АСТ IV. SCENE I.-Before Prospero's Cell. Enter PROS- Fer. Against an oracle. I do believe it, No sweet aspersion" shall the heavens let fall As I hope For quiet days, fair issue, and long life, Pro. Fairly spoke; Sit then, and talk with her, she is thine own.- Ari. What would my potent master? here I am. Pro. Thou and thy meaner fellows your last service Did worthily perform; and I must use you Ar. Pro. Ay, with a twink. Presently? Ari. Before you can say, Come, and go, And breathe twice; and cry, 80, 80; Ari. Pro. Look, thou be true; do not give dalliance Too much the rein; the strongest oaths are straw To the fire i' the blood: be more abstemious, Or else, good night, your vow! Fer. I warrant you, sir The white-cold virgin snow upon my heart Abates the ardour of my liver. Pro. Well.Now come, my Ariel; bring a corollary," Rather than want a spirit; appear, and pertly.No tongue; all eyes; be silent. [Soft music. A Masque. Enter IRIS. Iris. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, and peas; Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep, And flat meads thatch'd with stover, them to keep; Thy banks with peonied and lilied brims, Which spongy April at thy hest betrims, To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy broom groves, 7 Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves, Here on this grass-plot, in this very place, Cer. Hail, many-colour'd messenger, that ne'er 1 The same expression occurs in Pericles. Mr. Hen-he derives from the French verb touiller, which Cotley says that it is a manifest allusion to the zones of the ancients, which were worn as guardians of chastity before marriage. 2 Aspersion is here used in its primitive sense of sprinkling, at present it is used in its figurative sense of throwing out hints of calumny and detraction.. grave interprets, "filthily to mix, to mingle, confound, or shuffle together." He objects to peonied and lillied because these flowers never blow in April. But Mr Boaden has pointed out a passage in Lord Bacon's Essay on Gardens which supports the reading in the text. In April follow the double white violet, the wall-flow 3 Suggestion here means temptation or wickeder, the stock-gilly-flower, the cowslip, flower-de-luces. prompting. 4 Some vanity of mine art" is some illusion. Thus m a passage, quoted by Warton, in his Dissertation on the Gesta Romanorum, from Emure, a metrical Romance. "The emperor said on high and lillies of all natures; rose-mary flowers, the tulippe, the double piony, &c." Lyte, in his Herbal, says one kind of peonie is called by some, maiden or virgin peonie. And Pliny mentions the water-lilly as a preserver of chastity, B. xxvi. C. 10. Edward Fenton, in his "Secret Wonders of Nature," 1569, 4to. B. VI. asserts that "the water-lilly mortifieth altogether the appetite of sensuality and defends from unchaste thoughts and dreams of venery." The passage cerhave, for these reasons, retained. 5 That is, bring more than are sufficient. “Corollary, the addition or vantage above measure, an overplus,tainly gains by the reading of Mr. Steevens, which I or surplusage."-Blount. 6 Stover is fodder for cattle, as hay, straw, and the like: estovers is the old law term, it is from estouvier, old French. 7 The old editions read Pioned and Twilled brime. In Ovid's Banquet of Sense, by Geo. Chapman, 1595, we meet with "Cuphike twill-pants strew'd in Bacchus bowers" If twill be the name of any flower, the old reading may stand. Mr. Henley strongly contends for the old reading, and explains pioned to mean faced up with mire in the manner that ditchers trim the banks of ditches: twilled 8 That is, forsaken by his lass. 9 Mr. Douce remarks that this is an elegant expan sion of the following lines in Phaer's Vigil Eneid, Lib. iv. "Dame rainbow down therefore with sa ton wings of drooping showres, Whose face a thousand sundry hues against the sun devoures, From heaven descending came." 10 Bosky acres are woody acres, fields intersected by luxuriant hedge-rows and copses. Be not afraid. I met a deity Some wanton charm upon this man and maid, Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows, Come hither from the furrow, and be merry; Enter certain Reapers, properly habited: they join Pro. [Aside.] I had forgot that foul conspiracy Swears he will shoot no more, but play with spar-Of the beast Caliban, and his confederates, Jun. Honour, riches, marriage-blessing, Fer. This is a most majestic vision, and Pro. Spirits, which by mine art I have from their confines call'd to enact Pro. [JUNO and CERES whisper, and send IRIS on silence : Sweet now, Iris. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the wand'ring With your sedg'd crowns, and ever harmless looks, Answer your summons; Juno does command: You sun-burn'd sicklemen, of August weary, 1 Foison is abundance, particularly of harvest corn. 2 For charmingly harmonious. 3" So rare a wonder'd father," is a father able to produce such wonders. 4 Crisp channels; i. e. curled, from the curl raised by a breeze on the surface of the water. So in 1 K. Hen. IV. Act i. Sc. 3. "Hid his crisp head in the hollow bank." 5 In the tragedy of Darius, by Lord Sterline, printed in 1603, is the following passage: Against my life; the minute of their plot Fer. This is strange: your father's in some That works him strongly. Mira. Never till this day, Saw I him touch'd with anger so distemper'd. Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled. If you be pleas'd, retire into my cell, We wish your peace. Ariel, come. Enter ARIEL. Ari. Thy thoughts I cleave to: What's thy pleasure? Pro. Spirit, We must prepare to meet with Caliban. I thought to have told thee of it; but I fear'd, Pro. Say again, where didst thou leave these Ari. I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking; So full of valour, that they smote the air For breathing in their faces; beat the ground ears, It is evident that one poet imitated the other, and it seems probable that Shakspeare was the imitator. The exact period at which the Tempest was produced is not known, but it is thought not earlier than 1611. It was first printed in the folio of 1623. Lord Sterline also wrote a tragedy entitled Julius Caesar, in which there are par. allel passages to some in Shakspeare's play on the same subject, and Malone thinks the coincidence more than accidental. 6 Faded, i. e. vanished, from the Latin rado. The ancient English pageants were shows, on the reception Not sceptres, no, but reeds, soon bruised soon of princes or other festive occasions; they were exhibit "Let greatness of her glassy sceptres vaunt broken; And let this worldly pomp our wits enchant, All fades, and scarcely leaves behind a token. Those stately courts, those sky-encountering walls, The preceding stanza also contains evidence of the same "And when the eclipse comes of our glory's light, Then what avails the adoring of a name? A meer illusion made to mock the sight, Whose best was but the shadow of a dream.” SCENE I. TEMPEST. Advanc'd their eye-lids, lifted up their noses, Which enter'd their frail shins: at last I left them Trin. Do, do: We steal by line and level, and't like your grace. Ste. I thank thee for that jest; here's a garment for't: wit shall not go unrewarded, while I am king of this country: Steal by line and level, is an excellent pass of pate; there's another garment for't. Trin. Monster, come, put some lime upon your fingers, and away with the rest. Cal. I will have none on't: we shall lose our time, Ste. Monster, lay-to your fingers; help to bear this away, where my hogshead of wine is, or I'll turn you out of my kingdom: go to, carry this. Trin. And this. Ste. Ay, and this. A noise of Hunters heard." Pro. This was well done, my bird: may not Hear a foot fall: we now are near his cell. Ste. Monster, your fairy, which, you say, is a harmless fairy, has done little better than play'd the Jack3 with us. Trin. Monster, I do smell all horse-piss; at which my nose is in great indignation. Ste. So is mine. Do you hear, monster? If should take a displeasure against you; look you, Trin. Thou wert but a lost monster. I Cal. Good my lord, give me thy favour still: Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to Shall hood-wink this mischance; therefore, speak softly, All's hush'd as midnight yet. Trin. Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool,Ste. There is not only disgrace and dishonour in that, monster, but an infinite loss. Trin. That's more to me than my wetting: yet this is your harmless fairy, monster. Ste. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er ears for my labour. Cal. Pr'ythee, my king, be quiet: Seest thou here, This is the mouth of the cell: no noise, and enter: Do that good mischief, which may make this island Thine own for ever, and I, thy Caliban, For aye thy foot-licker. Ste. Give me thy hand: for I do begin to have bloody thoughts. Trin. O king Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano! look, what a wardrobe here is for thee! Cal. Let it alone, thou fool: it is but trash. Trin. O, ho, monster; we know what belongs to a frippery:-O king Stephano! Ste. Put off that gown, Trinculo; by this hand, I'll have that gown. Trin. Thy grace shall have it. Cal. The dropsy drown this fool! what do you mean, To doat thus on such luggage? Let it alone, Ste. Be you quiet, monster.-Mistress line, is not this my jerkin? Now is the jerkin under the line: now, jerkin, you are like to lose your hair, and prove a bald jerkin. 1 Stale, in the art of fowling, signified a bait or lure to decoy birds. 2 Nurture is Education, in our ok language. 4 This is a humorous allusion to the old ballad "King Stephen was a worthy peer," of which Iago sings a verse in Othello. 5 A shop for the sale of old clothes.-Fripperie, Fr. 7 Bird-lime. 8 The barnacle is a kind of shell-fish, lepas anati Enter divers Spirits in shape of hounds, and hunt them about; PROS- Ari. Silver! there it goes, Silver! [CAL. STE. and TRIN. are driven out. Go, charge my goblins that they grind their joints With dry convulsions; shorten up their sinews With aged cramps; and more pinch-spotted make them, Than pard,10 or cat o' mountain. Ari. ACT V. SCENE I-Before the Cell of Prospero. [Exeunt. Enter PROSPERO in his magic robes, and ARIEL. Ari. On the sixth hour; at which time, my lord, Pro. I did say so, In the same fashion as you gave in charge; In the lime grove which weather-fends11 your cell: Pro. "That Scottish barnacle, if I might choose, That of a worm doth wax a winged goose." Gerrard, in his Herbal, 1597, p. 1391, gives a full de scription of it; and the worthy Dr. Bullein treats those as ignorant and incredulous, who do not believe in the transformation.-Bulwarke of Defence, 1562. ban's Barnacle is the clakis, or tree-goose. 9 See Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, Note on v. 6441 10 Pard, i. e. Leopard. 11 Defends it from the weather. 12 i. e. Until you release them 13 A sensation. Cali Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the | Will shortly fill the reasonable shores, quick, That now lie foul and muddy. Not one of them, [Exit ARIEL. I will dis-case me, and myself present, ARIEL re-enters, singing, and helps to attire Ari. Where the bee sucks, there suck I; There I couch when owls do cry. Merrily, merrily, shall I live now, Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. Pro. Why, that's my dainty Ariel; I shall miss thee; But yet thou shalt have freedom: so, so, so— Ari. I drink the air before me and return ment Inhabits here: Some heavenly power guide us Is to make midnight-mushrooms; that rejoice A solemn air, and the best comforter Now useless, boil'd within thy skull3! There For you are spell-stopp'd. Holy Gonzalo, honourable man, Mine eyes, even sociable to the shew of thine, To him thou follow'st; I will pay thy graces You brother mine, that entertain'd ambition, tian (Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,) Unnatural though thou art!-Their understanding 1 This speech is in some measure borrowed from Medea's, in Ovid; the expressions are, many of them in the old translation by Golding. But the exquisite fairy imagery is Shakspeare's own. 2 That is; ye are powerful auxiliaries, but weak if left to yourselves. Your employments are of the trivial nature before mentioned. 3 So in Mids. Night's Dream "Lovers and madmen have such seething brains." 4 Remorse is pity, tenderness of heart; nature is natural affection. 5 This was the received opinion so in Fairfax's 1 aseo, B iv St. 18. Pro. First, noble friend, Let me embrace thine age; whose honour cannot Gon. Or be not, I'll not swear. Whether this be, You do yet taste Seb. The devil speaks in him. [Aside For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother Alon. "The goblins, fairies, fiends, and furies mad, Ranged in flowrie dales, and mountaines hore, And under every trembling leaf they sit." 6 Whether. 7 Subtilties are quaint deceptive inventions; the word is common to ancient cookery, in which a dis guised or ornamented dish is so termed, 8 The unity of time is most rigidly observed in this piece. The fable scarcely takes up a greater number of hours than are employed in the representation. Mr Steevens thinks that Shakspeare purposely designed to show the cavillers of the time, that he too could write play within all the strictest laws of regularity. I rather think, Sir, she's mortal; Fer. You have not sought her help; of whose soft grace, Received a second life, and second father And rest myself content. Alon. You the like loss? A daughter? O heavens! that they were living both in Naples, Where my son lies. When did you lose your Pro. In this last tempest. I perceive, these lords To be the lord on't. No more yet of this; This cell's my court: here have I few attendants, At least, bring forth a wonder, to content ye, This lady makes him to me. Pro. There, sir, stop: Let us not burden our remembrances Gon. I have inly wept, Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you And on this couple drop a blessed crown; Alon. Should become kings of Naples? O, rejoice Give me your hands: [To FER. and MIRA. Let grief and sorrow still embrace his heart, Be't so! Amen! O look, sir, look, sir; here are more of us! The entrance of the Cell opens, and discovers FER-prophesied, if a gallows were on land, DINAND and MIRANDA playing at chess. I would not for the world. And I would call it fair play. If this prove Seb. A most high miracle! Fer. Though the seas threaten, they are merci ful: 3 Mr. Pye says, I conceive Shakspeare, who was no nice weigher of words, meant wrangling to be equivalent with playing false, or with unfair advantage. So in Henry V. the king, in allusion to the tennis balls, directs the ambassadors to tell the dauphin "He hath made a match with such a wrangler, That all the courts of France shall be disturb'd' With chases." Mr. Pye's explanation is correct; but his deduction that Shakspeare was "no nice weigher of words" is otally false. Shakspeare's words are always the most Pro. From strange to stranger :-Say, how came you hither? Boats. If I did think, sir, I were well awake, Of roaring, shrieking, howling, gingling chains, expressive and most appropriate. To wrangle, in the 4 When no man was in his senses or had self-possession. |