has been called the Roficrucian. The name Ariel came from the Talmudiftick mysteries with which the learned Jews had infected this science. T. WARTON. Mr. Theobald tells us, that The Tempest must have been written after 1609, because the Bermuda Islands, which are mentioned in it, were unknown to the English until that year; but this is a mistake. He might have feen in Hackluyt, 1600, folio, a description of Bermuda, by Henry May, who was shipwrecked there in 1593. It was however one of our author's last works. In 1598, he played a part in the original Every Man in his Humour. Two of the characters are Profpero and Stephano. Here Ben Jonfon taught him the pronunciation of the latter word, which is always right in The Tempest : "Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler?" And always wrong in his earlier play, The Merchant of Venice, which had been on the stage at least two or three years before its publication in 1600: "My friend Stephano, fignify I pray you," &c. -So little did Mr. Capell know of his author, when he idly supposed his School literature might perhaps have been loft by the diffipation of youth, or the busy scene of publick life! FARMER. This play must have been written before 1614, when Jonfon sneers at it in his Bartholomew Fair. In the latter plays of Shakspeare, he has less of pun and quibble than in his early ones. In The Merchant of Venice, he expressly declares against them. This perhaps might be one criterion to discover the dates of his plays. BLACKSTONE. See Mr. Malone's Attempt to afcertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, and a Note on The cloud-capp'd towers, &c. Act IV. STEEVENS. PERSONS REPRESENTED.* Alonfo, king of Naples. Sebaftian, his brother. Profpero, the rightful Duke of Milan. Antonio, his brother, the ufurping Duke of Milan. Ferdinand, fon to the king of Naples. Gonzalo, an honest old counsellor of Naples. Adrian, Francifco, } lords. Caliban, a favage and deformed flave. Trinculo, a jester. Stephano, a drunken butler. Master of a ship, Boatswain, and Mariners. Miranda, daughter to Profpero. Ariel, an airy Spirit. Iris, Juno, Reapers, Other Spirits attending on Profpero. SCENE, the fea, with a ship; afterwards an uninhabited island. * This enumeration of persons is taken from the folio 1623. STEEVENS. TEMPEST. ACT I. SCENE I. On a Ship at Sea. A Storm with Thunder and Lightning. Enter a Ship-master and a Boatswain. MASTER. Boatswain, BOATS. Here, mafter: What cheer? MAST. Good: Speak to the mariners: fall to't yarely, or we run ourselves aground: beftir, beftir. I [Exit, Boatswain,] In this naval dialogue, perhaps the first example of failor's language exhibited on the stage, there are, as I have been told by a skilful navigator, some inaccuracies and contradictory orders. JOHNSON. The foregoing observation is founded on a mistake. Thefe orders should be confidered as given, not at once, but fucceffively, as the emergency required. One attempt to fave the ship failing, another is tried. MALONE. 2 -fall to't yarely,] i. e. Readily, nimbly. Our author is frequent in his use of this word. So, in Decker's Satiromastix: "They'll make his muse as yare as a tumbler." STEEVENS. Here it is applied as a fea-term, and in other parts of the scene. So he uses the adjective, Act V. fc. v: "Our ship is tight and yare." And in one of the Henries : "yare are our ships." To this day the failors fay, "fit yare to the helm." Again, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act II. fc. iii : "The tackles yarely. frame the office." T. WARTON. Enter Mariners. BOATS. Heigh, my hearts; cheerly, cheerly, my hearts; yare, yare: Take in the top-fail; Tend to the master's whistle.-Blow, till thou burst thy wind,3 if room enough! Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO, and others. ALON. Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master? Play the men.4 3 Blow, till thou burst thy wind, &c.] Perhaps it might be read: Blow, till thou burst, wind, if room enough. JOHNSON. Perhaps rather-Blow, till thou burst thee, wind! if room enough. Beaumont and Fletcher have copied this paffage in Thẹ Pilgrim: " Blow, blow west wind, "Blow till thou rive!" Again, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609: "1ft. Sailor. Blow, and split thyself!" Again, in K. Lear: "Blow, winds, and burst your cheeks!" Again, in Chapman's version of the fifth book of Homer's Odyffey: "Such as might shield them from the winter's worst, Again, in Fletcher's Double Marriage: "Blow till you burst the air.-" The allusion in these passages, as Mr. M. Mason observes, is to the manner in which the winds were represented in ancient prints and pictures. STEEVENS. * Play the men.] i. e. act with spirit, behave like men. So, in Chapman's tranflation of the fecond Iliad : "Which doing, thou shalt know what fouldiers play the men, Again, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, 1590, p. 2: "Viceroys and peers of Turkey, play the men." BOATS. I pray now, keep below. ANT. Where is the mafter, Boatswain? BOATS. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour; Keep your cabins: you do affift the storm.5 GON. Nay, good, be patient. BOATS. When the fea is. Hence! What care these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: filence: trouble us not. GON. Good; yet remember whom thou haft aboard. 6 BOATS. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to filence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have lived fo long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap.Cheerly, good hearts.-Out of our way, I fay. [Exit. GON. I have great comfort from this fellow : methinks, he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good fate, to his hanging! make the rope of his destiny Again, in fcripture, 2 Sam. x. 12: "Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people." MALONE. 5 6 affift the Storm.] So, in Pericles : "Patience, good fir; do not affift the storm." STEEVENS. of the present,] i. e. of the present instant. So, in "of the 15th chapter of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians : whom the greater part remain unto this present." STEEVENS. 1 Gonzalo.] It may be observed of Gonzalo, that, being the only good man that appears with the king, he is the only man that preferves his cheerfulness in the wreck, and his hope on the ifland. JOHNSON. |