Safely in harbour Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once Thou call'st me up at midnight to fetch dew From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid: Whom, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour, Bound sadly home for Naples; Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd, And his great person perish. Pro. Ariel, thy charge Exactly is performed; but there's more work: What is the time o' the day? Ari. Past the mid season. child, And here was left by the sailors: Thou, my slave, Pro. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak, And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters. Ari. Pardon, master: I will be correspondent to command, And do my sprighting gently. Pro. I will discharge thee. Ari. Do so; and after two days That's my noble master! What shall I do? say what? what shall I do? • Pro. Go, make thyself like a nymph o' the sea; be subject I pray thee To no sight but thine and mine; invisible Remember, I have done thee worthy service; Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, serv'd Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst pro mise To bate me a full year. To every eyeball else. Go, take this shape, 1 The brak was a strong pointed body at the head of ancient galleys; it is used here for the forecastle or boltsprit. The waist is the part between the quarter-deck and the forecastle. 2 Coil is bustle, tumult. 3 That is such a fever as madmen feel when the frantic fit is on them. 4 The epithet here applied to the Bermudas will be best understood by those who have seen the chafing of 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 in. habited 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 Behests, commands 11. 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. 4 Urchins were fairies of a particular class. Hedgehoes were also called urchins; and it is probable that the sprites were so named, because they were of a mischievous kind, the urchin being anciently deemed a very noxious animal. Shakspeare again mentions these fairy beings in the Merry Wives of Windsor. "Like urchins, ouples, and fairies green and white." In the phrase still current, "a litle urchin," the idea of the fairy still remains. 5 That rust of night is that space of night. So, in Hamlet: "In the dead waste and middle of the night," nox vasta, midnight, when all things are quiet and still, making the world appear one great uninhabited waste. In the pneumatology of ancient times visionary beings It sounds no more;--and sure, it waits upon Some god of the island. Sitting on a bank, Weeping again the king my father's wreck, This music crept by me upon the waters; Allaying both their fury, and my passion, With its sweet air: thence I have follow'd it, Or it hath drawn me rather:--But 'tis gone. No, it begins again. 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 thus pronouncing it as the measure requires. Kemble for his adherence to the text of Shakspeare in says Baret in his Alvearie, "is the verb of this substan"Ake," tive Ache, ch being turned into k." And that ache was 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. 8 "The giants when they found themselves fettered roared like bulls, and cried upon Setebos to help them." -Eden's Hist. of Travayle, 1577. p. 434. 9 Still, silent This is no mortal business, nor no sound Pro. The fringed curtains of thine eye advance, And say, what thou seest yond'. Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir, Pro. No, wench; it eats and sleeps, and hath As we have, such: This gallant, which thou seest, That thou attend me: thou dost here usurp Fer. No, as I am a man. Mira. There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple: If the ill spirit have so fair an house, Pro. Follow me.-[TO FERD. Speak not you for him; he's a traitor. Come. With grief, that's beauty's canker, thou might'st I will resist such entertainment, till call him A goodly person: he hath lost his fellows, And strays about to find them. Mira. Mine enemy has more power. Mira. No; [He draws. O dear father, Make not too rash a trial of him, for I might call him A thing divine; for nothing natural I ever saw so noble. It goes on, I see, He's gentle, and not fearful, Pro. What, I say, My foot tutor!--Put thy sword traitor; [Aside. Who mak'st a show, but dar'st not strike, thy con As my soul prompts it:--Spirit, fine Spirit! I'll free thee science Most sure, the goddess And make thy weapon drop. On whom these airs attend!--Vouchsafe, my prayer May know, if you remain upon this island; And that you will some good instruction give, How I may bear me here; My prime request, Which I do last pronounce, is, O you wonder! If you be maid, or no ? Mira. No wonder, sir; But, certainly a maid. My language! heavens! Fer. I am the best of them that speak this speech, Were I but where 'tis spoken. How! the best? Mira. Why speaks my father so ungently? This 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 modern 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 re quires 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. 4" you have done yourself some wrong:" Is so possess'd with guilt: come from thy ward For I can here disarm thee with this stick, Mira. Besecch you, father! Sir, have pity; Pro. Hence; hang not on my garments. I'll be his surety. Pro. Silence: one word more Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What! An advocate for an impostor? hush! Thou think'st there are no more such shapes as he, To the most of men this is a Caliban, And they to him are angels. Mira. My affections Are then most humble; I have no ambition Come on; obey: [TO FERD. Thy nerves are in their infancy again, So they are: My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up. Behold this maid: all corners else o' the earth It works:-Come on.- that is, spoken a falschood. 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 epouvantaви; 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." Gon. Dolour comes to him, indeed; you have spoken truer than you purposed. Seb. You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should. Gon. Therefore, my lord, Seb. I think he will carry this island home in his pocket, and give it his son for an apple. Ant. And sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring forth more islands. Gon. Ay? Ant. Why, in good time. Gon. Sir, we were talking that our garments seem now as fresh as when we were at Tunis at Ant. Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue! the marriage of your daughter, who is now queen. Alon. I pr'ythee, spare. Gon. Well I have: But yet Seb. He will be talking. Ant. Which of them, he, or Adrian, for a good wager, first begins to crow? Seb. The old cock. Ant. The cockrel. Seb. Done: The wager? Ant. A laughter. Seb. A match. Adr. Though this island seem to be desert, Seb. Ha, ha, ha! Ant. So you've pay'd. Adr. Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible, Seb. Yet, Adr. Yet. 1 See note 14, p. 20. 2 It was usual to call a merchant-vessel a merchant, as we now say a merchant-man. 3 He calls Gonzalo the visitor, in allusion to the office of one who visits the sick to give advice and consolazion. 4 Temperance is here used for temperature, or temperateness. Ant. the rarest came there. Gon. Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I wore it? I mean, in a sort. Ant. That sort was well fish'd for. Gon. When I wore it at your daughter's mar riage? Alon. You cram these words into mine ears, Very foul. Gon. Had I a plantation of this isle, my lord,- Or docks, or mallows. Gon. And were the king of it, What would I do? Seb. 'Scape getting drunk, for want of wine. Gon. I' the commonwealth I would by contraries Execute all things: for no kind of traffic Letters should not be known; riches, poverty, No occupation; all men idle, all; And women too; but innocent and pure: No sovereignty: Seb. And yet he would be king on't. Ant. The latter end of his commmonwealth forgets the beginning. Gon. All things in common nature should pro duce thing to me. Gon. I do well believe your highness; and did it to minister occasion to these gentlemen, who are of such sensible and nimble lungs, that they always use to laugh at nothing. Ant. 'Twas you we laughed at. Gon. Who, in this kind of merry fooling, am nothing to you; so you may continue, and laugh at nothing still. Ant. What a blow was there given ? Gon. You are gentlemen of brave mettle: you would lift the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue in it five weeks without changing." Enter ARIEL, invisible, playing solemn music. Gon. No, I warrant you; I will not adventure my discretion so weakly. Will you laugh me asleep, for I am very heavy? Ant. Go sleep, and hear us. [All sleep but ALON. SEB. and ANT. Alon. What, all so soon asleep! I wish mine eyes Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts: I find, They are inclined to do so. Seb. Please you, sir, Do not omit the heavy offer of it: It is a comforter. It is a sleepy language; and thou speak'st Ant. Noble Sebastian, Thou let'st thy fortune sleep-die rather; wink'st Thou dost snore distinctly; There's meaning in thy snores. Ant. I am more serious than my custom: you Must be so too, if heed me; which to do, Trebles thee o'er.s Seb. Well; I am standing water. Ant. I'll teach you how to flow. Seb. Hereditary sloth instructs thee. Ant. 0, Do so: to ebb, If you but knew how you the purpose cherish, Seb. Pr'ythee, say on: The setting of thine eye, and check, proclaim A matter from thee; and a birth, indeed, Which throes thee much to yield. 1 i. e. Deliberated, was in suspense. 2 See note on Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. 1. 3 See Montaigne's Essays translated by John Florio, fol. 1603, Chap. "Of the Caniballes." 4 An engine was a term applied to any kind of machine in Shakspeare's age 5 Foison is only another word for plenty or abundance of provision, but chiefly of the fruits of the earth. In a subsequent scene we have "Earth's increase, and foison plenty." 6 See Montaigne as cited before. 7 Warburton remarks that "all this dialogue is a fine saure on the Utopian Treatise of Government, and the impracticable inconsistent schemes therein recommended." 8 Antonio apparently means to say, "You must be more serious than you usually are, if you would pay attention to my proposals; which attention, if you bestow it, will in the end make you thrice what you are." 9 Sebastian introduces the simile of water. It is taken up by Antonio, who says he will teach his stagnant waters to flow. "It has already learned to ebb," says Sebastian. To which Antonio replies "O, if you but knew how much even that metaphor, which you use in jest, encourages the design which I hint at; how, in stripping it of words of their common meaning, and using them figuratively, you adapt them to your own situation." Edinburgh Magazine Νου. 1786. |