Speeches (Lines) for Gonzalo in "The Tempest"

Boatswain. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour: keep your
cabins: you do assist the storm.

Gonzalo. Nay, good, be patient.

Boatswain. When the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers
for the name of king? To cabin: silence! trouble us not.

Gonzalo. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard.

Boatswain. None that I more love than myself. You are a
counsellor; if you can command these elements to
silence, and work the peace of the present, we will
not hand a rope more; use your authority: if you
cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make
yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of
the hour, if it so hap. Cheerly, good hearts! Out
of our way, I say.

Gonzalo. I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he
hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is
perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his
hanging: make the rope of his destiny our cable,
for our own doth little advantage. If he be not
born to be hanged, our case is miserable.

Antonio. Hang, cur! hang, you whoreson, insolent noisemaker!
We are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.

Gonzalo. I'll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were
no stronger than a nutshell and as leaky as an
unstanched wench.

Boatswain. What, must our mouths be cold?

Gonzalo. The king and prince at prayers! let's assist them,
For our case is as theirs.

Antonio. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards:
This wide-chapp'd rascal--would thou mightst lie drowning
The washing of ten tides!

Gonzalo. He'll be hang'd yet,
Though every drop of water swear against it
And gape at widest to glut him.
[A confused noise within: 'Mercy on us!'--]
'We split, we split!'--'Farewell, my wife and
children!'--
'Farewell, brother!'--'We split, we split, we split!']

Sebastian. Let's take leave of him.

Gonzalo. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an
acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any
thing. The wills above be done! but I would fain
die a dry death.

Prospero. Come, follow. Speak not for him.

Gonzalo. Beseech you, sir, be merry; you have cause,
So have we all, of joy; for our escape
Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe
Is common; every day some sailor's wife,
The masters of some merchant and the merchant
Have just our theme of woe; but for the miracle,
I mean our preservation, few in millions
Can speak like us: then wisely, good sir, weigh
Our sorrow with our comfort.

Sebastian. Look he's winding up the watch of his wit;
by and by it will strike.

Gonzalo. Sir,--

Sebastian. One: tell.

Gonzalo. When every grief is entertain'd that's offer'd,
Comes to the entertainer--

Sebastian. A dollar.

Gonzalo. Dolour comes to him, indeed: you
have spoken truer than you purposed.

Sebastian. You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should.

Gonzalo. Therefore, my lord,--

Alonso. I prithee, spare.

Gonzalo. Well, I have done: but yet,--

Antonio. Or as 'twere perfumed by a fen.

Gonzalo. Here is everything advantageous to life.

Sebastian. Of that there's none, or little.

Gonzalo. How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!

Sebastian. No; he doth but mistake the truth totally.

Gonzalo. But the rarity of it is,--which is indeed almost
beyond credit,--

Sebastian. As many vouched rarities are.

Gonzalo. That our garments, being, as they were, drenched in
the sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness and
glosses, being rather new-dyed than stained with
salt water.

Sebastian. Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report

Gonzalo. Methinks our garments are now as fresh as when we
put them on first in Afric, at the marriage of
the king's fair daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis.

Adrian. Tunis was never graced before with such a paragon to
their queen.

Gonzalo. Not since widow Dido's time.

Adrian. 'Widow Dido' said you? you make me study of that:
she was of Carthage, not of Tunis.

Gonzalo. This Tunis, sir, was Carthage.

Adrian. Carthage?

Gonzalo. I assure you, Carthage.

Antonio. And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring
forth more islands.

Gonzalo. Ay.

Antonio. Why, in good time.

Gonzalo. Sir, we were talking that our garments seem now
as fresh as when we were at Tunis at the marriage
of your daughter, who is now queen.

Antonio. O, widow Dido! ay, widow Dido.

Gonzalo. Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I
wore it? I mean, in a sort.

Antonio. That sort was well fished for.

Gonzalo. When I wore it at your daughter's marriage?

Alonso. So is the dear'st o' the loss.

Gonzalo. My lord Sebastian,
The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness
And time to speak it in: you rub the sore,
When you should bring the plaster.

Antonio. And most chirurgeonly.

Gonzalo. It is foul weather in us all, good sir,
When you are cloudy.

Antonio. Very foul.

Gonzalo. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord,--

Sebastian. Or docks, or mallows.

Gonzalo. And were the king on't, what would I do?

Sebastian. 'Scape being drunk for want of wine.

Gonzalo. I' the commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
And use of service, none; contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
No occupation; all men idle, all;
And women too, but innocent and pure;
No sovereignty;--

Antonio. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the
beginning.

Gonzalo. All things in common nature should produce
Without sweat or endeavour: treason, felony,
Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,
Would I not have; but nature should bring forth,
Of its own kind, all foison, all abundance,
To feed my innocent people.

Antonio. None, man; all idle: whores and knaves.

Gonzalo. I would with such perfection govern, sir,
To excel the golden age.

Antonio. Long live Gonzalo!

Gonzalo. And,--do you mark me, sir?

Alonso. Prithee, no more: thou dost talk nothing to me.

Gonzalo. I do well believe your highness; and
did it to minister occasion to these gentlemen,
who are of such sensible and nimble lungs that
they always use to laugh at nothing.

Antonio. 'Twas you we laughed at.

Gonzalo. Who in this kind of merry fooling am nothing
to you: so you may continue and laugh at
nothing still.

Sebastian. An it had not fallen flat-long.

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

Antonio. Nay, good my lord, be not angry.

Gonzalo. No, I warrant you; I will not adventure
my discretion so weakly. Will you laugh
me asleep, for I am very heavy?

Antonio. Then let us both be sudden.

Gonzalo. Now, good angels
Preserve the king.

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

Gonzalo. What's the matter?

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 our guard,
Or that we quit this place; let's draw our weapons.

Alonso. Lead off this ground; and let's make further search
For my poor son.

Gonzalo. Heavens keep him from these beasts!
For he is, sure, i' the island.

Trinculo. Wilt come? I'll follow, Stephano.

Gonzalo. By'r lakin, I can go no further, sir;
My old bones ache: here's a maze trod indeed
Through forth-rights and meanders! By your patience,
I needs must rest me.

Alonso. What harmony is this? My good friends, hark!

Gonzalo. Marvellous sweet music!
[Enter PROSPERO above, invisible. Enter several]
strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet;
they dance about it with gentle actions of
salutation; and, inviting the King, &c. to
eat, they depart]

Antonio. I'll believe both;
And what does else want credit, come to me,
And I'll be sworn 'tis true: travellers ne'er did
lie,
Though fools at home condemn 'em.

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,
Their manners are more gentle-kind than of
Our human generation you shall find
Many, nay, almost any.

Alonso. Not I.

Gonzalo. Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were boys,
Who would believe that there were mountaineers
Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em
Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men
Whose heads stood in their breasts? which now we find
Each putter-out of five for one will bring us
Good warrant of.

Prospero. Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou
Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring:
Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated
In what thou hadst to say: so, with good life
And observation strange, my meaner ministers
Their several kinds have done. My high charms work
And these mine enemies are all knit up
In their distractions; they now are in my power;
And in these fits I leave them, while I visit
Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose is drown'd,
And his and mine loved darling.

Gonzalo. I' the name of something holy, sir, why stand you
In this strange stare?

Antonio. I'll be thy second.

Gonzalo. All three of them are desperate: their great guilt,
Like poison given to work a great time after,
Now 'gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you
That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly
And hinder them from what this ecstasy
May now provoke them to.

Ariel. I drink the air before me, and return
Or ere your pulse twice beat.

Gonzalo. All torment, trouble, wonder and amazement
Inhabits here: some heavenly power guide us
Out of this fearful country!

Prospero. First, noble friend,
Let me embrace thine age, whose honour cannot
Be measured or confined.

Gonzalo. Whether this be
Or be not, I'll not swear.

Prospero. There, sir, stop:
Let us not burthen our remembrance with
A heaviness that's gone.

Gonzalo. I have inly wept,
Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you god,
And on this couple drop a blessed crown!
For it is you that have chalk'd forth the way
Which brought us hither.

Alonso. I say, Amen, Gonzalo!

Gonzalo. Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue
Should become kings of Naples? O, rejoice
Beyond a common joy, and set it down
With gold on lasting pillars: In one voyage
Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis,
And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife
Where he himself was lost, Prospero his dukedom
In a poor isle and all of us ourselves
When no man was his own.

Alonso. [To FERDINAND and MIRANDA] Give me your hands:
Let grief and sorrow still embrace his heart
That doth not wish you joy!

Gonzalo. Be it so! Amen!
[Re-enter ARIEL, with the Master and Boatswain]
amazedly following]
O, look, sir, look, sir! here is more of us:
I prophesied, if a gallows were on land,
This fellow could not drown. Now, blasphemy,
That swear'st grace o'erboard, not an oath on shore?
Hast thou no mouth by land? What is the news?