brown furze, any thing: The wills above be done! Pro. Mira. Pro. O, woe the day! No harm. I have done nothing but in care of thee, Mira. More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts. Pro. 'Tis time I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand, And pluck my magick garment from me.-So': [Lays down his mantle. Lie there, my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort. The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd I have with such provision in mine art So safely order'd, that there is no soul— No, not so much perdition as an hair, further. Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio And to my state grew stranger, being transported, Mira. Sir, most heedfully. Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom Sit down; For thou must now know further. You have often Mira. Pro. The hour's now come; I do not think thou can'st; for then thou wast not Mira. that Certainly, sir, I can. "Tis far off; And rather like a dream than an assurance 1 i. e. or ever, ere ever; signifying, in modern Eng-"foreslowed and trashed." lish, sooner than at any time. 2 Instead of freighting the first folio reads fraughting. 3 The double superlative is in frequent use among our elder writers. 4 To meddle, is to mir, or to interfere with. 5 Lord Burleigh, when he put off his gown at night, used to say "Lie there, Lord Treasurer."-Fuller's Holy State, p. 257. 6 Out is used for entirely, quite. Thus in Act iv: "And be a boy right out." 7 Abysm was the old mode of spelling abyss; from its French original abisme. There was another word of the same kind used in Falconry (from whence Shakspeare very frequently draws his similies ;) "Trassing is when a hawk raises aloft any fowl, and soaring with it, at length descends therewith to the ground."-Dictionarium Rusticum, 1704. Probably this term is used by Chapman in his ad dress to the reader prefixed to his translation of Homer "That whosesoever muse dares use her wing, When his muse flies she will be trass't by his, And show as if a Bernacle should spring Beneath an Eagle." There is also a passage in the Bonduca of Beaumon and Fletcher, wherein Caratach says: As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit, Mira. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. Pro. To have no screen between this part he play'd And him he play'd it for, he needs will be Pro. By Providence divine. Out of his charity, (who being then appointed Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me, Pro. Mark his condition, and the event; then From my own library, with volumes that tell me, Mira. Pro. The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of darkness, Mira. Alack, for pity! I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then, Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint,* That wrings mine eyes to't. Pro. Hear a little further, And then I'll bring thee to the present business Which now's upon us; without the which, this story Were most impertinent. Mira. That hour destroy us? Pro. Wherefore did they not Well demanded, wench; common rate of men has generally a son below it. Heroum filii noxæ. 1 Who having made his memory such a sinner to truth as to credit his own lie by telling of it." 2 Tooke, in his Diversions of Purley, has clearly wn that we use one word, But, in modern English, or two words Bot and But, originally (in the Anglo Saxon) very different in signification, though (by repeated abbreviation and corruption) approaching in sound. Bot is the imperative of the A. S. Botan, to boot. But is the imperative of the A. S. Be-utan, to be out. By this means all the seemingly anomalous uses of But may be explained; I must however content myself with referring the reader to the Diversions of Purley, vol. i. p. 190. Merely remarking that but (as distinguished from Bot) and be-out have exactly the same meaning, viz. in modern English, without. 3 In lieu of the premises; that is, "in consideration of the premises,-&c." This seems to us a strange use of this French word, yet it was not then unusual. "But takes their oaths in lieu of her assistance." Beaumont and Fletcher's Prophetess. I prize above my dukedom. Mira. But ever see that man! Pro. "Would I might Now I arise: Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow. Mira. Heavens thank you for't! And now A most auspicious star; whose influence Enter ARIEL. Ari. All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly, Hast thou, spirit, Pro. Perform'd to point1" the tempest that I bade thee? 4 Hint is here for cause or subject. Thus in a future passage we have:-" Our hint of woe." 5 Quit was commonly used for quitted. 6 To deck, or deg, is still used in the northern coun. ties for to sprinkle. 7 An undergoing stomach is a stubborn resolution a temper or frame of mind to bear. 8 This is imitated in Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess; "tell me, sweetest, What new service now is meetest And bring thee coral, making way 9 Ariel's quality is not his confederates, but the powers of his nature as a spirit, his qualification in sprighting 10 i. e. to the minutest article, literally from the French a point, so in the Chances, "are you all fit? To point, Sir" Why, that's my spirit! Pro. Close by, my master. Not a hair perish'd; On their sustaining garments not a blemish, But fresher than be ore: and as thou bad'st me, In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle : The king's son have I landed by himself; Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs, In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting, His arms in this sad knot. Pro. Of the king's ship, Pro. Dost thou forget From what a torment I did free thee? Ari. No. Pro. Thou dost; and think'st it much, to tread the ooze Of the salt deep ; To run upon the sharp wind of the north; The foul witch, Sycorax, who, with age and envy, Thou hast where was she born? speak; tell me. Ari. Sir, in Árgier. 6 Pro. O, was she so? I must, Once in a month, recount what thou hast been, Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch, Sycorax, For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible To enter human hearing, from Argier, Thou know'st, was banish'd; for one thing she did, They would not take her life: Is not this true? Ari. Ay, sir. Pro. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought with child, And here was left by the sailors: Thou, my slave, A dozen years; within which space she died, groans, As fast as mill-wheels strike: Then was this island, (Save for the son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp, hag-born) not honoured with Ari. To lay upon the damn'd,which Sycorax Ari. Pardon, master: I will be correspondent to command, Do so; and after two days I will discharge thee. To no sight but thine and mine; invisible the sea over the rugged rocks by which they are surrounded, and which renders access to them so difficult. It was then the current opinion that Bermudas was inhabited by monsters and devils. Setebos, the god of Caliban's dam, was an American devil, worshipped by the giants of Patagonia. 5 i. e. waves, or the sea. Flot, Fr. 6 The old English name of Algiers 7 Bchests, commands Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins4 As thick as honey-combs, each pinch more stinging Cal. Thou strok'dst me, and mad'st much of me; Water with berries in't; and teach me how The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place, and fer tile; Cursed be I that did so-All the charms Which first was mine own king: and here you sty me In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me Pro. Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodg'd thee 1 i. e. we cannot do without him. The phrase is still common in the midland counties. 2 This is a common expression of impatience. Vide note on King Richard II. Act i. Scene 1. 3 Quaint here means brisk, spruce, dexterous, from the French cointe. Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thon Cal. You taught me language; and my profit on't Pro. Cal. No, 'pray thee! I must obey his art is of such power, Pro. [Aside, So, slave; hence! Re-enter ARIFL invisible, playing and singing; Come unto these yellow sands, Court'sied when you have, and kiss'd, (The wild waves whist") Foot it featly here and there; And, sweet sprites, the burden bear. Bur. Bowgh, wowgh. The watch-dogs bark: The strain of strutting chanticlere [dispersedly. [dispersedly. Fer. Where should this musick be? i' the air, the earth? It sounds no more ;--and sure, it waits upon had different allotments of time suitable to the variety and nature of their agency. 6 Destroy. 7 The word aches is evidently a dissyllable here and in two passages of Timon of Athens. The reader will remember the senseless clamour that was raised against Kemble for his adherence to the text of Shakspeare in 4 Urchins were fairies of a particular class. Hedge- thus pronouncing it as the measure requires. "Ake," hogs were also called urchins; and it is probable that says Baret in his Alvearie, “is the verb of this substan the sprites were so named, because they were of a mis-tive Ache, ch being turned into k." And that ache was chievous kind, the urchin being anciently deemed a very noxious animal. Shakspeare again mentions these fairy beings in the Merry Wives of Windsor. "Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies green and white." In the phrase still current, "a little urchin," the idea of the fairy still remains. 5 That cast of night is that space of night. So, in Hamlet: pronounced in the same way as the letter h is placed beyond doubt by the passage in Much Ado about Nothing, in which Margaret asks Beatrice for what she cries Heigh ho, and she answers for an h. i. e. ache. See the Epigram of Heywood adduced in illustration of that passage. This orthography and pronunciation continued even to the times of Butler and Swift. It would be easy to produce numerous instances. "In the dead waste and middle of the night," nor 9" The giants when they found themselves fettered vasta, midnight, when all things are quiet and still, roared like bulls, and cried upon Setebos to help them " making the world appear one great uninhabited waste.-Eden's Hist. of Travayle, 1577. p. 434. In the pneumatology of ancient times visionary beings 9 Still, silent Mira. Why speaks my father so ungently? This Is the third man that e'er I saw; the first That e'er I sighed for: pity move my father To be inclin'd my way! 1 i. e. owns. To owe was to possess or appertain to, in ancient language. 2 The folio of 1685 reads made, and many of the mo dern editors have laboured to persuade themselves that it was the true reading. It has been justly observed by M. Mason that the question is "whether our readers will adopt a natural and simple expression, which requires no comment, or one which the ingenuity of many cominentators has but imperfectly supported." 3 To control here signifies to confute, to contradict unanswerably. The ancient meaning of control was to check or exhibit a contrary account, from the old French contre-roller. "you have done yourself some wrong?" From me, Fer. the lord on't. No, as I am a man. Mira. There's nothing ill can dwell in such a If the ill spirit have so fair an house, temple: Good things will strive to dwell with 't. Pro. Follow me.-[TO FERD. Speak not you for him; he's a traitor.-Come. I'll manacle thy neck and feet together; Sea-water shalt thou drink, thy food shall be The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots, and husks Wherein the acorn cradled: Follow. will resist such entertainment, till No; Mine enemy has more power. I Fer. Mira. [He draws. O dear father, Make not too rash a trial of him, for my What, I say, tutor!--Put thy sword up, traitor; Who mak'st a show, but dar'st not strike, thy con science Silence: one word more Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What! Thou think'st there are no more such shapes as he, Mira. Pro. Fer. So they are: My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up. Have I in such a prison. Pro. Thou hast done well, fine Ariel!-Follow me.- that is, spoken a falsehood. Thus in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "This is not well, master Ford, this wrongs you." 5 Fearful was sometimes used in the sense of formidable, terrible, dreadful, like the French epouvantubie; as may be seen by consulting Cotgrave or any of our old dictionaries. Shakspeare almost always uses it in this sense. In K. Henry VI. Act iii. Scene 2, "A mighty and a fearful head they are." He has also fearful wars; fearful bravery; &c. &c. The verb to fear is most commonly used for to fright, to terrify, to make afraid. Mr. Gifford remarks, "as a proof how little our old dramatists were understood at the Restoration, that Dryden censures Jonson for an improper use of this word, the sense of which he altogether mistakes." |