1    Beseech you, sir, be merry; you have cause,
2    So have we all, of joy; for our escape
3    Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe
4    Is common; every day some sailor's wife,
5    The masters of some merchant and the merchant
6    Have just our theme of woe; but for the miracle,
7    I mean our preservation, few in millions
8    Can speak like us: then wisely, good sir, weigh
9    Our sorrow with our comfort.

10   Prithee, peace.

11   He receives comfort like cold porridge.

12   The visitor will not give him o'er so.

13   Look he's winding up the watch of his wit;
14   by and by it will strike.

15   Sir,--

16   One: tell.

17   When every grief is entertain'd that's offer'd,
18   Comes to the entertainer--

19   A dollar.

20   Dolour comes to him, indeed: you
21   have spoken truer than you purposed.

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

23   Therefore, my lord,--

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

25   I prithee, spare.

26   Well, I have done: but yet,--

27   He will be talking.

28   Which, of he or Adrian, for a good
29   wager, first begins to crow?

30   The old cock.

31   The cockerel.

32   Done. The wager?

33   A laughter.

34   A match!

35   Though this island seem to be desert,--

36   Ha, ha, ha! So, you're paid.

37   Uninhabitable and almost inaccessible,--

38   Yet,--

39   Yet,--

40   He could not miss't.

41   It must needs be of subtle, tender and delicate
42   temperance.

43   Temperance was a delicate wench.

44   Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly delivered.

45   The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.

46   As if it had lungs and rotten ones.

47   Or as 'twere perfumed by a fen.

48   Here is everything advantageous to life.

49   True; save means to live.

50   Of that there's none, or little.

51   How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!

52   The ground indeed is tawny.

53   With an eye of green in't.

54   He misses not much.

55   No; he doth but mistake the truth totally.

56   But the rarity of it is,--which is indeed almost
57   beyond credit,--

58   As many vouched rarities are.

59   That our garments, being, as they were, drenched in
60   the sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness and
61   glosses, being rather new-dyed than stained with
62   salt water.

63   If but one of his pockets could speak, would it not
64   say he lies?

65   Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report

66   Methinks our garments are now as fresh as when we
67   put them on first in Afric, at the marriage of
68   the king's fair daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis.

69   'Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our return.

70   Tunis was never graced before with such a paragon to
71   their queen.

72   Not since widow Dido's time.

73   Widow! a pox o' that! How came that widow in?
74   widow Dido!

75   What if he had said 'widower AEneas' too? Good Lord,
76   how you take it!

77   'Widow Dido' said you? you make me study of that:
78   she was of Carthage, not of Tunis.

79   This Tunis, sir, was Carthage.

80   Carthage?

81   I assure you, Carthage.

82   His word is more than the miraculous harp; he hath
83   raised the wall and houses too.

84   What impossible matter will he make easy next?

85   I think he will carry this island home in his pocket
86   and give it his son for an apple.

87   And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring
88   forth more islands.

89   Ay.

90   Why, in good time.

91   Sir, we were talking that our garments seem now
92   as fresh as when we were at Tunis at the marriage
93   of your daughter, who is now queen.

94   And the rarest that e'er came there.

95   Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido.

96   O, widow Dido! ay, widow Dido.

97   Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I
98   wore it? I mean, in a sort.

99   That sort was well fished for.

100  When I wore it at your daughter's marriage?

101  You cram these words into mine ears against
102  The stomach of my sense. Would I had never
103  Married my daughter there! for, coming thence,
104  My son is lost and, in my rate, she too,
105  Who is so far from Italy removed
106  I ne'er again shall see her. O thou mine heir
107  Of Naples and of Milan, what strange fish
108  Hath made his meal on thee?

109  Sir, he may live:
110  I saw him beat the surges under him,
111  And ride upon their backs; he trod the water,
112  Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted
113  The surge most swoln that met him; his bold head
114  'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar'd
115  Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke
116  To the shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis bow'd,
117  As stooping to relieve him: I not doubt
118  He came alive to land.

119  No, no, he's gone.

120  Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss,
121  That would not bless our Europe with your daughter,
122  But rather lose her to an African;
123  Where she at least is banish'd from your eye,
124  Who hath cause to wet the grief on't.

125  Prithee, peace.

126  You were kneel'd to and importuned otherwise
127  By all of us, and the fair soul herself
128  Weigh'd between loathness and obedience, at
129  Which end o' the beam should bow. We have lost your
130  son,
131  I fear, for ever: Milan and Naples have
132  More widows in them of this business' making
133  Than we bring men to comfort them:
134  The fault's your own.

135  So is the dear'st o' the loss.

136  My lord Sebastian,
137  The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness
138  And time to speak it in: you rub the sore,
139  When you should bring the plaster.

140  Very well.

141  And most chirurgeonly.

142  It is foul weather in us all, good sir,
143  When you are cloudy.

144  Foul weather?

145  Very foul.

146  Had I plantation of this isle, my lord,--

147  He'ld sow't with nettle-seed.

148  Or docks, or mallows.

149  And were the king on't, what would I do?

150  'Scape being drunk for want of wine.

151  I' the commonwealth I would by contraries
152  Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
153  Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
154  Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
155  And use of service, none; contract, succession,
156  Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
157  No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
158  No occupation; all men idle, all;
159  And women too, but innocent and pure;
160  No sovereignty;--

161  Yet he would be king on't.

162  The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the
163  beginning.

164  All things in common nature should produce
165  Without sweat or endeavour: treason, felony,
166  Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,
167  Would I not have; but nature should bring forth,
168  Of its own kind, all foison, all abundance,
169  To feed my innocent people.

170  No marrying 'mong his subjects?

171  None, man; all idle: whores and knaves.

172  I would with such perfection govern, sir,
173  To excel the golden age.

174  God save his majesty!

175  Long live Gonzalo!

176  And,--do you mark me, sir?

177  Prithee, no more: thou dost talk nothing to me.

178  I do well believe your highness; and
179  did it to minister occasion to these gentlemen,
180  who are of such sensible and nimble lungs that
181  they always use to laugh at nothing.

182  'Twas you we laughed at.

183  Who in this kind of merry fooling am nothing
184  to you: so you may continue and laugh at
185  nothing still.

186  What a blow was there given!

187  An it had not fallen flat-long.

188  You are gentlemen of brave metal; you would lift
189  the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue
190  in it five weeks without changing.

191  We would so, and then go a bat-fowling.

192  Nay, good my lord, be not angry.

193  No, I warrant you; I will not adventure
194  my discretion so weakly. Will you laugh
195  me asleep, for I am very heavy?

196  Go sleep, and hear us.

197  What, all so soon asleep! I wish mine eyes
198  Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts: I find
199  They are inclined to do so.

200  Please you, sir,
201  Do not omit the heavy offer of it:
202  It seldom visits sorrow; when it doth,
203  It is a comforter.

204  We two, my lord,
205  Will guard your person while you take your rest,
206  And watch your safety.

207  Thank you. Wondrous heavy.

208  What a strange drowsiness possesses them!

209  It is the quality o' the climate.

210  Why
211  Doth it not then our eyelids sink? I find not
212  Myself disposed to sleep.

213  Nor I; my spirits are nimble.
214  They fell together all, as by consent;
215  They dropp'd, as by a thunder-stroke. What might,
216  Worthy Sebastian? O, what might?--No more:--
217  And yet me thinks I see it in thy face,
218  What thou shouldst be: the occasion speaks thee, and
219  My strong imagination sees a crown
220  Dropping upon thy head.

221  What, art thou waking?

222  Do you not hear me speak?

223  I do; and surely
224  It is a sleepy language and thou speak'st
225  Out of thy sleep. What is it thou didst say?
226  This is a strange repose, to be asleep
227  With eyes wide open; standing, speaking, moving,
228  And yet so fast asleep.

229  Noble Sebastian,
230  Thou let'st thy fortune sleep--die, rather; wink'st
231  Whiles thou art waking.

232  Thou dost snore distinctly;
233  There's meaning in thy snores.

234  I am more serious than my custom: you
235  Must be so too, if heed me; which to do
236  Trebles thee o'er.

237  Well, I am standing water.

238  I'll teach you how to flow.

239  Do so: to ebb
240  Hereditary sloth instructs me.

241  O,
242  If you but knew how you the purpose cherish
243  Whiles thus you mock it! how, in stripping it,
244  You more invest it! Ebbing men, indeed,
245  Most often do so near the bottom run
246  By their own fear or sloth.

247  Prithee, say on:
248  The setting of thine eye and cheek proclaim
249  A matter from thee, and a birth indeed
250  Which throes thee much to yield.

251  Thus, sir:
252  Although this lord of weak remembrance, this,
253  Who shall be of as little memory
254  When he is earth'd, hath here almost persuade,--
255  For he's a spirit of persuasion, only
256  Professes to persuade,--the king his son's alive,
257  'Tis as impossible that he's undrown'd
258  And he that sleeps here swims.

259  I have no hope
260  That he's undrown'd.

261  O, out of that 'no hope'
262  What great hope have you! no hope that way is
263  Another way so high a hope that even
264  Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,
265  But doubt discovery there. Will you grant with me
266  That Ferdinand is drown'd?

267  He's gone.

268  Then, tell me,
269  Who's the next heir of Naples?

270  Claribel.

271  She that is queen of Tunis; she that dwells
272  Ten leagues beyond man's life; she that from Naples
273  Can have no note, unless the sun were post--
274  The man i' the moon's too slow--till new-born chins
275  Be rough and razorable; she that--from whom?
276  We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast again,
277  And by that destiny to perform an act
278  Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come
279  In yours and my discharge.

280  What stuff is this! how say you?
281  'Tis true, my brother's daughter's queen of Tunis;
282  So is she heir of Naples; 'twixt which regions
283  There is some space.

284  A space whose every cubit
285  Seems to cry out, 'How shall that Claribel
286  Measure us back to Naples? Keep in Tunis,
287  And let Sebastian wake.' Say, this were death
288  That now hath seized them; why, they were no worse
289  Than now they are. There be that can rule Naples
290  As well as he that sleeps; lords that can prate
291  As amply and unnecessarily
292  As this Gonzalo; I myself could make
293  A chough of as deep chat. O, that you bore
294  The mind that I do! what a sleep were this
295  For your advancement! Do you understand me?

296  Methinks I do.

297  And how does your content
298  Tender your own good fortune?

299  I remember
300  You did supplant your brother Prospero.

301  True:
302  And look how well my garments sit upon me;
303  Much feater than before: my brother's servants
304  Were then my fellows; now they are my men.

305  But, for your conscience?

306  Ay, sir; where lies that? if 'twere a kibe,
307  'Twould put me to my slipper: but I feel not
308  This deity in my bosom: twenty consciences,
309  That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candied be they
310  And melt ere they molest! Here lies your brother,
311  No better than the earth he lies upon,
312  If he were that which now he's like, that's dead;
313  Whom I, with this obedient steel, three inches of it,
314  Can lay to bed for ever; whiles you, doing thus,
315  To the perpetual wink for aye might put
316  This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence, who
317  Should not upbraid our course. For all the rest,
318  They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk;
319  They'll tell the clock to any business that
320  We say befits the hour.

321  Thy case, dear friend,
322  Shall be my precedent; as thou got'st Milan,
323  I'll come by Naples. Draw thy sword: one stroke
324  Shall free thee from the tribute which thou payest;
325  And I the king shall love thee.

326  Draw together;
327  And when I rear my hand, do you the like,
328  To fall it on Gonzalo.

329  O, but one word.

330  My master through his art foresees the danger
331  That you, his friend, are in; and sends me forth--
332  For else his project dies--to keep them living.
Sings in GONZALO's ear
333  While you here do snoring lie,
334  Open-eyed conspiracy
335  His time doth take.
336  If of life you keep a care,
337  Shake off slumber, and beware:
338  Awake, awake!

339  Then let us both be sudden.

340  Now, good angels
341  Preserve the king.

342  Why, how now? ho, awake! Why are you drawn?
343  Wherefore this ghastly looking?

344  What's the matter?

345  Whiles we stood here securing your repose,
346  Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing
347  Like bulls, or rather lions: did't not wake you?
348  It struck mine ear most terribly.

349  I heard nothing.

350  O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear,
351  To make an earthquake! sure, it was the roar
352  Of a whole herd of lions.

353  Heard you this, Gonzalo?

354  Upon mine honour, sir, I heard a humming,
355  And that a strange one too, which did awake me:
356  I shaked you, sir, and cried: as mine eyes open'd,
357  I saw their weapons drawn: there was a noise,
358  That's verily. 'Tis best we stand upon our guard,
359  Or that we quit this place; let's draw our weapons.

360  Lead off this ground; and let's make further search
361  For my poor son.

362  Heavens keep him from these beasts!
363  For he is, sure, i' the island.

364  Lead away.

365  Prospero my lord shall know what I have done:
366  So, king, go safely on to seek thy son.