ACT II.

SCENE 1

Another part of the island Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and OTHERS 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.

ALONSO Prithee, peace. SEBASTIAN He receives comfort like cold porridge. ANTONIO The visitor will not give him o’er so. 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 th’ entertainer SEBASTIAN A dollar.

GONZALO Dolour comes to him, indeed; you have spoken truer than you purpos’d.

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

GONZALO Therefore, my lordANTONIO Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue! ALONSO I prithee, spare.

GONZALO Well, I have done; but yetSEBASTIAN He will be talking. ANTONIO Which, of he or Adrian, for a good wager, first begins to crow? SEBASTIAN The old cock.

ANTONIO The cock’rel. SEBASTIAN Done. The wager? ANTONIO A laughter. SEBASTIAN A match!

ADRIAN Though this island seem to be desertANTONIO Ha, ha, ha! SEBASTIAN So, you’re paid.

ADRIAN Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible SEBASTIAN Yet ADRIAN Yet ANTONIO He could not miss’t.

ADRIAN It must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate temperance. ANTONIO Temperance was a delicate wench.

SEBASTIAN Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly deliver’d. ADRIAN The air breathes upon us here most sweetly. SEBASTIAN As if it had lungs, and rotten ones.

ANTONIO Or, as ‘twere perfum’d by a fen. GONZALO Here is everything advantageous to life. ANTONIO True; save means to live.