Ant. He misses not much.

Seb. No; he doth but mistake the truth totally. Gon. But the rarity of it is (which is indeed almost beyond credit)-

Seb. As many vouch'd rarities are.

Gon. That our garments, being, as they were, drenched in the sea, hold, notwithstanding, their freshness, and glosses; being rather new dy'd than stain'd with salt water.

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

Seb. Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report. Gon. Methinks, our garments are now as fresh as when we put them on first in Africk, at the marriage of the king's fair daughter Claribel to the king of Tunis.

Seb. 'Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper

well in our return.

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

Gon. Not since widow Dido's time.

Ant. Widow? a pox o' that! How came that widow in? Widow Dido!

Seb. What if he had said widower Eneas too? good lord, how you take it!

Adr. Widow Dido, said you? you make me
study of that: she was of Carthage, not of Tunis.
Gon. This Tunis, sir, was Carthage.
Adr. Carthage?

Gon. I assure you, Carthage.

Ant. His word is more than the miraculous harp.
Seb. He hath rais'd the wall, and houses too.
Ant. What impossible matter will he make easy

Gon. When every grief is entertain'd, that's next? offer'd,

Comes to the entertainer-

Seb.

A dollar.

Gon. Dolour comes to him, indeed; you have spoken truer than you purposed.

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

Gon. Therefore, my lord,

Seb. I think he will carry this island home in his pocket, and give it his son for an apple. Ant. And sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring forth more islands.

Gon. Ay?

Ant. Why, in good time.

Gon. Sir, we were talking that our garments seem now as fresh as when we were at Tunis at

Ant. Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue! the marriage of your daughter, who is now queen.

Alon. I pr'ythee, spare.

Gon. Well, I have: But yet

Seb. He will be talking.

Ant. Which of them, he, or Adrian, for a good

wager, first begins to crow?

Seb. The old cock.

Ant. The cockrel.

Seb. Done: The wager?

Ant. A laughter.

Seb. A match.

Adr. Though this island seem to be desert,

Seb. Ha, ha, ha!

Ant. So you've pay'd.

The stomach of my sense: 'Would I had never
Married my daughter there! for, coming thence,
My son is lost; and, in my rate, she too,

Adr. Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible,- Who is so far from Italy remov'd,

Seb. Yet,-

Adr. Yet.

Ant. He could not miss it.

Adr. It must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate temperance.*

Ant. Temperance was a delicate wench.
Seb. Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly de-
livered.

Adr. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.
Seb. As if it had lungs, and rotten ones.
Ant. Or, as 'twere perfumed by a fen.
Gon. Here is every thing advantageous to life.
Ant. True; save means to live.
Seb. Of that there's none, or little.

Gon. How lush and lusty the grass looks! how

Seb. Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss;

That would not bless our Europe with your daughter,

But rather lose her to an African;

5 Lush is luxuriant, in like manner luscious is used in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine."

6 That is, with a shade or small portion of green. "Red with an eye of blue makes a purple."-Boyle. 7 Alluding to the wonders of Amphior's music

8 That is, in a manner or degree.

SCENE I.

Ant.

Thus, sir:

Although this lord of weak remembrance, this
(Who shall be of as little memory,
When he is earth'd,) hath here almost persuaded
(For he's a spirit of persuasion, only
Professes to persuade) the king, his son's alive;
'Tis as impossible that he's undrown'd,
As he that sleeps here, swims.
Seb.

That he's undrown'd.

Ant.

I have no hope

O, out of that no hope,

What great hope have you! no hope, that way, is
Another way so high in hope, that even
Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,1

But doubts discovery there. Will you grant, with me,
That Ferdinand is drown'd?

He's gone.

Then tell me,
Claribel.

Ant. She that is queen of Tunis; she that dwells Ten leagues beyond man's life; she that from

Naples

Can have no note, unless the sun were post,
(The man i' the moon's too slow,) till 'new-born
chins

Be rough and razorable: she, from whom

We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast again;
And, by that destiny, to perform an act,
Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come,
In your's and my discharge."

Seb. What stuff is this?-How say you?
'Tis true, my brother's daughter's queen of Tunis;
So is she heir of Naples; 'twixt which regions
There is some space.

Ant.

every

cubit

A space whose
Seems to cry out, How shall that Claribel
Measure us back to Naples ?-Keep in Tunis,
And let Sebastian wake!-Say, this were death
That now hath seiz'd them; why they were no

content

your
I remember,

True:

You did supplant your brother Prospero.

Ant.

And, look, how well my garments sit upon me;
Much feater than before: My brother's servants
Were then my fellows, now they are my men.

Seb. But, for your conscience

Ant. Ay, sir; where lies that? if it were a kybe,
"Twould put me to my slipper; but I feel not
This deity in my bosom: twenty consciences,
That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candied be they,
And melt, ere they molest! Here lies your brother,
No better than the earth he lies upon,

If he were that which now he's like, that's dead;
Whom I, with this obedient steel, three inches of it,
Can lay to bed for ever: whiles you, doing thus,
To the perpetual wink for aye might put
This ancient morsel, this sir Prudence, who

1 i. e. The utmost extent of the prospect of ambition, the point where the eye can pass no farther.

That you, his friend, are in; and sends me forth
For else his projects die, to keep them living.
[Sings in GONZALO's ear.

While you here do snoring lie,
Open-ey'd conspiracy

His time doth take:

If of life you keep a care,
Shake off slumber, and beware:
Awake! awake!

Ant. Then let us both be sudden.
Gon. Now, good angels, preserve the king.
[They wake.
Alon. Why, how now, ho! awake! Why are
drawn?

you
Wherefore this ghastly looking?

Gon.
What's the matter?
Seb. Whiles we stood here securing your repose,
Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing
Like bulls, or rather lions; did it not wake you?'
It struck mine ear most terribly.
Alon.
I heard nothing.
Ant. O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear;
To make an earthquake; sure it was the roar

So, king, go safely on to seek thy son.

SCENE II. Another part of the Island. Enter
CALIBAN, with a burden of Wood. A noise of
Thunder heard.

Cal. All the infections that the sun sucks up
From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him
By inch-meal a disease! His spirits hear me,
And yet I needs must curse. But they'll nor pinch,
Fright me with urchin shows, pitch me i' the mire,
Nor lead me, like a fire-brand, in the dark,

3 What is past is the prologue to events which are to

4 A chough is a bird of the jackdaw kind.

5 Suggestion is frequently used in the sense of temptation, or seduction, by Shakspeare and his contemnporaries. The sense here is, that they will adopt and bear witness to any tale that may be dictated to them.

2 The commentators have treated this as a remark-come; that depends on wha fou and I are to perform. able instance of Shakspeare's ignorance of geography; but though the real distance between Naples and Tunis is not so immeasurable, the intercourse in early times between the Neapolitans and the Tunisians was not so frequent as to make it popularly considered less than a formidable voyage; Shakspeare may however be countenanced in his poetical exaggeration, when we remember that Eschylus has placed the river Eridanus in Spain; and that Appolonius Rhodius describes the Rhone and the Po as meeting in one and discharging themselves into the Gulf of Venice.

6 The old copies read "For else his project dies." By the transposition of a letter, this passage, which has much puzzled the editors, is rendered more intelligible

"to keep them living," relates to projects, and not to Alonzo and Gonzalo, as Steevens and Johnson er roneously supposed.