The Tempest

Act II, Scene i

Another part of the island.

[Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO,] [p]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 710
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 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,—

ANTONIO:
Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue!

ALONSO:
I prithee, spare.

GONZALO:
Well, I have done: but yet,—

SEBASTIAN:
He will be talking.

ANTONIO:
Which, of he or Adrian, for a good
wager, first begins to crow?

SEBASTIAN:
The old cock.

ANTONIO:
The cockerel.

SEBASTIAN:
Done. The wager?

ANTONIO:
A laughter.

SEBASTIAN:
A match!

ADRIAN:
Though this island seem to be desert,—

SEBASTIAN:
Ha, ha, ha! 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 delivered.

ADRIAN:
The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.

SEBASTIAN:
As if it had lungs and rotten ones.

ANTONIO:
Or as 'twere perfumed by a fen.

GONZALO:
Here is everything advantageous to life.

ANTONIO:
True; save means to live.

SEBASTIAN:
Of that there's none, or little.

GONZALO:
How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!