Trin. Do, do: We steal by line and level, and't like your grace.

Ste. I thank thee for that jest; here's a garment for't: wit shall not go unrewarded, while I am king of this country: Steal by line and level, is an excellent pass of pate; there's another garment for't.

Trin. Monster, come, put some lime upon your fingers, and away with the rest.

Cal. I will have none on't: we shall lose our time, And all be turn'd to barnacles, or to apes

With foreheads villanous low.

Ste. Monster, lay-to your fingers; help to bear this away, where my hogshead of wine is, or I'll turn you out of my kingdom: go to, carry this.

Trin. And this.

Ste. Ay, and this.

A noise of hunters heard. Enter divers Spirits, in shape of hounds, and hunt them about; PROSPERO and ARIEL setting them on.

Pro. Hey, Mountain, hey!

Ari. Silver! there it goes, Silver !

Pro. Fury, Fury! there, Tyrant, there! hark, hark! [CAL. STE. and TRIN. are driven out.

Go, charge my goblins that they grind their joints

With dry.convulsions; shorten up their sinews

With aged cramps; and more pinch-spotted make them, Than pard, or cat o' mountain.

Ari. Hark, they roar.

Pro. Let them be hunted soundly: At this hour

Lie at my mercy all mine enemies :

Shortly shall all my labours end, and thou

Shalt have the air at freedom: for a little,

Follow, and do me service.

ACT V.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I.-Before the Cell of PROSPERO. Enter PROSPERO in his magic robes; and Ariel.

Prospero.

Now does my project gather to a head:

My charms crack not; my spirits obey; and time
Goes upright with his carriage. How's the day?

Ari. On the sixth hour; at which time, my lord, You said our work should cease.

Pro. I did say so,

When first I rais'd the tempest.
How fares the king and his ?

Say, my spirit,

Ari. Confin'd together

In the same fashion as you gave in charge;
Just as you left them, sir; all prisoners

In the lime-grove which weather-fends your cell;
They cannot budge, till you release. The king,
His brother, and yours, abide all three distracted;
And the remainder mourning over them,
Brim-full of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly
Him you term'd, sir, The good old lord, Gonzalo ;
His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops

From eaves of reeds: your charm so strongly works them,
That if you now beheld them, your affections
Would become tender.

Pro. Dost thou think so, spirit?

Ari. Mine would, sir, were I human.

Pro. And mine shall.

Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
Of their afflictions? and shall not myself,

One of their kind, that relish all as sharply,
Passion as they, be kindlier mov'd than thou art?
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,
Yet, with my nobler reason, 'gainst my fury

Do I take part : the rarer action is

In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent,

The sole drift of my purpose doth extend

Not a frown further: Go, release them, Ariel;

My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore,
And they shall be themselves.

Ari. I'll fetch them, sir.

[Exit.

Pro. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing-lakes, and groves;

And ye, that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him,
When he comes back; you demi-puppets, that
By moon-shine do the green-sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites; and you, whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms; that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid
(Weak masters though ye be) I have be-dimm'd
The noon-tide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds

And 'twixt the green sea and the azur'd vault
Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt: the strong-bas'd promontory
Have I made shake; and by the spurs pluck'd up
The pine and cedar: graves, at my command,
Have wak'd their sleepers; op'd, and let them forth
By my so potent art: But this rough magic
I here abjure and, when I have requir'd
Some heavenly music, (which even now I do,)
To work mine end upon their senses, that
This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And, deeper than did ever plummet sound,
I'll drown my book.

[Solemn music.

Re-enter ARIEL: after him, ALONSO, with a frantic gesture, attended by GONZALO; SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO in like manner, attended by ADRIAN and FRANCISCO: they all enter the circle which PROSPERO had made, and there stand charmed; which PROSPERO observing, speaks.

A solemn air, and the best comforter

To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains,

Now useless, boil'd within thy scull! There stand,
For you are spell-stopp'd.

Holy Gonzalo, honourable man,

Mine eyes, even sociable to the shew of thine,

Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace;
And as the morning steals upon the night,
Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their clearer reason.-O my good Gonzalo,
My true preserver, and a loyal sir

To him thou follow'st; I will pay thy graces
Home, both in word and deed. Most cruelly
Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter:
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act ;-
Thou'rt pinch'd for't now, Sebastian.-Flesh and blood,
You brother mine, that entertain'd ambition,

Expell'd remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian,
(Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,)
Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee,
Unnatural though thou art!—Their understanding

Begins to swell; and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shores,

That now lie foul and muddy. Not one of them,
That yet looks on me, or would know me :-Ariel,
Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell;

I will dis-case me, and myself present,

As I was sometime Milan :-quickly, spirit;
Thou shalt ere long be free.

[Exit ARIEL.

ARIEL re-enters, singing, and helps to attire PROSPERO. Ari. Where the bee sucks, there suck I;

In a cowslip's bell I lie:

There I couch when owls do cry.

On the bat's back I do fly,

After summer, merrily:

Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

Pro. Why, that's my dainty Ariel: I shall miss thee; But yet thou shalt have freedom: So, so, so To the king's ship, invisible as thou art :

There shalt thou find the mariners asleep

Under the hatches; the master, and the boatswain,
Being awake, enforce them to this place;

And presently, I pr'ythee.

Ari. I drink the air before me, and return

Or e'er your pulse twice beat.

[Exit ARIEL.

Gon. All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement

Inhabits here: Some heavenly power guide us

Out of this fearful country!

Pro. Behold, sir king,

The wronged duke of Milan, Prospero :

For more assurance that a living prince

Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body;

And to thee, and thy company, I bid

A hearty welcome.

Alon. Whe'r thou beest he, or no,

Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me,

As late I have been, I not know: thy pulse

Beats, as of flesh and blood; and, since I saw thee,
Th' affliction of my mind amends, with which,

I fear, a madness held me: this must crave
(An if this be at all,) a most strange story.
Thy dukedom I resign; and do entreat

VOL I

15

Thou pardon me my wrongs:-But how should Prospero

Be living, and be here ?

Pro. First, noble friend,

Let me embrace thine age; whose honour cannot
Be measur'd, or confin'd.

Gon. Whether this be,

Or be not, I'll not swear.

Pro. You do yet taste

Some subtilties o' th' isle, that will not let you
Believe things certain :-Welcome, my friends all :—
But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded,

[Aside to SEB. and ANT I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you, And justify you traitors; at this time

I'll tell no tales.

Seb. The devil speaks in him.

Pro. No:

For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother
Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive
Thy rankest fault; all of them; and require
My dukedom of thee, which, perforce, I know,
Thou must restore.

Alon. If thou beest Prospero,

Give us particulars of thy preservation:

How thou hast met us here, who three hours since®
Were wreck'd upon this shore; where I have lost,
How sharp the point of this remembrance is!

My dear son Ferdinand.

Pro. I am woe for't, sir.

Alon. Irreparable is the loss; and patience

Says, it is past her cure.

Pro. I rather think,

[Aside.

You have not sought her help; of whose soft grace,
For the like loss, I have her sovereign aid,

And rest myself content.

Alon. You the like loss?

Pro. As great to me, as late; and, portable

To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker

[9] The unity of time is most rigidly observed in this piece. The fable scarcely takes up a greater number of hours than are employed in the representation; and from the very particular care which our author takes to point out this circumstance in so many other passages, as well as here, it seems as if it were not accidental, but purposely designed to shew the admirers of Ben Jonson's art, and the cavillers of the time, that he too could write a play within all the strictest laws of regularity, when he chose to load himself with the critic's fetters. STEEV.