Re-enter ARIEL, like a water-nymph.

Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel,

Hark in thine ear.

Ari.

My lord, it shall be done. [Exit.

Pro. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil

himself

Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!

Enter CALIBAN.

Cal. As wicked dew' as e'er my mother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholesome fen, Drop on you both! a south-west blow on ye, And blister you all o'er.

Pro. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps,

Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins Shall, for that vast of night that they may work," All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch'd

As thick as honey-combs, each pinch more stinging Than bees that made them.

Cal.

I must eat my dinner. This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,

6

7

5 Cal. As wicked dew-] Wicked, having baneful qualities. urchins-] i. e. hedgehogs; or perhaps, here, fairies. -for that vast of night that they may work,] The vast of night means the night which is naturally empty and deserted, without action; or when all things lying in sleep and silence, makes the world appear one great uninhabited waste.

Vastum is likewise the antient law term for waste, uncultivated land.

It should be remembered, that, in the pneumatology of former ages, these particulars were settled with the most minute exactness, and the different kinds of visionary beings had different allotments of time suitable to the variety or consequence of their employments. During these spaces, they were at liberty to act, but were always obliged to leave off at a certain hour, that they might not interfere in that portion of night which belonged to others.

Which thou tak'st from me. When thou camest

first,

Thou strok'dst me, and mad'st much of me; would'st

give me

Water with berries in't; and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night: and then I lov'd thee,
And shew'd thee all the qualities o' the isle,

The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place, and fertile;

Cursed be I that did so!-All the charms

Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have,

Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me

The rest of the island.

Pro.

Thou most lying slave,

Whom stripes may move, not kindness: I have us❜d

thee,

Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodg'd thee In mine own cell, till thou did'st seek to violate The honour of my child.

Cal. O ho, O ho !-'would it had been done! Thou did'st prevent me; I had peopled else This isle with Calibans.

Pro.

Abhorred slave;

Which any print of goodness will not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,

Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour

One thing or other: when thou did'st not, savage, Know thine own meaning,' but would'st gabble like

8 Oho! O ho!] This savage exclamation was originally and constantly appropriated by the writers of our ancient Mysteries andMoralities, to the Devil; and has, in this instance, been transferred to his descendant Caliban. STEEVENS.

9

when thou didst not, savage,

A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes
With words that made them known: But thy vile

race,'

Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good

natures

Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou
Deservedly confin'd into this rock,

Who had'st deserv'd more than a prison.

Cal. You taught me language; and my profit

on't

Is, I know how to curse: the red plague rid you," For learning me your language!

Pro. Hag-seed, hence ! Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou wert best, To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice? If thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly

What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps; Fill all thy bones with aches; make thee roar That beasts shall tremble at thy din.

Cal.

No, pray thee!I must obey his art is of such power, It would control my dam's god, Setebos,3 And make a vassal of him.

Pro.

[Aside.

Know thine own meaning,] By this expression, however defective, the poet seems to have meant-When thou didst utter sounds, to which thou hadst no determinate meaning.

But thy vile race,] Race, in this place, seems to signify original disposition, inborn qualities.

2

the red plague rid you,] The erysipelas was antiently called the red plague. The word rid, means to destroy.

3

my

dam's god, Setebos,] Mr. Warner has observed, on the authority of John Barbot, that "the Patagons are reported to dread a great horned devil called Setebos." We learn from Magellan's voyage, that Setebos was the supreme god of the Patagons, and Cheleule was an inferior one. Setebos is also mentioned in Hackluyt's Voyages, 1598.

4

Re-enter ARIEL invisible, playing and singing ;
FERDINAND following him.

ARIEL'S Song.

Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands :

Court'sied when you have, and kiss'd,'

(The wild waves whist,)

Foot it featly here and there;

And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.

Hark, hark!

Fer. Where should this musick be? i' the air, or

the earth?

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,

6

4 Re-enter Ariel invisible,] In the wardrobe of the Lord Admiral's men (i. e. company of comedians,) 1598, was "a robe for to goo invisebell.”

5 Court'sied when you have, and kiss'd,] As was anciently done at the beginning of some dances.

Weeping again the king my father's wreck,] Thus the old copy; but in the books of Shakspeare's age again is sometimes printed instead of against, [i. e. opposite to,] which I am persuaded was our author's word. The placing Ferdinand in such a situation that he could still gaze upon the wrecked vessel, is one of Shakspeare's touches of nature. Again is inadmissible; for this would import that Ferdinand's tears had ceased for a time; whereas he himself tells us, afterwards, that from the hour of his father's wreck they had never ceased to flow:

Myself am Naples,

This musick 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.

ARIEL sings.

Full fathom five thy father lies;"
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his
eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell :

Hark! now I hear them,-ding-dong, bell.

[Burden, ding-dong.'

Fer. The ditty does remember my drown'd father:

"Who with mine eyes, ne'er since at ebb, beheld

"The king my father wreck'd." MALONE.

By the word again, I suppose the prince means only to describe the repetition of his sorrows. Besides, it appears from Miranda's description of the storm, that the ship had been swallowed by the waves, and, consequently, could no longer be an object of sight. STEEVENS.

7 Full fathom five thy father lies; &c.] The songs in this play, Dr. Wilson, who reset and published two of them, tells us, in his Court Ayres, or Ballads, published at Oxford, 1660, that "Full fathom five," and "Where the bee sucks," had been first set by Robert Johnson, a composer contemporary with Shakspeare.

8 Nothing of him that doth fade,

BURNEY.

But doth suffer a sea-change-] Every thing about him, that is liable to alteration, is changed.

9 But doth suffer a sea-change-] So, in Milton's Masque : "And underwent a quick immortal change.”

STEEVENS.

'The same burthen to a song occurs in The Merchant of Venice. It should here be

Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong bell.