Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

Our king and company: the next, our ship,— Which, but three glasses since, we gave out split,Is tight, and yare, and bravely rigg'd, as when We first put out to sea.

ARI. [Aside to PRO.] Sir, all this service Have I done since I went.

PRO. [Aside to ARIEL.] My tricksy spirit! ALON. These are not natural events; they strengthen, [hither? From strange to stranger.-Say, how came you BOATS. If I did think, sir, I were well awake, I'd strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep, And-how, we know not-all clapp'd under hatches, [noises Where, but even now, with strange and several Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains, And more diversity of sounds, all horrible, We were awak'd; straightway, at liberty: Where we, in all her* trim, freshly beheld Our royal, good, and gallant ship; our master Capering to eye her on a trice, so please you, Even in a dream, were we divided from them, And were brought moping hither. ARI. [Aside to PRO.] Was't well done? PRO. [Aside to ARIEL.] Bravely, my diligence. Thou shalt be free.

[trod;

ALON. This is as strange a maze as e'er men And there is in this business more than nature Was ever conduct of: some oracle

Must rectify our knowledge.

PRO.

Sir, my liege, Do not infest your mind with beating on The strangeness of this business; at pick'd leisure, Which shall be shortly, single I'll resolve youWhich to you shall seem probable-of every These happen'd accidents: till when, be cheerful, And think of each thing well.-[Aside to ARIEL.] Come hither, spirit;

Set Caliban and his companions free:
Untie the spell. [Exit ARIEL.] How fares my
gracious sir?

There are yet missing of your company
Some few odd lads that you remember not.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

What things are these, my lord Antonio ? Will money buy them?

ANT.

Very like; one of them Is a plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable.

PRO. Mark but the badges of these men, my lords,
Then say if they be true. This mis-shapen knave,-
His mother was a witch, and one so strong
That could control the moon,a make flows and ebbs,
And deal in her command, without her power.
These three have robb'd me; and this demi-devil—
For he's a bastard one-had plotted with them
To take my life: two of these fellows you
Must know and own; this thing of darkness I
Acknowledge mine.

CAL.
I shall be pinch'd to death.
ALON. Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler?
SEB. He is drunk now: where had he wine?
ALON. And Trinculo is reeling ripe: where
should they

Find this grand liquor that hath gilded 'em ?—
How cam'st thou in this pickle?

TRIN. I have been in such a pickle, since I saw you last, that, I fear me, will never out of my bones I shall not fear fly-blowing.

SEB. Why, how now, Stephano?

STE. O, touch me not; I am not Stephano, but a cramp.

on.

PRO. You'd be king o' the isle, sirrah? STE. I should have been a sore one, then. ALON. This is a strange thing as e'er I look'd [Pointing to CALIBAN. PRO. He is as disproportion'd in his manners As in his shape.-Go, sirrah, to my cell; Take with you your companions; as you look To have my pardon, trim it handsomely.

CAL. Ay, that I will; and I'll be wise hereafter, And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass Was I, to take this drunkard for a god, And worship this dull fool! PRO.

Go to; away!

ALON. Hence, and bestow your luggage where you found it.

SEB. Or stole it, rather.

[Exeunt CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO.

Douce quotes a marginal note in Adlington's translation of Apuleius, 1596, 4to. which says, "Witches in old time were supposed to be of such power that they could pul downe the moone by their inchantement." The classical reader will remember,"Cantus et è curru lunam deducere tentat;

Et faceret, si non ære repulsa sonent."

Of Tibullus; and Virgil's

"Carmina vel cœlo possunt deducere lunam:" &c.

b And deal in her command, without her power.] That is, beyond her power. See note (b), p. 371, Vol. I.

PRO. Sir, I invite your highness and your train To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest For this one night; which (part of it) I'll waste With such discourse as, I not doubt, shall make it Go quick away,-the story of my life, And the particular accidents gone by, Since I came to this isle: and in the morn I'll bring you to your ship, and so to Naples, Where I have hope to see the nuptial Of these our dear-belov'd solemnized; And thence retire me to my Milan, where Every third thought shall be my grave. ALON.

I long
To hear the story of your life, which must
Take the ear strangely.

PRO.
I'll deliver all;
And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales,
And sail so expeditious, that shall catch

Your royal fleet far off.-[Aside to ARIEL.] My

Ariel, chick,

[blocks in formation]

EPILOGUE.

Spoken by PROSPERO.

Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
And what strength I have 's mine own,-
Which is most faint: now, 't is true,
I must be here confin'd by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got,
And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands,
With the help of your good hands.
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please: now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant;
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be reliev'd by prayer,
Which pierces so, that it assaults
Mercy itself, and frees all faults.

As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
Let your indulgence set me free.

[Exrt.

[graphic]

ILLUSTRATIVE COMMENTS.

ACT I.

(1) SCENE I. We split, we split !] The following observations on the maritime technicalities in this sceno, are extracted from an article by Lord Mulgrave, which will be found at length in Boswell's Variorum edition of Shakespeare, 1821 :—

"The first scene of The Tempest is a very striking instance of the great accuracy of Shakspeare's knowledge in a professional science, the most difficult to attain without the help of experience. He must have acquired it by conversation with some of the most skilful seamen of that time. No books had then been published on the subject.

"The succession of events is strictly observed in the natural progress of the distress described; the expedients adopted are the most proper that could have been devised for a chance of safety: and it is neither to the want of skill of the seamen, or the bad qualities of the ship, but solely to the power of Prospero, that the shipwreck is to be attributed.

"The words of command are not only strictly proper, but are only such as point the object to be attained, and no superfluous ones of detail. Shakspeare's ship was too well manned to make it necessary to tell the seamen how they were to do it, as well as what they were to do.

"He has shown a knowledge of the new improvements, as well as the doubtful points of seamanship; one of the latter he has introduced, under the only circumstance in which it was indisputable.

"The events certainly follow too near one another for the strict time of representation: but perhaps, if the whole length of the play was divided by the time allowed by the critics, the portion allotted to this scene might not be too little for the whole. But he has taken care to mark intervals between the different operations by exits.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

"an

(2) SCENE II.-ARIEL.] According to the system of witchcraft or magic, which formed an article of popular creed in Shakespeare's day, the elementary spirits were divided into six classes by some demonologists, and into four, those of the Air, of the Water, of the Fire, and of the Earth,-by others. In the list of characters appended to "The Tempest" in the first folio, Ariel is called ayrie spirit." The particular functions of this order of beings, Burton tells us, are to cause "many tempests, thunder, and lightnings, tear oaks, fire steeples, houses, strike men and beasts, make it rain stones, &c., cause whirlwinds on a sudden, and tempestuous storms.' But at the behest of the all-powerful magician Prospero, or by his own influence and potency, the airy spirit in a twink becomes not only a spirit of fire-one of those, according to the same authority, which "commonly work by blazing stars, fire drakes, or ignes fatui; counterfeit suns and moons, stars oftentimes, and sit upon ship-masts"but a naiad, or spirit of the water also: in fact, assumes any shape, and is visible or unseen at will.

"

For full particulars, de operatione Demonum, the reader may consult, besides the ancient writers on the subject,

*The striking the top masts was a new invention in Shakspeare's time, which he here very properly introduces. Sir Henry Manwaring says, "It is not yet agreed amongst all seamen whether it is better for a ship to hull with her topmast up or down." In the Postscript to the Seaman's Dictionary, he afterwards gives his own opinion: "If you have sea-room, it is never good to strike the topmast." Shakspeare has placed his ship in the situation in which it was indisputably right to strike the topmast, when he had not seu-room.

who are legion, Batman uppon Bartholome his booke De proprietatibus rerum, 1582; Scot's "Discoverie of Witchcraft," &c., 1584; "The Demonologie" of James I.; "The Anatomie of Sorcerie " by Mason, 1612; and Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," 1617.

(3) SCENE II.

on the topmast,

The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet, and join.]

This, as Douce remarks, is a description of the well-known meteor, called by the several names of Saint Helen, Saint Elm, Saint Herm, Saint Clare, Saint Peter, and Saint Nicholas. "Whenever it appeared as a single flame, it was supposed by the ancients to be Helena, the sister of Castor and Pollux; and in this state to bring ill-luck from the calamities which this lady is known to have caused in the Trojan war. When it came double, it was called Castor and Pollux, and accounted a good omen."

[ocr errors]

Hakluyt's collection of the Voyages, Navigations, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation," furnishes an interesting account of this meteor, as seen during the " Voyage of Robert Tomson Marchant, into Nova Hispania, in the yeere 1555 :”—

"I do remember that in the great and boysterous storme of this foule weather, in the night, there came upon the toppe of our maine yarde and maine maste, a certaine little light, much like unto the light of a little candle, which the Spaniards called the Cuerpo santo, and saide it was S. Elmo, whom they take to be the advocate of sailers. ***This light continued aboord our ship about three houres, flying from maste to maste, and from top to top and sometime it would be in two or three places at once. I informed myself of learned men afterward what that light should be, and they said, that it was but a congelation of the winde and vapours of the sea congealed with the extremitie of the weather, which, flyinge in the winde, many times doeth chance to hit on the masts and shrowds of the ships that are at sea in foule weather. And in trueth I do take it to be so: for that I have seene the like in other ships at sea, and in sundry ships at once."-HAKLUYT, III. 450, ed. 1600.

(4) SCENE II.-The still-vex'd Bermoothes.] Shakespeare's first knowledge of the storm-vex'd coast of the Bermudas, was probably acquired from Sir Walter Raleigh's "Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Beautiful Empire of Guiana," 1596, wherein, after speaking of the Channel of Bahama, the author adds,-"The rest of the Indies for calms, and diseases, are very troublesome; and the Bermudas a hellish sea, for thunder, lightning, and storms." (See Chalmers' Apology, p. 578.) Or he might have derived his information from Hakluyt's Voyages, 1600, in which there is a description of Bermuda, by Henry May, who was shipwrecked there in 1593.

(5) SCENE II.-CALIBAN.] It has been surmised that the idea of this marvellous creation was derived from the subjoined passage in Eden's "History of Travayle in the West and East Indies," 4to., London, 1577-a book from which it is exceedingly probable that Shakespeare borrowed the names of some of the principal characters of this piece, as Alonso, Ferdinand, Sebastian, Gonzalo, Antonio, &c.

"Departyng from hence, they sayled to the 49 degree and a halfe under the pole antartike; where being wyntered, they were inforced to remayne there for the space of two monethes: all which tyme they sawe no man, excepte that one day by chaunce they espyed a man of the stature of a giant, who came to the haven daunsing and singyng, and shortly after seemed to cast dust over his head. The captayne sent one of his men to the shore, with the shyppe boate, who made the lyke signe of peace. The which thyng the giant seeyng, was out of feare, and came with the captayne's servaunt, to his presence, into a little ilande. When he sawe the captayne with certayne

of his company about hym, he was greatly amased, and made signes, holdyng up his hande to heaven, signifying thereby, that our men came from thence. This giant was so byg, that the head of one of our men of a meane stature came but to his waste. He was of good corpo rature, and well made in all partes of his bodie, with a large visage painted with divers colours, but, for the most parte, yelow. Uppon his cheekes were paynted two hartes, and red circles about his eyes. The heare of his head was coloured whyte, and his apparell was the skynne of a beast sowde togeather. This beast, as seemed unto us, had a large head, and great eares lyke unto a mule, with the body of a camell and tayle of a horse. The feete of the giant were foulded in the sayde skynne, after the maner of shooes. * The captayne caused him to eate and drynke, and gave him many thinges, and among other a great lookyng glasse, in the which, as soone as he sawe his owne lykenesse, was sodaynly afrayde, and started backe with such violence, that hee overthrewe two that stoode nearest about him. When the captayne had thus gyven him certayne haukes belles, and other great belles, with also a lookyng glasse, a combe, and a payre of beades of glasse, he sent him to lande with foure of his owne men well armed."

(6) SCENE II.—

As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd
With raven's feather from unwholesome fen,
Drop on you both! a south-west blow on ye,
And blister you all o'er !]

Wicked, in the sense of baneful, hurtful, is often met with in old medical works applied to sores and wounds. "A wykked felone," i.e. a bad sore, is mentioned in a tract on hawking, MS. Harl. 2340. An analogous use of the word, fierce, savage, is mentioned in A Glossary of Provincial Words used in Herefordshire, 1839, p. 119, as still current.-HALLIWELL.

The following passage in Batman uppon Bartholome his booke De proprietatibus rerum, 1582, folio, will not only throw considerable light on these lines, but furnish at the same time grounds for a conjecture that Shakespeare was indebted to it, with a slight alteration, for the name of Caliban's mother, Sycorax the witch. "The raven is called corvus of CORAX . . . it is said that ravens birdes be fed with deaw of heaven all the time that they have no black feathers by benefite of age," lib. xii. c. 10. The same author will also account for the choice which is made, in the monster's speech, of the south-west wind. "This southern wind is hot and moyst. . . Southern winds corrupt and destroy; they heat and maketh men fall into sicknesse," lib. xi. c. 3.-DOUCE.

(7) SCENE II.-It would control my dam's god, Setebos.] The same work, Eden's History of Travayle, contains a curious notice, showing that Setebos was a mythological personage in the creed of the Patagonians :

"The captayne retayned two of these [giants] which were youngest and beste made. He tooke them by a deceite in this maner,-that givyng them knyves, sheares, looking glasses, bells, beades of crystall and suche other trifles, he so filled theyr handes, that they could holde no more; then caused two payre of shackels of iron to be put on theyr legges, makyng signes that he would also give them those chaynes, which they lyked very wel, bycause they were made of bright and shining metall. When they felte the shackels faste about theyr legges, they began to doubt; but the captayne dyd put them in comfort, and bad them stand still. In fine, when they sawe how they were deceived, they roared lyke bulles, and cryed uppon theyr great devill, Setebos, to helpe them.

[ocr errors]

**They say, that when any of them dye, there appeare X or XII devils, leaping and daunsing about the bodie of the dead, and seeme to have their bodies paynted with divers colours, and that among other there is one seene bigger then the residue, who maketh great mirth and rejoysing. This great devyll they call Sete bos."-P.

434.

[blocks in formation]

ACT II.

Among the most treasured rarities in the library of the British Museum, is Shakespeare's own copy of Florio's Montaigne, 1603, with his autograph, "Willm. Shakspere,' on the fly-leaf. This work, intituled, "The Essayes, or Morall, Politike and Millitarie Discourses, of Lo: Michaell de Montaigne, Knight," was evidently a favourite of the poet, and furnished him with the materials for Gonzalo's Utopian commonwealth. The passage he has adopted occurs in the thirtieth chapter of the First Book, and is headed, "Of the Caniballes:

[ocr errors]

"Those nations seeme therefore so barbarous unto mee, because they have received very little fashion from humane wit, and are yet neere their originall naturalitie. The lawes of nature do yet commaund them, which are but little bastardized by ours. And that with such puritie, as I am sometimes grieved the knowlege of it came no sooner to light, at what time ther were men, that better than wee could have judged of it. I am sorie, Licurgus and Plato had it not for me seemeth that what in those nations we

see by experience, doth not onlie exceede all the pictures wherewith licentious Poesie hath prowdly imbellished the golden age, and al hir quaint inventions to faine a happy condition of man, but also the conception and desire of Philosophie. They could not imagine a genuitie so pure and simple, as we see it by experience; nor ever beleeve our societie might be maintained with so little arte and humane combination. It is a nation, would I answere Plato, that hath no kinde of traffike, no knowledge of Letters, no intelligence of numbers, no name of magistrate, nor of politike superioritie; no use of service, of riches, or of poverty; no contracts, no successions, no dividences, no occupation but idle; no respect of kinred, but common, no apparell but naturall, no manuring of lands, no use of wine, corne, or mettle. The very words that import lying, falshood, treason, dissimulation, covetousnes, envie, detraction, and pardon, were never heard of amongst them."

(2) SCENE I-We would so, and then go a bat-fowling.] The instructions for Bat-fowling in Marlham's "Hunger's Prevention," &c. 1600, afford an accurate description of the way in which this sport was pursued in former times :

"For the manner of Bat-fowling it may be vsed either with Nettes, or without Nettes: If you vse it without Nettes (which indeede is the most common of the two) you shall then proceede in this manner. First, there shall be one to cary the cresset of fire (as was showed for the Lowbell) then a certain number as two, three, or foure (according to the greatnesse of your company), and these shall haue poales bound with dry round wispes of hay, straw, or such like stuffe, or else bound with pieces of Linkes, or Hurdes dipt in Pitch, Rosen, Grease, or any such like matter that will blaze. Then another company shall be armed with long poales, very rough and bushy at the vpper

endes, of which the Willow, Byrche, or long Hazell are best, but indeed acording as the Country will afford, so you must be content to take.

"Thus being prepared and comming into the Bushy or rough ground where the haunts of Birds are, you shall then first kindle some of your fiers as halfe, or a third part, according as your prouision is, and then with your other bushy and rough poales you shall beat the Bushes, Trees and haunts of the Birds, to enforce them to rise, which done you shall see the Birds which are raysed, to flye and play about the lights and flames of the fier, for it is their nature through their amazednesse, and affright at the strangenes of the lightt and the extreame darknesse round about it, not to depart from it, but as it were almost to scorch their wings in the same: so that those which haue the rough bushye poales may (at their pleasures) beat them down with the same, and so take the. Thus you may spend as much of the night as is darke, for longer is not conuenient; and doubtlesse you shall finde much pastime, and take great store of birds, and in this you shall obserue all the obseruations formerly treated of in the Lowbell; especially, that of silence, vntill your lights be kindled, but then you may vse your pleasure, for the noyse and the light when they are heard and seene a farre of, they make the birds sit the faster and surer.

"The byrdes which are commonly taken by this labour or exercise are, for the most part, the Rookes, Ring-doues, Blackebirdes, Throstles, Feldyfares, Linnets, Bulfinches, and all other Byrdes whatsoeuer that pearch or sit vpon small boughes or bushes."

(3) SCENE II.-They will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.] Some verses written by Henry Peacham, about the year 1609, give a curious list of most of the popular exhibitions then to be seen in the metropolis, together with a few notices of some of the sights of the country:

"Why doe the rude vulgar so hastily post in a madnesse,
To gaze at trifles and toyes not worthy the viewing?
And thinke them happy, when may be shew'd for a penny,
The Fleet-streete mandrakes, that heavenly motion of Eltham,
Westminster monuments, and Guild-hall huge Corinæus,
That horne of Windsor (of an unicorne very likely),
The cave of Merlin, the skirts of old Tom a Lincolne.
King Johns sword at Linne, with the cup the Fraternity drinke
in;

The Tombe of Beauchampe, and sword of Sir Guy a Warwicke;
The great long Dutchman, and roaring Marget a Barwicke,
The Mummied Princes, and Cæsars wine yet i' Dover,
Saint James his Ginney Hens, the Cassawarway moreover;
The Beaver i' the Parke (strange beast as er'e any man saw)
Downe-shearing willowes with teeth as sharpe as a hand-saw.
The Lance of John a Gaunt and Brandons still i'the Tower:
The fall of Ninive, with Norwich built in an hower!
King Henries slip-shoes, the sword of valiant Edward;
The Coventry boares-shield, and fire-workes seen but to bed ward.
Drakes ship at Detford, King Richards bedsted i' Leyster,
The White Hall whale-bones, the silver Bason i' Chester:
The live-caught dog-fish, the Wolfe, and Harry the Lyon,
Hunkes of the Beare-garden, to be feared, if he be nigh on."
HALLIWELL, I. 327.

ACT III.

(1) SCENE II.-The picture of Nobody.] "No-body" was a ludicrous figure often found on street signs, and of which a representation is prefixed to the comedy of "No-body and Some-body," 1600. The following verses form the be

ginning of a popular old ballad, called "The Well-spoken Nobody," the unique copy of which, in the Miller collection at Britwell-house, supplied Mr. Halliwell with a curious engraving, showing a floor all bestrewed with domestic

« AnteriorContinuar »