Gonza. Not since widow Dido's time. Anto. Widow! a pox o' that! How came that widow in? widow Dido! Sebas. What if he had said widower Æneas too? Good Lord, how you take it! Adri. Widow Dido, said you? you make me study of that she was of Carthage, not of Tunis. Gonza. This Tunis, sir, was Carthage. Adri. Carthage ! Gonza. I assure you, Carthage. Anto. His word is more than the miraculous harp.10 Anto. What impossible matter will he make easy next? Sebas. I think he will carry this island home in his pocket, and give it his son for an apple. Anto. And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring forth more islands. Alon. Ah! Anto. Why, in good time. Gonza. Sir, we were talking that our garments seem now as fresh as when we were at Tunis at the marriage of your daughter, who is now Queen. Anto. And the rarest that e'er came there. Anto. O, widow Dido; ay, widow Dido. Gonza. Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I wore it? I mean, in a sort. Anto. That sort was well fish'd for.11 10 Amphion, King of Thebes, was a prodigious musician: god Mercury gave him a lyre, with which he charmed the stones into their places, and thus built the walls of the city: as Wordsworth puts it, "The gift to King Amphion, that wall'd a city with its melody." Tunis is in fact supposed to be on or near the site of ancient Carthage. 11 A punning allusion, probably, to one of the meanings of sort, which was lot or portion; from the Latin sors. Gonza. When I wore it at your daughter's marriage? I ne'er again shall see her. — O thou mine heir Fran. Sir, he may live: I saw him beat the surges under him, And ride upon their backs; he trod the water, The surge most swoln that met him; his bold head To th' shore, that o'er his 14 wave-worn basis bow'd, He came alive to land. Alon. No, no, he's gone. Sebas. Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss, That would not bless our Europe with your daughter, But rather lose her to an African; Where she, at least, is banish'd from your eye, Who 16 hath cause to wet the grief on't. 12 That is, "when the state of my feelings does not relish them, or has no appetite for them." Stomach for appetite occurs repeatedly. 13 Rate for reckoning, account, or estimation. 14 His for its, referring to shore. In the Poet's time its was not an accepted word: it was then just creeping into use; and he has it occasionally, especially in his later plays; as it occurs once or twice in this play. 15 Here as is put for as if; a very frequent usage with the Poet, as also with other writers of the time. 16 Who and which were used indifferently both of persons and things. Here who refers to eye. And the meaning probably is, "your eye, which hath cause to sprinkle or water your grief with tears." This would of course Alon. Pr'ythee, peace. Sebas. You were kneel'd to, and impórtuned otherwise, By all of us; and the fair soul herself Weigh'd, between loathness and obedience, at Which end the beam should bow.17 We've lost your son, I fear, for ever: Milan and Naples have More widows in them of this business' making Than we bring men to comfort them: the fault's Alon. So is the dear'st o' the loss.18 My Lord Sebastian, The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness, Sebas. Anto. And most chirurgeonly. 19 Very well. Gonza. It is foul weather in us all, good sir, When you are cloudy.20 Sebas. Anto. Foul weather! Very foul. Gonza. Had I plantation 21 of this isle, my lord,— make the grief grow stronger. "The grief on't" is the grief arising from it or out of it; that is, from the loss or banishment of Claribel. 17 Hesitated, or stood in doubt, between reluctance and obedience, which way the balance should turn or incline. To weigh is to deliberate, and hence to pause, to be in suspense, or to suspend action. 18 Dear was used of any thing that causes strong feeling, whether of pleasure or of pain; as it hurts us to lose that which is dear to us. See vol. v. page 227, note 6. 19 Chirurgeon is the old word, which has got transformed into surgeon. 20 The meaning is, "your gloom makes us all gloomy." A cloud in the face is a common metaphor both for anger and for sorrow. 21 In Shakespeare's time a plantation meant a colony, and was so used of the American colonies. Here plantation is a "verbal noun," and means the colonizing. Sebas. Or docks, or mallows. Gonza. - And were the king on't, what would I do? Sebas. 'Scape being drunk for want of wine. Gonza. I' the commonwealth I would by contraries And women too, but innocent and pure; No sovereignty: Sebas. Yet he would be king on't. Anto. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning. Gonza. – All things in common Nature should produce Without sweat or endeavour: treason, felony, Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,2 23 Sebas. No marrying 'mong his subjects? Anto. None, man; all idle, —whores and knaves. 22 Succession is the tenure of property by inheritance, as the son succeeds the father.- Bourn is boundary or limit. Properly it means a stream of water, river, rivulet, or brook; these being the most natural boundaries of landed property.— Tilth is tillage: also used of land tilled, or prepared for sowing. So in Measure for Measure, iv. 1: “Our corn's to reap, for yet our tilth's to sow." 23 Engine was applied to any kind of machine: here it probably means furniture of war. 24 Foison is an old word for plenty or abundance of provision, especially of the fruits of the soil. Often used so by the Poet." T'excel the golden age.25 Sebas. God save his Majesty ! Anto. Long live Gonzalo ! Gonza. And, - do you mark me, sir? Alon. Pr'ythee, no more: thou dost talk nothing to me. Gonza. I do well believe your Highness; and did it to minister occasion to these gentlemen, who are of such sensible 26 and nimble lungs, that they always use to laugh at nothing. Anto. "Twas you we laugh'd at. Gonza. Who in this kind of merry fooling am nothing to you: 27 so you may continue, and laugh at nothing still. Anto. What a blow was there given ! Sebas. An it had not fallen flat-long.28 Gonza. You are gentlemen of brave mettle ; 29 you would lift the Moon out of her sphere, if she would 30 continue in it five weeks without changing. Enter ARIEL, invisible; solemn music playing. Sebas. We would so, and then go a bat-fowling.31 25" 'The golden age" is that fabulous period in "the dark backward of time" when men knew nothing of sin and sorrow, and were so wise and good as to have no need of laws and government. Milton, in his Ode on the Nativity, has "Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold." 26 Sensible for sensitive. So in Coriolanus, i. 3: "I would your cambric were sensible as your finger, that you might leave pricking it for pity." 27 Nothing in comparison with you. So the Poet often uses to. 28 The idea is of a sword handled so awkwardly as to hit with the side, and not with the edge. 29 Brave mettle is high, glorious, or magnificent spirit. The Poet often has mettle in that sense. - Sphere, in the next line, is orbit. 30 Our present usage requires should. In Shakespeare's time, the auxiliaries could, should, and would were often used indiscriminately. Again, later in this scene, should not upbraid our course"; should for would. " 31 Bat-fowling was a term used of catching birds in the night. Fielding, in Joseph Andrews, calls it bird-batting, and says" it is performed by holding a large clap-net before a lantern, and at the same time beating the bushes; |