To an unsettled fancy cure thy brains,

Now useless, boil'd within thy skull! There stand, 60 For you are spell-stopp'd.

Holy Gonzalo, honourable man,

Mine eyes, even sociable to the show of thine,
Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace,
And as the morning steals upon the night,
Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo,
My true preserver, and a loyal sir

To him thou follow'st! I will pay thy graces
Home both in word and deed.
Most cruelly
Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter :
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act.
Thou art pinch'd for 't now, Sebastian. Flesh and
blood,

You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition,
Expell'd remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian,
Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,
Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive
thee,
Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding
Begins to swell, and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shore

That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of

them

That yet looks on me, or would know me: Ariel,
Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell:
I will discase me, and myself present

Pope's

60. boil'd, frenzied. correction of Ff boile. 'Unsettled fancy' was popularly ascribed to a 'seething' of the brain.

62. Holy, upright.

63. sociable to, sympathising

with.

64. Fall, let fall.

70

80

67. ignorant fumes, fumes of ignorance.

69. sir, gentleman.

70. pay, requite.
85. discase, disrobe.

As I was sometime Milan : quickly, spirit;
Thou shalt ere long be free.

ARIEL sings and helps to attire him.

Where the bee sucks, there suck I:
In a cowslip's bell I lie;

There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly

After summer merrily.

Merrily, merrily shall I live now

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

Pros. Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall
miss thee;

But yet thou shalt have freedom: so, so, so.
To the king's ship, invisible as thou art:
There shalt thou find the mariners asleep

Under the hatches; the master and the boatswain
Being awake, enforce them to this place,
And presently, I prithee.

Ari. I drink the air before me, and return
Or ere your pulse twice beat.

[Exit.

Gon. All torment, trouble, wonder and amaze

ment

Inhabits here: some heavenly power guide us
Out of this fearful country!

Pros.

Behold, sir king,

The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero:

For more assurance that a living prince

Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body;
And to thee and thy company I bid

A hearty welcome.

88. Where the bee sucks. The musical setting of this song by R. Johnson is preserved in Wilson's Cheerfull Ayres or

Ballads, 1660. It was probably that used in the original performance.

Alon.

Whether thou be'st he or no,

Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me,

As late I have been, I not know: thy pulse

Beats as of flesh and blood; and, since I saw thee,

The affliction of my mind amends, with which,

I fear, a madness held me: this must crave,
An if this be at all, a most strange story.
Thy dukedom I resign and do entreat

Thou pardon me my wrongs.

Prospero

Be living and be here?

Pros.

But how should

First, noble friend,

Let me embrace thine age, whose honour cannot

Be measured or confined.

Gon.

Or be not, I'll not swear.

Whether this be

You do yet taste

Pros. Some subtilties o' the isle, that will not let you Believe things certain. Welcome, my friends all! [Aside to Seb. and Ant.] But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded,

I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you
And justify you traitors: at this time

I will tell no tales.

Seb.

Pros.

[Aside] The devil speaks in him.

For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother

No.

120

130

art' is cognisant of Sebastian's 'aside.' The curtness of the reply has excited suspicion and led to the emendation: 'Now (for you).' But the 'No' is itself a kind of aside addressed to Sebastian; and as Prospero does not mean to betray him, its curtness is quite in keep

ing.

Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive
Thy rankest fault; all of them; and require
My dukedom of thee, which perforce, I know,
Thou must restore.

Alon.

If thou be'st Prospero,

Give us particulars of thy preservation;

How thou hast met us here, who three hours since Were wreck'd upon this shore; where I have lostHow sharp the point of this remembrance is !— My dear son Ferdinand.

Pros.

I am woe for 't, sir.

Alon. Irreparable is the loss, and patience

Says it is past her cure.

You have not sought her help, of whose soft grace For the like loss I have her sovereign aid

And rest myself content.

Alon.

You the like loss!

Pros. As great to me as late; and, supportable To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker Than you may call to comfort you, for I

140

O heavens, that they were living both in Naples,
The king and queen there! that they were, I wish 150
Myself were mudded in that oozy bed

Where my son lies. When did you lose your daughter?

Pros. In this last tempest. I perceive, these lords At this encounter do so much admire

That they devour their reason and scarce think
Their eyes do offices of truth, their words
Are natural breath: but, howsoe'er you have
Been justled from your senses, know for certain

145. As great to me as late, as great as it is recent.
154. admire, wonder.

duke

That I am Prospero and that very
Which was thrust forth of Milan, who most

strangely

Upon this shore, where you were wreck'd, was

landed,

To be the lord on 't. No more yet of this;
For 'tis a chronicle of day by day,

Not a relation for a breakfast nor

Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir;
This cell's my court: here have I few attendants
And subjects none abroad: pray you, look in.
My dukedom since you have given me again,
I will requite you with as good a thing;
At least bring forth a wonder, to content ye
As much as me my dukedom.

Here PROSPERO discovers FERDINAND and
MIRANDA playing at chess.

Mir. Sweet lord, you play me false.

Fer.

I would not for the world.

No, my dear'st love,

Mir. Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should

Fer. Though the seas threaten, they are merci

ful;

I have cursed them without cause.

Alon.

160

170

[Kneels.

Now all the blessings

180

Of a glad father compass thee about!
Arise, and say how thou camest here.
Mir.

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!