(speaking so that only ANTONIO
can hear) Yes, tonight. No more
talking about this now.
ALONSO
What harmony is this? My good friends, hark!
ALONSO
What's that music? My friends, listen.
GONZALO
Marvelous sweet music!
GONZALO
What marvelous music!
Enter several strange shapes, bringing in a banquet They
dance about it with gentle actions of salutations, and, inviting the king
and the others to eat, they depart
Several strange shapes enter, bringing in a banquet table
and dancing around it with graceful, welcoming movements. After inviting the
king and the others to eat, they leave.
ALONSO
Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these?
ALONSO
Heaven help us! What were those things?
SEBASTIAN
A living drollery. Now I will believe
25
That there are unicorns, that in Arabia
There is one tree, the phoenix' throne, one phoenix
At this hour reigning there.
SEBASTIAN
A puppet show in real life. Now I'll believe that
unicorns exist, and that there's a tree in Arabia where
the phoenix lives.
ANTONIO
I'll
believe both
And what does else want credit, come to me,
And I'll be sworn 'tis true. Travelers
ne'er did lie,
30
Though fools at home condemn 'em.
ANTONIO
Me too. And anything else that's hard to believe, just
ask me and I'll swear it's true. Travelers
have never told lies, no matter what the fools at home accuse them
of.
GONZALO
If
in Naples
I should report this now, would they believe me?
If I should say, I saw such islanders—
For, certes, these are people of the island—
Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet note,
35
Their manners are more gentle-kind than of
Our human generation you shall find
Many—nay, almost any.
GONZALO
If I told them about this back in Naples, would they believe me?
I'd tell them that I saw natives like
these—since they must be natives—who are
graceful and well-mannered even if they're monstrous to
look at, kinder than most human beings you might find—
kinder than almost any human.
PROSPERO
(aside) Honest
lord,
Thou hast said well, for some of you there present
40
Are worse than devils.
PROSPERO
(to himself) My good lord,
you're absolutely right, since some of you are worse than
devils.
