"The FRAUGHTING souls"-i. e. Constituting the fraught, or freight. The common reading is freighting.

"nor that I am MORE BETTER"-" More better," more sooner, and similar instances of two comparatives together, are not uncommon with the old writers. "Full poor," for perfectly or exceedingly poor, (as, in ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, "full sorry,") is also a common Old-English form of speech, which has become nearly obsolete.

"Our three years old"-i. e. Three years complete. "AND princess no worse issued"-So all the folios. Many editors substitute A for "And," and give the lines thus:and his only heir A princess;-no worse issued.

But the sense is clear as it is given in the text.

111

- call'd ANTONIO"-Mr. Hunter, in his " Disquisition on the Tempest," says "This is another instance of a slight deterioration of Shakespeare's exquisite melody by a useless alteration. A nice ear will be sensible at once that something is lost

My brother, and thy uncle, called Anthonio."

To which Knight replies-"Throughout the play we have the spelling of Anthonio; but are we to understand that, in an age when the Italian language was as familiar as the French is now, Shakespeare meant the h to be pronounced?"

"Be so perfidious"-"This is ordinarily pointedI pray thee mark me-that a brother should

Be so perfidious!

"The gates of Milan"-This has been supposed to be a geographical blunder, or at least to intimate that the author had no exact knowledge of Italian topography, the critics assuming that the Poet represented Milan as a sea-port. Mr. C. A. Browne, who maintains that the accuracy of Shakespeare's allusions and references to Italy and her localities, in all except his very early plays, is such as to show that he wrote from personal observation, replies, that it is true that "Prospero was hurried from Milan, and also hurried aboard a bark; but no distance is specified, nor is it necessary. A man may be hurried from Paris to the sea at Marseilles. State-prisoners, in close carriages, are hurried, to this day, for hundreds of miles, across Italy, as I myself have wit nessed. But this is not all: a common mode of reaching the sea, from Milan, is to travel by land merely to Placenza, and thence in a boat down the wide, deep, and rapid Po."

"A rotten carcass of a BOAT"-In the old copies this is printed "of a butt," which Rowe very naturally presumed to be a misprint for "boat," and so printed it in his edition, which has been followed by all the editors until very lately, when Messrs. Knight and Col lier, who have agreed to differ on so many points of Shakespearian criticism, have here united in restoring butt, as describing the vessel as "even more insecure than the most rotten boat." Mr. Hunter supports the same reading on the principle often asserted by critics, in settling or unsettling the text of classic authors and the original Scriptures, that "Lectio durior prafe renda"-a canon which has been the excuse for much learned extravagance, and may be interpreted thus: "The more difficult (i. e. the more improbable) reading is the most probable." If here we take butt in the sense of a mere hull, something not fit to be called a boat, it may be intelligible; but the context, “not rigg'd, nor tackle, sail, nor mast," seems to demand the word boat, or vessel. The controversy on butt and boat has become somewhat amusing from the indignant zeal with which Mr. Dyce (Remarks) has assailed the last English editors on this point, and the notice the question has attracted in various quarters.

- TRASH for overtopping"-The general meaning of this passage is evident; but Warburton contended that "trash" was used to express the cutting away of superfluities, as of trees that grew too fast, and were therefore "overtopping." And it is said to be so used in old books of gardening. On the other hand, there is no doubt that it was a term of the chase, and Shakespeare employs it in OTHELLO (act ii. scene 1) in this sense, where it is said that dogs are "trashed" for their "quick hunting." Examples are also found in old authors of a similar use, as in Hammond-" clog and trash;" "encumber and trash." The term is said still to be a sporting term, in the North of England, for checking the speed of a dog when he overtops (i. e. outruns) the pack. A "trash," then, means a clog, or weight, fastened around the dog's neck for this purpose.

"To credit his own lie"-This is an involved sentence; but the meaning is clear-"who having made such a sinner unto truth of his memory as to credit his own lie by telling of it." There is a similar thought as antithetically expressed by Tacitus :-" Fingebant simul credebantque"-" They invented falsehood and believed it themselves."

“—in LIEU”—i. e. In consideration of-in exchange for-a sense of the phrase not common, but found also in Beaumont and Fletcher.

scene 2, ("Heaven's cherubin,") restored the old spelling, which many of the best editors have altered, here and elsewhere, to cherubim. "Cherubin" is both the critical and the customary old mode of spelling the singular form of this noun, which came into our language through the Italian. Cherubim is the Hebrew plural of cherub, and was received in English from the Latin of the Church.

"— a CHERUBIN"-I have here, as in MACBETH, act

"By Providence divine"-To Miranda's question of "How came we ashore ?" the other editors make Pros pero answer, " 'By Providence divine;" but his entire narrative is the answer.

"Now I arise"-The commentators are puzzled to know why this should be said, and Blackstone would put in Miranda's mouth, "she expresses a wish to see Gonzalo, and then observes that she may now arise, as the story is ended." But if it be pointed as in the original, without the break in the sense, which some editors give, I do not see the difficulty. The Poet probably to give the scenic effect of variety, which might be lost in so long a dialogue between two persons seated side by side-makes Prospero rise; but as the father wishes Miranda to yield to sleep, he adds, I am rising, but do not you-sit still and hear the rest.

"Now my dear lady"-The antecedent is Fortune, now Prospero's bountiful lady.

"On the curl'd clouds"-This is imitated in Fletcher's "Faithful Shepherdess:"

tell me, sweetest.

What new service now is meetest
For the satyre; shall I stray

In the middle air, and stay

The sailing racke, or nimbly take

Hold by the moon, and gently make
Suit to the pale queen of night,
For a beame to give thee light?
Shall I dive into the sea,

And bring thee coral, making way
Through the rising waves, etc.

"-all his QUALITY"-Ariel's "quality" is not his confederates, as Stevens says, but the powers of his nature as a spirit-his qualification in sprighting.

"Perform'd TO POINT"-i. e. To the minutest article ; literally from the French à point. So, in the "Chances"are you all fit?

To point, sir.

"the still-vex'd BERMOOTHES"-i. e. The Bermudas. These isles were known by both names in Shakespeare's age, and he chose the most solemnly poetical in sound. They were associated, in the imagination of Englishmen of that day, with vague ideas of terror and superstition. Smith, in his account of them, says that they were "so fearful to the world that many called them the Isles of Devils:"

"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 render access to them so dangerous. It was in our Poet's time the current opinion that the Bermudas were inhabited by monsters and devils. Setebos, the god of Caliban's dam, was an American devil, worshipped by the giants of Patagonia."-HENLEY.

It is worthy of remark, that these wild and gloomy associations rapidly gave way to others not less poetical, but of an entirely opposite character. In the next century, the Bermudas had been selected by the excellent Bishop Berkeley as the site of a great American college; and, in his noble verses on the" Advent of Science and Art to America," he hailed from thence "the west

ward course of empire." Still nearer to Shakespeare's age, Andrew Marvell, the Puritan patriot, celebrated the Bermudas in a strain of exquisite poetry, blending the descriptive splendour of Thomson with the pious feeling and simple elegance of Watts.

The Bermudas have become so much associated by comment and controversy with the TEMPEST, and this piece of choice old-fashioned poetry being so little known, I cannot resist the temptation of placing it in contrast with Shakespeare's "still-vex'd Bermoothes :"

Where the remote Bermudas ride
In th' ocean's bosom, unespy'd;
From a small boat, that row'd along,
The list'ning winds received this song:-
What should we do but sing his praise,
That fed us through the wat'ry maze,
Unto an isle so long unknown,

And yet far kinder than our own?
Where He the huge sea-monsters wracks,
That lift the deep upon their backs.
He lands us on a grassy stage,

Safe from the storms and prelates' rage.
He gave us this eternal spring
Which here enamels every thing;
And sends the fowls to us in care,
On daily visits through the air.
He hangs in shades the orange bright,
Like golden lamps in a green night;
And does in the pom'granates close
Jewels more rich than Ormus shows.
He makes the figs our mouths to meet,
And throws the melons at our feet;
But apples plants, of such a price
No tree could ever bear them twice.
With cedars chosen by his hand
From Lebanon, he stores the land;
And makes the hollow seas that roar,
Proclaim the ambergrease on shore.
He cast (of which we rather boast)
The Gospel's pearl upon our coast,
And in these rocks for us did frame
A temple where we sound his name.
Oh! let our voice his praise exalt
Till it arrive at heav'n's high vault,
Which then, perhaps, rebounding may
Echo beyond the Mexique Bay.

Thus sung they, in the English boat,
An holy and a cheerful note;
And all the way, to guide their chime,"
With falling oars they kept their time

11

the Mediterranean FLOTE"-i. e. Wave. (Flot, French.)

"Dost thou forget"-"That the character and conduct of Prospero may be understood, something must be known of the system of enchantment which supplied all the marvellous found in the romances of the middle ages. This system seems to be founded on the opinion that the fallen spirits, having different degrees of guilt, had different habitations allotted them at their expulsion, some being confined in hell, some (as Hooker, who delivers the opinion of our Poet's age, expresses it) dispersed in air, some on earth, some in water, others in caves, dens, or minerals under the earth. Of these, some were more malignant and mischievous than others. The earthly spirits seem to have been thought the most depraved, and the aerial the least vitiated. Thus Prospero observes of Ariel

-thou wast a spirit too delicate

To act her earthly and abhorr'd commands. Over these spirits a power might be obtained by certain rites performed, or charms learned. This power was called the Black Art, or Knowledge of Enchantmentthe enchanter being (as King James observes in his 'Demonology') one who commands the devil, whereas the witch serves him. Those who thought best of this art (the existence of which was, I am afraid, believed very seriously) held, that certain sounds and characters had a physical power over spirits, and compelled their agency; others who condemned the practice, which in reality was surely never practised, were of opinion, with more reason, that the power of charms arose only from compact, and was no more than the spirits voluntarily allowed them for the seduction of man. The art was held by all, though not equally criminal, yet unlawful; and therefore Casaubon, speaking of one who had commerce with spirits, blames him, though he imagines him one of the best kind, who dealt with them by way of command. Thus Prospero repents of his art in the last scene. The spirits were always considered as in some measure enslaved to the enchanter, at least for a time, and as serving with unwillingness; therefore Ariel so often begs for liberty; and Caliban observes, that the spirits serve Prospero with no good will, but hate him rootedly."-JOHNSON.

"-in ARGIER"-" Argier" is the old name of Algiers: the letters r and I are frequently exchanged for each other, according to the genius of the language adopting the word in which they occur.

"We cannot MISS him"-i. e. We cannot do without him: a provincialism (says Malone) of the midland counties of England.

"-thou tortoise! when ?"-A common form of expression in the old dramatists, indicative of impatience.

"-VAST of night"-i. e. Space of night. So, in HAMLET "In the dead waist 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 had different allotments of time suitable to the variety and nature of their agency.

"Fill all thy bones with ACHES"-The word "aches" is evidently a dissyllable here, and in two passages of TIMON OF ATHENS. Scott gives an amusing account of the clamour that was raised against Kemble for his adherence to the text of Shakespeare, in thus pronouncing it as the measure requires. "Ake (says Baret, in his 'Alvearie') is the verb of this substantive 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.

"-SETEBOS"-"The giants when they found them selves fettered roared like bulls, and cried upon Setebos to help them."-EDEN'S Hist. of Travayle, (1577.)

"Foot it featly here and there"-"We follow the punctuation of the original; and this is one of the many instances of a poetical idea being utterly destroyed by false punctuation. In all modern editions the passage stands thus:Courtsied when you have, and kiss'd, (The wild waves whist,)

Foot it featly here and there. Stevens explains the lines in parenthesis as the wild waves being silent. Then, of course, the spirits have courtsied (paid courtesies to) themselves, and kissed themselves. But look at the exquisite beauty of the invocation, as written by the Poet: When you have courtsied to the wild waves, and kissed them into silenceFoot it featly here and there." KNIGHT. ["Dispersedly"]-This is the stage-direction of the folios, meaning that the Burden is to be heard in several places at the same time. The songs are given as in the old copies, from which there seems no sufficient reason to depart. Later editors, except Knight, have arranged the lines otherwise.

"If you be MAID"-This is the reading of the three earliest folios. Ferdinand has supposed Miranda a god. dess, and now inquires if she be really a mortal; not a celestial being, but a maiden. "Maid" is used in its general sense. Miranda's answer is to be taken in the same sense as Ferdinand's question. In the fourth folio, "maid" is altered to made, which Warburton, Farmer, and others, take in the sense of created, mor tal, as opposed to goddess; and it is thus printed in very many editions.

"I'll manacle thy head and feet together"-We subjoin an engraving, which explains this threat better than any description.

"—and not FEARFUL"-"Fearful" was sometimes used in the sense of formidable, terrible, dreadful, like the French épouvantable; as may be seen by consult ing Cotgrave, or any of our old dictionaries. Shakespeare almost always uses it in this sense. In KING HENRY VI., (act iii. scene 2)-"A mighty and a fearful head they are." He has also fearful wars, fearful bravery, etc.

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 dram atists were understood at the Restoration, that Dryden censures Jonson for an improper use of this word, the sense of which he altogether mistakes."

66

head? Shall that which I tread upon give me law? My FOOT my TUTOR"-i. e. Shall my heel teach my

ACT II.-SCENE I. "HINT of woe"-Gonzalo calls it "hint of woe," in reference to its comparative triflingness.

"The masters of some MERCHANT"-" Merchant" is here used for merchant-vessel-merchantman. Dryden employs it in a similar way-" As convoy-ships either accompany or should accompany their merchants." The "masters of some merchant" signifies, therefore, the owners of some trading-vessel; but in the second instance, the "merchant" must mean the trader, whose goods are ventured in the merchantman. It has been suggested that "masters" is a misprint for mistress, which is not improbable, and would take away the harshness of thus using "merchant" in two different senses in the same breath.

11

— you're paid”—i. e. You are paid by having obtained the laugh. There is no need of change, yet Stevens altered it to "you've paid," and Knight proposes to assign the speech to Sebastian.

"TEMPERANCE was a delicate wench"-Adrian uses "temperance" for temperature, and Antonio jokes upon it by adverting to the fact that Temperance was also a woman's name. In puritanical times, as Stevens remarks, it was not unusual to christen female children by the names of any of the cardinal virtues.

"How LUSH and lusty"—" Lush" is juicy, or luxuriant, as applied to vegetation. Todd and Nares cite passages from old authors showing that it means juicy,

succulent.

"an EYE of green"-An "eye" means a small shade of colour; as in Sandys's "Travels," (lib. i. :)— "Cloth of silver, tissued with an eye of green."

"Letters should not be known"-Our author (says Malone) has here closely followed a passage in Montaigne's" Essayes," translated by John Florio, (1603 :)— "It is a nation, would I answere Plato, that hath no kinde of trafficke, 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, falsehood, treason, dissimulation, covetousness, envie, detraction, and pardon, were never heard amongst them." (Book i. chap. xxx.) The verbal coincidences show that he used this translation, and not the French original. A copy of Florio's "Montaigne," bearing the undoubted autograph of Shakespeare, has been discovered within these few years.

"To excel the golden age”—So Montaigne, just before the passage already quoted:-"Me seemeth that what in those [newly discovered] nations wee see by experience, doth not onlie exceede all the pictures wherewith licentious poesie hath prowdly embellished the golden age, and al hir quaint inventions to faine a happy condition of man, but also the conception and desire of philosophie."

Hazlitt remarks that, in this scene, "Shakespeare has anticipated nearly all the arguments in the Utopian schemes of moderu philosophy."

"Trebles thee o'er"-i. e. Makes thee three times what thou now art.

"I'll teach you how to FLow"-"Sebastian introduces the simile of water. It is taken up by Antonio, who says he will teach his stagnant water 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, (Nov. 1786.)

-from Naples"-Stevens has treated this as a remarkable instance of Shakespeare's ignorance of geog. raphy; but though the real distance between Naples and Tunis is not so immeasurable, the intercourse in early times between the Neapolitans and the Tunisians was not so frequent as to make it popularly considered other than a formidable voyage.

"A CHOUGH of as DEEP CHAT"-i. e. I could make a jackdaw talk as profoundly.

"if it were a KYBE"-i. e. If conscience were a chilblain, it would mar my activity.

"That's VERITY"-The folio has verily, which, as a misprint, has been corrected into "verity," in all succeeding editions since Pope's, except Collier's, which retains verily. The sense indicates the propriety of the correction.

SCENE II.

"a foul BOMBARD"-A "bombard" was the name of a large vessel for containing drink, as well as a piece of artillery.

"I have no long spoon"-Shakespeare gives his characters appropriate language:-" They belch forth proverbs in their drink;" "Good liquor will make a cat speak;" and "He who eats with the devil had need of a long spoon." The last is again used in the COMEDY OF ERRORS, (act iv. scene 2.)

"Young SEA-MALLS from the rock"-The old copies have scammels from the rock-a word not found in any other place, nor known as belonging to any obsolete or provincial idiom. It has been conjectured to mean some sort of scollop, or shell-fish; but to these this epithet young would have no special application as recommending them. Sea-mall, or sea-mell, is the reading proposed by Theobald, which is the popular English name for the sea-gull; which birds, when young, (says an old writer,) "were accounted a good dish at the most plentiful tables." Dyce conjectures staniels to have been the author's word, (i. e. young mountain-hawks)—a word used in the TWELFTH NIGHT. Either reading may be the right one, and will make little difference in the general sense and poetry.

ACT III.-SCENE I.

- I FORGET”—This is to be understood as reminding himself that he forgets his task, to which he must now return. Z. Jackson ("Shakespeare's Genius," etc.) ingeniously conjectures "forget" to be a misprint for forgive't, which would make a more connected sense. The change is not necessary, though he may possibly have hit upon the original word.

"Most busy, LEAST when I do it"-With Collier, we return to the old reading; for busy-less seems to make the sense no clearer. I understand the old text to say, that his thoughts are most busy when he is least employed in his labours.

SCENE II.

"What a PIED ninny's this! Thou scurvy PATCH!"Trinculo, as a jester, would be dressed in motley, and hence Caliban's allusion to his particoloured appearance. Pied" was an epithet applied to fools, and "patch" a name by which they were often called.

"He's but a sor"-Modern usage has so limited the word "sot" to the sense of a sluggish, dull drunkard, that the general reader may mistake its meaning here. But in its older use, it corresponded with the French sot, from whence it is derived; and meant merely a stupid, dull person.

"Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises"—" In conducting Stephano and Trinculo to Prospero's cell,