All three of them are desperate: their great guilt,
Like poison given to work a great time after,
Now ‘gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you
That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly
And hinder them from what this ecstasy
May now provoke them to.
– William Shakespeare
The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 3. Gonzalo uses a simile when he compares the guilt of Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio to poison, which given time to work now begins to bite at their consciences. He asks the others to follow them to ensure that they do no harm.