Exposed vnto the Sea (which hath requit it)
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im, and his innocent childe for which foule deed, The Powres, delaying (not forgetting) haueIncens’d the Seas, and Shores, yea, all the CreaturesAgainst your peace . . . It is owing to this unexampled priority of the catastrophic action, as aGerman critic has pointed out, that imagery in The Tempest has notits normal Shakespearean function of foreshadowing but is used ratherto recall, to remind of what has happened (and so, as well, of what itmeant). I adduce two morose, disdainful instances of the way inwhich the persistent sea imagery is linked with the guilty men andwith the conception of the ocean as an agent of retribution. WhenAnthonio is working the inert Sebastian toward the murder of hisbrother, Sebastian admits: I am standing water. ANTHONIO. He teach you how to flow. SEBASTIAN. Do so; to ebbe
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