The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 03Dryden, John
General
The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 03
Dryden, John
English drama -- 17th century
_Anto._ I fear some other horrid apparition.
Give us kind keepers, heaven, I beseech thee!
_Gonz._ 'Tis chearful music this, unlike the first.
ARIEL _and_ MILCHA _invisible, sing_.
_Dry those eyes which are o'erflowing,
All your storms are overblowing:
While you in this isle are biding,
You shall feast without providing:
Every dainty you can think of,
Every wine which you would drink of,
Shall be yours; all want shall shun you,
Ceres' blessing so is on you._
_Alon._ This voice speaks comfort to us.
_Anto._ Would 'twere come;
There is no music in a song to me,
My stomach being empty.
_Gonz._ O for a heavenly vision of boiled,
Baked, and roasted!
[_Dance of fantastic Spirits; after the dance,
in by two a table furnished with meat and fruit
is brought Spirits._
_Anto._ My lord, the duke, see yonder!
A table, as I live, set out and furnished
With all varieties of meats and fruits.
_Alon._ 'Tis so indeed; but who dares taste this feast,
Which fiends provide, to poison us?
_Gonz._ Why that dare I; if the black gentleman
Be so ill natured, he may do his pleasure.
_Anto._ 'Tis certain we must either eat or famish:
I will encounter it, and feed.
_Alon._ If both resolve, I will adventure too.
_Gonz._ The devil may fright me, yet he shall not starve me.
[_Two Spirits descend, and fly away with the table._
_Alon._ Heaven! behold, it is as you suspected:
'Tis vanished.
Shall we be always haunted with these fiends?
_Anto._ Here we shall wander till we famish.
_Gonz._ Certainly one of you was so wicked as to say grace; this comes
on it, when men will be godly out of season.
_Anto._ Yonder's another table, let's try that.
[_Exeunt._
_Enter_ TRINCALO _and_ CALIBAN.
_Trinc._ Brother monster, welcome to my private palace. But where's thy
sister? is she so brave a lass?
_Calib._ In all this isle there are but two more, the daughters of the
tyrant Prospero; and she is bigger than them both. O, here she comes!
now thou mayest judge thyself, my lord.
_Enter_ SYCORAX.
_Trinc._ She's monstrous fair indeed. Is this to be my spouse? Well,
she's heir of all this isle (for I will geld monster). The Trincalos,
like other wise men, have anciently used to marry for estate, more than
for beauty.
_Syc._ I pr'ythee let me have the gay thing about thy neck, and that
which dangles at thy wrist.
[Sycorax _points to his whistle and his bottle_.
_Trinc._ My dear blubber-lips! this--observe, my chuck--is a badge of my
sea-office; my fair fuss, thou dost not know it.
_Syc._ No, my dread lord.
_Trinc._ It shall be a whistle for our first babe, and when the next
shipwreck puts me again to swimming, I'll dive to get a coral to it.
_Syc._ I'll be thy pretty child, and wear it first.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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