The Tempest William Shakespeare (good english books to read .TXT) 📖

soon asleep! I wish mine eyes
Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts: I find
They are inclined to do so. Sebastian

Please you, sir,
Do not omit the heavy offer of it:
It seldom visits sorrow; when it doth,
It is a comforter.

Antonio

We two, my lord,
Will guard your person while you take your rest,
And watch your safety.

Alonso Thank you. Wondrous heavy. Alonso sleeps. Exit Ariel. Sebastian What a strange drowsiness possesses them! Antonio It is the quality o’ the climate. Sebastian

Why
Doth it not then our eyelids sink? I find not
Myself disposed to sleep.

Antonio

Nor I; my spirits are nimble.
They fell together all, as by consent;
They dropp’d, as by a thunder-stroke. What might,
Worthy Sebastian? O, what might?⁠—No more:⁠—
And yet me thinks I see it in thy face,
What thou shouldst be: the occasion speaks thee, and
My strong imagination sees a crown
Dropping upon thy head.

Sebastian What, art thou waking? Antonio Do you not hear me speak? Sebastian

I do; and surely
It is a sleepy language and thou speak’st
Out of thy sleep. What is it thou didst say?
This is a strange repose, to be asleep
With eyes wide open; standing, speaking, moving,
And yet so fast asleep.

Antonio

Noble Sebastian,
Thou let’st thy fortune sleep⁠—die, rather; wink’st
Whiles thou art waking.

Sebastian

Thou dost snore distinctly;
There’s meaning in thy snores.

Antonio

I am more serious than my custom: you
Must be so too, if heed me; which to do
Trebles thee o’er.

Sebastian Well, I am standing water. Antonio I’ll teach you how to flow. Sebastian

Do so: to ebb
Hereditary sloth instructs me.

Antonio

O,
If you but knew how you the purpose cherish
Whiles thus you mock it! how, in stripping it,
You more invest it! Ebbing men, indeed,
Most often do so near the bottom run
By their own fear or sloth.

Sebastian

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

Antonio

Thus, sir:
Although this lord of weak remembrance, this,
Who shall be of as little memory
When he is earth’d, hath here almost persuaded⁠—
For he’s a spirit of persuasion, only
Professes to persuade⁠—the king his son’s alive,
’Tis as impossible that he’s undrown’d
And he that sleeps here swims.

Sebastian

I have no hope
That he’s undrown’d.

Antonio

O, out of that “no hope”
What great hope have you! no hope that way is
Another way so high a hope that even
Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,
But doubt discovery there. Will you grant with me
That Ferdinand is drown’d?

Sebastian He’s gone. Antonio

Then, tell me,
Who’s the next heir of Naples?

Sebastian Claribel. Antonio

She that is queen of Tunis; she that dwells
Ten leagues beyond man’s life; she that from Naples
Can have no note, unless the sun were post⁠—
The man i’ the moon’s too slow⁠—till new-born chins
Be rough and razorable; she that⁠—from whom?
We all were sea-swallow’d, though some cast again,
And by that destiny to perform an act
Whereof what’s past is prologue, what to come
In yours and my discharge.

Sebastian

What stuff is this! how say you?
’Tis true, my brother’s daughter’s queen of Tunis;
So is she heir of Naples; ’twixt which regions
There is some space.

Antonio

A space whose every cubit
Seems to cry out, “How shall that Claribel
Measure us back to Naples? Keep in Tunis,
And let Sebastian wake.” Say, this were death
That now hath seized them; why, they were no worse
Than now they are. There be that can rule Naples
As well as he that sleeps; lords that can prate
As amply and unnecessarily
As this Gonzalo; I myself could make
A chough of as deep chat. O, that you bore
The mind that I do! what a sleep were this
For your advancement! Do you understand me?

Sebastian Methinks I do. Antonio

And how does your content
Tender your own good fortune?

Sebastian

I remember
You did supplant your brother Prospero.

Antonio

True:
And look how well my garments sit upon me;
Much feater than before: my brother’s servants
Were then my fellows; now they are my men.

Sebastian But, for your conscience? Antonio

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

Sebastian

Thy case, dear friend,
Shall be my precedent; as thou got’st Milan,
I’ll come by Naples. Draw thy sword: one stroke
Shall free thee from the tribute which thou payest:
And I the king shall love thee.

Antonio

Draw together;
And when I rear my hand, do you the like,
To fall it on Gonzalo.

Sebastian O, but one word. They talk apart. Re-enter Ariel, invisible. Ariel

My master through his art foresees the danger
That you, his friend, are in; and sends me forth⁠—
For else his project dies⁠—to keep them living. Sings in Gonzalo’s ear.

While you here do snoring lie,
Open-eyed conspiracy
His time doth take.
If of life you keep a care,
Shake off slumber, and beware:
Awake, awake!

Antonio Then let us both be sudden. Gonzalo

Now, good angels
Preserve the king. They wake.

Alonso

Why, how now? ho, awake! Why are you drawn?
Wherefore this ghastly looking?

Gonzalo What’s the matter? Sebastian

Whiles we stood here securing your repose,
Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing
Like bulls, or rather lions: did’t not wake you?
It struck mine ear most terribly.

Alonso I heard nothing. Antonio

O, ’twas a din to fright a monster’s ear,
To make an earthquake! sure, it was the roar
Of a whole herd of lions.

Alonso Heard you this, Gonzalo? Gonzalo

Upon mine honour, sir, I heard a humming,
And that a strange one too, which did awake me:
I shaked you, sir, and cried: as mine eyes open’d,
I saw their weapons drawn: there was a noise,
That’s verily. ’Tis best we stand upon