Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go.
Ant. [Afide to Sebaftian.] I am right glad that he's
fo out of hope.

Do not, for one repulfe, forego the purpose
That you refolv'd to effect.

Seb. The next advantage
Will we take throughly.

Ant. Let it be to-night;

For, now they are opprefs'd with travel, they
Will not, nor cannot use fuch vigilance,
As when they are fresh.

Seb. I fay, to-night: no more.

Solemn and strange mufick; and Profpero on the top, invifible. Enter feveral strange shapes, bringing in a banquet; they dance about it with gentle actions of falutation; and, inviting the king, &c. to eat, they depart.

Alon. What harmony is this? my good friends, hark! Gon. Marvellous fweet mufick!

Alon. Give us kind keepers, heaven! 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.

Ant. I'll believe both;

And what does elfe want credit, come to me,

And I'll be fworn 'tis true.

Travellers ne'er did lie,

Though fools at home condemn 'em.

Gon. If in Naples

I fhould report this now, would they believe me? If I fhould fay, I faw fuch iflanders,

(For, certes, these are people of the island) Who, though they are of monftrous fhape, yet, note,

A living drollery.] Shows, called drolleries, were in Shakespeare's time performed by puppets only. From these our modern drolls, exhibited at fairs, &c. took their name. STEEVENS.

Their manners are more gentle, kind, than of
Our human generation you shall find

Many, nay, almost any.

Pro. Honest lord,

Thou haft faid well; for fome of you there prefent

Are worse than devils.

Alon. I cannot too much muse,

[Afide.

Such fhapes, fuch gesture, and fuch found, expreffing (Although they want the use of tongue) a kind Of excellent dumb difcourfe.

Pro. 9 Praise in departing.

Fran. They vanish'd ftrangely.

Seb. No matter, fince

[Afide.

They have left their viands behind; for we have sto machs.

Will't please you taste of what is here?

Alon. Not İ.

Gon. Faith, Sir, you need not fear. When we were boys,

Who would believe, that there were mountaineers,
Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whofe throats had hanging at 'em
Wallets of flesh? or that there were fuch men,
Whose heads stood in their breafts? which now, we find,
* Each putter out on five for one will bring us
Good warrant of.

Alon. I will ftand to, and feed,
Although my laft; no matter, fince I feel

The

Praife in departing.] i. e. Do not praise your entertainment too foon, left you fhould have reason to retract your commendation. It is a proverbial faying. STEEVENS.

-that there were mountaineers, &c.] Whoever has the curiofity to know the particulars relating to these mountaineers, &c. may confult Maundeville's Travels, printed in 1503, by Wynken de Worde. STEEVENS.

2 Each putter out, &c.] This paffage alluding to a forgotten cuftom is very obfcure: the putter out must be a traveller, elfe how could he give this account? the five for one is money to be received by him at his return. Mr. Theobald has well illuftrated this paffage by a quotation from Jonfon. JOHNSON.

E 2

The

The beft is past.

Brother, my lord the duke,

Enter Ariel like a harpy; claps

Stand to, and do as we.

Thunder and lightning.

his wings upon the table, and, with a quaint device, the banquet vanishes.

Ari. You are three men of fin, whom destiny,
That hath to inftrument this lower world,
And what is in't, the never-furfeited fea
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;
And even with fuch like valour men hang and drown
Their proper felves. [Alonfo, Sebaftian, and the reft
Ye fools! I and my fellows [draw their fwords.
Are minifters of fate; the elements,

Of whom your fwords are temper'd, may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with bemockt-at ftabs
Kill the ftill-clofing waters, as diminish

2 One down that's in my plume: my fellow-minifters

Are

The ancient cuftom was this. In this age of travelling, it was customary for thofe who engaged in long expeditions, to place out a fum of money on condition of receiving great intereit for it at their return home. So Puntarvolo (it is Theobald's quotation) in Ben Jonfon's Every Man out of his Humour. "I do intend, this year of jubilee coming on, to travel; and "(because I will not altogether go upon expence) I am determined to put forth fome five thousand pound, to be paid "me five for one, upon the return of my wife, myself, and my dog, from the Turk's court in Conftantinople." STEEVENS. Enter Ariel like a barpy, &c.] Milton's Par. Reg. B. 2.

66

"with that

"Both table and provifions vanish'd quite,

"With found of harpies wings, and talons heard.” At fubita horrifico lapfu de montibus adfunt

Harpyia, & magnis quatiunt clangoribus alas

Diripiuntque dapes. Virg. Æn. 3. STEEVENS.

2 One down that's in my plume:] The player-editors, who, in their preface, boat much of the corrections they had made, exhibit this paffage thus:

"One dowle that's in my plumbe."

Bailey,

Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt,
Your fwords are now too maffy for your ftrengths,
And will not be up-lifted. But remember,
(For that's my business to you) that you three
From Milan did fupplant good Profpero:
Expos'd unto the fea, which hath requit it,
Him, and his innocent child: for which foul deed
The powers, delaying not forgetting, have
Incens'd the feas and fhores, yea, all the creatures,
Against your peace. Thee, of thy fon, Alonfo,
They have bereft; and do pronounce by me,
Ling'ring perdition (worfe than any death
Can be at once) fhall step by step attend

You, and your ways; whofe wrath to guard you from
(Which here in this moft defolate ifle elfe falls
Upon your heads) is nothing but heart's forrow,
And a 3 clear life enfuing.

He vanishes in thunder: then to foft mufick, enter the fhapes again, and dance with mops and mowes, and carry out the table.

Pro. [Afide.] Bravely the figure of this harpy hast

thou

Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring:
Of my instruction haft thou nothing 'bated,

In what thou hadst to fay: fo4 with good life,
And obfervation strange, my meaner minifters

Bailey, in his Dictionary, fays, on the fingle authority of this typographical blunder, that dowle is a feather, or rather the fingle particles of the down. STEEVENS.

3

clear life] Pure, blameless, innocent. JOHNSON. 4 with good life,] This feems a corruption. I know not in what fenfe life can here be ufed, unless for alacrity, livelinefs, vigour, and in this fenfe the expreffion is harsh. Perhaps we may read, with good lift, with good will, with fincere zeal for my fervice. I fhould have propofed, with good lief, in the fame fenfe, but that I cannot find lief to be a fubftantive. With good life may however mean, with exact prefentation of their feveral characters, with obfervation frange of their particular and diftinct parts. So we fay, he acted to the life. JOHNSON.

E 3

Their

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, whilst I vifit

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

[Exit Profpero from above, Gon. I'the name of fomething holy, Sir, why ftand

you

In this ftrange ftare?

Alon. O, it is monftrous! monftrous!
Methought, the billows fpoke, and told me of it;
The winds did fing it to me; and the thunder,
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd
The name of Profper: it did 5 bafs my trefpafs.
Therefore, my fon i'the ooze is bedded; and
I'll feek him deeper than e'er plummet founded,
And with him there lie mudded.

Seb. But one fiend at a time,

I'll fight their legions o'er.

Ant. I'll be thy fecond.

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

Gon. All three of them are defperate; their great

guilt,

Like poifon given to work a great time after, Now 'gins to bite the fpirits. I do befeech you That are of fuppler joints, follow them swiftly; And hinder them from what this ecftafy

May now provoke them to.

Adri. Follow, I pray you.

[Exeunt.

bafs my trefpefs.] The deep pipe told it me in a rough bafs found. JOHNSON.

• Like poifon given, &c.] The natives of Africa have been fuppofed to be poffeffed of the fecret how to temper poifons with fuch art as not to take effect till feveral years after they were administered, and were then as certain in their effect, as they were fubtle in their preparation. STEEVENS.

ACT