SCENE IV.--_A Wild Island.

_Enter_ ALONZO, ANTONIO, _and_ GONZALO.

_Gonz._ 'Beseech your grace, be merry: You have cause, So have we all, of joy, for our strange escape; Then wisely, good sir, weigh our sorrow with Our comfort.

_Alon._ Pr'ythee peace; you cram these words Into my ears, against my stomach; how Can I rejoice, when my dear son, perhaps This very moment, is made a meal to some strange fish?

_Anto._ Sir, he may live; I saw him beat the billows under him, And ride upon their backs; I do not doubt He came alive to land.

_Alon._ No, no, he's gone; And you and I, Antonio, were those Who caused his death.

_Anto._ How could we help it?

_Alon._ Then, then we should have helped it, When thou betray'dst thy brother Prospero, And Mantua's infant sovereign, to my power: And when I, too ambitious, took by force Another's right: Then lost we Ferdinand; Then forfeited our navy to this tempest.

_Anto._ Indeed we first broke truce with heaven; You to the waves an infant prince exposed, And on the waves have lost an only son. I did usurp my brother's fertile lands, And now am cast upon this desert-isle.

_Gonz._ These, sirs, 'tis true, were crimes of a black dye; But both of you have made amends to heaven, By your late voyage into Portugal; Where, in defence of christianity, Your valour has repulsed the Moors of Spain.

_Alon._ O name it not, Gonzalo; No act but penitence can expiate guilt! Must we teach heaven what price to set on murder? What rate on lawless power and wild ambition? Or dare we traffic with the powers above, And sell by weight a good deed for a bad? [_A flourish of music._

_Gonz._ Music! and in the air! sure we are shipwrecked On the dominions of some merry devil!

_Anto._ This isle's enchanted ground; for I have heard Swift voices flying by my ear, and groans Of lamenting ghosts.

_Alon._ I pulled a tree, and blood pursued my hand. Heaven deliver me from this dire place, And all the after-actions of my life Shall mark my penitence and my bounty. [_Music again louder._ Hark, the sounds approach us! [_The stage opens in several places._

_Anto._ Lo! the earth opens to devour us quick. These dreadful horrors, and the guilty sense Of my foul treason, have unmanned me quite.

_Alon._ We on the brink of swift destruction stand; No means of our escape is left. [_Another flourish of voices under the stage._

_Anto._ Ah! what amazing sounds are these we hear!

_Gonz._ What horrid masque will the dire fiends present?

SUNG UNDER THE STAGE.

1 Dev. _Where does the black fiend Ambition reside, With the mischievous devil of Pride?_

2 Dev. _In the lowest and darkest caverns of hell, Both Pride and Ambition do dwell._

1 Dev. _Who are the chief leaders of the damned host?_

3 Dev. _Proud monarchs, who tyrannize most._

1 Dev. _Damned princes there The worst of torments bear;_

3 Dev. _Who on earth all others in pleasures excel, Must feel the worst torments of hell._ [_They rise singing this chorus._

_Anto._ O heavens! what horrid vision's this? How they upbraid us with our crimes!

_Alon._ What fearful vengeance is in store for us!

1 Dev. _Tyrants, by whom their subjects bleed, Should in pains all others exceed;_

1 Dev. _And barbarous monarchs, who their neighbours invade, And their crowns unjustly get; And such who their brothers to death have betrayed, In hell upon burning thrones shall be set._

3 Dev. {--_In hell, in hell with flames they shall reign,_ Chor. {_And for ever, for ever shall suffer the pain._

_Anto._ O my soul! for ever, for ever shall suffer the pain!

_Alon._ Has heaven, in all its infinite stock of mercy, No overflowings for us? poor, miserable, guilty men!

_Gonz._ Nothing but horrors do encompass us! For ever, for ever must we suffer!

_Alon._ For ever we shall perish! O dismal words, For ever!

1 Dev. _Who are the pillars of the tyrants court?_

2 Dev. _Rapine and Murder his crown must support!_

3 Dev. ----_His cruelty does tread On orphans' tender breasts, and brothers dead!_

2 Dev. _Can heaven permit such crimes should be Attended with felicity?_

1 Dev. _No; tyrants their sceptres uneasily bear, In the midst of their guards they their consciences fear._

2 Dev. {_Care their minds when they wake unquiet will keep;_ Chor. {_And we with dire visions disturb all their sleep._

_Anto._ Oh horrid sight! how they stare upon us! The fiend will hurry us to the dark mansion. Sweet heaven, have mercy on us!

1 Dev. _Say, say, shall we bear these bold mortals from hence?_

2 Dev. _No, no, let us shew their degrees of offence._

3 Dev. _Let's muster their crimes upon every side, And first let's discover their pride._

Enter PRIDE.

Pride. _Lo here is Pride, who first led them astray, And did to ambition their minds then betray._

Enter FRAUD.

Fraud. _And Fraud does next appear, Their wandering steps who led; When they from virtue fled, They in my crooked paths their course did steer._

Enter RAPINE.

Rapine. _From fraud to force they soon arrive, Where Rapine did their actions drive._

Enter MURDER.

Murder. _There long they could not stay; Down the steep hill they run; And to perfect the mischief which they had begun, To murder they bent all their way._

Chorus of all. _Around, around we pace, About this cursed place; While thus we compass in These mortals and their sin._ [Devils vanish.

_Anto._ Heaven has heard me, they are vanished!

_Alon._ But they have left me all unmanned; I feel my sinews slacken with the fright; And a cold sweat trills down o'er all my limbs, As if I were dissolving into water. Oh Prospero, my crimes against thee sit heavy on my heart!

_Anto._ And mine against him and young Hippolito.

_Gonz._ Heaven have mercy on the penitent!

_Anto._ Lead from this cursed ground; The seas in all their rage are not so dreadful. This is the region of despair and death.

_Alon._ Beware all fruit, but what the birds have pecked. The shadows of the trees are poisonous too: A secret venom slides from every branch. My conscience does distract me! O my son! Why do I speak of eating or repose, Before I know thy fortune? [_As they are going out, a Devil rises just before them, at which they start, and are frighted._

_Alon._ O heavens! yet more apparitions!

DEVIL SINGS.

_Arise, arise! ye subterranean winds, More to disturb their guilty minds: And all ye filthy damps and vapours rise, Which use to infect the earth, and trouble all the skies; Rise you, from whom devouring plagues have birth: You, that in the vast and hollow womb of earth Engender earthquakes, make whole countries shake, And stately cities into deserts turn; And you, who feed the flames by which earth's entrails burn. Ye raging winds, whose rapid force can make All but the fixed and solid centre shake, Come drive these wretches to that part of the isle, Where nature never yet did smile: Cause fogs and storms, whirlwinds, and earthquakes there: There let them howl and languish in despair. Rise and obey the powerful prince of the air._

[Two Winds rise, ten more enter and dance. At the end of the dance, three Winds sink, the rest drive ALONZO, ANTONIO and GONZALO off.