The Tempest: Act 3, Scene 3
Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO,
GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, etc.
GONZALO
1
By'r lakin, I can go no further, sir;1. By'r lakin: This is a familiar form of "by Our Lady." "Our Lady" is the Virgin Mary.
2
My old bones ache: here's a maze trod indeed 3
Through forth-rights and meanders! By your patience,
3. forth-right and meanders: paths straight and crooked.
4
I needs must rest me.
ALONSO
4
Old lord, I cannot blame thee, 5
Who am myself attach'd with weariness,
5. attach'd with: seized by.
6
To the dulling of my spirits: sit down, and rest. 7
Even here I will put off my hope and keep it 8
No longer for my flatterer: he is drown'd
9
Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks 10
Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go.
ANTONIO [Aside to Sebastian.]
11
I am right glad that he's so out of hope. 12
Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose
12. for one repulse: i.e., just because of one failure.
13
That you resolved to effect.
12-13. forego . . . effect: give up on the plan (to murder Alonso) that you resolved to carry out.
SEBASTIAN [Aside to Antonio.]
13
The next advantage
13. advantage: opportunity.
14
Will we take thoroughly.
ANTONIO [Aside to Sebastian.]
14
Let it be tonight; 15
For, now they are oppress'd with travel, they 16
Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance 17
As when they are fresh.
SEBASTIAN [Aside to Antonio.]
17
I say, tonight: no more.
17. I say, tonight: no more: i.e., OK, agreed, it will be tonight; stop talking.
Solemn and strange music; and PROSPERO
on the top, invisible.
ALONSO
18
What harmony is this? My good friends, hark!
GONZALO
19
Marvellous sweet music!
Enter several strange SHAPES, bringing in a
banquet; and dance about it with gentle actions
of salutations; and inviting the King, etc., to eat,
they depart.
ALONSO
20
Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these?
20. kind keepers: guardian angels.
SEBASTIAN
21
A living drollery. Now I will believe
21. living drollery: puppet show with live actors.
22
That there are unicorns, that in Arabia 23
There is one tree, the phoenix' throne, one phoenix 24
At this hour reigning there.
ANTONIO
24
I'll believe both; 25
And what does else want credit, come to me,25. want credit: lack credibility.
26
And I'll be sworn 'tis true: travellers ne'er did lie, 27
Though fools at home condemn 'em.
GONZALO
27
If in Naples 28
I should report this now, would they believe me? 29
If I should say, I saw such islanders 30
For, certes, these are people of the island
30. certes: certainly.
31
Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet, note,
31. monstrous: abnormal, unnatural.
32
Their manners are more gentle-kind than of 33
Our human generation you shall find 34
Many, nay, almost any.
PROSPERO [Aside.]
34
Honest lord, 35
Thou hast said well; for some of you there present 36
Are worse than devils.
ALONSO
36
I cannot too much muse
36. muse: wonder at.
37
Such shapes, such gesture and such sound, expressing, 38
Although they want the use of tongue, a kind 39
Of excellent dumb discourse.
PROSPERO [Aside.]
39
Praise in departing.
39. Praise in departing: i.e., save your praise until you see how everything turns out. This is a common saying.
FRANCISCO
40
They vanish'd strangely.
SEBASTIAN
40
No matter, since 41
They have left their viands behind; for we have stomachs.
41. viands: food. stomachs: appetites.
42
Will't please you taste of what is here?
ALONSO
42
Not I.
GONZALO
43
Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were boys, 44
Who would believe that there were mountaineers 45
Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em 46
Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men 47
Whose heads stood in their breasts? which now we find
43-47. When we were boys . . . their breasts?: i.e., When we were boys who would have believed these things which we now know are almost certainly true? >>>
48. Each putter-out of five for one: i.e., savvy bettors.
48. Each putter-out of five for one: i.e., savvy bettors.
48
Each putter-out of five for one will bring us 49
Good warrant of.
ALONSO
49
I will stand to and feed,
49. stand to: take the risk.
50
Although my last: no matter, since I feel 51
The best is past. Brother, my lord the duke,
51. best: i.e., best part of my life.
52
Stand to and do as we.
Illustration by Robert Anning Bell
Thunder and lightning. Enter ARIEL,
like a harpy, claps his wings upon the
table, and with a quaint device the
with a quaint device: by means of an ingenious mechanism.
banquet vanishes.
ARIEL
53
You are three men of sin, whom Destiny, 54
That hath to instrument this lower world 55
And what is in't, the never-surfeited sea
53-55. Destiny . . . in't: Destiny, which has everything of this world as its instrument.
56
Hath caused to belch up you; and on this island 57
Where man doth not inhabit; you 'mongst men 58
Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad; 59
And even with such-like valor men hang and drown59. such-like valor: i.e., the reckless valor of madness.
60
Their proper selves.
60. proper: own.
[Alonso, Sebastian, etc. draw their swords.]
60
You fools! I and my fellows 61
Are ministers of Fate: the elements, 62
Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well
62. whom: which. temper'd: composed.
63
Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs 64
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish64. still-closing: always closing again as soon as parted.
65
One dowle that's in my plume: my fellow-ministers
65. dowle: tiny downy feather. plume: plumage.
66
Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt,66. like: likewise, similarly. If: even if.
67
Your swords are now too massy for your strengths 68
And will not be uplifted. But remember 69
For that's my business to youthat you three 70
From Milan did supplant good Prospero; 71
Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit it,71. requit it: repaid the act (by casting you up here).
72
Him and his innocent child: for which foul deed 73
The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have 74
Incensed the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures, 75
Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso, 76
They have bereft; and do pronounce by me: 77
Lingering perdition, worse than any death77. perdition: ruin.
78
Can be at once, shall step by step attend 79
You and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from
79. whose wraths: i.e., the wrath of the "pow'rs" of line 73.
80
Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls 81
Upon your headsis nothing but heart-sorrow
81-82. is nothing . . . ensuing: i.e., there is no means except repentance, followed by virtuous living ever after.
82
And a clear life ensuing.
He vanishes in thunder; then, to soft music,
enter the SHAPES again, and dance, with
mocks and mows, and carrying out the table.
mocks and mows: mocking gestures and grimaces.
PROSPERO
83
Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou 84
Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring:84. devouring: Perhaps the "quaint device" to make the banquet disappear was to have the harpy devour it.
85
Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated
85. bated: abated, diminished, omitted.
86
In what thou hadst to say: so, with good life
87
And observation strange, my meaner ministers 88
Their several kinds have done. My high charms work
86-88. so . . . done: likewise, with lively realism and amazing attention to my instructions, my lesser spirits have performed their various parts.
89
And these mine enemies are all knit up 90
In their distractions; they now are in my power;89-90. knit up / In their distractions: entangled in their madness.
91
And in these fits I leave them, while I visit 92
Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose is drown'd, 93
And his and mine loved darling.
[Exit.]
GONZALO
94
I' the name of something holy, sir, why stand you 95
In this strange stare?
94-95. why stand you / In this strange stare?: Gonzalo has not heard Ariel's speech to the "three men of sin."
ALONSO
95
O, it is monstrous, monstrous: 96
Methought the billows spoke and told me of it;
96. it: i.e., my sin (helping Antonio steal the dukedom of Milan from Prospero).
97
The winds did sing it to me, and the thunder, 98
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced 99
The name of Prosper: it did bass my trespass.
99. bass my trespass: proclaim my sin like a bass note in music.
100
Therefore my son i' the ooze is bedded, and
101
I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded102
And with him there lie mudded.
Exit.
SEBASTIAN
102
But one fiend at a time,103
I'll fight their legions o'er.102-103. But . . . o'er: If I can fight them one at a time, I'll fight them all, one after another.
ANTONIO
103
I'll be thy second.
Exeunt [Sebastian and Antonio].
GONZALO
104
All three of them are desperate: their great guilt,105
Like poison given to work a great time after,106
Now 'gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you
106. 'gins to bite the spirits: begins to gnaw on their minds.
107
That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly108
And hinder them from what this ecstasy
108. ecstasy: fit of madness.
109
May now provoke them to.
ADRIAN
109
Follow, I pray you.
Exeunt omnes.