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The Tempest: Act II, Scene 1

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The Tempest
Act II, Scene 1

Scene 1

Another part of the island.

On another part of the island are King Alonso, Antonio, Gonzalo, Sebastian, Adrian, Francisco, and others. Alonso grieves because he believes his only son, Ferdinand, is drowned. Gonzalo tries to comfort him with little success. Antonio, Sebastian, and Adrian discuss the recent marriage of Alonso’s only daughter Claribel and the Prince of Tunis, from whose wedding they were traveling home. Ariel enters and magically puts to sleep everyone except Antonio and Sebastian. Antonio suggests that Sebastian should murder his brother, King Alonso, and thus himself become King of Naples. They almost do so when the others awake.
  1. Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian,
  2. Francisco, and others.

Gonzalo

1 - 9
  1. Beseech you, sir, be merry; you have cause
  2. (So have we all) of joy; for our escape
  3. Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe
  4. Is common: every day some sailor’s wife,
  5. The masters of some merchant, and the merchant
  6. Have just our theme of woe; but for the miracle
  7. (I mean our preservation), few in millions
  8. Can speak like us. Then wisely, good sir, weigh
  9. Our sorrow with our comfort.

Alonso

10
  1.                              Prithee peace.

Sebastian

11
  1. He receives comfort like cold porridge.

Antonio

12
  1. The visitor will not give him o’er so.

Sebastian

13 - 14
  1. Look, he’s winding up the watch of his wit, by and by it
  2. will strike.

Gonzalo

15
  1. Sir—

Sebastian

16
  1. One. Tell.

Gonzalo

17 - 18
  1. When every grief is entertain’d that’s offer’d,
  2. Comes to th’ entertainer—

Sebastian

19
  1. A dollar.

Gonzalo

20 - 21
  1. Dolor comes to him indeed, you have spoken truer than you
  2. purpos’d.

Sebastian

22
  1. You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should.

Gonzalo

23
  1. Therefore, my lord—

Antonio

24
  1. Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue!

Alonso

25
  1. I prithee spare.

Gonzalo

26
  1. Well, I have done. But yet—

Sebastian

27
  1. He will be talking.

Antonio

28 - 29
  1. Which, of he or Adrian, for a good wager, first begins to
  2. crow?

Sebastian

30
  1. The old cock.

Antonio

31
  1. The cock’rel.

Sebastian

32
  1. Done. The wager?

Antonio

33
  1. A laughter.

Sebastian

34
  1. A match!

Adrian

35
  1. Though this island seem to be desert—

Sebastian

36
  1. Ha, ha, ha!

Antonio

37
  1. So: you’re paid!

Adrian

38
  1. Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible—

Sebastian

39
  1. Yet—

Adrian

40
  1. Yet—

Antonio

41
  1. He could not miss’t.

Adrian

42
  1. It must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate temperance.

Antonio

43
  1. Temperance was a delicate wench.

Sebastian

44
  1. Ay, and a subtle, as he most learnedly deliver’d.

Adrian

45
  1. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.

Sebastian

46
  1. As if it had lungs, and rotten ones.

Antonio

47
  1. Or, as ’twere perfum’d by a fen.

Gonzalo

48
  1. Here is every thing advantageous to life.

Antonio

49
  1. True, save means to live.

Sebastian

50
  1. Of that there’s none, or little.

Gonzalo

51
  1. How lush and lusty the grass looks! How green!

Antonio

52
  1. The ground indeed is tawny.

Sebastian

53
  1. With an eye of green in’t.

Antonio

54
  1. He misses not much.

Sebastian

55
  1. No; he doth but mistake the truth totally.

Gonzalo

56 - 57
  1. But the rarity of it is—which is indeed almost beyond
  2. credit—

Sebastian

58
  1. As many vouch’d rarieties are.

Gonzalo

59 - 61
  1. That our garments, being (as they were) drench’d in the sea,
  2. hold notwithstanding their freshness and glosses, being
  3. rather new dy’d than stain’d with salt water.

Antonio

62 - 63
  1. If but one of his pockets could speak, would it not say he
  2. lies?

Sebastian

64
  1. Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report.

Gonzalo

65 - 67
  1. Methinks our garments are now as fresh as when we put them
  2. on first in Afric, at the marriage of the King’s fair
  3. daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis.

Sebastian

68
  1. ’Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our return.

Adrian

69 - 70
  1. Tunis was never grac’d before with such a paragon to their
  2. queen.

Gonzalo

71
  1. Not since widow Dido’s time.

Antonio

72
  1. Widow? A pox o’ that! How came that widow in? Widow Dido!

Sebastian

73 - 74
  1. What if he had said “widower Aeneas” too? Good Lord, how you
  2. take it!
Sketches at the production of the Tempest at His Majesty's Theatre

Sketches at the production of the Tempest at His Majesty's Theatre

Ralph Cleaver, circa 1904

Adrian

75 - 76
  1. “Widow Dido,” said you? You make me study of that. She was
  2. of Carthage, not of Tunis.

Gonzalo

77
  1. This Tunis, sir, was Carthage.

Adrian

78
  1. Carthage?

Gonzalo

79
  1. I assure you, Carthage.

Antonio

80
  1. His word is more than the miraculous harp.

Sebastian

81
  1. He hath rais’d the wall, and houses too.

Antonio

82
  1. What impossible matter will he make easy next?

Sebastian

83 - 84
  1. I think he will carry this island home in his pocket, and
  2. give it his son for an apple.

Antonio

85 - 86
  1. And sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring forth more
  2. islands.

Gonzalo

87
  1. Ay.

Antonio

88
  1. Why, in good time.

Gonzalo

89 - 91
  1. Sir, we were talking that our garments seem now as fresh as
  2. when we were at Tunis at the marriage of your daughter, who
  3. is now queen.

Antonio

92
  1. And the rarest that e’er came there.

Sebastian

93
  1. Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido.

Antonio

94
  1. O, widow Dido? Ay, widow Dido.

Gonzalo

95 - 96
  1. Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I wore it?
  2. I mean, in a sort.

Antonio

97
  1. That ‘sort’ was well fish’d for.

Gonzalo

98
  1. When I wore it at your daughter’s marriage?

Alonso

99 - 106
  1. You cram these words into mine ears against
  2. The stomach of my sense. Would I had never
  3. Married my daughter there! For coming thence,
  4. My son is lost and (in my rate) she too,
  5. Who is so far from Italy removed
  6. I ne’er again shall see her. O thou mine heir
  7. Of Naples and of Milan, what strange fish
  8. Hath made his meal on thee?

Francisco

107 - 116
  1.                             Sir, he may live.
  2. I saw him beat the surges under him,
  3. And ride upon their backs. He trod the water,
  4. Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted
  5. The surge most swoll’n that met him. His bold head
  6. ’Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oared
  7. Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke
  8. To th’ shore, that o’er his wave-worn basis bowed,
  9. As stooping to relieve him. I not doubt
  10. He came alive to land.

Alonso

117
  1.                        No, no, he’s gone.

Sebastian

118 - 122
  1. Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss,
  2. That would not bless our Europe with your daughter,
  3. But rather loose her to an African,
  4. Where she, at least, is banish’d from your eye,
  5. Who hath cause to wet the grief on’t.

Alonso

123
  1.                                       Prithee peace.

Sebastian

124 - 131
  1. You were kneel’d to, and importun’d otherwise
  2. By all of us, and the fair soul herself
  3. Weigh’d between loathness and obedience, at
  4. Which end o’ th’ beam should bow. We have lost your son,
  5. I fear forever. Milan and Naples have
  6. More widows in them of this business’ making
  7. Than we bring men to comfort them.
  8. The fault’s your own.

Alonso

132
  1.                       So is the dear’st o’ th’ loss.

Gonzalo

133 - 136
  1. My Lord Sebastian,
  2. The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness,
  3. And time to speak it in. You rub the sore,
  4. When you should bring the plaster.

Sebastian

137
  1.                                    Very well.

Antonio

138
  1. And most chirurgeonly.

Gonzalo

139 - 140
  1. It is foul weather in us all, good sir,
  2. When you are cloudy.

Sebastian

141
  1.                      Fowl weather?

Antonio

142
  1.               Very foul.

Gonzalo

143
  1. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord—

Antonio

144
  1. He’d sow’t with nettle-seed.

Sebastian

145
  1.                              Or docks, or mallows.

Gonzalo

146
  1. And were the king on’t, what would I do?

Sebastian

147
  1. Scape being drunk, for want of wine.

Gonzalo

148 - 157
  1. I’ th’ commonwealth I would, by contraries,
  2. Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
  3. Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
  4. Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
  5. And use of service, none; contract, succession,
  6. Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
  7. No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
  8. No occupation, all men idle, all;
  9. And women too, but innocent and pure;
  10. No sovereignty—
Miss Viola Tree as Ariel

Miss Viola Tree as Ariel

From The Tempest as arranged for the stage by Herbert Beerbohm Tree

circa 1904

Sebastian

158
  1.                 Yet he would be king on’t.

Antonio

159
  1. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning.

Gonzalo

160 - 165
  1. All things in common nature should produce
  2. Without sweat or endeavor: treason, felony,
  3. Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,
  4. Would I not have; but nature should bring forth,
  5. Of it own kind, all foison, all abundance,
  6. To feed my innocent people.

Sebastian

166
  1. No marrying ’mong his subjects?

Antonio

167
  1. None, man, all idle—whores and knaves.

Gonzalo

168 - 169
  1. I would with such perfection govern, sir,
  2. T’ excel the golden age.

Sebastian

170
  1.                          ’save his Majesty!

Antonio

171
  1. Long live Gonzalo!

Gonzalo

172
  1.                    And—do you mark me, sir?

Alonso

173
  1. Prithee no more; thou dost talk nothing to me.

Gonzalo

174 - 176
  1. I do well believe your Highness, and did it to minister
  2. occasion to these gentlemen, who are of such sensible and
  3. nimble lungs that they always use to laugh at nothing.

Antonio

177
  1. ’Twas you we laugh’d at.

Gonzalo

178 - 179
  1. Who, in this kind of merry fooling, am nothing to you; so
  2. you may continue, and laugh at nothing still.

Antonio

180
  1. What a blow was there given!

Sebastian

181
  1. And it had not fall’n flat-long.

Gonzalo

182 - 184
  1. You are gentlemen of brave mettle; you would lift the moon
  2. out of her sphere, if she would continue in it five weeks
  3. without changing.
  1. Enter Ariel invisible, playing solemn music.

Sebastian

185
  1. We would so, and then go a-batfowling.

Antonio

186
  1. Nay, good my lord, be not angry.

Gonzalo

187 - 188
  1. No, I warrant you, I will not adventure my discretion so
  2. weakly. Will you laugh me asleep, for I am very heavy?

Antonio

189
  1. Go sleep, and hear us.
  1. All sleep except Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio.

Alonso

190 - 192
  1. What, all so soon asleep! I wish mine eyes
  2. Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts. I find
  3. They are inclin’d to do so.

Sebastian

193 - 196
  1.                             Please you, sir,
  2. Do not omit the heavy offer of it.
  3. It seldom visits sorrow; when it doth,
  4. It is a comforter.

Antonio

197 - 199
  1.                    We two, my lord,
  2. Will guard your person while you take your rest,
  3. And watch your safety.

Alonso

200
  1.                        Thank you. Wondrous heavy.
  1. Alonso sleeps.
  1. Exit Ariel.

Sebastian

201
  1. What a strange drowsiness possesses them!

Antonio

202
  1. It is the quality o’ th’ climate.

Sebastian

203 - 205
  1.                                   Why
  2. Doth it not then our eyelids sink? I find not
  3. Myself dispos’d to sleep.

Antonio

206 - 213
  1.                           Nor I, my spirits are nimble.
  2. They fell together all, as by consent;
  3. They dropp’d, as by a thunder-stroke. What might,
  4. Worthy Sebastian, O, what might—? No more—
  5. And yet methinks I see it in thy face,
  6. What thou shouldst be. Th’ occasion speaks thee, and
  7. My strong imagination sees a crown
  8. Dropping upon thy head.

Sebastian

214
  1.                         What? Art thou waking?

Antonio

215
  1. Do you not hear me speak?

Sebastian

216 - 221
  1.                           I do, and surely
  2. It is a sleepy language, and thou speak’st
  3. Out of thy sleep. What is it thou didst say?
  4. This is a strange repose, to be asleep
  5. With eyes wide open—standing, speaking, moving—
  6. And yet so fast asleep.

Antonio

222 - 224
  1.                         Noble Sebastian,
  2. Thou let’st thy fortune sleep—die, rather; wink’st
  3. Whiles thou art waking.
Freemantle & Co. Edition of The Tempest

the King’s fair daughter Claribel

From: Freemantle & Co. Edition of The Tempest

Robert Anning Bell, 1901

Sebastian

225 - 226
  1.                         Thou dost snore distinctly,
  2. There’s meaning in thy snores.

Antonio

227 - 229
  1. I am more serious than my custom; you
  2. Must be so too, if heed me; which to do,
  3. Trebles thee o’er.

Sebastian

230
  1.                    Well; I am standing water.

Antonio

231
  1. I’ll teach you how to flow.

Sebastian

232 - 233
  1.                             Do so. To ebb
  2. Hereditary sloth instructs me.

Antonio

234 - 239
  1.                                O!
  2. If you but knew how you the purpose cherish
  3. Whiles thus you mock it! How, in stripping it,
  4. You more invest it! Ebbing men, indeed,
  5. Most often, do so near the bottom run
  6. By their own fear or sloth.

Sebastian

240 - 243
  1.                             Prithee say on.
  2. The setting of thine eye and cheek proclaim
  3. A matter from thee; and a birth, indeed,
  4. Which throes thee much to yield.

Antonio

244 - 251
  1.                                  Thus, sir:
  2. Although this lord of weak remembrance, this
  3. Who shall be of as little memory
  4. When he is earth’d, hath here almost persuaded
  5. (For he’s a spirit of persuasion, only
  6. Professes to persuade) the King his son’s alive,
  7. ’Tis as impossible that he’s undrown’d,
  8. As he that sleeps here swims.

Sebastian

252 - 253
  1.                               I have no hope
  2. That he’s undrown’d.

Antonio

254 - 259
  1.                      O, out of that no hope
  2. What great hope have you! No hope, that way, is
  3. Another way so high a hope that even
  4. Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,
  5. But doubt discovery there. Will you grant with me
  6. That Ferdinand is drown’d?

Sebastian

260
  1.                            He’s gone.

Antonio

261 - 262
  1.            Then tell me,
  2. Who’s the next heir of Naples?

Sebastian

263
  1.                                Claribel.

Antonio

264 - 272
  1. She that is Queen of Tunis; she that dwells
  2. Ten leagues beyond man’s life; she that from Naples
  3. Can have no note, unless the sun were post—
  4. The Man i’ th’ Moon’s too slow—till new-born chins
  5. Be rough and razorable; she that from whom
  6. We all were sea-swallow’d, though some cast again
  7. (And by that destiny) to perform an act
  8. Whereof what’s past is prologue, what to come
  9. In yours and my discharge.

Sebastian

273 - 276
  1.                            What stuff is this? How say you?
  2. ’Tis true, my brother’s daughter’s Queen of Tunis,
  3. So is she heir of Naples; ’twixt which regions
  4. There is some space.

Antonio

277 - 288
  1.                      A space whose ev’ry cubit
  2. Seems to cry out, “How shall that Claribel
  3. Measure us back to Naples? Keep in Tunis,
  4. And let Sebastian wake.” Say this were death
  5. That now hath seiz’d them, why, they were no worse
  6. Than now they are. There be that can rule Naples
  7. As well as he that sleeps; lords that can prate
  8. As amply and unnecessarily
  9. As this Gonzalo; I myself could make
  10. A chough of as deep chat. O that you bore
  11. The mind that I do! What a sleep were this
  12. For your advancement! Do you understand me?

Sebastian

289
  1. Methinks I do.

Antonio

290 - 291
  1.                And how does your content
  2. Tender your own good fortune?

Sebastian

292 - 293
  1.                               I remember
  2. You did supplant your brother Prospero.

Antonio

294 - 297
  1.                                         True.
  2. And look how well my garments sit upon me,
  3. Much feater than before. My brother’s servants
  4. Were then my fellows, now they are my men.
Illustration from the Edinburgh Folio

Illustration from the Edinburgh Folio

Unknown artist, circa 1903

Sebastian

298
  1. But, for your conscience?

Antonio

299 - 313
  1. Ay, sir; where lies that? If ’twere a kibe,
  2. ’Twould put me to my slipper; but I feel not
  3. This deity in my bosom. Twenty consciences,
  4. That stand ’twixt me and Milan, candied be they,
  5. And melt ere they molest! Here lies your brother,
  6. No better than the earth he lies upon,
  7. If he were that which now he’s like—that’s dead,
  8. Whom I with this obedient steel, three inches of it,
  9. Can lay to bed forever; whiles you, doing thus,
  10. To the perpetual wink for aye might put
  11. This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence, who
  12. Should not upbraid our course. For all the rest,
  13. They’ll take suggestion as a cat laps milk;
  14. They’ll tell the clock to any business that
  15. We say befits the hour.

Sebastian

314 - 318
  1.                         Thy case, dear friend,
  2. Shall be my president: as thou got’st Milan,
  3. I’ll come by Naples. Draw thy sword. One stroke
  4. Shall free thee from the tribute which thou payest,
  5. And I the King shall love thee.

Antonio

319 - 321
  1.                                 Draw together;
  2. And when I rear my hand, do you the like,
  3. To fall it on Gonzalo.

Sebastian

322
  1.                        O, but one word.
  1. They talk apart.
  1. Enter Ariel, invisible, with music and song.

Ariel

323 - 331
  1. My master through his art foresees the danger
  2. That you, his friend, are in, and sends me forth
  3. (For else his project dies) to keep them living.
  4. Sings in Gonzalo’s ear.
  5. While you here do snoring lie,
  6. Open-ey’d conspiracy
  7. His time doth take.
  8. If of life you keep a care,
  9. Shake off slumber, and beware.
  10. Awake, awake!

Antonio

332
  1. Then let us both be sudden.

Gonzalo

333 - 334
  1. Waking.
  2.                             Now, good angels
  3. Preserve the King!
  1. Wakes Alonso.

Alonso

335 - 336
  1. Why, how now, ho! Awake? Why are you drawn?
  2. Wherefore this ghastly looking?

Gonzalo

337
  1.                                 What’s the matter?

Sebastian

338 - 341
  1. Whiles we stood here securing your repose,
  2. Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing
  3. Like bulls, or rather lions. Did’t not wake you?
  4. It struck mine ear most terribly.

Alonso

342
  1.                                   I heard nothing.

Antonio

343 - 345
  1. O, ’twas a din to fright a monster’s ear,
  2. To make an earthquake; sure it was the roar
  3. Of a whole herd of lions.

Alonso

346
  1.                           Heard you this, Gonzalo?

Gonzalo

347 - 352
  1. Upon mine honor, sir, I heard a humming
  2. (And that a strange one too) which did awake me.
  3. I shak’d you, sir, and cried. As mine eyes open’d,
  4. I saw their weapons drawn. There was a noise,
  5. That’s verily. ’Tis best we stand upon our guard,
  6. Or that we quit this place. Let’s draw our weapons.

Alonso

353 - 354
  1. Lead off this ground, and let’s make further search
  2. For my poor son.

Gonzalo

355 - 356
  1.                  Heavens keep him from these beasts!
  2. For he is sure i’ th’ island.

Alonso

357
  1.                               Lead away.

Ariel

358 - 359
  1. Prospero my lord shall know what I have done.
  2. So, King, go safely on to seek thy son.
  1. Exeunt.
The Tempest, arranged for representation at the Princess's Theatre

From: The Tempest, arranged for representation at the Princess's Theatre

First performed on Wednesday, July 1, 1857

John K. Chapman and Co., 1857

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