GONZALO       I—

ANTONIO       Why, in good time.

GONZALO       Sir, we were talking that our garments seem now as fresh as when we were at Tunis at the marriage of your daughter, who is now Queen.

ANTONIO       And the rarest that e’er came there.

SEBASTIAN    Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido.

ANTONIO       O, widow Dido? Ay, widow Dido.

GONZALO       Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I wore it? I mean, in a sort.

ANTONIO       That sort was well fished for.

GONZALO       When I wore it at your daughter’s marriage. (2.1.95-106)

Gonzalo is pedantic, thick-skinned, well-meaning, and misguided. Perhaps Alonso hasn’t been listening to him? Perhaps he can’t hear, or follow what’s been said? So Gonzalo’s going to say it all over again. Which means that Antonio and Sebastian are going to make variants on the same laboured jokes. Gonzalo begins again in good time, according to Antonio, regular as clockwork, unable to keep quiet for long. (Sarcastic, because he’s not in good time; he’s speaking out of turn, because the time is inappropriate; his remarks are not timely at all.) One imagines Gonzalo raising his voice a little to Alonso: Sir, in case you’ve been wondering about what we’ve been chatting about over here, we were just saying… Antonio and Sebastian fill in the next bits: Claribel’s the most amazing queen of Tunis since Dido! (Always excepting widow Dido, adds Sebastian, also suggesting, don’t start all that stuff about widow Dido again, bate, leave it out.) And one imagines, again, Gonzalo going right up to Alonso, so that he can see as well as hear: look, look at my doublet! It’s in really good condition! Box-fresh! (well, almost; Gonzalo is pedantically literal, and he knows it can’t be quite as fresh, because time has passed even if the sea has mysteriously left no traces). And then labouring the point even more: the first time I wore it was at your daughter’s marriage. Remember that? Do you? Hello? Hello?