Ari. I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking;
So full of valour, that they smote the air
For breathing[444-41] in their faces; beat the ground
For kissing of their feet; yet always bending
Towards their project. Then I beat my tabor;
At which, like unback’d[444-42] colts, they prick’d their ears,
Advanced[444-43] their eyelids, lifted up their noses
As they smelt music: so I charm’d their ears,
That, calf-like, they my lowing follow’d through
Tooth’d briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss, and thorns,
Which enter’d their frail shins: at last I left them
I’ the filthy-mantled[445-44] pool beyond your cell,
There dancing up to th’ chins, that[445-45] the foul lake
O’erstunk their feet.
Pros. This was well done, my bird.
Thy shape invisible retain thou still:
The trumpery in my house, go bring it hither,
For stale[445-46] to catch these thieves.
Ari. I go, I go. [Exit.
Pros. A devil, a born-devil,[445-47] on whose nature
Nurture can never stick;[445-48] on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all are lost, quite lost;
And as with age his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers.[445-49] I will plague them all,
Even to roaring.—
Re-enter Ariel loaden with glistering apparel, &c.
Come, hang them on this line.[445-50]
Prospero and Ariel remain invisible. Enter Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo, all wet.
Cal. Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole may not
Hear a foot fall: we now are near his cell.
Steph. Monster, your fairy, which you say is a harmless fairy, has done little better than play’d the Jack with us.[446-51]
Trin. Monster, I do smell all horse-stale; at which my nose is in great indignation.