"a wonder," she is certainly "a maid." But instead of this simple and obvious signification, we have divers far-fetched constructions of the passage thrust upon us by various commentators; some supposing that Ferdinand means to ask Miranda if she were made or no (such a reading has even been introduced into the text), and that Miranda replies that she is "not a celestial being, but a maiden.” But if she were a celestial being on earth, she certainly would be "a wonder ;" and her answer is: :

"No wonder, Sir;

But, certainly, a maid."

Why should we seek out "fond and winnowed opinions," when there is a plain and palpable signification before us?

66

ACT II. SCENE 1.

Gonz. How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!"

Much doubt exists about the meaning of the word "lush." Knight quotes Henry, as giving it the signification of 'rank,' and Malone, as suggesting that of 'juicy;' and adds that "we have still the low word, lushy, as applied to a drunkard." May not "lush" be a corruption of luscious? In Phillips' New World of Words 'luscious' is spelled lush-ious.

"Gonz. I the commonwealth, I would by contraries Execute all things. For no kind of traffic

Would I admit; no name of magistrate.

Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
And use of service none;" &c.

This speech of Gonzalo's is but a poetical paraphrase of a passage in Montaigne. It has been supposed by many that this fixes the date of the writing of the Tempest after 1603, when Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essays was

first published. But this is to assume that Shakespeare did not read French: not the only unwarranted assumption of his editors.

ACT III. SCENE 1.

"Ferd. But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours; Most busy-less when I do it."

The original folio has "most busy lest," which is evidently a misprint. The best conjectural reading is the above, which was suggested by Theobald. Among the hypothetical emendations of the passage, the most awkward seems to be that of the MS. corrector of Mr. Collier's folio, who makes it "most busy, blest, when I do it,"-unless indeed we except Mr. Singer's "most busiest," than which nothing could be more graceless and inappropriate.

"Ferd.

ACT IV. SCENE 1.

Let me live here ever:

So rare a wonder'd father, and a wis

Makes this place paradise."

Thus the original. But Malone, and others after him, and Mr. Collier's MS. corrector-before him or after him, who can tell, and what does it matter !-read,

"So rare a wonder'd father, and a wife,

Make this place paradise;"

which is to degrade the poetical feeling of the passage.—I speak under favor of my fairer readers, and as one knowing all the various good implied in the word which I would exclude from the text. But Shakespeare's poetical purpose was a higher one than that which this change in the authentic text would assign to him. Besides, the mere fact that the original gives "wise" and "makes," which afford at least

an excellent sense, is an all-sufficient reason for the retention of those words,-even against two better.

46

Prosp. And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind:"

Upon this passage Mr. Dyce remarks,——

6

"So this famous passage stands in all editions old and new. But I believe that Malone's objection to the reading a rack,' is unanswerable. No instance,' he observes, has yet been produced where rack is used to signify a single small fleeting cloud;' in other words,--though our early writers very frequently make mention of the rack,' they never say 'a rack.' Malone adds, 'I incline to think that rack is a mis-spelling for wrack, i. e., wreck; and I now am thoroughly convinced that such is the In authors of the age of Elizabeth and James I have repeatedly met with rack put for wrack; and in all the early editions of Milton's Paradise Lost which I possess,―viz., the first, 1667, the second, 1674, the third, 1678, the fourth, 1688, and the eighth, 1707,-I find,

case.

"Now dreadful deeds

Might have ensued, nor only Paradise

In this commotion, but the starry cope

Of Heaven perhaps, or all the elements

At least had gone to rack [i. e., wrack=wreck]," &c.

"A world devote to universal rack [i. e., wrack

B. iv. 990.

=

wreck]."

B. xi. 821." A Few Notes, &c. p. 13.

The wonder is, that another opinion should have been entertained by any reader. The dissolution of towers, palaces, temples and the great globe itself, might be said with

propriety not to leave a wreck' behind; but it would be very strange indeed, if it should leave a small fleeting cloud behind; neither does that object furnish a simile at all appropriate to what would remain after such an all-devouring catastrophe. It is indeed surprising that any one who had ever heard the old phrase 'gone to rack and ruin,' should have had a doubt about the word in question.

'Steph. Now is the jerkin, under the line; now jerkin you are like to lose your hair, and prove a bald jerkin."

Stephano's pun is supposed to allude to the hair lines on which it is said clothes were hung in the time of Shakespeare; but may not the loss of hair consequent upon being "under the line," be an allusion to the baldness which so frequently attacks northerners when under the heat of the equatorial line?

[I find in the Variorum Ed. a note from Edwards' MSS. which coincides with this, my early conjecture.]

ACT V. SCENE 1.

"Prosp. His mother was a witch, and one so strong That could control the moon; make flows and ebbs, And deal in her command, without her power."

Mr. Collier's MS. corrector changed "without her power," to "with all her power," an alteration which appears more than plausible, until we recollect that 'power' is used for 'legitimate authority' to this day. Thus, we say that an officer 'exceeded his powers.' Mr. Charles Knight is

* I credit Mr. Knight with the defence of this reading, only on the authority of Blackwood's Magazine,-Aug, 1853, p, 186. I have not seen Mr.

unquestionably right in his defence of the old reading, which cannot be disturbed. Sycorax was a witch, "so strong," that she could usurp the functions of the Moon, and "deal in her command without her " legitimate authority.

OMISSION.

ACT III. SCENE 3.

"Gonz. Each putter out of five for one will bring us," &c.

This line, which refers to the habit of adventurers by sea in Shakespeare's day, to put out a sum of money on condition of receiving five for one, if they chanced to return alive, is evidently corrupt, as was long ago discovered. The voyagers did not put out "five for one," but one for five. So the line has been changed to,

and to,

"Each putter out of one for five," &c.

"Each putter out on five for one," &c.

the former being the most common reading. But surely this is to avoid the most natural correction of the typographical error, and the most appropriate phrase for the expression of the idea. We do not put out money on five per cent., we put it out at five per cent. ; and these adventurers, instead of putting it out at five for a hundred, put it out at five for one.

Read,

"Each putter out at five for one will bring us," &c.

Knight's book, or, indeed, the labors of any other of Mr. Collier's opponents, except Mr. Singer, Mr. Dyce, Mr. Halliwell, and the writer in Blackwood.