CALIBAN

Within this half hour will he be asleep.

Wilt thou destroy him then?

STEFANO Ay, on mine honour.

ARIEL (aside) This will I tell my master.

CALIBAN

Thou mak’st me merry; I am full of pleasure.

Let us be jocund. Will you troll the catch

You taught me but while-ere?

STEFANO At thy request, monster, I will do reason, any reason.—Come on, Trinculo, let us sing.

(Sings)

Flout ’em and cout ’em, And scout ’em and flout ’em.

Thought is free.

CALIBAN That’s not the tune.

Ariel plays the tune on a tabor and pipe

STEFANO What is this same?

TRINCULO This is the tune of our catch, played by the picture of Nobody.

STEFANO (calls towards Ariel) If thou beest a man, show thyself in thy likeness. If thou beest a devil, take’t as thou list.

TRINCULO O, forgive me my sins!

STEFANO He that dies pays all debts. (Calls) I defy thee.—Mercy upon us!

CALIBAN Art thou afeard?

STEFANO No, monster, not I.

CALIBAN

Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,

Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt

not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices

That if I then had waked after long sleep

Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming

The clouds methought would open and show riches

Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked

I cried to dream again.

STEFANO This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I shall have my music for nothing.

CALIBAN When Prospero is destroyed.

STEFANO That shall be by and by. I remember the story.

Exit Ariel, playing music

TRINCULO The sound is going away. Let’s follow it, and after do our work.

STEFANO Lead, monster; we’ll follow.—I would I could see this taborer. He lays it on.

TRICULO (to Caliban) Wilt come? I’ll follow Stefano.

Exeunt

3.3 Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, and Francisco

GONZALO (to Alonso)

By’r la’kin, I can go no further, sir.

My old bones ache. Here’s a maze trod indeed

Through forthrights and meanders. By your patience,

I needs must rest me.

ALONSO

Old lord, I cannot blame thee,

Who am myself attached 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 drowned

Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks

Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go.

⌈They sit⌉

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 resolved t’effect.

SEBASTIAN (aside to Antonio) The next advantage

Will we take throughly.

ANTONIO (aside to Sebastian) Let it be tonight,

For now they are oppressed with travel. They

Will not nor cannot use such vigilance

As when they are fresh.

SEBASTIAN (aside to Antonio) I say tonight. No more.

Solemn and strange music. Enter Prospero on the top, invisible

ALONSO

What harmony is this? My good friends, hark.

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

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 ’em.

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 vanished 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

Dewlapped like bulls, whose throats had hanging at ’em

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 ⌈rising⌉ 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.

⌈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

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,