The Tempest (13 page)

You sunburned
sicklemen
¹⁴⁶
of August weary,

Come hither from the
furrow
¹⁴⁷
and be merry:

Make holiday: your rye-straw hats put on,

And these fresh nymphs encounter every one

In
country footing.
¹⁵⁰

PROSPERO
    I had forgot that foul conspiracy

Of the beast Caliban and his confederates

Against my life: the minute of their plot

Is almost come.— Well done.
Avoid
¹⁵⁴
: no more!

FERDINAND
    This is strange: your father’s in some
passion
¹⁵⁵

That works him strongly.

MIRANDA
    Never till this day

Saw I him touched with anger, so
distempered.
¹⁵⁸

PROSPERO
    You do look, my son, in a
movèd sort
¹⁵⁹
,

As if you were dismayed: be cheerful, sir.

Our
revels
¹⁶¹
now are ended. These our actors,

As I
foretold you
¹⁶²
, were all spirits and

Are melted into air, into thin air,

And, like the
baseless
fabric
¹⁶⁴
of this vision,

The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great
globe
¹⁶⁶
itself,

Yea,
all
which
it
¹⁶⁷
inherit, shall dissolve,

And, like this insubstantial
pageant
¹⁶⁸
faded,

Leave not a
rack
¹⁶⁹
behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on; and our little life

Is
rounded
¹⁷¹
with a sleep. Sir, I am vexed,

Bear with my weakness, my old brain is troubled:

Be not disturbed with my infirmity.

If you be pleased, retire into my
cell
¹⁷⁴

And there repose. A turn or two I’ll walk

To still my beating mind.

FERDINAND AND MIRANDA
    We wish your peace.

PROSPERO
    Come
with a thought
¹⁷⁸
: I thank thee, Ariel: come!

ARIEL
    Thy thoughts I
cleave to
¹⁷⁹
: what’s thy pleasure?

PROSPERO
    Spirit, we must prepare to meet with Caliban.

ARIEL
    Ay, my commander: when I presented Ceres,

I thought to have told thee of it, but I feared

Lest I might anger thee.

PROSPERO
    Say again, where didst thou leave these
varlets?
¹⁸⁴

ARIEL
    I told you, sir, they were
red-hot
¹⁸⁵
with drinking,

So full of valour that they
smote
¹⁸⁶
the air

For breathing in their faces, beat the ground

For kissing of their feet: yet always
bending
¹⁸⁸

Towards their project. Then I beat my tabor,

At which, like
unbacked colts
¹⁹⁰
, they pricked their ears,

Advanced
¹⁹¹
their eyelids, lifted up their noses

As
¹⁹²
they smelt music: so I charmed their ears,

That calf-like they my
lowing
¹⁹³
followed through

Toothed
briars, sharp furzes, pricking gorse and thorns
¹⁹⁴
,

Which entered their frail shins: at last I left them

I’th’
filthy-mantled
¹⁹⁶
pool beyond your cell,

There dancing up to th’chins,
that
the foul
lake
¹⁹⁷

O’erstunk their feet.

PROSPERO
    This was well done, my bird.

Thy shape invisible retain thou still
²⁰⁰
:

The
trumpery
²⁰¹
in my house, go bring it hither,

For
stale
²⁰²
to catch these thieves.

ARIEL
    I go, I go.

PROSPERO
    A devil, a born devil, on whose nature

Nurture can never stick: on whom my pains,

Humanely
taken, all, all
lost
²⁰⁶
, quite lost.

And as with age his body uglier grows,

So his mind
cankers.
²⁰⁸
I will plague them all,

Even to
roaring.
Come, hang them on this
line.
²⁰⁹

CALIBAN
    Pray you, tread softly,
that
²¹⁰
the blind

mole may not hear a footfall: we now are near

his cell.

STEPHANO
    Monster, your
fairy
²¹³
, which you say is a harmless

fairy, has done little better than
played the jack with
²¹⁴
us.

TRINCULO
    Monster, I do smell all horse-piss, at which my nose

is in great indignation.

STEPHANO
    So is mine. Do you hear, monster? If I should take a

displeasure against you, look you—

TRINCULO
    Thou wert but a
lost
²¹⁹
monster.

CALIBAN
    Good my lord, give me thy favour still.

Be patient, for the prize I’ll bring thee to

Shall
hoodwink this mischance
²²²
: therefore speak softly,

All’s hushed as midnight yet.

TRINCULO
    Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool!

STEPHANO
    There is not only disgrace and dishonour in that,

monster, but an infinite loss.

TRINCULO
    That’s more to me than my wetting: yet this is your

harmless fairy, monster.

STEPHANO
    I will
fetch off
my bottle, though I be
o’er ears
²²⁹
for my

labour.

CALIBAN
    Prithee, my king, be quiet. See’st thou here,

This is the mouth o’th’cell: no noise, and enter.

Do that good
mischief
²³³
which may make this island

Thine own forever, and I thy Caliban

For
aye
²³⁵
thy foot-licker.

STEPHANO
    Give me thy hand. I do begin to have bloody

thoughts.

TRINCULO
    O
King Stephano, O peer!
²³⁸
O worthy Stephano,

look what a wardrobe here is for thee!

CALIBAN
    Let it alone, thou fool: it is but trash.

TRINCULO
    O, ho, monster: we know what belongs to a
frippery.
²⁴¹

O King Stephano!

Puts on a gown

STEPHANO
    Put off that gown, Trinculo: by this hand, I’ll have

that gown.

TRINCULO
    Thy grace shall have it.

CALIBAN
    The
dropsy
²⁴⁶
drown this fool: what do you mean

To dote thus on such
luggage?
²⁴⁷
Let’s alone

And do the murder first: if he awake,

From toe to crown he’ll fill our skins with pinches,

Make us strange stuff.
²⁵⁰

STEPHANO
    Be you quiet, monster.—
Mistress line
²⁵¹
, is not this my

jerkin?
Now is the jerkin
under the line
²⁵²
: now,

Takes it down

jerkin, you are like to lose your
hair
²⁵³
and prove a bald jerkin.

TRINCULO
    Do, do: we steal by
line and level
,
an’t like
²⁵⁴
your

grace.

STEPHANO
    I thank thee for that jest: here’s a garment for’t: wit

shall not go unrewarded while I am king

Gives Trinculo a garment

of this country. ‘Steal by line and level’ is an excellent
pass of
²⁵⁸

pate: there’s another garment for’t.

Gives another

TRINCULO
    Monster, come put some
lime
²⁶⁰
upon your fingers,

and away with the rest.

CALIBAN
    I will have none on’t: we shall lose our time,

And all be turned to
barnacles
²⁶³
, or to apes

With foreheads
villainous
²⁶⁴
low.

STEPHANO
    Monster,
lay to your
²⁶⁵
fingers: help to bear this away

where my
hogshead
²⁶⁶
of wine is, or I’ll turn you out of my

kingdom: go to, carry this.

TRINCULO
    And this.

They load Caliban with garments

STEPHANO
    Ay, and this.

PROSPERO
    Hey,
Mountain, hey!
²⁷⁰

ARIEL
    Silver! There it goes, Silver!

PROSPERO
    Fury, Fury! There, Tyrant, there: hark! hark!

Go, charge my goblins that they
grind
²⁷³
their joints

With
dry convulsions
,
shorten up
²⁷⁴
their sinews

With
agèd cramps
, and more
pinch-spotted
²⁷⁵
make them

Than
pard
or
cat o’mountain.
²⁷⁶

ARIEL
    Hark, they roar.

PROSPERO
    Let them be hunted soundly. At this hour

Lies at my mercy all mine enemies:

Shortly shall all my labours end, and thou

Shalt have the
air at freedom
: for
a little
²⁸¹
,

Follow, and do me service.

PROSPERO
    Now does my
project
gather to a head.
¹

My charms
crack not
, my spirits obey, and
Time
²

Goes upright with his carriage.
How’s the day?
³

ARIEL
    On the sixth hour, at which time, my lord,

You said our work should cease.

PROSPERO
    I did say so,

When first I raised the tempest. Say, my spirit,

How fares the king and’s followers?

ARIEL
    Confined together

In the same fashion as you
gave in charge
¹⁰
,

Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir,

In the
line-grove
which
weather-fends
¹²
your cell:

They cannot budge till your release. The king,

His brother, and yours
abide
all three
distracted
¹⁴
,

And the remainder mourning over them,

Brimful of sorrow and dismay: but chiefly

Him that you
termed
¹⁷
, sir, the good old lord Gonzalo:

His tears run down his beard, like
winter’s drops
¹⁸

From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works ’em

That if you now beheld them, your
affections
²⁰

Would become tender.

PROSPERO
    Dost thou think so, spirit?

ARIEL
    Mine would, sir, were I human.

PROSPERO
    And mine shall.

Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling

Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,

One of their kind, that
relish all as sharply
²⁷

Passion as they, be
kindlier moved
²⁸
than thou art?

Though with their
high
wrongs I am struck to
th’quick
²⁹
,

Yet with my nobler reason gainst my fury

Do I
take part
: the
rarer
³¹
action is

In virtue
than
³²
in vengeance. They being penitent,

The sole
drift
³³
of my purpose doth extend

Not a frown further. Go, release them, Ariel:

My charms I’ll break, their senses I’ll restore,

And they shall be themselves.

ARIEL
    I’ll fetch them, sir.