READ STUDY GUIDE: Act III, scene iii |
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Act III, Scene iii:
Another part of the island
Another part of the island
| [Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and OTHERS.] |
| GONZALO : |
| By'r lakin, I can go no further, sir; |
| My old bones ache: here's a maze trod, indeed, |
| Through forth-rights and meanders! By your patience, |
| I needs must rest me. |
| ALONSO : |
| Old lord, I cannot blame thee, |
| Who am myself attach'd with weariness |
| To th' dulling of my spirits: sit down, and rest. |
| Even here I will put off my hope, and keep it |
| 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. |
| ANTONIO : |
| [Aside to SEBASTIAN] I am right glad that he's |
| so out of hope. |
| Do not, for one repulse, forgo the purpose |
| That you resolv'd to effect. |
| SEBASTIAN : |
| [Aside to ANTONIO] The next advantage |
| Will we take throughly. |
| ANTONIO : |
| [Aside to SEBASTIAN] 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. |
| SEBASTIAN : |
| [Aside to ANTONIO] I say, to-night: no more. |
| [Solemn and strange music: and PROSPERO above, invisible. Enter several strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet: they dance about it with gentle actions of salutation; and inviting the KING, &c., to eat, they depart.] |
| ALONSO : |
| What harmony is this? my good friends, hark! |
| GONZALO : |
| Marvellous sweet music! |
| ALONSO : |
| Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these? |
| SEBASTIAN : |
| 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. |
| ANTONIO : |
| 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. |
| GONZALO : |
| 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. |
| PROSPERO : |
| [Aside] Honest lord, |
| Thou hast said well; for some of you there present |
| Are worse than devils. |
| ALONSO : |
| 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. |
| PROSPERO : |
| [Aside] Praise in departing. |
| FRANCISCO : |
| They vanish'd strangely. |
| SEBASTIAN : |
| No matter, since |
| They have left their viands behind; for we have stomachs.— |
| Will't please you taste of what is here? |
| ALONSO : |
| Not I. |
| GONZALO : |
| Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were boys, |
| Who would believe that there were mountaineers |
| Dewlapp'd like bulls, 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 of five for one will bring us |
| Good warrant of. |
| ALONSO : |
| I will stand to, and feed, |
| Although my last; no matter, since I feel |
| The best is past.—Brother, my lord the duke, |
| Stand to 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] |
| ARIEL : |
| 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 you; and on this island |
| Where man doth not inhabit; you 'mongst men |
| Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad: |
| [Seeing ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, &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 that's in my plume; my fellow-ministers |
| 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 |
| Lingering 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-sorrow, |
| And a clear life ensuing. |
| [He vanishes in thunder: then, to soft music, enter the Shapes again, and dance, with mocks and mows, and carry out the table] |
| PROSPERO : |
| [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, while I visit |
| Young Ferdinand,—whom they suppose is drown'd,— |
| And his and mine lov'd darling. |
| [Exit above] |
| GONZALO : |
| I' the name of something holy, sir, why stand you |
| In this strange stare? |
| ALONSO : |
| 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. |
| Therefore my son i' th' ooze is bedded; and |
| I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded, |
| And with him there lie mudded. |
| [Exit] |
| SEBASTIAN : |
| But one fiend at a time, |
| I'll fight their legions o'er. |
| ANTONIO : |
| I'll be thy second. |
| [Exeunt SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO] |
| GONZALO : |
| 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 ecstasy |
| May now provoke them to. |
| ADRIAN : |
| Follow, I pray you. |
| [Exeunt] |
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