14
THE BATTALION.
For instance, when Prospero has his enemies under his
power, and when, through AriePs influence, they are dis
tracted and penitent, he speaks thus to Ariel:
“Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,
One of their kind, that relish all as sharply,
Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art?
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,
Yet with my nobler reason, ’gainst n^ fury
Do I take part. The rarer action is
In virtue than in vengeance; they being penitent,
The sole drift of my purpose doth extend
Not a frown further. Go, release them, Ariel;
My charms I’ll break, their senses I’ll restore,
And they shall be themselves.”
Ariel goes to fetch Alonzo and his followers, and Prospero
continues:
“Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do by him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green-sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites; and you, whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid
(Weak masters though ye be) I have bedimmed
The noon-tide sun, called forth the mutinous winds,
And ’twixt the green sea and the azured vault
Set roaring war: To the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove’s stout oak
With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
Have I made shake; and by the spurs plucked up