Early modern literature
Drama, gender & the body
Modern spelling. Stage directions omitted.
GONZALO
Beseech you, sir, be merry; you have cause,
So have we all, of joy; for our escape
Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe
Is common; every day, some sailor’s wife,
The masters of some merchant and the merchant,
Have just our theme of woe; but for the miracle,
I mean our preservation, few in millions
Can speak like us: then wisely, good sir, weigh
Our sorrow with our comfort.
ALONSO
, peace.
SEBASTIAN
He receives comfort like cold porridge.
ANTONIO
The visitor will not give him so.
SEBASTIAN
Look, he’s winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.
GONZALO
Sir,—
SEBASTIAN
One: tell.
GONZALO
When every grief is entertain’d that’s offer’d,
Comes to the entertainer—
SEBASTIAN
A dollar.
GONZALO
Dolour comes to him, indeed: you have spoken truer than you purposed.
SEBASTIAN
You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should.
GONZALO
Therefore, my lord,—
ANTONIO
Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue!
ALONSO
I , spare.
GONZALO
Well, I have done: but yet—
SEBASTIAN
He will be talking.
ANTONIO
Which, of he or Adrian, for a good wager, first begins to crow?
SEBASTIAN
The old cock.
ANTONIO
The cockerel.
SEBASTIAN
Done. The wager?
ANTONIO
A laughter.
SEBASTIAN
A match!
ADRIAN
Though this island seem to be desert,—
ANTONIO
Ha, ha, ha!
SEBASTIAN
So. You’re paid.
ADRIAN
Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible,—
SEBASTIAN
Yet—
ADRIAN
Yet—
ANTONIO
He could not miss ’t.
ADRIAN
It must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate temperance.
ANTONIO
Temperance was a delicate .
SEBASTIAN
Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly delivered.
ADRIAN
The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.
SEBASTIAN
As if it had lungs, and rotten ones.
ANTONIO
Or, as ’twere perfum’d by a fen.
GONZALO
Here is everything advantageous to life.
ANTONIO
True; save means to live.
SEBASTIAN
Of that there’s none, or little.
GONZALO
How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!
ANTONIO
The ground indeed is tawny.
SEBASTIAN
With an eye of green in’t.
ANTONIO
He misses not much.
SEBASTIAN
No; he but mistake the truth totally.
GONZALO
But the rarity of it is,—which is indeed almost beyond credit,—
SEBASTIAN
As many vouch’d rarities are.
GONZALO
That our garments, being, as they were, drenched in the sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness and glosses, being rather new-dyed than stained with salt water.
ANTONIO
If but one of his pockets could speak, would it not say he lies?
SEBASTIAN
Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report.
GONZALO
our garments are now as fresh as when we put them on first in Afric, at the marriage of the King’s fair daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis.
SEBASTIAN
a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our return.
ADRIAN
Tunis was never graced before with such a paragon to their Queen.
GONZALO
Not since widow Dido’s time.
ANTONIO
Widow! a pox o’ that! How came that widow in? Widow Dido!
SEBASTIAN
What if he had said, widower Aeneas too?
Good Lord, how you take it!
ADRIAN
Widow Dido said you? You make me study of that; she was of Carthage, not of Tunis.
GONZALO
This Tunis, sir, was Carthage.
ADRIAN
Carthage?
GONZALO
I assure you, Carthage.
ANTONIO
His word is more than the miraculous harp.
SEBASTIAN
He rais’d the wall, and houses too.
ANTONIO
What impossible matter will he make easy next?
SEBASTIAN
I think he will carry this island home in his pocket, and give it his son for an apple.
ANTONIO
And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring forth more islands.
ALONSO
Ay.
ANTONIO
Why, in good time.
GONZALO
Sir, we were talking that our garments seem now as fresh as when we were at Tunis at the marriage of your daughter, who is now Queen.
ANTONIO
And the rarest that e’er came there.
SEBASTIAN
Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido.
ANTONIO
O! widow Dido; ay, widow Dido.
GONZALO
Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I wore it? I mean, in a sort.
ANTONIO
That sort was well fish’d for.
GONZALO
When I wore it at your daughter’s marriage?
ALONSO
You cram these words into mine ears against
The stomach of my sense. Would I had never
Married my daughter there! for, coming ,
My son is lost; and, in my rate, she too,
Who is so far from Italy removed,
I again shall see her. O mine heir
Of Naples and of Milan, what strange fish
made his meal on ?
FRANCISCO
Sir, he may live:
I saw him beat the surges under him,
And ride upon their backs. He trod the water,
Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted
The surge most swoln that met him. His bold head
’Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oared
Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke
To th’ shore, that his wave-worn basis bowed,
As stooping to relieve him. I not doubt
He came alive to land.
ALONSO
No, no, he’s gone.
SEBASTIAN
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;
Where she, at least, is banish’d from your eye,
Who cause to wet the grief on ’t.
ALONSO
, peace.
SEBASTIAN
You were kneel’d to, and importun’d otherwise
By all of us; and the fair soul herself
Weigh’d between loathness and obedience at
Which end o’ th’ beam should bow. We have lost your son,
I fear, for ever: Milan and Naples have
More widows in them of this business’ making,
Than we bring men to comfort them.
The fault’s your own.
ALONSO
So is the dear’st o’ th’ loss.
GONZALO
My lord Sebastian,
The truth you speak lack some gentleness
And time to speak it in. You rub the sore,
When you should bring the plaster.
SEBASTIAN
Very well.
ANTONIO
And most chirurgeonly.
GONZALO
It is foul weather in us all, good sir,
When you are cloudy.
SEBASTIAN
Foul weather?
ANTONIO
Very foul.
GONZALO
Had I plantation of this isle, my lord,—
ANTONIO
He’d sow ’t with nettle-seed.
SEBASTIAN
Or docks, or mallows.
GONZALO
And were the King on’t, what would I do?
SEBASTIAN
’Scape being drunk for want of wine.
GONZALO
I’ th’ commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
And use of service, none; contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
No occupation; all men idle, all;
And women too, but innocent and pure;
No sovereignty,—
SEBASTIAN
Yet he would be King on’t.
ANTONIO
The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning.
GONZALO
All things in common nature should produce
Without sweat or endeavour; treason, felony,
Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,
Would I not have; but nature should bring forth,
Of it own kind, all foison, all abundance,
To feed my innocent people.
SEBASTIAN
No marrying ’mong his subjects?
ANTONIO
None, man; all idle; whores and knaves.
GONZALO
I would with such perfection govern, sir,
T’ excel the Golden Age.
SEBASTIAN
Save his Majesty!
ANTONIO
Long live Gonzalo!
GONZALO
And,—do you mark me, sir?
ALONSO
, no more: talk nothing to me.
GONZALO
I do well believe your highness; and did it to minister occasion to these gentlemen, who are of such sensible and nimble lungs that they always use to laugh at nothing.
ANTONIO
you we laughed at.
GONZALO
Who in this kind of merry fooling am nothing to you. So you may continue, and laugh at nothing still.
ANTONIO
What a blow was there given!
SEBASTIAN
An it had not fallen flat-long.
GONZALO
You are gentlemen of brave mettle. You would lift the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue in it five weeks without changing.
SEBASTIAN
We would so, and then go a-bat-fowling.
ANTONIO
Nay, good my lord, be not angry.
GONZALO
No, I warrant you; I will not adventure my discretion so weakly. Will you laugh me asleep, for I am very heavy?
ANTONIO
Go sleep, and hear us.
ALONSO
What, all so soon asleep! I wish mine eyes
Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts: I find
They are inclin’d to do so.
SEBASTIAN
Please you, sir,
Do not omit the heavy offer of it:
It seldom visits sorrow; when it ,
It is a comforter.
ANTONIO
We two, my lord,
Will guard your person while you take your rest,
And watch your safety.
ALONSO
Thank you. Wondrous heavy!
SEBASTIAN
What a strange drowsiness possesses them!
ANTONIO
It is the quality o’ th’ climate.
SEBASTIAN
Why
it not then our eyelids sink? I find not
Myself dispos’d to sleep.
ANTONIO
Nor I. My spirits are nimble.
They fell together all, as by consent;
They dropp’d, as by a thunder-stroke. What might,
Worthy Sebastian? O, what might?—No more.
And yet I see it in face,
What be. Th’ occasion speaks ; and
My strong imagination sees a crown
Dropping upon head.
SEBASTIAN
What, art waking?
ANTONIO
Do you not hear me speak?
SEBASTIAN
I do; and surely
It is a sleepy language, and speak’st
Out of sleep. What is it say?
This is a strange repose, to be asleep
With eyes wide open; standing, speaking, moving,
And yet so fast asleep.
ANTONIO
Noble Sebastian,
let’st fortune sleep—die rather; wink’st
Whiles art waking.
SEBASTIAN
snore distinctly:
There’s meaning in snores.
ANTONIO
I am more serious than my custom; you
Must be so too, if heed me; which to do
Trebles .
SEBASTIAN
Well, I am standing water.
ANTONIO
I’ll teach you how to flow.
SEBASTIAN
Do so: to ebb,
Hereditary sloth instructs me.
ANTONIO
O,
If you but knew how you the purpose cherish
Whiles thus you mock it! how, in stripping it,
You more invest it! Ebbing men indeed,
Most often, do so near the bottom run
By their own fear or sloth.
SEBASTIAN
, say on:
The setting of eye and cheek proclaim
A matter from , and a birth, indeed
Which throes much to yield.
ANTONIO
Thus, sir:
Although this lord of weak remembrance, this
Who shall be of as little memory
When he is earth’d, here almost persuaded,—
For he’s a spirit of persuasion, only
Professes to persuade,—the King his son’s alive,
as impossible that he’s undrown’d
As he that sleeps here swims.
SEBASTIAN
I have no hope
That he’s undrown’d.
ANTONIO
O, out of that “no hope”
What great hope have you! No hope that way is
Another way so high a hope, that even
Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,
But doubts discovery there. Will you grant with me
That Ferdinand is drown’d?
SEBASTIAN
He’s gone.
ANTONIO
Then tell me,
Who’s the next heir of Naples?
SEBASTIAN
Claribel.
ANTONIO
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’ th’ Moon’s too slow—till newborn chins
Be rough and razorable; she that 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 yours and my discharge.
SEBASTIAN
What stuff is this! How say you?
true, my brother’s daughter’s Queen of Tunis;
So is she heir of Naples; ’twixt which regions
There is some space.
ANTONIO
A space whose ev’ry cubit
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 seiz’d them; why, they were no worse
Than now they are. There be that can rule Naples
As well as he that sleeps; lords that can prate
As amply and unnecessarily
As this Gonzalo. I myself could make
A chough of as deep chat. O, that you bore
The mind that I do! What a sleep were this
For your advancement! Do you understand me?
SEBASTIAN
I do.
ANTONIO
And how does your content
Tender your own good fortune?
SEBASTIAN
I remember
You did supplant your brother Prospero.
ANTONIO
True.
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.
SEBASTIAN
But, for your conscience.
ANTONIO
Ay, sir; where lies that? If ’twere a kibe,
’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 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
Should not upbraid our course. For all the rest,
They’ll take suggestion as a cat laps milk.
They’ll tell the clock to any business that
We say befits the hour.
SEBASTIAN
case, dear friend,
Shall be my precedent: as got’st Milan,
I’ll come by Naples. Draw sword: one stroke
Shall free from the tribute which payest,
And I the King shall love .
ANTONIO
Draw together,
And when I rear my hand, do you the like,
To fall it on Gonzalo.
SEBASTIAN
O, but one word.
ARIEL
My master through his art foresees the danger
That you, his friend, are in; and sends me forth—
For else his project dies—to keep them living.
ARIEL
While you here do snoring lie,
Open-ey’d conspiracy
His time take.
If of life you keep a care,
Shake off slumber, and beware.
Awake! awake!
ANTONIO
Then let us both be sudden.
GONZALO
Now, good angels
Preserve the King!
ALONSO
Why, how now! Ho, awake! Why are you drawn?
this ghastly looking?
GONZALO
What’s the matter?
SEBASTIAN
Whiles we stood here securing your repose,
Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing
Like bulls, or rather lions; did ’t not wake you?
It struck mine ear most terribly.
ALONSO
I heard nothing.
ANTONIO
O! a din to fright a monster’s ear,
To make an earthquake. Sure, it was the roar
Of a whole herd of lions.
ALONSO
Heard you this, Gonzalo?
GONZALO
Upon mine honour, sir, I heard a humming,
And that a strange one too, which did awake me.
I shak’d you, sir, and cried; as mine eyes open’d,
I saw their weapons drawn:—there was a noise,
That’s verily. best we stand upon our guard,
Or that we quit this place: let’s draw our weapons.
ALONSO
Lead off this ground, and let’s make further search
For my poor son.
GONZALO
Heavens keep him from these beasts!
For he is, sure, i’ th’ island.
ALONSO
Lead away.
ARIEL
Prospero my lord shall know what I have done:
So, King, go safely on to seek son.
Open The Tempest in the 1623 First Folio. See its words in the cloud.
Modern spelling for reading. The edition is public domain in the United States. Edition source.