My old bones ake: here's a maze trod, indeed,

Through forth-rights, and meanders! by your patience, I needs must rest me.

Alon.

Old lord, I cannot blame thee, Who am myself attach'd with weariness,

To the 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 drown'd,
Whom thus we stray to find; and the sea mocks
Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go.
Ant. I am right glad that he's so out of hope.

[Aside to SEBASTIAN.

Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose
That you resolv'd to effect.

Seb.

Will we take thoroughly.

Ant.

The next advantage

Let it be to-night;

For, now they are oppress'd with travel, they
Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance,

As when they are fresh.

Seb.

I say, to-night: no more.

[Solemn and strange music; and PROSPERO above3, invisible. Enter several strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet: they dance about it with gentle actions of salutations; and, inviting the King, &c. to eat, they depart.] Alon. What harmony is this? my good friends, hark! Gon. Marvellous sweet music!

Alon. Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these?

Seb. 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.

3 and Prospero ABOVE,] "On the top" in the folios; meaning, perhaps, in some machine let down with ropes from the ceiling, or in the balcony at the back of the stage: this is the only deviation from the old stage-direction.

Ant.

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 them.

Gon.

If in Naples

I should report this now, would they believe me?
If I should say, I saw such islanders1,

(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

[Aside.] Honest lord,

Thou hast said well; for some of you there present,

Are worse than devils.

Alon.

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.

Pro.

[Aside.] Praise in departing.

No matter, since

Fran. They vanish'd strangely.

Seb.

They have left their viands behind, for we have sto

machs.

Will't please you taste of what is here?

Alon.

Not I.

Gon. Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were

boys,

Who would believe that there were mountaineers
Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at
them

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

I saw such ISLANDERS,] "Such islands" in the folio, 1623, but altered to "islanders" in later editions.

Each PUTTER-OUT of five for one,] The putters-out were travellers, who

Good warrant of.
Alon.

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.

Thunder and lightning. Enter ARIEL like a harpy, claps his wings upon the table, and, with a quaint device, the banquet vanishes.

Ari. 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, and on this island"
Where man doth not inhabit; you 'mongst men
Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad;

[Seeing ALON., SEB., &c. draw their Swords.
And even with such like valour men hang and drown
Their proper selves. You fools! I and my fellows
Are ministers of fate: the elements,

Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish

One dowle that's in my plume': my fellow-ministers
Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt,
Your swords are now too massy for your strengths,
And will not be uplifted. But, remember,
(For that's my business to you) that you three

put out money at what may be termed interest, viz. to receive at the rate of five for one, if they returned. This practice is often mentioned by old writers.

• Hath caused to belch up, and on this island] The first, second, and third folios read, "Have caus'd to belch up you," and the fourth folio alters " up you" to "you up." It seems clear that you is too much for the sense, verse, and grammatical construction, and we have omitted it, because we think it crept into the old text by mere inadvertence.

7 One DOWLE that's in my PLUME:] "Dowle" seems to mean nearly the same as down, or the light parts of which feathers are composed. In all the old copies "plume" is misprinted plumbe or plumb. There is little doubt that Shakespeare had Virgil's description, Æneid III. in his memory, and he might derive his knowledge of it, if necessary, from Phaer's translation, first printed in 1558, and not in 1573 as stated by Ritson.

From Milan did supplant good Prospero;

Expos'd unto the sea, (which hath requit it)
Him, and his innocent child: for which foul deed
The powers, delaying not forgetting, have
Incens'd the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,
Against your peace. Thee, of thy son, Alonso,
They have bereft; and do pronounce by me,
Lingering perdition (worse than any death
Can be at once) shall step by step attend

You, and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from
(Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls
Upon your heads) is nothing, but heart's sorrow,
And a clear life ensuing.

He vanishes in thunder: then, to soft music, enter the Shapes again, and dance with mocks and mowes, and carry out the table.

Pro. [Aside.] Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou

Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring.

Of my instruction hast thou nothing 'bated,
In what thou hadst to say: so, with good life
And observation strange, my meaner ministers

Their several kinds have done. My high charms work,
And these, mine enemies, are all knit up

In their distractions: they now are in my power;
And in these fits I leave them, while I visit

Young Ferdinand, (whom they suppose is drown'd)
And his and my lov'd darling.

[Exit PROSPERO.

Gon. I' the name of something holy, sir, why stand

you

In this strange stare?

Alon.

O, it is monstrous! monstrous! Methought, the billows spoke, and told me of it; The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder, That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd

The name of Prosper: it did base my trespass.
Therefore my son i' the ooze is bedded; and
I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded,
And with him there lie mudded.

Seb.

I'll fight their legions o'er.

Ant.

[Exit.

But one fiend at a time,

I'll be thy second.

[Exeunt SEB. and ANT.

Gon. All three of them are desperate: their great

guilt,

Like poison given to work a great time after,
Now 'gins to bite the spirits.-I do beseech you,
That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly,
And hinder them from what this ecstasy

May now provoke them to.

Adr.

Follow, I pray you.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Before PROSPERO'S Cell.

Enter PROSPERO, FERDINAND, and Miranda.

Pro. If I have too austerely punish'd you,
Your compensation makes amends; for I
Have given you here a third of mine own life,

8 — a THIRD of mine own life,] We adhere to the text of every old edition of this play, where Prospero tells Ferdinand that he has given him a third of his own life-a portion of his very existence-in bestowing Miranda upon him. This seems not only perfectly intelligible, but most natural, although modern editors (Capell excepted) substitute thread for "third," and attempt to justify the change by quotations from other authors. It is, surely, much more expressive for Prospero to say that he has given away a third of his own life, than merely a thread of his own life. Hawkins misquotes "Mucedorus," no doubt unintentionally, but apparently for the sake of vindicating the violence he proposed to do to the ancient text.