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Beseech you, sir, be merry

Gonzalo, to Alonso
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.

He receives comfort like cold porridge.

Alonso
Prithee, peace.
Sebastian, aside to Antonio
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, to Alonso
Sir—
Sebastian
One. Tell.
Gonzalo
When every grief is entertained that’s offered,
comes to th’ entertainer—
Sebastian
A dollar.
Gonzalo
Dolor comes to him indeed. You have spoken
truer than you purposed.
Sebastian
You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should.
Gonzalo, to Alonso
Therefore, my lord—
Antonio
Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue.
Alonso, to Gonzalo
I prithee, spare.
Gonzalo
Well, I have done. But yet—
Sebastian, aside to Antonio
He will be talking.
Antonio, aside to Sebastian
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—
Antonio
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
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!
Antonio
The ground indeed is tawny.
Sebastian
With an eye of green in ’t.

Source:
Act 2
Scene 1
Line 1

Source Type:

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