Enter ARIEL with music and song.
ARIEL My master through his art foresees the danger
That you, his friend, are in, and sends me forth
(For else his project dies) to keep them living.
Sings in Gonzalo’s ear.
While you here do snoring lie,
Open-eyed conspiracy
His time doth take.
If of life you keep a care,
Shake off slumber and beware.
Awake, wake!
ANTONIO Then let us both be sudden.
GONZALO [Wakes.] Now, good angels preserve the King!
ALONSO [Wakes.] Why, how now, ho! Awake! Why are you drawn?
Wherefore this ghastly looking?
GONZALO What’s the matter? (2.1.298-310)
Ariel, in the nick of time, and effectively pausing the action even by their presence, although it might be the case that Sebastian and Antonio are speaking aside, cued by Sebastian’s O, but one word! Ariel is invisible, presumably, and there’s no clue as to the music; this little fragment, tightly rhymed as it is, doesn’t stick in the mind like Full fathom five. But it’s the way it’s framed that’s important. My master through his art foresees the danger that you are in: Prospero is keeping tabs on everything, even though he’s (presumably) mostly occupied with Ferdinand (and Miranda). His art, his magic: an early modern audience might imagine a scrying glass, a magic mirror, or suchlike. And Ariel apparently has very specific instructions, to wake Gonzalo, not the king. It has to be assumed that the enchanted sleep that affected everyone except Sebastian and Antonio was planned by Prospero and, presumably, implemented by Ariel (a music cue? a silent appearance?) so that Sebastian and Antonio’s treasonous natures could be fully revealed, in a plot to kill the King – but that the agreement simultaneously to kill Gonzalo was not part of Prospero’s plan. Prospero doesn’t want Alonso to be killed either; he has sent Ariel forth to keep them, that is, both Alonso and Gonzalo, living– but Gonzalo in particular must be saved, because he is Prospero’s friend, because he saved the lives of Prospero and Miranda when they were exiled from Milan and (perhaps) because he will warn the King and so save him. Prospero’s plan, his project, is for Ferdinand to marry Miranda, uniting Naples and Milan; nothing must get in the way of that (that isn’t orchestrated by Prospero himself…) Wake up! Beware! Then let us both be sudden, says Antonio, strike in the same moment, right now, having resolved whatever issue – a final qualm of conscience? has delayed them. But good Gonzalo wakes and – true to form – his first thought is for the king, even though – one has to imagine – he is also being threatened, by Sebastian: Now, good angels preserve the king! And Alonso too: what’s going on? Why have you drawn your sword? Why do you look so fearful, or, perhaps, so terrifying? (Is he addressing Gonzalo, or Antonio and Sebastian?) But mostly confusion, two exhausted men, one apparently elderly, one stricken with grief, started out of sleep, to see drawn swords, strong emotion and, perhaps, murderous intent. What’s the matter? Where to start…?
