"Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine, "Would I not have; but nature should bring forth, "Of its own kind, all foyzon, all abundance

"To feed my innocent People.

Seb. No marrying 'mong his fubjects?

Ant. None, man; all idle; whores and knaves. Gon. I would with fuch perfection govern, Sir, T'excel the golden age.

Seb. Save his Majefty!

Ant. Long live Gonzalo!

Gon. And, do you mark me, Sir?

Alon. Pr'ythee, no more; thou doft talk nothing

to me.

Gon. I do well believe your Highness; and did it to minifter occafion to these gentlemen, who are of fuch fenfible and nimble lungs, that they always use to laugh at nothing.

Ant. 'Twas you we laugh'd at.

Gon. Who, in this kind of merry fooling, am nothing to you: so you may continue, and laugh at nothing ftill.

Ant. What a blow was there given?

Seb. An it had not fallen flat-long.

Gon. You are gentlemen of brave metal; you would lift the moon out of her fphere, if fhe would continue in it five weeks without changing.

Enter Ariel, playing folemn Mufick.

Seb. We would fo, and then go a bat-fowling.
Ant. Nay, my good lord, be not angry.

Gon. No, I warrant you, I will not adventure my difcretion fo weakly: will you laugh me afleep, for I am very heavy?

9

Ant. Go, fleep, and hear us.

all foyzon, all abundance.] foyzon fignifies the great plenty of any thing.

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t

Alon. What all fo foon afleep? I wifh, mine eyes Would with themselves fhut up my thoughts: I find, They are inclin❜d to do fo.

Seb. Please you, Sir,

Do not omit the heavy offer of it:

It feldom visits forrow; when it doth,

It is a comforter.

Ant. We two, my lord,

Will guard your perfon, while you take your reft,

And watch your fafety.

Alon. Thank you: wond'rous heavy

[All fleep but Seb. and Ant.

Seb. What a strange drowsiness poffeffes them?

Ant. It is the quality o' th' climate.

Seb. Why

Doth it not then our eye-lids fink? I find not
Myfelf difpos'd to fleep.

Ant. Nor I, my fpirits are nimble:

They fell together all as by confent,

They dropt as by a thunder-ftroke. What might,
Worthy SebastianO, what might-

And yet, methinks, I fee it in thy face,

no more.

What thou should'ft be: th' occafion fpeaks thee, and My strong imagination fees a crown

Dropping upon thy head.

Seb. What, art thou waking?
Ant. Do you not hear me speak?
Seb. I do; and, furely,

It is a fleepy language; and thou speak'ft
Out of thy fleep; what is it thou didst say?

This is a strange repofe, to be afleep

"With eyes wide open: ftanding, fpeaking, moving; And yet fo faft afleep.

Ant. Noble Sebaftian.

Thou let'ft thy fortune fleep: die rather: wink'st, Whilft thou art waking.

Seb.

Seb. Thou doft fnore diftinctly; There's meaning in thy fnores.

Ant. I am more serious than my cuftom. You Must be so too, if heed me; which to do,

Trebles thee o'er.

Seb. Well, I am standing water.

Ant. I'll teach you how to flow.
Seb. Do fo: to ebb

Hereditary floth instructs me.
Ant. O!

1

If you but knew, how you the purpose cherish,
Whilft thus you mock it; how, in ftripping it,
You more inveft it: ebbing men, indeed,
Most often do fo near the bottom run,

By their own fear or floth.

Seb. Pry'thee, fay on;

The setting of thine eye and cheek proclaim
A matter from thee; and a birth, indeed,
Which throes thee much to yield.

Ant. Thus, Sir:

Although this lord of weak remembrance, this, (Who fhall be of as little memory,

When he is earth'd;) hath here almost perfuaded (For he's a fpirit of perfuafion, only

Profeffes to perfuade) the King, his fon's alive: 'Tis as impoffible that he's undrown'd,

As he, that fleeps here, fwims.

1

which to do, Trebles thee o'er.] i. e. follow my advice, and it will advance thy fortune to the height. So Fletcher in his noble Gentleman,

I now fee your Father's honours

Trebling upon you

And again in his Maid of the Mill,

How did you bear her lafs?

With thy grief trebled.

Yet the Oxford Editor alters it to, Troubles thee not.

Seb. I have no hope,

That he's undrown'd.

Ant. O, out of that no hope,
What great hope have you? no hope, that
Another way fo high an hope, that even
2 Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,

way, is

But doubt discovery there. Will you grant, with me, That Ferdinand is drown'd?

Seb. He's gone.

Ant. Then tell me

Who's the next heir of Naples?

Seb. Claribel.

Ant. She that is Queen of Tunis; fhe that dwells
Ten leagues beyond man's life; fhe that from Naples
Can have no note 3, unless the fun were post,
(The man i'th'moon's too flow) 'till new-born chins
Be rough and razorable; fhe, from whom
We were fea-fwallow'd; tho' fome, caft again,
May by that destiny perform an act,

Whereof, what's paft is prologue; what to come,
Is yours and my difcharge-

Seb. What ftuff is this? how fay you?

'Tis true, my brother's daughter's Queen of Tunis, So is the heir of Naples; 'twixt which regions There is some space.

Ant. A fpace, whofe ev'ry cubit

Seems to cry out, how fhall that Claribel
Measure us back to Naples? Keep in Tunis,

2 Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,

But doubt difcovery there.-] The meaning is, that ambition would be fo affected with the pleafing profpect, that it would doubt whether the difcovery, it there made of future greatness, was a real representation, or only, what Shakespear, in another place, calls a Dream of Advantage. The Oxford Editor changes doubt to drop, and fo makes nonfenfe of the whole Sentence; to pierce a wink fignifies to fee or difcern: and to drop difcovery fignifies not to fee. So that the Sentiment is, If you fee further into this matter you will not fee at all.

3 No advices by letter. Mr. Pope.

And

And let Sebaftian wake. Say, this were death

That now hath feiz'd them, why, they were no worse
Than now they are: there be, that can rule Naples,
As well as he that fleeps; lords that can prate
As amply, and unneceffarily,

As this Gonzalo; I myself could make

A chough of as deep chat. O, that you bore
The mind that I do, what a fleep was this

For your advancement! do you understand me?
Seb. Methinks, I do.

Ant. And how does your content
Tender your own good fortune?
Seb. I remember,

You did fupplant your brother Profp'ro.
Ant. True:

And, look, how well my garments fit upon me;
Much feater than before. My brother's fervants
Were then my fellows, now they are my men.
Seb. But, for your confcience-

Ant. Ay, Sir; where lies that?

If 'twere a kybe, 'twould put me to my flipper:
But I feel not this deity in my bofom.

Ten consciences, that stand 'twixt me and Milan,
*Candy'd be they, and melt, e'er they moleft!
Here lyes your brother-

No better than the earth he lyes upon,

If he were that which now he's like, that's dead; Whom I with this obedient fteel, three inches of it, Can lay to bed for ever: you doing thus,

To the perpetual wink for ay might put

4 Candy'd be they, and melt, e'er they moleft!] i. e. did ten confciences play all their tricks with me; fometimes proving very ftubborn, and fometimes again as fupple; now frozen up with cold, now diffolved with heat, yet they fhould ne'er moleft, &c. Shakespear explains this thought, where in his winter tale he expreffes it thus differently,

whofe honefly till now Endur'd all weathers.

D 4

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