hast said well, for some of you there present
l36l		Are worse than devils.
	Alonso	I cannot too much muse.
l37l		Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing—
l38l		Although they want the use of tongue—a kind
l39l		Of excellent dumb discourse.
	Prospero	
		(aside)
		 Praise in departing.
l40l	Francisco	They vanished strangely.
	Sebastian	No matter, since
l41l		They have left their viands behind, for we have stomachs.
l42l		Will ’t please you taste of what is here?
	Alonso	Not I.
l43l	Gonzalo	Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were boys,
l44l		Who would believe that there were mountaineers
l45l		Dewlapped like bulls, whose throats had hanging at ’em
l46l		Wallets of flesh? Or that there were such men
l47l		Whose heads stood in their breasts? Which now we find
l48l		Each putter-out of five for one will bring us
l49l		Good warrant of.
	Alonso	
		(rising)
		 I will stand to and feed,
l50l		Although my last—no matter, since I feel
l51l		The best is past. Brother, my lord the Duke,
l52l		Stand to, and do as we.
		(Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio approach the table. Thunder and lightning. Ariel descends like a harpy, claps his wings upon the table, and, with a quaint device, the banquet vanishes)
l53l	Ariel	 You are three men of sin, whom destiny—
l54l		That hath to instrument this lower world
l55l		And what is in ’t—the never-surfeited sea
l56l		Hath caused to belch up you, and on this island
l57l		Where man doth not inhabit, you ’mongst men
l58l		Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad,
l59l		And even with suchlike valour men hang and drown
l60l		Their proper selves.
		(Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio draw)
		 You fools! I and my fellows
l61l		Are ministers of fate. The elements
l62l		Of whom your swords are tempered may as well
l63l		Wound the loud winds, or with bemocked-at stabs
l64l		Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish
l65l		One dowl that’s in my plume. My fellow ministers
l66l		Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt,
l67l		Your swords are now too massy for your strengths
l68l		And will not be uplifted.
		(Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio stand amazed)
		 But remember,
l69l		For that’s my business to you, that you three
l70l		From Milan did supplant good Prospero#
l71l		Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit it,
l72l		Him and his innocent child# for which foul deed,
l73l		The powers, delaying not forgetting, have
l74l		Incensed the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,
l75l		Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso,
l76l		They have bereft, and do pronounce by me
l77l		Ling’ring perdition—worse than any death
l78l		Can be at once—shall step by step attend
l79l		You and your ways# whose wraths to guard you from—
l80l		Which here in this most desolate isle else falls
l81l		Upon your heads—is nothing but heart’s sorrow
l82l		And a clear life ensuing.
		(He ascends and vanishes in thunder. Then, to soft music, enter the spirits again, and dance with mocks and mows, and they depart, carrying out the table)
l83l	Prospero	 Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou
l84l		Performed, my Ariel# a grace it had devouring.
l85l		Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated
l86l		In what thou hadst to say. So with good life
l87l		And observation strange my meaner ministers
l88l		Their several kinds have done. My high charms work,
l89l		And these mine enemies are all knit up
l90l		In their distractions. They now are in my power#
l91l		And in these fits I leave them, while I visit
l92l		Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose is drowned,
l93l		And his and mine loved darling.
		(Exit)
l94l		(Gonzalo, Adrian, and Francisco go towards the others)
		Gonzalo	 I’ th’ name of something holy, sir, why stand you
l95l		In this strange stare?
	Alonso	O, it is monstrous, monstrous!
l96l		Methought the billows spoke and told me of it,
l97l		The winds did sing it to me, and the thunder,
l98l		That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced
l99l		The name of Prosper. It did bass my trespass.
l100l		Therefor my son i’ th’ ooze is bedded, and
l101l		I’ll seek him deeper than e’er plummet sounded,
l102l		And with him there lie mudded.
		(Exit)
		
	Sebastian	 But one fiend at a time,
l103l		I’ll fight their legions o’er.
	Antonio	I’ll be thy second.
		( 103B Exeunt Sebastian and Antonio)
l104l	Gonzalo	 All three of them are desperate. Their great guilt,
l105l		Like poison given to work a great time after,
l106l		Now ’gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you
l107l		That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly,
l108l		And hinder them from what this ecstasy
l109l		May now provoke them to.
	Adrian	Follow, I pray you.
		(Exeunt)
	[[ACT INTERVAL]]