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 NEDL TRANSFER

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SHAKESPEARE

T PLAYS

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9099

THE TEMPEST

WA. WRIGHT
 KE9099

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

From the Library of

JOHN LIVINGSTON LOWES

Professor of English 1918-1930
Francis Lee Higginson Professor of English
Me

Literature 1930-1945

KE ke
 Clarendon Press Series

SHAKESPEARE

SELECT PLAYS

THE TEMPEST

EDITED BY

WILLIAM ALDIS WRIGHT, M. A.

Bursar of Trinity College, Cambridge

Oxford

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

M DCCC LXXX

[ All rights reserved ]

KC 9099

HARVARD
COLLEGE
LIBRARY

45 *310

London

MACMILLAN AND CO.

DOM MINA
INUS 10
ICLV MEA
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PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF

Oxford.
1

PREFACE .

THE Tempest was printed for the first time, so far as we

know, in the folio of 1623 , where it stands first in the volume.
It is divided into acts and scenes, and the locality of the play
is indicated at the end, " The Scene, an uninhabited Island,'
followed by the ' Names of the Actors,' or dramatis personæ,
which are substantially the same as those given in modern
editions.
The date at which The Tempest was written is still uncer
tain, and can be only approximately determined. Among the
'Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court in the
reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I,' edited for the
Shakespeare Society in 1842 by the late Mr. Peter Cunning
ham, appeared the following from the book for the years
1611 , 1612 :— /
By the Kings Hallowmas nyght was presented att Whithall
Players. before ye Kinges Matie A play Called the
Tempest.
It is now ascertained that this entry, and all the others of a
similar kind contained in the books of the Revels numbered
xii and xiii, are undoubted forgeries. The books themselves
disappeared for many years, but were restored in 1868 to their
proper place in the Record Office by the authorities of the
British Museum, to whom they were offered for sale. The
date, 1611 , assigned to the performance of the play in this
spurious entry, agrees however with that given by Malone in
a 2
iv PREFACE.

his ' Account of the Incidents, from which the Title and part
of the Story of Shakespeare's Tempest were derived ; and its
true date ascertained ' ( Shakespeare, ed. Boswell, 1821 ; vol.
xv. pp. 377-434). The conclusion at which Malone arrived,
that ' the circumstances attending the storm by which Sir
George Somers was shipwrecked on the island of Bermuda,
in the year 1609, unquestionably gave rise to Shakespeare's
Tempest, and suggested to him the title, as well as some of the
incidents, of that admirable comedy,' was put forward inde
pendently by Douce in his Illustrations of Shakespeare. If The
Tempest, as is not improbable, be hinted at in the Induction to
Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, this fact supplies an ultimate
limit for the date of the play. The passage in which it is sup
posed to be referred to was pointed out by Theobald, and is
as follows : ' If there bee never a Servant- monster i' the Fayre,
who can helpe it, he sayes ; nor a nest of Antiques ? Hee is loth
to make Nature afraid in his Playes, like those that beget
Tales, Tempests, and such like Drolleries. Bartholomew Fair
was acted at the Hope Theatre, Bankside, on 31st October,
1614, by the Lady Elizabeth's servants. The Winter's Tale,
to which the extract just given appears also to allude, was un
doubtedly among the latest of Shakespeare's plays, and was
acted at court in May 1613. Malone conjectures that it was
licensed about the end of 1610 or beginning of 1611 ; and,
according to Dr. Simon Forman's diary, it was put on the stage
at least as early as May 15, 1611 , when he witnessed the per
formance ofit at the Globe Theatre. Mr. Collier argues that
The Tempest was written before The Winter's Tale, from
the fact that whereas in the latter Shakespeare closely follows
the story of Greene's Pandosto, he departs from it in one
important particular, namely the manner in which Perdita is
exposed in the deserts of Bohemia. In Greene's tale the child
is cast adrift at sea in a sailless and rudderless boat, and Mr.
Collier's suggestion is that Shakespeare purposely varied this
incident in The Winter's Tale because he had already made
use of it in The Tempest. In seeking for a superior limit tothe
 PREFACE. V

date of the play, we come to a passage which was pointed out

by Steevens as having possibly suggested to Shakespeare the
lines in the fourth Act, beginning ' The cloud-capt towers,'
&c. It is from ' The Tragedie of Darius,' written by William
Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling, and originally published
at Edinburgh in 1603. The following quotation is from the
London edition of 1604, sig. H recto, Act. iv. Scene 2
' Let greatnesse of her glascie scepters vaunt ;
Not sceptours, no, but reeds, soone brus'd soone broke :
And let this worldlie pomp our wits inchant.
All fades, and scarcelie leaues behinde a token.
Those golden Pallaces, those gorgeous halles,
With fourniture superfluouslie faire :
Those statelie Courts, those sky-encountring walles
Evanish all like vapours in the aire.'
There is certainly sufficient resemblance to warrant the quo
tation of this as a parallel passage, but hardly enough to justify
any inference with regard to priority of date. But there is
another fact which seems to fix 1603 as a superior limit to the
date of the play, and it is this : that Florio's translation of
Montaigne's Essays, from which the passage in Act ii. Scene 1 ,
lines 147 &c., is evidently borrowed, was not published till
that year. We know that Shakespeare possessed this book,
for a copy with his autograph is now in the British Museum.
It may therefore be fairly assumed that The Tempest was
written between the years 1603 and 1614, and nearer the
latter than the former limit. Malone states, on the authority
of Mr. George Vertue's MSS., that it ' was acted by John
Heminge and the rest of the King's Company, before Prince
Charles, the lady Elizabeth, and the Prince Palatine Elector,
in the beginning of the year 1613.' If Mr. Collier's conjecture
is right, that The Tempest was written before The Winter's
Tale, this would place the time of its composition not later than
1610, for The Winter's Tale was written and acted as early as
May 1611. Again, supposing the theory of the origin of the
play advanced by Malone and Douce to be true, and it is, to
say the least, a very reasonable conjecture, we then arrive at
vi PREFACE.

a further approximation to its date. The fleet, under the

command of Sir George Somers, was overtaken by a tempest,
and the admiral-ship, the ' Sea-venture,' was wrecked off the
Bermudas. The crew landed on July 28, 1609 , and were
given up for lost ; but having built themselves two vessels
of cedar, they set sail from the Bermudas on May 10, 1610,
landed on the coast of Virginia on May 24, and ultimately em
barked for England on June 8 in the same year. An account
of the wreck was written by Silvester Jourdan, one of the
survivors, with the title, ' A discovery of the Barmudas, other
wise called the Ile of Divels : by Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George
Sommers, and Captayne Newport, with diuers others.' The
date of the dedication ‘is October 13 , 1610. The tract is re
printed in the fifth volume of Hakluyt's Voyages (ed. 1812 ),
pp. 551-558 . Another account, by William Strachey, is given
in Purchas, vol. iv. p. 1734, &c. For some months after the
news of the disaster reached England the fate of the admiral
ship and of those on board was still a matter of uncertainty ;
and a pamphlet was issued by the Council of Virginia in
December 1609, or January 1610, for the purpose of counter
acting the gloomy impression produced by the calamity. It is
evident from this fact that the subject was one which deeply,
affected the minds of the people, and although it is quite
possible that Shakespeare might have raised a storm at his
pleasure, there is no a priori improbability in the supposition
that his thoughts may have been influenced by what must have
been the topic of common conversation ; and the reference to
the ' still-vext Bermoothes ' would be more natural while the
memory of such an event was fresh. Malone, after quoting
the account of the storm given by Ariel in Act i. Scene 2,
sums up the points of resemblance to the passage in the
pamphlet of Jourdan and another which was subsequently
issued by the Council of Virginia, apparently from materials
supplied by Sir Thomas Gates. ' It is obvious, that we have
here a covert allusion to several circumstances minutely
described in the papers quoted in the preceding pages ; to the
 PREFACE. vii

circumstance of the Admiral-ship being separated from the

rest of Somers's fleet, and, after a tremendous tempest, being
jammed between two of the Bermuda rocks, and " fast lodged
and lock'd,” as Jourdan expresses it, “ for further budging " ; to
the disaster happening very near the shore, and not a single
person having perished ; to the mariners having fallen asleep
from excessive fatigue ; to the dispersion of the other ships ;
to the greater part of them meeting again, as the Council of the
Virginian Company have it, " in consort " ; and to all those who
were thus dispersed and thus met again, being " bound sadly" for
Virginia, supposing that the vessel which carried their governor
was lost, and that his " great person had perished." In various
other passages in the second Act,-where the preservation of
Alonzo and his companions is termed “ miraculous " ; where
Stephano asks, “ have we devils here ? "—where the same
person makes a very free use of his bottle, and liberally im
parts it to Caliban and Trinculo ;—where it is said, "though
this island seem to be desert, uninhabitable, and almost in
accessible, it must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate
temperance "; that " the air breathes most sweetly," and that
"there is everything advantageous to life," we find evident
allusions to the extraordinary escape of Somers and his associ
ates, and to Jourdan's and Gates's descriptions of Bermuda ; as
in the first scene of the play, the circumstances of the sailors
and passengers taking leave of each other, and bidding farewell
to their wives and children, was manifestly suggested by the
earlier of those narratives.' It is of course possible to make
too much of coincidences of this kind ; but, in the absence of
positive proof, there appears to be reasonable ground for the
conclusion that The Tempest was written about the end of
1610 or the beginning of 1611. Apart from the storm, the
only mark of time which occurs in the play is to be found in
Act ii. Scene 2 , where Trinculo says, ' When they will not give
a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a
dead Indian.' But it is impossible from this to draw any con
clusion with regard to the date ; for Frobisher, in 1576, had
viii PREFACE.

brought home from his voyage to Cataya some ' strange kinde
of people,' one of whom had died after his arrival in England.
Again, in 1605, Captain George Waymouth brought home five
Indians from Virginia ; and in 1608 Captain Harlow returned
from Cape Cod with five others ; one of whom, says Malone,
'was named Epinew, or Epinow, a man of extraordinary stature
and strength, who was exhibited for money in various parts of
London.' Some of these may have died in England and been
made a show of, but the reference is too vague to enable us to
restrict it to any particular event.
The late Mr. Hunter, in his ' Disquisition on the scene,
origin, date, &c. &c ., of Shakespeare's Tempest,' argued for a
much earlier date. He conjectures that the play is mentioned
by Meres in 1598 , in the well-known passage of his Palladis
Tamia, under the title of ' Love Labours Won,' and that
it is satirically alluded to in Ben Jonson's ' Every Man in his
Humour,' which he says was acted as early as November 1596.
This last statement is founded on an entry in Henslowe's
diary, under the date Nov. 25, 1596, where the play called
'the Umers ' is supposed, though without sufficient reason,
to be the same with ' Every Man in his Humour.' The
latter was certainly acted at the Globe Theatre by the Lord
Chamberlain's servants in 1598, and Shakespeare himself
played in it. The prologue does not appear in the quarto
edition of 1601 , and was not printed till the folio edition
of Jonson's works was published in 1616. It is scarcely
probable that Jonson would have satirised Shakespeare in
the prologue to a play in which he was one of the actors,
and therefore we must conclude either that no reference
to Shakespeare is intended or that the prologue was written
later. In either case no conclusion can be drawn with regard
to the date of The Tempest. The following are the lines in
which Shakespeare's play is supposed to be alluded to : —

' Nor creaking throne comes downe, the boyes to please :

Nor nimble squibbe is seene to make afear'd
The gentlewomen ; nor roul'd bullet heard
 PREFACE. ix

To say, it thunders ; nor tempestuous drumme

Rumbles, to tell you when the storme doth come.'
'Who but Caliban,' says Mr. Hunter, ' can be intended in
the line,
"You, that have so graced monsters, may like men? "
To what, in the dramatic representations of the time, can
the line,
"Nor creaking throne comes down, the boys to please,"
be referred with more probability than to the descent of Juno
in the Masque ? ' With reference to Mr. Hunter's argument,
it must be observed that there is no evidence of the existence
ofthe prologue to Every Man in his Humour, before 1616. The
fact that it does not appear in the quarto of 1601 makes it prob
able that it was written subsequently, and if so, it may even
have been added after the later date which may more properly
be assigned to The Tempest. This of course presumes that the
latter play is the subject of allusion in the prologue, which is
by no means free from doubt. Mr. Hunter further supports
his theory of the early date ( 1596), by maintaining that the
return of Sir Walter Ralegh from his expedition to Guiana is
distinctly alluded to in the play ; and that Shakespeare intended
to cast ridicule upon the travellers' stories which Ralegh told
in a pamphlet published in 1596 , giving an account of his ad
ventures. But, taking into consideration the internal evidence
derived from the style and metre of the play, these alone
would lead us to assign it to a late rather than to an early
period in Shakespeare's dramatic career, and therefore we can
only regard Mr. Hunter's speculations as extremely ingenious
and interesting conjectures, but still as conjectures merely,
based upon very large assumptions. He assumes, for instance,
that the Tempest is mentioned by Meres in 1598 as Love
Labours Won. He assumes that it is satirised in the pro
logue to Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour ; that this
play is the same with ' The Umers ' of Henslowe's Diary ; that
it was therefore acted in 1596 ; that the prologue was written
X PREFACE.

at the same time ; and finally that Shakespeare intended to cast

ridicule upon Sir Walter Ralegh's narrative of his expedition
to Guiana, which was published in the same year. All these
assumptions appear to be based upon the very slightest founda
tions. It is curious that the same play of Ben Jonson's is ap
pealed to by Farmer in proof that The Tempest is later in
date ; for in the original Every Man in his Humour, in which
Shakespeare acted in 1598, were two characters, Prospero
and Stephano. ' Here,' says Farmer, ' Ben Jonson 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 Stephāno, signify, I pray you," &c.'

To make the history of conjecture with regard to the date
of The Tempest complete, it may be as well to add the re
marks of Douce, to which reference has already been made.
After mentioning the narrative of Silvester Jourdan and
Strachey's Proceedings of the English colonie in Virginia,
1612 , 4to., he says : ' From these accounts it appears that the
Bermudas had never been inhabited, but regarded as under
the influence of inchantment ; though an addition to a subse
quent edition of Jourdan's work gravely states that they are
not inchanted; that Sommers's ship had been split between two
rocks ; that during his stay on the island several conspiracies
had taken place ; and that a sea-monster in shape like a man,
had been seen, who had been so called after the monstrous
tempests that often happened at Bermuda ' ( Illustrations of
Shakespeare, ed. 1839 , p. 4) . As an additional point of resem
blance between the incidents of the wreck in the play and
those of the storm encountered by the Virginian fleet in 1609,
it is worth while to quote the following from Strachey's ac
 PREFACE. xi

count as given in Purchas, iv. p. 1737, comparing it with The

،
Tempest, i. 2. 196-201 : Onely vpon the thursday night Sir.
George Summers being vpon the watch, had an apparition of a
little round light, like a faint Starre, trembling, and streaming
along with a sparkeling blaze, halfe the height vpon the Maine
Mast, and shooting sometimes from Shroud to Shroud, tempt
ing to settle as it were vpon any of the foure Shrouds : and for
three or foure houres together, or rather more, halfe the night
it kept with vs, running sometimes along the Maine-yard to
the very end, and then returning.'
The next point to be considered is the origin of the play, and
all that is known may be very briefly summed up in the state
ment that no source for the plot has yet been discovered.
Collins, the poet, told Thomas Warton that he had read it
in a novel called Aurelio and Isabella, which was printed in
1588 in Italian, Spanish, French and English ; the Spanish of
Flores being the original. In this, however, he was mistaken.
It is indeed quite possible that Collins may only have been
wrong as to the particular romance he mentioned, and that
he really had seen the story in some Italian original ; for
Boswell, the editor of the Variorum edition of 1821 , had
'been told by a friend that he had some years ago
actually perused an Italian novel which answered to Mr.
Collins's description .' All this is very tantalizing ; and as Mr.
Collier tells us that he has turned over the pages of every
Italian novel anterior to Shakespeare, ' in hopes of finding
some story containing traces of the incidents of " The Tem
pest," but without success,' we must be content to wait for
further light. This being the case, it is hardly worth while'
to speculate upon the sources from which Shakespeare may
have derived the names of his principal characters. They are,
most of them, sufficiently common Spanish or Italian names,
and must have occurred frequently in the dramatic literature
of the time. But as he probably found Setebos in Eden's
History of Travaile, 1577 , he may possibly, as Malone suggests,
have taken from the same source the names Alonso, Ferdi
xii PREFACE.

nand, Sebastian, Gonzales (which he changed to Gonzalo),

and Antonio, which occur in that work. Two of the names
of characters in The Tempest, Trinculo and Antonio, were
borrowed by Tomkis in his play Albumazar, which was acted
for the first time in the Hall of Trinity College, Cambridge,
March 9, 1614-15, on the occasion of the visit of the King and
Prince Charles ; and this incidentally favours the supposition
that The Tempest was a comparatively recent play, and was
not written so long before as 1596. The name Ariel may have
been borrowed from the popular demonology. Mr. Thoms
has pointed out (Three Notelets on Shakespeare, p. 22 ) that
it occurs in Heywood's Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells,
p. 216 :
' Others there be that do not doubt to say,
That the foure Elements are forc'd t' obey
Foure severall Angels : Seraph reignes o're Fire ;
Cherub the Aire ; and Tharsis doth aspire
Ouer the Water : and the Earths great Lord,
Ariel. The Hebrew Rabbins thus accord .'
But it is evident that Shakespeare, whatever may have been
the source whence he borrowed it, had his own etymology for
the name, for in the list of Names of the Actors at the end of
the play we find ' Ariell, an ayrie Spirit.' The word of course
is Hebrew, and occurs as the name of a man in Ezra viii. 16.
Before leaving entirely the question of the origin of The
Tempest, it will be as well to mention Tieck's conjecture
with regard to a play by Jacob Ayrer, of Nüremberg, called
' Die schöne Sidea,' which in plot is so remarkably like the
' Tempest,' that Tieck supposed it to have been derived from
an English original now lost, to which also Shakespeare was
indebted for the incidents of his own drama. Mr. Thoms,
in the book already quoted (p . 17), gives the chief points of
parallelism between the two.
' It is true that the scene in which Ayrer's play is laid, and
the names of the personages differ from those of the “ Tem
pest "; but the main incidents of the two plays are all but
identically the same. For instance, in the German drama,
 PREFACE. xifi

Prince Ludolph and Prince Leudegast supply the places of

Prospero and Alonzo. Ludolph, like Prospero, is a magician,
and like him has an only daughter, Sidea-the Miranda of the
"Tempest ”—and an attendant spirit Runcifal, who, though not
strictly resembling either Ariel or Caliban, may well be con
sidered as the primary type which suggested to the nimble
fancy of our great dramatist, those strongly yet admirably con
trasted beings. Shortly after the commencement of the play,
Ludolph having been vanquished by his rival, and with his
daughter Sidea driven into a forest, rebukes her for complain
ing of their change of fortune, and then summons his spirit
Runcifal to learn from him their future destiny, and prospects
of revenge. Runcifal, who is, like Ariel, somewhat " moody,"
announces to Ludolph that the son of his enemy will shortly
become his prisoner. After a comic episode, most probably
introduced by the German, we see Prince Leudegast, with his
son Engelbrecht-the Ferdinand of the " Tempest "—and the
councillors, hunting in the same forest ; when Engelbrecht
and his companion Famulus, having separated from their asso
ciates, are suddenly encountered by Ludolph and his daughter.
He commands them to yield themselves prisoners—they re
fuse, and try to draw their swords, when, as Prospero tells
Ferdinand,
"I can here disarm thee with this stick,
And make thy weapon drop,"
so Ludolph, with his wand, keeps their swords in their scab
bards, paralyses Engelbrecht, and makes him confess his
66 Nerves are in their infancy again,
And have no vigour in them."
and when he has done so gives him over as a slave to Sidea,
to carry logs for her.
' The resemblance between this scene and the parallel scene
in the " Tempest" is rendered still more striking in a late
part of the play, when Sidea, moved by pity for the labours of
Engelbrecht, in carrying logs, declares to him,
"I am your wife, if you will marry me,"
xiv PREFACE.

an event which, in the end, is happily brought about and leads

to the reconciliation of their parents, the rival princes.'
It is remarkable, that while Mr. Hunter was unwilling to
allow that Shakespeare had any particular storm in his mind
while writing The Tempest, he insisted upon determining
the position of Prospero's island with rigid accuracy. Follow
ing Douce, he contended, with the full assurance of conviction,
that this was Lampedusa, an island in the Mediterranean,
midway between Malta and the African coast ; and that Shake
speare's knowledge of it was derived from the unknown ori
ginal on which The Tempest is founded. Dr. Bell ( Shake
speare's Puck and his Folklore, vol. ii. p. 308) , with equal con
fidence, was ' prepared to show, from etymological and geo
graphical grounds, that it could only have been Corcyra which
was intended .' In regard to this point it is impossible not to
sympathise with the hope expressed by an ardent lover of
Shakespeare, whom I regret to have to speak of as the late
Mr. Staunton, after quoting Douce's confident assertion, that
whenever the Italian novel on which the play is founded shall
be discovered, Lampedusa will turn out to be the veritable
island on which the King of Naples was wrecked :—' We fer
vently hope not ; being contented to believe it rose, like a
new Atlantis, at the summons of the poet, and when his magic
work on it was done

"From that day forth the Isle has beene

By wandering sailors never seene :
Some say ' tis buried deepe
Beneath the sea, which breakes and rores
Above its savage rockie shores,
Nor ere is known to sleepe.""

The ballad from which these lines are quoted is called The
Inchanted Island, and was first printed by Mr. Collier in 1839 .
The subject is the same as that of the play on which it is
founded, and its title may have been suggested by that of
Davenant and Dryden's version of The Tempest, which was
produced in 1667, as ' The Tempest, or, The Enchanted
 PREFACE. XV

Island.' In any case, it is subsequent in date to Shakespeare's

work and cannot have been, as a writer in the Quarterly Review
(vol. lxv. p. 474) was inclined to believe it to be, ' anterior to
the play, and to have afforded the groundwork of the plot.'
The travesty of The Tempest by Davenant and Dryden,
to which reference has just been made, is best described by
the latter in the preface which he wrote to the play in 1669,
after Davenant's death. ' It was originally Shakespear's : A
Poet for whom he had particularly a high veneration, and
whom he first taught me to admire. The Play itself had for
merly been acted with success in the Black- Fryers : And our
excellent Fletcher had so great a value for it, that he thought
fit to make use of the same design, not much varied, a second
time. Those who have seen his Sea -Voyage, may easily dis
cern that it was a Copy of Shakespear's Tempest : The Storm ,
the Desart Island, and the Woman who had never seen a Man,
are all sufficient Testimonies of it. But Fletcher was not
the only Poet who made use of Shakespear's Plot : Sir John
Suckling, a profess'd admirer of our Author, has follow'd
his footsteps in his Goblins ; his Regmella being an open
imitation of Shakespear's Miranda, and his Spirits, though
counterfeit, yet are copied from Ariel. But Sir William
Davenant, as he was a man of quick and piercing imagination,
soon found that somewhat might be added to the design of
Shakespear, of which neither Fletcher nor Suckling had ever
thought : And therefore to put the last hand to it, he design'd
the Counter-part to Shakespear's Plot, namely, that of a Man
who had never seen a, Woman ; that by this means those two
Characters of Innocence and Love might the more illustrate
and commend each other. This excellent Contrivance he was
pleas'd to communicate to me, and to desire my assistance in
it.' Dryden concludes the preface with these words, which
have all the appearance of being sincere : ' I am satisfy'd I
could never have receiv'd so much honour, in being thought
the Author of any Poem, how excellent soever, as I shall from
the joyning of my imperfections with the merit and name of
1

xvi PREFACE.

Shakespear and Sir William Davenant.' We may be allowed

to doubt whether Shakespeare would have expressed the same
satisfaction. Se
Not content with finding for the island of Prospero ' a local
habitation and a name,' Mr. Hunter further endeavoured to
prove ' that the story of the Tempest has some relation to
characters and events of real history.' But even granting this
to be true, it can only be true so far as the original novel on
which the play is founded is concerned, and can have nothing
to do with Shakespeare. It is sufficient to refer to Mr. Hun
ter's New Illustrations of Shakespeare, i. 167 , 168, where he b
Ι
states his own position at length.
It remains now for me only to add some remarks upon cer
tain passages of the play which are too long to be inserted in
the notes. The first have reference to the shipwreck in the
first scene, and are professional criticisms of the description
there given. The following was communicated to Malone by
lo
the second Lord Mulgrave, a distinguished naval officer :— th

The first scene of The Tempest is a very striking instance of the

great accuracy of Shakspeare's knowledge in a professional science, the
most difficult to attain without the help of experience. He must have
acquired it by conversation with some of the most skilful seamen of that
time.
The succession of events is strictly observed in the natural pro t
gress of the distress described ; the expedients adopted are the most h
proper that could have been devised for a chance of safety and it is
neither to the want of skill of the seamen or the bad qualities of the
ship, but solely to the power of Prospero, that the shipwreck is to be
attributed.
The words of command are not only strictly proper, but are only
such as point the object to be attained, and no superfluous ones of detail.
Shakspeare's ship was too well manned to make it necessary to tell the
seamen how they were to do it, as well as what they were to do.
He has shown a knowledge of the new improvements, as well as the
doubtful points of seamanship ; one of the latter he has introduced, under
the only circumstances in which it was indisputable.
The events certainly follow too near one another for the strict time
of representation ; but perhaps, if the whole length of the play was
divided by the time allowed by the critics, the portion allotted to this
scene might not be too little for the whole. But he has taken care to
mark intervals between the different operations by exits.
 PREFACE. xvii

Ist Position. 1st Position.

Fall to 't yarely, or we run our Land discovered under the lee ;
selves aground . the wind blowing too fresh to hawl
upon a wind with the topsail set.
Yare is an old sea term for briskly,
in use at that time. This first com
mand is therefore a notice to be
ready to execute any orders quickly.

2nd Position. 2nd Position.

Yare, yare, take in the top-sail, The topsail is taken in. "Blow
blow till thou burst thy wind, if till thou burst thy wind, if room
room enough. enough." The danger in a good
sea boat is only from being too
near the land : this is introduced
here to account for the next order.
ļ 3rd Position. 3rd Position.
Down with the top mast.- Yare, The gale increasing, the topmast
lower, lower, bring her to try with is struck, to take the weight from
the main course. aloft, make the ship drift less to
leeward, and bear the mainsail
under which the ship is laid to.

4th Position . 4th Position.

Lay her a hold, a hold ; set her The ship, having driven near the
two courses, off to sea again, lay shore, the mainsail is hawled up ;
her off. the ship wore, and the two courses
set on the other tack, to endeavour
to clear the land that way.

5th Position. 5th Position .

We split, we split. The ship not able to weather a
point, is driven on shore.'
To these I am glad to be able to add some observations to
the same effect by my friend Captain E. K. Calver, R.N.,
F.R.S. , who has most kindly allowed me to consult him on
many points in which his professional knowledge has been of
the greatest assistance :—
' The craft is in a storm, and the Boatswain's anxiety
is evidently not about the strength of the wind, but the
b
xviii PREFACE.

room at disposal ; " Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room
enough." The special danger was that of being cast upon, or
pressed upon, a lee shore, and like a good sailor the Boatswain
did that which any good sailor would do in the present day, he
struck those masts which would be a hindrance to his getting
off a lee shore (from their producing resistance and not pro
pulsion), and set that canvas which would help to safety.
66
" Down with the topmast !" that is, strike, or lower, the top
mast down to the cap, as it holds wind and retards the ship ;
and evidently the main topmast, as only one is mentioned. It
is to be noted that the illustrations of ships of the period gene
""
rally represent them without a fore topmast. 'Yare, yare !"
carefully and quickly : " lower, lower ! " the topmast. Rigged
as vessels now are, with long topmasts, and short slings and
trusses, a course, or square mainsail or foresail, could not be
set with the topmast struck or lowered ; but with the carracks,
or rudimentary ships of Elizabeth's age (and it is probable
Shakespeare's ship was one of them), with their short, or pole
like topmasts, and lower yards slung a third of the mast down,
such an operation would be comparatively easy. " Bring her
to try with main- course." The main-course and mainsail are
one and the same, and the reason the Boatswain wanted this
set was because it is a sail of great size in the body of the ship,
and propelled by it the ship quickens her rate, keeps closer to
(or in the direction of) the wind, and makes less lee-way (or
drift). "Bring her to try with main-course ; " that is, see if she
will bear the main -course and whether it will be sufficient ; but
in a little time, as the occasion seemed to be more urgent and
the effect of the single sail unsatisfactory, the Boatswain cries
" Lay her a-hold, a-hold ! set her two courses ; off to sea
again ! lay her off!" To understand this order, it is necessary
to keep in mind the Boatswain's view of the circumstances in
which he was placed. He did not care, he said, about the
force of the wind, but he was afraid they had not sea-room.
" Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough ! " makes this
clear, and that there was sufficient cause for alarm upon this
 PREFACE. xix

point is also apparent from a passage in the second scene,

where Prospero, questioning Ariel with reference to the ship
and her perils, asks " But was not this nigh shore ?" and he
replies, " Close by, my master." In short, the Boatswain, in
the first instance, did what appeared to him to be needed ; but
now, after a short interval, whether owing to the sluggishness
of the ship, or to the lee-shore being closer than he had ima
gined, he, unceasingly alive to the danger, and oblivious of the
taunts of the passengers, gave the above order : " Lay her
a-hold, a-hold ! " keep her to the wind, or as close to the wind
as possible . " Set her two courses : " foresail as well as main
sail, or twice the amount of canvas already spread ; and " off
to sea again ; lay her off : " an indication of the object of the
order, or of the necessity for gaining sea-room so as to avoid
shipwreck.'
In Act ii. Sc . i. l. 185 an expression is used which is clearly
explained by the following quotation from Gervase Markham's
Hunger's Prevention ( 1621 ), pp . 98-100. Sebastian says, ' We
would so, and then go a bat fowling.'
' For the manner of Bat-fowling it may be vsed either with
Nettes, or without Nettes : If you vse it without Nettes (which
indeede is the most common of the two) you shall then pro
ceede in this manner. First, there shall be one to cary the
Cresset of fire (as was shewed for the Lowbell) then a cer
taine number as two, three, or foure (according to the great
nesse of your company) and these shall haue poales bound
with dry round wispes of hay, straw, or such like stuffe, or
else bound with pieces of Linkes, or Hurdes, dipt in Pitch,
Rosen, Grease, or any such like matter that will blaze.
' Then another company shal be armed with long poales,
very rough and bushy at the vpper endes, of which the Willow,
Byrche, or long Hazell are best, but indeed according as the
country will afford so you must be content to take.
' Thus being prepared and comming into the Bushy, or
rough ground where the haunts of Birds are, you shall then
first kindle some of your fiers as halfe, or a third part, accord
XX PREFACE.

ing as your prouision is, and then with your other bushy and
rough poales you shall beat the Bushes, Trees, and haunts of
the Birds, to enforce them to rise, which done you shall see
the Birds which are raysed, to flye and play about the lights
and flames of the fier, for it is their nature through their
amazednesse, and affright at the strangenes of the light and
the extreame darknesse round about it, not to depart from it,
but as it were almost to scorch their wings in the same ; so
that those who have the rough bushye poales, may (at their
pleasures ) beat them down with the same, & so take them.
Thus you may spend as much of the night as is darke, for
longer is not conuenient ; and doubtlesse you shall finde much
pastime, and take great store of birds, and in this you shall
obserue all the obseruations formerly treated of in the Lowbell ;
especially, that of silence, vntill your lights be kindled, but
then you may vse your pleasure, for the noyse and the light
when they are heard and seene a farre of, they m ke the
birds sit the faster and surer.'

In bringing this Preface to a close I cannot but express my

regret that in the course of the work I have been deprived of
the advice and assistance of my fellow labourer Mr. W. G.
Clark, who has been unable to continue what we had begun
together. And with this expression of regret I would couple
one of hope that our joint Shakespearian labours, which have
now entered upon their second decade, may shortly be
renewed.
W. A. W.

TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,

29 June, 1874.
y and
nts of
Il see
THE TEMPEST.
lights
their
and DRAMATIS PERSONE.
m it,
ALONSO, King Boatswain.
e ; so SEBASTIAN, hisofbrother
Naples. Mariners.
their PROSPERO, the right Duke of Milan. MIRANDA, daughter to Prospero.
ANTONIO,
of Milan.his brother, the usurping Duke ARIEL, an airy Spirit.
hem . FERDINAND, son to the King of Naples. IRIS,
GONZALO, an honest old Counsellor. CERES,
, for ADRIAN, JUNO, presented by Spirits.
FRANCISCO, f Lords. Nymphs,
uch CALIBAN, a savage and deformed Slave. Reapers,
TRINCULO, a Jester. Other Spirits attending on Prospero.
shall STEPHANO, á drunken Butler.
Master of a Ship. SCENE-A ship at Sea : an island.
bell ;
but
Fght ACT I.
the
SCENE I. On a ship at sea : a tempestuous noise of thunder and
lightning heard.
my Enter a Ship-Master and a Boatswain.
of
G. Mast. Boatswain !
un Boats. Here, master : what cheer?
le Mast. Good, speak to the mariners : fall to 't, yarely, or
ve we run ourselves aground : bestir, bestir. [Exit.
›e Enter Mariners.
Boats. Heigh, my hearts ! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts !
yare, yare ! Take in the topsail. Tend to the master's
whistle. Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough !

Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO,

and others.
Alon. Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master?
Play the men.
Boats. I pray now, keep below. 10
Ant. Where is the master, boatswain ?
B
 THE TEMPEST.

Boats. Do you not hear him ? You mar our labour :

keep your cabins : you do assist the storm .
Gon. Nay, good, be patient.
Boats. When the sea is. Hence ! What cares these
roarers for the name of king? To cabin : silence ! trouble
us not.
Gon. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard. 18
Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a
counsellor ; if you can command these elements to silence,
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 so long, and make yourself ready in your
cabin for the mischance of the hour, if so hap. Cheerly,
good hearts ! Out of our way, I say. [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 our cable, for our own doth
little advantage. If he be not born to be hanged, our case
is miserable. [Exeunt.
Re-enter Boatswain.
Boats. Down with the topmast ! yare ! lower, lower !
Bring her to try with main-course. [ A cry within.] A
plague upon this howling ! they are louder than the weather
or our office.

Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO.

Yet again ! what do you here ? Shall we give o'er and
drown ? Have you a mind to sink ?
Seb. A plague o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous,
incharitable dog !
Boats. Work you then. 40
Ant. Hang, cur ! hang, you insolent noisemaker ! We
are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.
Gon. I'll warrant him for drowning ; though the ship
were no stronger than a nutshell.
 ACT I. SCENE II. 3
Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold ! set her two courses ; off
to sea again ! lay her off.
Enter Mariners wet.
Mariners. All lost ! to prayers, to prayers ! all lost !
Boats. What, must our mouths be cold ?
Gon. The king and prince at prayers ! let's assist them,
For our case is as theirs.
Seb. I'm out of patience. 50
Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards :
This wide-chapp'd rascal- would thou mightst lie drowning
The washing of ten tides !
Gon. He'll be hang'd yet,
Though every drop of water swear against it
And gape at widest to glut him.
[A confused noise within : —' Mercy on us !—
"We split, we split ! '-' Farewell my wife and children ! '
'Farewell, brother ! ' -' We split, we split, we split ! ']
Ant. Let's all sink with the king. 58
Seb. Let's take leave of him. [Exeunt Ant. and Seb.
Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for
an acre of barren ground, ling, heath, broom, furze, any
thing. The wills above be done ! but I would fain die a
dry death. [Exeunt.

SCENE II . The island. Before PROSPERO'S cell.

Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.

Mir. If by your art, my dearest father, you have

Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch ,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer : a brave vessel,
Who had no doubt some noble creature in her,
Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perish'd.
B 2
4 THE TEMPEST.

Had I been any god of power, I would IO

Have sunk the sea within the earth, or ere
It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and
The fraughting souls within her.
Pros. Be collected :
No more amazement : tell your piteous heart
There's no harm done.
Mir. O, woe the day !
Pros. No harm.
I have done nothing but in care of thee,
Of thee, my dear one, thee, my daughter, who
Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing
Of whence I am, nor that I am more better
Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell, 20
And thy no greater father.
Mir. More to know
Did never meddle with my thoughts.
Pros. 'Tis time
I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand,
And pluck my magic garment from me. So :
[Lays down his mantle.
Lie there, my art. Wipe thou thine eyes ; have comfort.
The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd
The very virtue of compassion in thee,
I have with such provision in mine art
So safely ordered that there is no soul
No, not so much perdition as an hair 30
Betid to any creature in the vessel
Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down ;
For thou must now know farther.
Mir. You have often
Begun to tell me what I am, but stopp'd
And left me to a bootless inquisition ,
Concluding ' Stay : not yet.'
Pros. The hour's now come ;
The very minute bids thee ope thine ear ;
Obey and be attentive. Canst thou remember
 ACT I. SCENE II. 5

A time before we came unto this cell ?

I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not 40
Out three years old.
Mir. Certainly, sir, I can .
Pros. By what ? by any other house or person ?
Of any thing the image tell me that
Hath kept with thy remembrance.
Mir. 'Tis far off,
And rather like a dream than an assurance
That my remembrance warrants . Had I not
Four or five women once that tended me ?
Pros. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is it
That this lives in thy mind ? What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time ? 50
If thou remember'st aught ere thou camest here,
How thou camest here thou mayst.
Mir. But that I do not.
Pros. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since,
Thy father was the Duke of Milan and
A prince of power.
Mir. Sir, are not you my father ?
Pros. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
She said thou wast my daughter ; and thy father
Was Duke of Milan ; and his only heir
A princess, no worse issued.
Mir. O the heavens !
What foul play had we, that we came from thence ? 60
Or blessed was 't we did ?
Pros. Both, both, my girl :
By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heaved thence,
But blessedly holp hither.
Mir. O, my heart bleeds
To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance ! Please you, farther .
Pros. My brother and thy uncle, call'd Antonio—
I pray thee, mark me-that a brother should
6 THE TEMPEST.

Be so perfidious !-he whom next thyself

Of all the world I loved and to him put
The manage of my state ; as at that time 70
Through all the signories it was the first,
And Prospero the prime duke, being so reputed
In dignity, and for the liberal arts
Without a parallel ; those being all my study,
The government I cast upon my brother
And to my state grew stranger, being transported
And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle
Dost thou attend me ?
Mir. Sir, most heedfully.
Pros. Being once perfected how to grant suits,
How to deny them, who to advance and who 80
To trash for over -topping, new created
The creatures that were mine, I say, or changed ' em,
Or else new form'd 'em ; having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state
To what tune pleased his ear ; that now he was
The ivy which had hid my princely trunk,
And suck'd my verdure out on 't. Thou attend'st not.
Mir. O, good sir, I do.
Pros. I pray thee, mark me.
I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness and the bettering of my mind 90
With that which, but by being so retired,
O'er-prized all popular rate, in my false brother
Awaked an evil nature ; and my trust,
Like a good parent, did beget of him
A falsehood in its contrary as great
As, my trust was ; which had indeed no limit,
A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded,
But what my power might else exact, like one
Who having unto truth, by telling of it, 100
Made such a sinner of his memory
To credit his own lie, he did believe
 ACT I. SCENE II.

He was indeed the duke ; out o' the substitution,

And executing the outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative : hence his ambition growing
Dost thou hear ?
Mir. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.
Pros. To have no screen between this part he play'd
And him he play'd it for, he needs will be
Absolute Milan. Me, poor man, my library
Was dukedom large enough : of temporal royalties IIO
He thinks me now incapable ; confederates—
So dry he was for sway-wi' the King of Naples
To give him annual tribute, do him homage,
Subject his coronet to his crown and bend
The dukedom yet unbow'd-alas, poor Milan ! —
To most ignoble stooping.
Mir. O the heavens !
Pros. Mark his condition and the event ; then tell me
If this might be a brother.
Mir. I should sin
To think but nobly of my grandmother :
Good wombs have borne bad sons.
Pros. Now the condition.
This King of Naples, being an enemy 121
To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit ;
Which was, that he, in lieu o' the premises
Of homage and I know not how much tribute,
Should presently extirpate me and mine
Out of the dukedom, and confer fair Milan
With all the honours on my brother ; whereon,
A treacherous army levied, one midnight
Fated to the purpose did Antonio open
The gates of Milan ; and, i' the dead of darkness, 130
The ministers for the purpose hurried thence
Me and thy crying self.
Mir. Alack, for pity !
I, not remembering how I cried out then,
8 THE TEMPEST.

Will cry it o'er again : it is a hint

That wrings mine eyes to 't.
Pros. Hear a little further
And then I'll bring thee to the present business
Which now's upon's ; without the which this story
Were most impertinent .
Mir. Wherefore did they not
That hour destroy us ?
Pros. Well demanded, wench :
My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not,
So dear the love my people bore me, nor set 141
A mark so bloody on the business, but
With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark,
Bore us some leagues to sea : where they prepared
A rotten carcass of a butt, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast ; the very rats
Instinctively have quit it : there they hoist us,
To cry to the sea that roar'd to us, to sigh
To the winds whose pity, sighing back again, 150
Did us but loving wrong.
Mir. Alack, what trouble
Was I then to you!
Pros. O, a cherubin
Thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile,
Infused with a fortitude from heaven,
When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt,
Under my burthen groan'd ; which raised in me
An undergoing stomach, to bear up
Against what should ensue.
Mir. How came we ashore ?
Pros. By Providence divine.
Some food we had and some fresh water that 160
A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,
Out of his charity, who being then appointed
Master of this design, did give us, with
Rich garments, linens, stuffs and necessaries,
 ACT I. SCENE II.

Which since have steaded much ; so, of his gentleness,

Knowing I loved my books, he furnish'd me
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.
Mir. Would I might
But ever see that man !
Pros. Now I arise : [Resumes his mantle.
Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow. 170
Here in this island we arrived ; and here
Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit
Than other princesses can, that have more time
For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.
Mir. Heavens thank you for 't ! And now, I pray you , sir,
For still ' tis beating in my mind, your reason
For raising this sea-storm ?
Pros. Know thus far forth.
By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune,
Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies
Brought to this shore ; and by my prescience 180
I find my zenith doth depend upon
A most auspicious star, whose influence
If now I court not but omit, my fortunes
Will ever after droop. Here cease more questions :
Thou art inclined to sleep ; ' tis a good dulness,
And give it way : I know thou canst not choose.
[Miranda sleeps.
Come away, servant, come. I am ready now.
Approach, my Ariel, come.
Enter ARIEL .
Ari. All hail, great master ! grave sir, hail ! I come
To answer thy best pleasure ; be 't to fly, 190
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
On the curl'd clouds, to thy strong bidding task
Ariel and all his quality.
Pros. Hast thou, spirit,
Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee ?
10 THE TEMPEST.

Ari. To every article.

I boarded the king's ship ; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flamed amazement : sometime I'ld divide,
And burn in many places ; on the topmast,
The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, 200
Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors
O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight-outrunning were not ; the fire and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune
Seem to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.
Pros. My brave spirit !
Who was so firm , so constant , that this coil
Would not infect his reason ?
Ari. Not a soul
But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd
Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners 210
Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel,
Then all afire with me : the king's son, Ferdinand,
With hair up-staring, then like reeds, not hair,—
Was the first man that leap'd ; cried, ' Hell is empty,
And all the devils are here.'
Pros. Why, that's my spirit !
But was not this nigh shore ?
Ari. Close by, my master.
Pros. But are they, Ariel, safe ?
Ari. Not a hair perish'd ;
On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before : and, as thou badest me,
In troops I have dispersed them ' bout the isle. 220
The king's son have I landed by himself ;
Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs
In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting,
His arms in this sad knot.
Pros. Of the king's ship
The mariners say how thou hast disposed
And all the rest o' the fleet.
 ACT I. SCENE II. II

Ari. Safely in harbour

Is the king's ship ; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid :
The mariners all under hatches stow'd ; 230
Who, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour,
I have left asleep and for the rest o' the fleet
Which I dispersed, they all have met again
And are upon the Mediterranean flote,
Bound sadly home for Naples,
Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd,
And his great person perish.
Pros. Ariel, thy charge
Exactly is perform'd : but there's more work.
What is the time o' the day ?
Ari. Past the mid season.
Pros. At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six and now
Must by us both be spent most preciously. 241
Ari. Is there more toil ? Since thou dost give me pains,
Let me remember thee what thou hast promised ,
Which is not yet perform'd me.
Pros. How now? moody ?
What is 't thou canst demand ?
Ari. My liberty.
Pros. Before the time be out ? no more !
Ari. I prithee,
Remember I have done thee worthy service ;
Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, served
Without or grudge or grumblings : thou didst promise
To bate me a full year.
P Pros. Dost thou forget 250
From what a torment I did free thee ?
Ari. No.
Pros. Thou dost, and think'st it much to tread the ooze
Of the salt deep,
To run upon the sharp wind of the north,
12 THE TEMPEST.

To do me business in the veins o' the earth

When it is baked with frost.
Ari. I do not, sir.
Pros. Thou liest, malignant thing ! Hast thou forgot
The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy
Was grown into a hoop ? hast thou forgot her ?
Ari. No, sir. 260
Pros. Thou hast. Where was she born ? speak ; tell me.
Ari. Sir, in Argier.
Pros. O, was she so ? I must
Once in a month recount what thou hast been,
Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch Sycorax,
For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier,
Thou know'st, was banish'd : for one thing she did
They would not take her life . Is not this true ?
Ari. Ay, sir.
Pros. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with child
And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my slave, 271
As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant ;
And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate
To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands,
Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee,
By help of her more potent ministers
And in her most unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine ; within which rift
Imprison'd thou didst painfully remain
A dozen years ; within which space she died 280
And left thee there ; where thou didst vent thy groans
As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this island
Save for the son that she did litter here,
A freckled whelp hag-born- not honour'd with
A human shape.
Ari. Yes, Caliban her son.
Pros. Dull thing, I say so ; he, that Caliban
Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st
 ACT I. SCENE II. 13
What torment I did find thee in ; thy groans
Did make wolves howl and penetrate the breasts
Of ever angry bears : it was a torment 290
To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax
Could not again undo : it was mine art,
When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape
The pine and let thee out.
Ari. I thank thee, master.
Pros. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak
And peg thee in his knotty entrails till
Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.
Ari. Pardon , master ;
I will be correspondent to command,
And do my spriting gently.
Pros. Do so, and after two days
I will discharge thee.
Ari. That's my noble master ! 300
What shall I do ? say what ; what shall I do ?
Pros. Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea : be subject
To no sight but thine and mine, invisible
To every eyeball else. Go take this shape
And hither come in 't : go, hence with diligence ! [Exit Ariel.
Awake, dear heart, awake ! thou hast slept well ;
Awake !
Mir. The strangeness of your story put
Heaviness in me.
Pros. Shake it off. Come on ;
We'll visit Caliban my slave , who never
Yields us kind answer.
Mir. 'Tis a villain, sir, 310
I do not love to look on.
Pros. But, as ' tis,
We cannot miss him : he does make our fire ,
Fetch in our wood and serves in offices
That profit us. What, ho ! slave ! Caliban 67
Thou earth, thou ! speak,
14 THE TEMPEST.

Cal. [Within.] There's wood enough within.

Pros. Come forth, I say ! there's other business for thee :
Come, thou tortoise ! when ?

Re-enter ARIEL like a water-nymph.

Fine apparition ! My quaint Ariel,
Hark in thine ear.
Ari. My lord, it shall be done. [Exit.
Pros. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself
Upon thy wicked dam, come forth ! 321

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 !
Pros. 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 honeycomb, each pinch more stinging 330
Than bees that made ' em.
Cal. I must eat my dinner.
This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou takest from me. When thou camest first,
Thou strokedst me and madest much of me, wouldst 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 loved thee
And show'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 340
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 o' the island.
 ACT I. SCENE II. 15
Pros. Thou most lying slave,
Whom stripes may move, not kindness ! I have used thee,
Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodged thee
In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate
The honour of my child.
Cal. O ho, O ho ! would't had been done ! 350
Thou didst prevent me ; I had peopled else
This isle with Calibans.
Pros. Abhorred slave,
Which any print of goodness wilt 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 didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
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 361
Deservedly confined into this rock,
Who hadst deserved 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 !
Pros. Hag-seed, hence !
Fetch us in fuel ; and be quick, thou'rt 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, 370
Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar
That beasts shall tremble at thy din.
Cal. No, pray thee.
[Aside] I must obey : his art is of such power,
It would control my dam's god, Setebos ,
And make a vassal of him.
Pros. So, slave ; hence ! [Exit Caliban.
16 THE TEMPEST.

Re-enter ARIEL, invisible, playing and singing;

FERDINAND following.
ARIEL'S song.

Come unto these yellow sands,

And then take hands :
Courtsied when you have and kiss'd
The wild waves whist,
Foot it featly here and there ; 380
And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear.
Hark, hark !
Burthen [ dispersedly] . Bow- wow .
Ari. The watch-dogs bark :
Burthen [dispersedly] . Bow-wow.
Ari. Hark, hark ! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow.
Fer. Where should this music be ? i' the air or the earth ?
It sounds no more : and, sure, it waits upon
Some god o' the island. Sitting on a bank,
Weeping again the king my father's wreck, 390
This music 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 4CO
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell :
Burthen. Ding- dong.
Ari. Hark ! now I hear them,-Ding-dong, bell.
 ACT I. SCENE 11. 17

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

This is no mortal business, nor no sound
That the earth owes. I hear it now above me.
Pros. The fringed curtains of thine eye advance
And say what thou seest yond.
Mir. What is 't ? a spirit ?
Lord, how it looks about ! Believe me, sir, 410
It carries a brave form. But ' tis a spirit .
Pros. No, wench ; it eats and sleeps and hath such senses
As we have, such. This gallant which thou seest
Was in the wreck ; and, but he's something stain'd
With grief that's beauty's canker, thou mightst call him
A goodly person : he hath lost his fellows
And strays about to find ' em.
Mir. I might call him
A thing divine, for nothing natural
I ever saw so noble.
Pros. [ Aside.] It goes on, I see, 419
As my soul prompts it. Spirit, fine spirit ! I'll free thee
Within two days for this.
Fer. Most sure, the goddess
On whom these airs attend ! Vouchsafe my prayer
May know if you remain upon this island ;
And that you will some good instruction give
How I may bear me here : my prime request,
Which I do last pronounce , is, O you wonder !
If you be maid or no ?
Mir. No wonder, sir ;
But certainly a maid.
Fer. My language ! heavens !
I am the best of them that speak this speech,
Were I but where ' tis spoken.
Pros. How? the best ? 430
What wert thou, if the King of Naples heard thee ?
Fer. A single thing, as I am now, that wonders
To hear thee speak of Naples. He does hear me ;
C
18 THE TEMPEST.

And that he does I weep : myself am Naples,

Who with mine eyes, never since at ebb, beheld
The king my father wreck'd.
Mir. Alack, for mercy !
Fer. Yes, faith, and all his lords ; the Duke of Milan
And his brave son being twain .
Pros. [Aside.] The Duke of Milan
And his more braver daughter could control thee,
If now 'twere fit to do 't. At the first sight 440
They have changed eyes. Delicate Ariel,
I'll set thee free for this. [To Fer.] A word, good sir ;
I fear you have done yourself some wrong : a word.
Mir. Why speaks my father so ungently ? This
Is the third man that e'er I saw; the first
That e'er I sigh'd for : pity move my father
To be inclined my way!
Fer. O, if a virgin,
And your affection not gone forth, I'll make you
The queen of Naples.
Pros. Soft, sir ! one word more.
[ Aside] They are both in either's powers ; but this swift
business 450
I must uneasy make, lest too light winning
Make the prize light. [To Fer.] One word more ; I charge
thee
That thou attend me : thou dost here usurp
The name thou owest not ; and hast put thyself
Upon this island as a spy, to win it
From me, the lord on 't.
Fer. No, as I am a man.
Mir. There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple :
If the ill spirit have so fair a house,
Good things will strive to dwell with 't.
Pros. Follow me.
Speak not you for him ; he's a traitor. Come ; 460
I'll manacle thy neck and feet together :
 ACT I. SCENE II. 19

Sea-water shalt thou drink ; thy food shall be

The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots and husks
Wherein the acorn cradled. Follow.
Fer. No ;
I will resist such entertainment till
Mine enemy has more power.
[Draws, and is charmed from moving.
Mir. O dear father,
Make not too rash a trial of him, for
He's gentle and not fearful.
Pros. What ? I say,
My foot my tutor ? Put thy sword up, traitor ;
Who makest a show but darest not strike, thy conscience
Is so possess'd with guilt : come from thy ward, 471
For I can here disarm thee with this stick
And make thy weapon drop.
7
Mir. Beseech you, father.
Pros. Hence ! hang not on my garments.
Mir. Sir, have pity ;
I'll be his surety.
Pros. Silence ! one word more
Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What !
An advocate for an impostor ! hush !
Thou think'st there is no more such shapes as he,
Having seen but him and Caliban : foolish wench !
To the most of men this is a Caliban, 480
And they to him are angels.
Mir. My affections
Are then most humble ; I have no ambition
To see a goodlier man.
Pros. Come on; obey :
Thy nerves are in their infancy again
And have no vigour in them.
Fer. So they are ;
My spirits, as in a dream , are all bound up.
My father's loss, the weakness which I feel,
The wreck of all my friends, nor this man's threats,
C 2
20 THE TEMPEST.

To whom I am subdued, are but light to me,

Might I but through my prison once a day 490
Behold this maid : all corners else o' the earth
Let liberty make use of ; space enough
Have I in such a prison.
Pros. [Aside.] It works. [To Fer. ] Come on.
Thou hast done well, fine Ariel ! [ To Fer. ] Follow me.
[To Ariel] Hark what thou else shalt do me.
Mir. Be of comfort ;
My father's of a better nature, sir,
Than he appears by speech : this is unwonted
Which now came from him.
Pros. Thou shalt be as free
As mountain winds : but then exactly do
All points of my command.
Ari. To the syllable. 500
Pros. Come, follow. Speak not for him. [Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE I. Another part of the island.

Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN,

FRANCISCO, and others.
Gon. Beseech you, sir, be merry ; you have cause,
So have we all, of joy ; for our escape
Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe
Is common ; every day some sailor's wife,
The masters of some merchant, and the merchant,
Have just our theme of woe ; but for the miracle,
I mean our preservation, few in millions
Can speak like us : then wisely, good sir, weigh
Our sorrow with our comfort.
Alon. Prithee, peace.
Seb. He receive s comfort like cold porridge. 10
 ACT II. SCENE I. 21

Ant. The visitor will not give him o'er so .

Seb. Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit : by
and by it will strike.
Gon. Sir,
Seb. One : tell.
Gon. When every grief is entertain'd that's offer'd,
Comes to the entertainer
Seb. A dollar.
Goa. Dolour comes to him, indeed : you have spoken
truer than you purposed. 20
Seb. You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should.
Gon. Therefore, my lord,—
Ant. Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue !
Alon. I prithee, spare .
Gon. Well, I have done : but yet,
Seb. He will be talking.
Ant. Which, of he or Adrian, for a good wager, first
begins to crow ?
Seb. The old cock.
Ant. The cockerel. 30
Seb. Done. The wager ?
Ant. A laughter ,
Seb. A match !
Adr. Though this island seem to be desert,—
Seb. Ha, ha, ha !
Ant. So, you're paid.
Adr. Uninhabitable and almost inaccessible, —
Seb. Yet,
Adr. Yet,
Ant. He could not miss 't. 40
Adr. It must needs be of subtle, tender and delicate
temperance.
Ant. Temperance was a delicate wench.
Seb. Ay, and a subtle : as he most learnedly delivered.
Adr. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.
22 THE TEMPEST.

Seb. As if it had lungs and rotten ones.

Ant. Or as 'twere perfumed by a fen.
Gon. Here is every thing advantageous to life.
Ant. True : save means to live.
Seb. Of that there's none, or little. 50
Gon. How lush and lusty the grass looks ! how green !
Ant. The ground indeed is tawny.
Seb. With an eye of green in 't.
Ant. He misses not much.
Seb. No ; he doth but mistake the truth totally.
Gon. But the rarity of it is,-which is indeed almost
beyond credit,—
Seb. As many vouched rarities are.
Gon. That our garments, being, as they were, drenched
in the sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness and glosses,
being rather new-dyed than stained with salt water. 61
Ant. If but one of his pockets could speak, would it not
say he lies?
Seb. Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report.
Gon. Methinks our garments are now as fresh as when
we put them on first in Afric, at the marriage of the king's
fair daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis.
Seb. 'Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our
return.
Adr. Tunis was never graced before with such a paragon
to their queen . 71
Gon. Not since widow Dido's time.
Ant. Widow ! a plague o' that ! How came that widow
in ? widow Dido !
Seb. What if he had said ' widower Æneas ' too ? Good
Lord, how you take it !
Adr. " Widow Dido ' said you ? you make me study of
that she was of Carthage, not of unis.
Gon. This Tunis, sir, was Carthage .
 3883
ACT II. SCENE I. 23

Adr. Carthage? 80
Gon. I assure you, Carthage.
Ant. His word is more than the miraculous harp.
Seb. He hath raised the wall and houses too.
Ant. What impossible matter will he make easy next ?
Seb. I think he will carry this island home in his pocket
and give it his son for an apple.
Ant. And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring
forth more islands.
Gon. Ay.
Ant. Why, in good time. 90
Gon. 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.
Ant. And the rarest that e'er came there.
Seb. Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido.
Ant. O, widow Dido ! ay, widow Dido.
Gon. Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I
wore it? I mean, in a sort.
Ant. That sort was well fished for.
Gon. When I wore it at your daughter's marriage ? 100
Alon. You cram these words into mine ears against
The stomach of my sense. Would I had never
Married my daughter there ! for, coming thence,
My son is lost and, in my rate, she too,
Who is so far from Italy removed
I ne'er again shall see her. O thou mine heir
Of Naples and of Milan, what strange fish
Hath made his meal on thee ?
Fran. Sir, he may live :
I saw him beat the surges under him,
And ride upon their backs ; he trod the water, IIO
Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted
The surge most swoln that met him : his bold head
'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar'd
Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke
24 THE TEMPEST.

To the shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis bow'd,

As stooping to relieve him : I not doubt
He came alive to land.
Alon. No, no, he's gone .
Seb. 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 ; 120
Where she at least is banish'd from your eye,
Who hath cause to wet the grief on 't .
Alon. Prithee, peace.
Seb. You were kneel'd to and importuned otherwise
By all of us, and the fair soul herself
Weigh'd between loathness and obedience, at
Which end o' the beam should bow. We have lost your son,
I fear, for ever : Milan and Naples have
Mo widows in them of this business' making
Than we bring men to comfort them :
The fault's your own.
Alon. So is the dear'st o' the loss. 130
Gon. My lord Sebastian,
The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness
And time to speak it in : you rub the sore,
When you should bring the plaster.
Seb. Very well.
Ant. And most chirurgeonly.
Gon. It is foul weather in us all, good sir,
When you are cloudy.
Seb. Foul weather ?
Ant. Very foul.
Gon. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord,—
Ant. He ' ld sow 't with nettle -seed.
Seb. Or docks, or mallows.
Gon. And were the king on ' t, what would I do ? 140
Seb. ' Scape being drunk for want of wine.
Gon. I' the commonwealth I would by contraries
 ACT II. SCENE I. 25

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 ; contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land , tilth, vineyard, none ;
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil ;
No occupation : all men idle, all ;
And women too, but innocent and pure ; 150
No sovereignty ;—
Seb. Yet he would be king on 't.
Ant. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the
beginning.
Gon. All things in common nature should produce
Without sweat or endeavour : treason, felony,
Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,
Would I not have ; but nature should bring forth,
Of it own kind, all foison, all abundance,
To feed my innocent people.
Seb. No marrying 'mong his subjects ? 160
Ant. None, man ; all idle.
Gon. I would with such perfection govern, sir,
To excel the golden age.
Seb. Save his majesty !
Ant. Long live Gonzalo !
Gon. And, do you mark me, sir ?
Alon. Prithee, no more : thou dost talk nothing to me.
Gon. I do well believe your highness ; and did it to
minister occasion to these gentlemen, who are of such
sensible and nimble lungs that they always use to laugh at
nothing.
Ant. 'Twas you we laughed at. 170
Gon. Who in this kind of merry fooling am nothing to
you : so you may continue and laugh at nothing still,
Ant. What a blow was there given !
Seb. An it had not fallen flat-long.
Gon. You are gentlemen of brave mettle ; you would lift
26 THE TEMPEST.

the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue in it

five weeks without changing.

Enter ARIEL, invisible, playing solemn music.

Seb. We would so, and then go a bat-fowling.
Ant. Nay, good my lord, be not angry.
Gon. No, I warrant you ; I will not adventure my dis
cretion so weakly. Will you laugh me asleep, for I am very
heavy? 182
Ant. Go sleep , and hear us.
[ All sleep except Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio.
Alon. What, all so soon asleep ! I wish mine eyes
Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts : I find
They are inclined to do so.
Seb. Please you, sir,
Do not omit the heavy offer of it :
It seldom visits sorrow ; when it doth,
It is a comforter.
Ant. We two, my lord,
Will guard your person while you take your rest, 190
And watch your safety.
Alon. Thank you. Wondrous heavy.
[Alonso sleeps. Exit Ariel.
Seb. What a strange drowsiness possesses them !
Ant. It is the quality o' the climate.
Seb. Why
Doth it not then our eyelids sink ? I find not
Myself disposed to sleep.
Ant. Nor I ; my spirits are nimble,
They fell together all, as by consent ;
They dropp'd, as by a thunder-stroke. What might,
Worthy Sebastian ?—O, what might ? —No more :
And yet methinks I see it in thy face,
What thou shouldst be : the occasion speaks thee, and
My strong imagination sees a crown 201
Dropping upon thy head.
 ACT II. SCENE I. 27

Seb. What, art thou waking ?

Ant. Do you not hear me speak ?
Seb. I do ; and surely
It is a sleepy language and thou speak'st
Qut of thy sleep. What is it thou didst say ?
This is a strange repose, to be asleep
With eyes wide open ; standing, speaking, moving,
And yet so fast asleep.
Ant. Noble Sebastian,
Thou let'st thy fortune sleep -die, rather ; wink'st
Whiles thou art waking.
Seb. Thou dost snore distinctly ; 210
There's meaning in thy snores.
Ant. I am more serious than my custom : you
Must be so too, if heed me ; which to do
Trebles thee o'er.
Seb. Well, I am standing water.
Ant. I'll teach you how to flow.
Seb. Do so to ebb
Hereditary sloth instructs me.
Ant. 0,
If you but knew how you the purpose cherish
Whiles thus you mock it ! how, in stripping it,
You more invest it ! Ebbing men, indeed,
Most often do so near the bottom run 220
By their own fear or sloth.
Seb. Prithee, say on :
The setting of thine eye and cheek proclaim
A matter from thee, and a birth indeed
Which throes thee much to yield.
Ant. Thus, sir :
Although this lord of weak remembrance , this,
Who shall be of as little memory
When he is earth'd, hath here almost persuaded
For he's a spirit of persuasion, only
Professes to persuade —the king his son's alive,
28 THE TEMPEST.

'Tis as impossible that he's undrown'd 230

As he that sleeps here swims.
Seb. I have no hope
That he's undrown'd.
Ant. O, out of that " no hope '
What great hope have you ! no hope that way is
Another way so high a hope that even
Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,
But doubt discovery there. Will you grant with me
That Ferdinand is drown'd ?
Seb. He's gone.
Ant. Then, tell me,
Who's the next heir of Naples ?
Seb. Claribel .
Ant. She that is queen of Tunis ; she that dwells
Ten leagues beyond man's life ; she that from Naples 240
Can have no note, unless the sun were post
The man i' the moon's too slow-till new-born chins
Be rough and razorable ; she that from whom
We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast again,
And by that destiny to perform an act
Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come
In yours and my discharge.
Seb. What stuff is this ! how say you ?
'Tis true, my brother's daughter's queen of Tunis ;
So is she heir of Naples ; 'twixt which regions
There is some space .
Ant. A space whose every cubit 250
Seems to cry out, ' How shall that Claribel
Measure us back to Naples ? Keep in Tunis,
And let Sebastian wake.' Say, this were death
That now hath seized them ; why, they were no worse
Than now they are. There be that can rule Naples
As well as he that sleeps ; lords that can prate
As amply and unnecessarily
As this Gonzalo ; I myself could make
A chough of as deep chat . O, that you bore
 ACT II. SCENE I. 29

The mind that I do ! what a sleep were this 260

For your advancement ! Do you understand me ?
Seb. Methinks I do.
Ant. And how does your content
Tender your own good fortune ?
Seb. I remember
You did supplant your brother Prospero.
Ant. True :
And look how well my garments sit upon me ;
Much feater than before : my brother's servants
Were then my fellows : now they are my men.
Seb. But, for your conscience ?
Ant. Ay, sir ; where lies that ? if 'twere a kibe,
'Twould put me to my slipper : but I feel not 270
This deity in my bosom : twenty consciences,
That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candied be they
And melt ere they molest ! Here lies your brother,
No better than the earth he lies upon,
If he were that which now he's like, that's dead ;
Whom I, with this obedient steel, three inches of it,
Can lay to bed for ever ; whiles you, doing thus,
To the perpetual wink for aye might put
This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence, who
Should not upbraid our course. For all the rest, 280
They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk ;
They'll tell the clock to any business that
We say befits the hour.
Seb. Thy case, dear friend,
Shall be my precedent ; as thou gotʼst Milan,
I'll come by Naples. Draw thy sword : one stroke
Shall free thee from the tribute which thou payest ;
And I the king shall love thee.
Ant. Draw together ;
And when I rear my hand do you the like,
To fall it on Gonzalo.
Seb. O, but one word. [They talk apart.
30 THE TEMPEST.

Re-enter ARIEL, invisible.

Ari. My master through his art foresees the danger 290
That you, his friend, are in ; and sends me forth—
For else his project dies-to keep them living.
[Sings in Gonzalo's ear.
While you here do snoring lie,
Open-eyed conspiracy
His time doth take.
If of life you keep a care,
Shake off slumber, and beware :
Awake, awake !
Ant. Then let us both be sudden.
Gon. Now, good angels
Preserve the king ! [They wake.
Alon. Why, how now ? ho, awake ! Why are you drawn ?
Wherefore this ghastly looking ?
Gon. What's the matter ? 302
Seb. Whiles we stood here securing your repose,
Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing
Like bulls, or rather lions : did't not wake you ?
It struck mine ear most terribly.
Alon. I heard nothing.
Ant. O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear,
To make an earthquake ! sure, it was the roar
Of a whole herd of lions.
Alon. Heard you this, Gonzalo ?
Gon. Upon mine honour, sir, I heard a humming, 310
And that a strange one too, which did awake me :
I shaked you, sir, and cried : as mine eyes open'd,
I saw their weapons drawn : there was a noise,
That's verily. ' Tis best we stand upon our guard,
Or that we quit this place : let's draw our weapons.
Alon. Lead off this ground ; and let's make further search
For my poor son.
Gon. Heavens keep him from these beasts !
For he is, sure, i' the island.
 ACT II. SCENE II. 31
Alon. Lead away.
Ari. Prospero my lord shall know what I have done :
So, king, go safely on to seek thy son . [Exeunt.

SCENE II . Another part of the island.

Enter CALIBAN with a burden of wood. A noise of thunder heard.

Cal. All the infections that the sun sucks up
From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him
By inch-meal a disease ! His spirits hear me,
And yet I needs must curse. But they'll nor pinch,
Fright me with urchin-shows, pitch me i' the mire,
Nor lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark
Out of my way, unless he bid ' em ; but
For every trifle are they set upon me ;
Sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me
And after bite me ; then like hedgehogs, which ΤΟ
Lie tumbling in my barefoot way and mount
Their pricks at my footfall ; sometime am I
All wound with adders, who with cloven tongues
Do hiss me into madness.
Enter TRINCULO.
Lo, now, lo !
Here comes a spirit of his, and to torment me
For bringing wood in slowly. I'll fall flat ;
Perchance he will not mind me.
Trin. Here's neither bush nor shrub, to bear off any
weather at all, and another storm brewing ; I hear it sing
i' the wind ; yond same black cloud, yond huge one, looks
like a foul bombard that would shed his liquor. If it should
thunder as it did before, I know not where to hide my head :
yond same cloud cannot choose but fall by pailfuls. What
have we here ? a man or a fish ? dead or alive ? A fish : he
smells like a fish ; a very ancient and fish -like smell ; a kind
of, not of the newest, poor-John. A strange fish ! Were I
in England now, as once I was, and had but this fish painted,
32 THE TEMPEST.

not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of silver :

there would this monster make a man ; any strange beast
there makes a man : when they will not give a doit to relieve
a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.
Legged like a man ! and his fins like arms ! Warm o' my
troth ! I do now let loose my opinion ; hold it no longer :
this is no fish , but an islander, that hath lately suffered by
a thunderbolt. [Thunder.] Alas, the storm is come again !
my best way is to creep under his gaberdine ; there is no
other shelter hereabout : misery acquaints a man with strange
bed-fellows. I will here shroud till the dregs of the storm
be past.

Enter STEPHANO, singing : a bottle in his hand.

Steph. I shall no more to sea, to sea, 40
Here shall I die ashore
This is a very scurvy tune to sing at a man's funeral : well ,
here's my comfort. [Drinks.
[Sings]
The master, the swabber, the boatswain and I,
The gunner and his mate
Loved Mall, Meg and Marian and Margery,
But none of us cared for Kate ;
For she had a tongue with a tang,
Would cry to a sailor, Go hang !
She loved not the savour of tar nor of pitch : 50
Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang !
This is a scurvy tune too : but here's my comfort. [Drinks.
Cal. Do not torment me : Oh!
Steph. What's the matter ? Have we devils here ? Do you
put tricks upon ' s with savages and men of Ind, ha ? I have
not 'scaped drowning to be afeard now of your four legs ; for it
hath been said, As proper a man as ever went on four legs
cannot make him give ground ; and it shall be said so again
while Stephano breathes at nostrils.
Cal. The spirit torments me : Oh ! 60
Steph. This is some monster of the isle with four legs, who
 ACT II. SCENE II. 33

hath got, as I take it, an ague. Where the devil should he

learn our language ? I will give him some relief, if it be but
for that. If I can recover him and keep him tame and get
to Naples with him, he's a present for any emperor that ever
trod on neat's-leather.
Cal. Do not torment me, prithee ; I'll bring my wood
home faster.
Steph. He's in his fit now and does not talk after the wisest.
He shall taste of my bottle : if he have never drunk wine
afore, it will go near to remove his fit. If I can recover him
and keep him tame, I will not take too much for him ; he
shall pay for him that hath him, and that soundly. 73
Cal. Thou dost me yet but little hurt ; thou wilt anon,
I know it by thy trembling : now Prosper works upon thee.
Steph. Come on your ways ; open your mouth ; here is that
which will give language to you, cat : open your mouth ; this
will shake your shaking, I can tell you, and that soundly :
you cannot tell who's your friend : open your chaps again.
Trin. I should know that voice : it should be -but he is
drowned ; and these are devils : O defend me ! 81
Steph. Four legs and two voices : a most delicate monster !
His forward voice now is to speak well of his friend ; his
backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract.
If all the wine in my bottle will recover him, I will help his
ague. Come. Amen ! I will pour some in thy other mouth.
Trin. Stephano !
Steph. Doth thy other mouth call me ? Mercy, mercy ! This
is a devil, and no monster ; I will leave him ; I have no long
spoon. 90
Trin. Stephano ! If thou beest Stephano, touch me and
speak to me ; for I am Trinculo-be not afeard- thy good
friend Trinculo.
Steph. If thou beest Trinculo, come forth : I'll pull thee
by the lesser legs : if any be Trinculo's legs, these are they.
Thou art very Trinculo indeed ! How camest thou here ?
Trin. I took him to be killed with a thunder-stroke. But
D
34 THE TEMPEST.

art thou not drowned, Stephano ? I hope now thou art not
drowned. Is the storm overblown ? I hid me under the
dead moon- calf's gaberdine for fear of the storm . And
art thou living Stephano ? O Stephano, two Neapolitans
'scaped. 102
Steph. Prithee, do not turn me about ; my stomach is not
constant.
Cal. [Aside.] These be fine things, an if they be not sprites.
That's a brave god and bears celestial liquor.
I will kneel to him.
Steph. How didst thou ' scape ? How camest thou hither ?
swear by this bottle how thou camest hither. I escaped upon
a butt of sack which the sailors heaved o'erboard, by this
bottle ! which I made of the bark of a tree with mine own
hands since I was cast ashore. II2
Cal. I'll swear upon that bottle to be thy true subject ;
for the liquor is not earthly.
Steph. Here ; swear then how thou escapedst.
Trin. Swum ashore, man, like a duck : I can swim like
a duck, I'll be sworn.
Steph. Here, kiss the book. Though thou canst swim like
a duck, thou art made like a goose.
Trin. O Stephano, hast any more of this ? 120
Steph. The whole butt, man : my cellar is in a rock by
the sea-side where my wine is hid. How now, moon-calf !
how does thine ague ?
Cal.Hast thou not dropp'd from heaven ?
Steph. Out o' the moon, I do assure thee : I was the man
i' the moon when time was.
Cal. I have seen thee in her and I do adore thee :
My mistress show'd me thee and thy dog and thy bush.
Steph. Come, swear to that : kiss the book : I will furnish
it anon with new contents : swear. 130
Trin. By this good light, this is a very shallow monster !
I afeard of him ! A very weak monster ! The man i' the
 ACT II. SCENE II. 35

moon ! A most poor credulous monster ! Well drawn,

monster, in good sooth !
Cal. I'll show thee every fertile inch o' th' island ;
And I will kiss thy foot : I prithee, be my god .
Trin. By this light, a most perfidious and drunken
monster ! when's god's asleep, he'll rob his bottle.
Cal. I'll kiss thy foot ; I'll swear myself thy subject.
Steph. Come on then ; down, and swear. 140
Trin. I shall laugh myself to death at this puppy-headed
monster. A most scurvy monster ! I could find in my
heart to beat him,—
Steph. Come, kiss.
Trin. But that the poor monster 's in drink : an abomin
able monster !
Cal. I'll show thee the best springs ; I'll pluck thee
berries ;
I'll fish for thee and get thee wood enough.
A plague upon the tyrant that I serve !
I'll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee, 150
Thou wondrous man.
Trin. A most ridiculous monster, to make a wonder of
a poor drunkard !
Cal. I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs grow ;
And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts ;
Show thee a jay's nest and instruct thee how
To snare the nimble marmoset ; I'll bring thee
To clustering filberts and sometimes I'll get thee
Young scamels from the rock. Wilt thou go with me ?
Steph. I prithee now, lead the way without any more
talking. Trinculo, the king and all our company else being
drowned, we will inherit here : here ; bear my bottle :
fellow Trinculo, we ' ll fill him by and by again. 163
Cal. [Sings drunkenly]
Farewell, master ; farewell, farewell !
Trin. A howling monster ; a drunken monster !
D2
 EST
36 THE TEMP .

Cal. No more dams I'll make for fish ;

Nor fetch in firing
At requiring ;
Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish :
'Ban, ' Ban, Cacaliban 170
Has a new master : get a new man.
Freedom, hey-day ! hey- day, freedom ! freedom, hey-day,
freedom !
Steph. O brave monster ! Lead the way. [Exeunt.

ACT III .

SCENE I. Before PROSPERO'S cell.

Enter FERDINAND, bearing a log.

Fer. There be some sports are painful, and their labour

Delight in them sets off : some kinds of baseness
Are nobly undergone and most poor matters
Point to rich ends. This my mean task
Would be as heavy to me as odious, but
The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead
And makes my labours pleasures : O, she is
Ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed,
And he's composed of harshness. I must remove
Some thousands of these logs and pile them up, 10
Upon a sore injunction : my sweet mistress
Weeps when she sees me work, and says, such baseness
Had never like executor. I forget :
But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours,
Most busy lest, when I do it.

Enter MIRANDA ; and PROSPERO at distance, unseen.

Mir. Alas, now, pray you,
Work not so hard : I would the lightning had
Burnt up those logs that you are enjoin'd to pile !
 ACT III. SCENE I. 37

Pray, set it down and rest you : when this burns,

'Twill weep for having wearied you. My father
Is hard at study ; pray now, rest yourself ; 20
He's safe for these three hours .
Fer. O most dear mistress,
The sun will set before I shall discharge
What I must strive to do.
Mir. If you 'll sit down ,
I'll bear your logs the while : pray, give me that ;
I'll carry it to the pile.
Fer. No, precious creature ;
I had rather crack my sinews, break my back,
Than you should such dishonour undergo ,
While I sit lazy by.
Mir. It would become me
As well as it does you : and I should do it
With much more ease ; for my good will is to it, 30
And yours it is against.
Pros. Poor worm, thou art infected !
This visitation shows it.
Mir. You look wearily.
Fer. No, noble mistress ; 'tis fresh morning with me
When you are by at night. I do beseech you—
Chiefly that I might set it in my prayers—
What is your name ?
Mir. Miranda. O my father,
I have broke your hest to say so !
Fer. Admired Miranda !
Indeed the top of admiration ! worth
What's dearest to the world ! Full many a lady
I have eyed with best regard, and many a time 40
The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage
Brought my too diligent ear : for several virtues
Have I liked several women ; never any
With so full soul, but some defect in her
Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed
And put it to the foil : but you, O you,
38 THE TEMPEST.

So perfect and so peerless, are created

Of every creature's best !
Mir. I do not know
One of my sex ; no woman's face remember,
Save, from my glass, mine own ; nor have I seen 50
More that I may call men than you, good friend,
And my dear father : how features are abroad,
I am skilless of; but, by my modesty,
The jewel in my dower, I would not wish
Any companion in the world but you,
Nor can imagination form a shape,
Besides yourself, to like of. But I prattle
Something too wildly and my father's precepts
I therein do forget .
Fer. I am in my condition
A prince, Miranda ; I do think, a king ; 60
I would, not so ! -and would no more endure
This wooden slavery than to suffer
The flesh-fly blow my mouth. Hear my soul speak :
The very instant that I saw you, did
My heart fly to your service ; there resides,
To make me slave to it ; and for your sake
Am I this patient log-man.
Mir. Do you love me ?
Fer. O heaven, O earth, bear witness to this sound
And crown what I profess with kind event
If I speak true ! if hollowly, invert 70
What best is boded me to mischief! I
Beyond all limit of what else i' the world
Do love, prize, honour you.
Mir. I am a fool
To weep at what I am glad of.
Pros. Fair encounter
Of two most rare affections ! Heavens rain grace
On that which breeds between ' em !
Fer. Wherefore weep you?
Mir. At mine unworthiness that dare not offer
 ACT III. SCENE II. 39

What I desire to give, and much less take

What I shall die to want. But this is trifling ;
And all the more it seeks to hide itself, 80
The bigger bulk it shows. Hence, bashful cunning !
And prompt me, plain and holy innocence !
I am your wife, if you will marry me ;
If not, I'll die your maid : to be your fellow
You may deny me ; but I'll be your servant,
Whether you will or no.
Fer. My mistress, dearest ;
And I thus humble ever.
Mir. My husband, then ?
Fer. Ay, with a heart as willing
As bondage e'er of freedom : here's my hand.
Mir. And mine, with my heart in 't : and now farewell
Till half an hour hence.
Fer. A thousand thousand ! 91
[ Exeunt Ferdinand and Miranda severally.
Pros. So glad of this as they I cannot be,
Who are surprised withal ; but my rejoicing
At nothing can be more. I'll to my book,
For yet ere supper-time must I perform
Much business appertaining. [Exit.

SCENE II . Another part of the island.

Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO.

Steph. Tell not me ; when the butt is out, we will drink

water; not a drop before : therefore bear up, and board
'em. Servant-monster, drink to me.
Trin. Servant-monster ! the folly of this island ! They say
there's but five upon this isle : we are three of them ; if
th' other two be brained like us, the state totters.
Steph. Drink, servant-monster, when I bid thee : thy eyes
are almost set in thy head.
 ST
40 THE TEMPE .

Trin. Where should they be set else ? he were a brave

monster indeed, if they were set in his tail. 10
Steph. My man-monster hath drown'd his tongue in sack :
for my part, the sea cannot drown me ; I swam, ere I could
recover the shore, five and thirty leagues off and on. By
this light, thou shalt be my lieutenant, monster, or my
standard.
Trin. Your lieutenant, if you list ; he's no standard.
Steph. We'll not run, Monsieur Monster.
Trin. Nor go neither ; but you'll lie like dogs and yet
say nothing neither.
Steph. Moon-calf, speak once in thy life, if thou beest a
good moon-calf. 2I
Cal. How does thy honour ? Let me lick thy shoe.
I'll not serve him ; he is not valiant.
Trin. Thou liest, most ignorant monster : I am in case
to justle a constable. Why, thou deboshed fish, thou, was
there ever man a coward that hath drunk so much sack
as I to-day ? Wilt thou tell a monstrous lie, being but half
a fish and half a monster ?
Cal. Lo, how he mocks me ! wilt thou let him, my
lord ? 30
Trin. ' Lord ' quoth he ! That a monster should be such
a natural !
Cal. Lo, lo, again ! bite him to death, I prithee.
Steph. Trinculo, keep a good tongue in your head : if you
prove a mutineer, the next tree ! The poor monster's my
subject and he shall not suffer indignity.
Cal. I thank my noble lord. Wilt thou be pleased to
hearken once again to the suit I made to thee ?
Steph. Marry, will I : kneel and repeat it ; I will stand,
and so shall Trinculo. 40
Enter ARIEL, invisible.
Cal. As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant,
a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of the
island.
 ACT III. SCENE II. 41

Ari. Thou liest.

Cal. Thou liest, thou jesting monkey, thou :
I would my valiant master would destroy thee !
I do not lie.
Steph. Trinculo, if you trouble him any more in's tale,
by this hand, I will supplant some of your teeth.
Trin. Why, I said nothing. 50
Steph. Mum, then, and no more. Proceed.
Cal. I say, by sorcery he got this isle ;
From me he got it. If thy greatness will
Revenge it on him, for I know thou darest,
But this thing dare not,
Steph. That's most certain.
Cal. Thou shalt be lord of it and I'll serve thee.
Steph. How now shall this be compassed ? Canst thou bring
me to the party ?
Cal. Yea, yea, my lord : I'll yield him thee asleep, 60
Where thou mayst knock a nail into his head.
Ari. Thou liest ; thou canst not.
Cal. What a pied ninny's this ! Thou scurvy patch !
I do beseech thy greatness, give him blows
And take his bottle from him : when that's gone
He shall drink nought but brine ; for I'll not show him
Where the quick freshes are.
Steph. Trinculo, run into no further danger : interrupt the
monster one word further, and, by this hand, I'll turn my
mercy out o' doors, and make a stock-fish of thee. 70
Trin. Why, what did I ? I did nothing. I'll go farther off.
Steph. Didst thou not say he lied ?
Ari. Thou liest.
Steph. Do I so ? take thou that. [Beats Trinculo.] As you
like this, give me the lie another time.
Trin. I did not give the lie. Out o' your wits and hear
ing too ? A plague o' your bottle ! this can sack and drinking
42 THE TEMPEST.

do. A murrain on your monster, and the devil take your

fingers.
Cal. Ha, ha, ha ! 80
Steph. Now, forward with your tale. Prithee, stand farther
off.
Cal. Beat him enough : after a little time
I'll beat him too.
Steph. Stand farther. Come, proceed .
Cal. Why, as I told thee, 'tis a custom with him,
I' th' afternoon to sleep : there thou mayst brain him,
Having first seized his books, or with a log
Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake,
Or cut his wezand with thy knife. Remember
First to possess his books ; for without them 90
He's but a sot, as I am, nor hath not
One spirit to com and : they all do hate him
As rootedly as I. Burn but his books.
He has brave utensils,-for so he calls them,
Which, when he has a house , he'll deck withal.
And that most deeply to consider is
The beauty of his daughter ; he himself
Calls her a nonpareil : I never saw a woman,
But only Sycorax my dam and she ;
But she as far surpasseth Sycorax 100
As great'st does least.
Steph. Is it so brave a lass ?
Cal. Ay, lord ; she will become thy bed, I warrant,
And bring thee forth brave brood.
Steph. Monster, I will kill this man : his daughter and I will
be king and queen,-save our graces !—and Trinculo and
thyself shall be viceroys. Dost thou like the plot, Trinculo ?
Trin. Excellent.
Steph. Give me thy hand : I am sorry I beat thee ; but,
while thou livest, keep a good tongue in thy head.
Cal. Within this half hour will he be asleep : IIO
Wilt thou destroy him then ?
 ACT III. SCENE II. 43

Steph. Ay, on mine honour.

Ari. This will I tell my master.
Cal. Thou makest me merry ; I am full of pleasure :
Let us be jocund : will you troll the catch
You taught me but while-ere ?
Steph. At thy request, monster, I will do reason, any reason .
Come on, Trinculo, let us sing.
[Sings] Flout ' em and scout 'em
And scout 'em and flout ' em ;
Thought is free. 120
Cal. That's not the tune.
[Ariel plays the tune on a tabor and pipe.
Steph. What is this same ?
Trin. This is the tune of our catch, played by the picture
of Nobody.
Steph. If thou beest a man, show thyself in thy likeness :
if thou beest a devil, take 't as thou list.
Trin. O, forgive me my sins !
Steph. He that dies pays all debts : I defy thee. Mercy
upon us !
Cal. Art thou afeard ? 130
Steph. No, monster, not I.
Cal. Be not afeard ; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not .
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears ; and sometime voices,
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again : and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again. 140
Steph. This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I
shall have my music for nothing.
Cal. When Prospero is destroyed.
Steph. That shall be by and by : I remember the story.
44 THE TEMPEST.

Trin. The sound is going away ; let's follow it, and after
do our work.
Steph. Lead, monster ; we'll follow. I would I could see
this taborer ; he lays it on.
Trin. Wilt come ? I'll follow, Stephano. [ Exeunt.

SCENE III . Another part of the island.

Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN,
FRANCISCO, and others.

Gon. By 'r lakin , I can go no further, sir ;

My old bones ache : here's a maze trod indeed
Through forth-rights and meanders ! By your patience,
I needs must rest me.
Alon. Old lord, I cannot bla thee,
Who am myself attach'd with weariness,
To the dulling of my spirits : sit down, and rest.
Even here I will put off my hope and keep it
No longer for my flatterer : he is drown'd
Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks
Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go. 10
Ant. [Aside to Seb. ] I am right glad that he's so out of
hope.
Do not, for one repulse, forgo the purpose
That you resolved to effect.
Seb. [Aside to Ant. ] The next advantage
Will we take throughly.
Ant. [Aside to Seb.] Let it be to-night :
For, now they are oppress'd with travel, they
Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance
As when they are fresh.
Seb. [Aside to Ant.] I say, to-night : no more.
[Solemn and strange music.
Alon. What harmony is this ? My good friends, hark !
Gon. Marvellous sweet music !
 ACT III. SCENE III. 45

Enter PROSPERO above, invisible. Enter several strange Shapes,

bringing in a banquet ; they dance about it with gentle actions
of salutation ; and, inviting the King, &c. to eat, they depart.
Alon. Give us kind keepers, heavens ! What were these !
Seb. A living drollery. Now I will believe 21
That there are unicorns, that in Arabia
There is one tree, the phoenix' throne, one phoenix
At this hour reigning there.
Ant. I'll believe both ;
And what does else want credit, come to me,
And I'll be sworn 'tis true : travellers ne'er did lie,
Though fools at home condemn ' em.
Gon. If in Naples
I should report this now, woul d they believe me ?
If I should say, I saw such islanders
For, certes, these are people of the island 30
Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet, note,
Their manners are more gentle- kind than of
Our human generation you shall find
Many, nay, almost any.
Pros. [Aside.] Honest lord,
Thou hast said well ; for some of you there present
Are worse than devils.
Alon. I cannot too much muse
Such shapes, such gesture and such sound, expressing,
Although they want the use of tongue, a kind
Of excellent dumb discourse.
Pros. [Aside.] Praise in departing.
Fran. They vanish'd strangely.
Seb. No matter, since 40
They have left their viands behind ; for we have stomachs.
Will't please you taste of what is here ?
Alon. Not I.
Gon. Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were boys,
Who would believe that there were mountaineers
46 THE TEMPEST.

Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em

Wallets of flesh ? or that there were such men
Whose heads stood in their breasts ? which now we find
Each putter-out of five for one will bring us
Good warrant of.
Alon. I will stand to and feed,
Although my last : no matter, since I feel 50
The best is past. Brother, my lord the duke,
Stand to and do as we.

Thunder and lightning. Enter ARIEL , like a harpy ; claps his

wings upon the table ; and, with a quaint device, the banquet
vanishes.
Ari. You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,
That hath to instrument this lower world
And what is in 't, the never-surfeited sea
Hath caused to belch up you ; and on this island
Where man doth not inhabit ; you 'mongst men
Being most unfit to live . I have made you mad ;
And even with such-like valour men hang and drown
Their proper selves. [ Alon., Seb. &c. draw their swords.
You fools ! I and my fellows 60
Are ministers of Fate : the elements,
Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish
One dowle that's in my plume : my fellow-ministers
Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt,
Your swords are now too massy for your strengths
And will not be uplifted. But remember
For that's my business to you—that you three
From Milan did supplant good Prospero ; 70
Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit it,
Him and his innocent child ; for which foul deed
The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
Incensed the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,
Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso,
They have bereft ; and do pronounce by me
 ACT III. SCENE III. 47

Lingering perdition, worse than any death

Can be at once, shall step by step attend
You and your ways ; whose wraths to guard you from
Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls 80
Upon your heads-is nothing but heart-sorrow
And a clear life ensuing.
He vanishes in thunder ; then, to soft music, enter the Shapes
again, and dance, with mocks and mows, and carrying out the
table.
Pros. Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou
Perform'd, my Ariel ; a grace it had, devouring :
Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated
In what thou hadst to say : so, with good life
And observation strange, my meaner ministers
Their several kinds have done. My high charms work
And these mine enemies are all knit up
In their distractions ; they now are in my power ; 90
And in these fits I leave them, while I visit
Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose is drown'd,
And his and mine loved darling. [Exit above.
Gon. I' the name of something holy, sir, why stand you
In this strange stare ?
Alon. O, it is monstrous, monstrous !
Methought the billows spoke and told me of it ;
The winds did sing it to me, and the thunder,
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced
The name of Prosper : it did bass my trespass.
Therefore my son i' the ooze is bedded, and 100
I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded
And with him there lie mudded. [Exit.
Seb. But one fiend at a time,
I'll fight their legions o'er.
Ant. I'll be thy second.
[Exeunt Sebastian and Antonio.
Gon. All three of them are desperate : their great guilt,
Like poison given to work a great time after,
Now 'gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you
 ST
48 THE TEMPE .

That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly

And hinder them from what this ecstasy
May now provoke them to.
Adr. Follow, I pray you. [Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. Before PROSPERO'S cell.

Enter PROSPERO, FERDINAND, and MIRANDA.

Pros. If I have too austerely punish'd you,
Your compensation makes amends, for I
Have given you here a thrid of mine own life,
Or that for which I live ; who once again
I tender to thy hand : all thy vexations
Were but my trials of thy love, and thou
Hast strangely stood the test : here, afore Heaven,
I ratify this my rich gift. O Ferdinand,
Do not smile at me that I boast her off,
For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise IO
And make it halt behind her.
Fer. I do believe it
Against an oracle.
Pros. Then, as my gift and thine own acquisition
Worthily purchased, take my daughter : but
If thou dost break her virgin-knot before
All sanctimonious ceremonies may
With full and holy rite be minister'd,
No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall
To make this contract grow ; but barren hate,
Sour-eyed disdain and discord shall bestrew 20
The union of your bed with weeds so loathly
That you shall hate it both : therefore take heed,
As Hymen's lamps shall light you.
Fer. As I hope
For quiet days, fair issue and long life,
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 49

With such love as ' tis now, the murkiest den,

The most opportune place, the strong'st suggestion
Our worser genius can, shall never melt
Mine honour into lust, to take away
The edge of that day's celebration,
When I shall think, or Phœbus' steeds are founder'd, 30
Or Night kept chain'd below.
Pros. Fairly spoke.
Sit then and talk with her ; she is thine own.
What, Ariel ! my industrious servant, Ariel !
Enter ARIEL.

Ari. What would my potent master ? here I am.

Pros. Thou and thy meaner fellows your last service
Did worthily perform ; and I must use you
In such another trick. Go bring the rabble,
O'er whom I give thee power, here to this place :
Incite them to quick motion ; for I must
Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple 40
Some vanity of mine art : it is my promise,
And they expect it from me.
Ari. Presently ?
Pros. Ay, with a twink.
Ari. Before you can say ' come ' and ‘ go,'
And breathe twice and cry ' so, so,'
Each one, tripping on his toe,
Will be here with mop and mow.
Do you love me, master ? no ?
Pros. Dearly, my delicate Ariel. Do not approach
Till thou dost hear me call.
Ari. Well, I conceive. [Exit.
Pros. Look thou be true ; do not give dalliance 51
Too much the rein : the strongest oaths are straw
To the fire i' the blood : be more abstemious,
Or else, good night your vow !
Fer. I warrant you, sir ;
E
50 THE TEMPEST.

The white cold virgin snow upon my heart

Abates the ardour of my liver.
Pros. Well.
Now come, my Ariel ! bring a corollary,
Rather than want a spirit : appear, and pertly !
No tongue ! all eyes ! be silent. [Soft music.
Enter IRIS.
Iris. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas 60
Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats and pease ;
Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep,
And flat meads thatch'd with stover, them to keep ;
Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims,
Which spongy April at thy hest betrims,
To make cold nymphs chaste crowns ; and thy broom-groves,
Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,
Being lass-lorn ; thy pole-clipt vineyard ;
And thy sea-marge, sterile and rocky-hard,
Where thou thyself dost air ;—the queen o' the sky, 70
Whose watery arch and messenger am I ,
Bids thee leave these, and with her sovereign grace,
Here on this grass-plot, in this very place,
To come and sport : her peacocks fly amain :
Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain.
Enter CERES.
Cer. Hail, many-colour'd messenger, that ne'er
Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter ;
Who with thy saffron wings upon my flowers
Diffusest honey-drops, refreshing showers,
And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown 80
My bosky acres and my unshrubb’d down,
Rich scarf to my proud earth ; why hath thy queen
Summon'd me hither, to this short-grass'd green ?
Iris. A contract of true love to celebrate ;
And some donation freely to estate
On the blest lovers.
Cer. Tell me, heavenly bow,
If Venus or her son, as thou dost know,
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 51

Do now attend the queen ? Since they did plot

The means that dusky Dis my daughter got,
Her and her blind boy's scandal'd company ༡༠
I have forsworn.
Iris. Of her society
Be not afraid : I met her deity
Cutting the clouds towards Paphos, and her son
Dove-drawn with her. Here thought they to have done
Some wanton charm upon this man and maid,
Whose vows are, that no bed-right shall be paid
Till Hymen's torch be lighted : but in vain ;
Mars's hot minion is return'd again ;
Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows,
Swears he will shoot no more, but play with sparrows ICO
And be a boy right out.
Cer. High'st queen of state,
Great Juno, comes ; I know her by her gait.
Enter JUNO.
Juno. How does my bounteous sister ? Go with me
To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be
And honour'd in their issue. [They sing.
Juno. Honour, riches, marriage-blessing,
Long continuance, and increasing,
Hourly joys be still upon you !
Juno sings her blessings on you.
Cer. Earth's increase, foison plenty, IIO
Barns and garners never empty,
Vines with clustering bunches growing,
Plants with goodly burthen bowing ;
Spring come to you at the farthest
In the very end of harvest !
Scarcity and want shall shun you ;
Ceres' blessing so is on you.
Fer. This is a most majestic vision, and
Harmonious charmingly. May I be bold
To think these spirits ?
E 2
52 THE TEMPEST.

Pros. Spirits, which by mine art 120

I have from their confines call'd to enact
My present fancies.
Fer. Let me live here ever ;
So rare a wonder ' d father and a wise
Makes this place Paradise.
[Juno and Ceres whisper, and send Iris on employment.
Pros. Sweet, now, silence !
Juno and Ceres whisper seriously ;
There's something else to do : hush, and be mute,
Or else our spell is marr'd.
Iris. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the windring brooks,
With your sedged crowns and ever-harmless looks,
Leave your crisp channels and on this green land 130
Answer your summons ; Juno does command :
Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate
A contract of true love ; be not too late.
Enter certain Nymphs.
You sunburnt sicklemen, of August weary,
Come hither from the furrow and be merry :
Make holiday : your rye-straw hats put on
And these fresh nymphs encounter every one
In country footing.

Enter certain Reapers, properly habited : they join with the

Nymphs in a graceful dance ; towards the end whereof
PROSPERO starts suddenly, and speaks ; after which, to a
strange, hollow, and confused noise, they heavily vanish.
Pros. [Aside] I had forgot that foul conspiracy
Of the beast Caliban and his confederates 140
Against my life : the minute of their plot
Is almost come. [To the Spirits.] Well done ! avoid ; no more !
Fer. This is strange : your father's in some passion
That works him strongly.
Mir. Never till this day
Saw I him touch'd with anger so distemper'd.
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 53

Pros. You do look, my son, in a moved sort,

As if you were dismay'd : be cheerful, sir.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air : 350
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 inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex'd ;
Bear with my weakness ; my old brain is troubled :
Be not disturb'd with my infirmity : 160
If you be pleased, retire into my cell
And there repose : a turn or two I'll walk,
To still my beating mind.
Fer. Mir. We wish your peace. [Exeunt.
Pros. Come with a thought. I thank thee , Ariel : come.
Enter ARIEL.
Ari. Thy thoughts I cleave to. What's thy pleasure ?
Pros. Spirit,
We must prepare to meet with Caliban.
Ari. Ay, my commander : when I presented Ceres,
I thought to have told thee of it, but I fear'd
Lest I might anger thee. 169
Pros. Say again, where didst thou leave these varlets ?
Ari. I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking ;
So full of valour that they smote the air
For breathing in their faces ; beat the ground
For kissing of their feet ; yet always bending
Towards their project. Then I beat my tabor ;
At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their ears,
Advanced their eyelids, lifted up their noses
As they smelt music : so I charm'd their ears
54 THE TEMPEST.

That calf-like they my lowing follow'd through

Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss and thorns,
Which enter'd their frail shins : at last I left them 181
I' the filthy-mantled pool beyond your cell,
There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake
O'erstunk their feet.
Pros. This was well done, my bird.
Thy shape invisible retain thou still :
The trumpery in my house, go bring it hither,
For stale to catch these thieves.
Ari. I go, I go. [Exit.
Pros. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture can never stick ; on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost ; 190
And as with age his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers. I will plague them all,
Even to roaring.

Re-enter ARIEL, loaden with glistering apparel, &c.

Come, hang them on this line.

PROSPERO and ARIEL remain, invisible. Enter CALIBAN ,

STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, all wet.
Cal. Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole may not
Hear a foot fall : we now are near his cell.
Steph. Monster, your fairy, which you say is a harmless
fairy, has done little better than played the Jack with us.
Do you hear, monster ? If I should take a displeasure
against you, look you,―
Trin. Thou wert but a lost monster. 200
Cal. Good my lord, give me thy favour still.
Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to
Shall hoodwink this mischance : therefore speak softly,
All hush'd as midnight yet.
Trin. Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool,
 ACT IV. SCENE. I. 55

Steph. There is not only disgrace and dishonour in that,

monster, but an infinite loss.
Trin. That's more to me than my wetting : yet this is
your harmless fairy, monster.
Steph. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er ears for
my labour. 211
Cal. Prithee, my king, be quiet. See'st thou here,
This is the mouth o' the cell : no noise , and enter.
Do that good mischief which may make this island
Thine own for ever, and I, thy Caliban,
For aye thy foot- licker.
Steph. Give me thy hand. I do begin to have bloody
thoughts.
Trin. O king Stephano ! O peer ! O worthy Stephano !
look what a wardrobe here is for thee ! 220
Cal. Let it alone, thou fool ; it is but trash.
Trin. O, ho, monster ! we know what belongs to a frippery .
O king Stephano !
Steph. Put off that gown, Trinculo ; by this hand I'll have
that gown.
Trin. Thy grace shall have it.
Cal. The dropsy drown this fool ! what do you mean
To dote thus on such luggage ? Let's alone
And do the murder first : if he awake,
From toe to crown he'll fill our skins with pinches, 230
Make us strange stuff.
Steph. Be you quiet, monster. Mistress line, is not this my
jerkin ? Now is the jerkin under the line : now, jerkin, you
are like to lose your hair and prove a bald jerkin.
Trin. Do, do we steal by line and level, an 't like your
grace.
Steph. I thank thee for that jest ; here's a garment for 't :
wit shall not go unrewarded while I am king of this country.
' Steal by line and level ' is an excellent pass of pate ; there's
another garment for 't. 240
56 THE TEMPEST.

Trin. Monster, come, put some lime upon your fingers,

and away with the rest.
Cal. I will have none on ' t : we shall lose our time,
And all be turn'd to barnacles, or to apes
With foreheads villanous low.
Steph. Monster, lay to your fingers : help to bear this away
where my hogshead of wine is, or I'll turn you out of my
kingdom : go to, carry this.
Trin. And this.
Steph. Ay, and this. 250

A noise ofhunters heard. Enter divers Spirits, in shape of dogs

and bounds, hunting them about ; PROSPERO and ARIEL
setting them on.
Pros. Hey, Mountain, hey!
Ari. Silver ! there it goes, Silver !
Pros. Fury, Fury ! there, Tyrant, there ! hark ! hark !
[Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo are driven out.
Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints
With dry convulsions, shorten up their sinews
With aged cramps, and more pinch-spotted make them
Than pard or cat o' mountain.
Ari. Hark, they roar !
Pros. Let them be hunted soundly. At this hour
Lies at my mercy all mine enemies :
Shortly shall all my labours end, and thou 260
Shalt have the air at freedom : for a little
Follow, and do me service. [Exeunt.
 ACT V. SCENE I. 57

ACT V.

SCENE I. Before PROSPERO'S cell.

Enter PROSPERO in his magic robes, and ARIel .

Pros. Now does my project gather to a head :
My charms crack not ; my spirits obey ; and time
Goes upright with his carriage. How's the day ?
Ari. On the sixth hour ; at which time, my lord,
You said our work should cease.
Pros. I did say so,
When first I raised the tempest . Say, my spirit,
How fares the king and's followers ?
Ari. Confined together
In the same fashion as you gave in charge,
Just as you left them ; all prisoners, sir,
In the line-grove which weather- fends your cell ; 10
They cannot budge till your release . The king,
His brother, and yours, abide all three distracted ,
And the remainder mourning over them ,
Brimful of sorrow and dismay ; but chiefly
Him that you term'd, sir, ' The good old lord , Gonzalo ' ;
His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops
From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works ' em,
That if you now beheld them, your affections
Would become tender.
Pros. Dost thou think so, spirit ?
Ari. Mine would , sir, were I human .
Pros. And mine shall. 20
Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,
One of their kind, that relish all as sharply,
Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art ?
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,
Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury
Do I take part : the rarer action is
58 THE TEMPEST.

In virtue than in vengeance : they being penitent,

The sole drift of my purpose doth extend
Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel : 30
My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore,
And they shall be themselves.
Ari. I'll fetch them, sir. [Exit.
Pros. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
When he comes back ; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites ; and you whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew ; by whose aid, 40
Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
Set roaring war : to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt ; the strong-based promontory
Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up
The pine and cedar : graves at my command
Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth
By my so potent art. But this rough magic 50
I here abjure, and, when I have required
Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I'll drown my book. [Solemn music.

Re-enter ARIEL before : then ALONSO, with a frantic gesture,

attended by GONZALO ; SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO in like man
ner, attended by ADRIAN and FRANCISCO : they all enter the
circle which PROSPERO had made, and there stand charmed ;
which PROSPERO observing, speaks :
A solemn air and the best comforter
 ACT V. SCENE I. 59

To an unsettled fancy cure thy brains,

Now useless, boil'd within thy skull ! There stand, 60
For you are spell-stopp'd.
Holy Gonzalo, honourable man,
Mine eyes, even sociable to the show of thine,
Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace,
And as the morning steals upon the night,
Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo,
My true preserver, and a loyal sir
To him thou follow'st ! I will pay thy graces 70
Home both in word and deed. Most cruelly
Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter :
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act.
Thou art pinch'd for 't now, Sebastian. Flesh and blood,
You, brother mine, that entertain❜d ambition,
Expell'd remorse and nature ; who, with Sebastian,
Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,
Would here have kill'd your king ; I do forgive thee,
Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding
Begins to swell, and the approaching tide 80
Will shortly fill the reasonable shore
That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them
That yet looks on me, or would know me : Ariel,
Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell :
I will discase me, and myself present
As I was sometime Milan : quickly, spirit ;
Thou shalt ere long be free.

ARIEL sings and helps to attire him.

Where the bee sucks, there suck I :
In a cowslip's bell I lie ;
There I couch when owls do cry. 90
On the bat's back I do fly
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough .
бо THE TEMPEST.

Pros. Why, that's my dainty Ariel ! I shall miss thee ;

But yet thou shalt have freedom : so, so, so.
To the king's ship, invisible as thou art :
There shalt thou find the mariners asleep
Under the hatches ; the master and the boatswain
Being awake, enforce them to this place, 100
And presently, I prithee.
Ari. I drink the air before me, and return
Or ere your pulse twice beat. [Exit.
Gon. All torment, trouble, wonder and amazement
Inhabits here : some heavenly power guide us
Out of this fearful country !
Pros. Behold, sir king,
The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero :
For more assurance that a living prince
Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body ;
And to thee and thy company I bid IIO
A hearty welcome .
Alon. Whether thou be'st he or no,
Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me,
As late I have been, I not know : thy pulse
Beats as of flesh and blood ; and, since I saw thee,
The affliction of my mind amends, with which,
I fear, a madness held me : this must crave,
An if this be at all, a most strange story.
Thy dukedom I resign and do entreat
Thou pardon me my wrongs. But how should Prospero
Be living and be here ?
Pros. First, noble friend, 120
Let me embrace thine age, whose honour cannot
Be measured or confined.
Gon. Whether this be
Or be not, I'll not swear.
Pros. You do yet taste
Some subtilties o' the isle, that will not let you
Believe things certain. Welcome, my friends all !
 ACT V. SCENE I. 61

[Aside to Sebastian and Antonio. ]

But you my brace of lords, were I so minded,
I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you
And justify you traitors : at this time
I will tell no tales.
Seb. [Aside.] The devil speaks in him.
Pros. No.
For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother 130
Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive
Thy rankest fault ; all of them ; and require
My dukedom of thee, which perforce, I know,
Thou must restore.
Alon. If thou be'st Prospero ,
Give us particulars of thy preservation ;
How thou hast met us here, who three hours since
Were wreck'd upon this shore ; where I have lost
How sharp the point of this remembrance is !—
My dear son Ferdinand.
Pros. I am woe for 't, sir.
Alon. Irreparable is the loss, and patience 140
Says it is past her cure.
Pros. I rather think
You have not sought her help, of whose soft grace
For the like loss I have her sovereign aid,
And rest myself content.
Alon. You the like loss !
Pros. As great to me as late ; and, supportable
To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker
Than you may call to comfort you, for I
Have lost my daughter.
Alon. A daughter ?
O heavens, that they were living both in Naples,
The king and queen there ! that they were, I wish 150
Myself were mudded in that oozy bed
Where my son lies. When did you lose your daughter ?
Pros. In this last tempest. I perceive, these lords
At this encounter do so much admire
62 THE TEMPES .
T
That they devour their reason and scarce think
Their eyes do offices of truth, their words
Are natural breath : but, howsoe'er you have
Been justled from your senses, know for certain
That I am Prospero and that very duke
Which was thrust forth of Milan, who most strangely 160
Upon this shore, where you were wreck'd, was landed,
To be the lord on 't. No more yet of this ;
For ' tis a chronicle of day by day,
Not a relation for a breakfast, nor
Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir ;
This cell's my court : here have I few attendants
And subjects none abroad : pray you, look in.
My dukedom since you have given me again,
I will requite you with as good a thing ;
At least bring forth a wonder, to content ye 170
As much as me my dukedom.
Here PROSPERO discovers FERDINAND and MIRANDA
playing at chess.
Mir. Sweet lord , you play me false.
Fer. No, my dear'st love,
I would not for the world.
Mir. Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle,
And I would call it fair play.
Alon. If this prove
A vision of the island, one dear son
Shall I twice lose.
Seb. A most high miracle !
Fer. Though the seas threaten, they are merciful ;
I have cursed them without cause. [Kneels.
Alon. Now all the blessings
Of a glad father compass thee about ! 180
Arise, and say how thou camest here.
Mir. O, wonder !
How many goodly creatures are there here !
How beauteous mankind is ! O brave new world,
That has such people in 't !
Pros. 'Tis new to thee.
 ACT V. SCENE I. 63

Alon. What is this maid with whom thou wast at play ?

Your eld'st acquaintance cannot be three hours :
Is she the goddess that hath sever'd us,
And brought us thus together ?
Fer. Sir, she is mortal ;
But by immortal Providence she's mine :
I chose her when I could not ask my father 190
For his advice, nor thought I had one. She
Is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan,
Of whom so often I have heard renown,
But never saw before ; of whom I have
Received a second life ; and second father
This lady makes him to me.
Alon. I am hers :
But, O, how oddly will it sound that I
Must ask my child forgiveness !
Pros. There, sir, stop
Let us not burthen our remembrance with
A heaviness that's gone.
Gon. I have inly wept, 200
Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you gods,
And on this couple drop a blessed crown !
For it is you that have chalk'd forth the way
Which brought us hither.
Alon. I say, Amen, Gonzalo !
Gon. Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue
Should become kings of Naples ? O, rejoice
Beyond a common joy, and set it down
With gold on lasting pillars : In one voyage
Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis,
And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife 210
Where he himself was lost, Prospero his dukedom
In a poor isle, and all of us ourselves
When no man was his own.
Alon. [To Fer. and Mir.] Give me your hands :
Let grief and sorrow still embrace his heart
That doth not wish you joy !
Gon. Be it so ! Amen !
64 THE TEMPEST.

Re-enter ARIEL, with the Master and Boatswain amazedly

following.
O look, sir, look, sir ! here is more of us :
I prophesied, if a gallows were on land,
This fellow could not drown. Now, blasphemy,
That swear'st grace o'erboard, not an oath on shore ?
Hast thou no mouth by land ? What is the news ? 220
Boats. The best news is, that we have safely found
Our king and company ; the next, our ship-
Which, but three glasses since, we gave out split
Is tight and yare and bravely rigg'd as when
We first put out to sea.
Ari. [ Aside to Pros.] Sir, all this service
Have I done since I went.
Pros. [Aside to Ariel] My tricksy spirit !
Alon. These are not natural events ; they strengthen
From strange to stranger. Say, how came you hither ?
Boats. If I did think, sir, I were well awake,
I'ld strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep, 230
And how we know not-all clapp'd under hatches ;
Where but even now with strange and several noises
Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains,
And mo diversity of sounds, all horrible,
We were awaked ; straightway, at liberty ;
Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld
Our royal, good and gallant ship, our master
Capering to eye her : on a trice, so please you,
Even in a dream, were we divided from them
And were brought moping hither.
Ari. [Aside to Pros.] Was 't well done ? 240
Pros. [Aside to Ariel] Bravely, my diligence. Thou shalt
be free.
Alon. This is as strange a maze as e'er men trod ;
And there is in this business more than nature
Was ever conduct of : some oracle
Must rectify our knowledge.
 ACT V. SCENE 1. 65

Pros. Sir, my liege,

Do not infest your mind with beating on
The strangeness of this business ; at pick'd leisure
Which shall be shortly, single I'll resolve you,
Which to you shall seem probable, of every
These happen'd accidents ; till when , be cheerful 250
And think of each thing well. [ Aside to Ariel] Come hither,
spirit :
Set Caliban and his companions free ;
Untie the spell. [Exit Ariel.] How fares my gracious sir ?
There are yet missing of your company
Some few odd lads that you remember not.
Re-enter ARIEL, driving in CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and
TRINCULO, in their stolen apparel.
Steph. Every man shift for all the rest, and let no man
take care for himself ; for all is but fortune. Coragio,
bully-monster, coragio !
Trin. If these be true spies which I wear in my head,
here's a goodly sight. 260
Cal. O Setebos, these be brave spirits indeed !
How fine my master is ! I am afraid
He will chastise me.
Seb. Ha, ha!
What things are these, my lord Antonio ?
Will money buy ' em ?
Ant. Very like ; one of them
Is a plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable.
Pros. Mark but the badges of these men, my lords,
Then say if they be true. This mis-shapen knave,
His mother was a witch, and one so strong
That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs, 270
And deal in her command without her power.
These three have robb'd me ; and this demi-devil—
For he's a bastard one-had plotted with them
To take my life. Two of these fellows you
Must know and own ; this thing of darkness I
Acknowledge mine.
F
66 THE TEMPEST.

Cal. I shall be pinch'd to death.

Alon. Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler ?
Seb. He is drunk now : where had he wine ?
Alon. And Trinculo is reeling ripe : where should they
Find this grand liquor that hath gilded 'em ? 280
How camest thou in this pickle ?
Trin. I have been in such a pickle since I saw you last
that, I fear me, will never out of my bones : I shall not
fear fly-blowing.
Seb. Why, how now, Stephano !
Steph. O, touch me not ; I am not Stephano, but a cramp.
Pros. You'ld be king o' the isle, sirrah ?
Steph. I should have been a sore one then.
Alon. This is a strange thing as e'er I look'd on.
[Pointing to Caliban.
Pros. He is as disproportion'd in his manners 290
As in his shape. Go, sirrah, to my cell ;
Take with you your companions ; as you look
To have my pardon, trim it handsomely.
Cal. Ay, that I will ; and I'll be wise hereafter
And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass
Was I, to take this drunkard for a god
And worship this dull fool !
Pros. Go to ; away!
Alon. Hence, and bestow your luggage where you found it.
Seb. Or stole it, rather. [Exeunt Cal., Steph., and Trin.
Pros. Sir, I invite your highness and your train 300
To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest
For this one night ; which, part of it, I'll waste
With such discourse as, I not doubt, shall make it
Go quick away ; the story of my life
And the particular accidents gone by
Since I came to this isle : and in the morn
I'll bring you to your ship and so to Naples,
Where I have hope to see the nuptial
 ACT V. SCENE I. 67

Of these our dear-beloved solemnized ;

And thence retire me to my Milan, where 310
Every third thought shall be my grave.
Alon. I long
To hear the story of your life, which must
Take the ear strangely.
Pros. I'll deliver all ;
And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales
And sail so expeditious that shall catch
Your royal fleet far off. [ Aside to Ariel] My Ariel, chick,
That is thy charge : then to the elements
Be free, and fare thou well ! Please you, draw near.
[Exeunt.

EPILOGUE.
SPOKEN BY PROSPERO .

Now my charms are all o'erthrown,

And what strength I have's mine own,
Which is most faint : now, 'tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got
And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell ;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands : IC
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
Let your indulgence set me free. 20
F 2
 NOTES .

THE Dramatis Persone are given in the folios at the end of the play.

ACT I.

Scene I.
6
3. Good refers probably to the preceding Here, master,' not to ' what
cheer ?' Such phrases as ' good my lord,' ' good my friends,' are very
common ; whence ' good ' comes to be used without an accompanying
noun, as a kind of interjection, as in Hamlet, i. I. 70 , ' Good now, sit
down,' and line 16 of the present scene, ' Nay, good, be patient.' See
also Winter's Tale, v. 1. 19, ' Now, good now, say so but seldom.' In
line 20 ' good ' expresses acquiescence in the Boatswain's request.
Ib. yarely, nimbly, handily, deftly. Compare Antony and Cleopatra,
ii. 2. 216, ' hands That yarely frame the office.'
5. cheerly, adverb formed from the noun, like ' angerly,' ' hungerly,'
' masterly,' &c. Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, § 447.
6. yare, from A. S. geáro, ready, prepared. It occurs again in line 37
of this scene, and in Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2. 286, ‘ yare, yare, good
Iras ; quick.' Also in v. 1. 214 of the present play, where it applies to
the ship, not the seamen. Ray gives it as a Suffolk word, and in the
speech of the Lowestoft boatman at this day ' hear, hear,' is probably
only a disguised form of ' yare, yare.'
Ib. Tend, attend. We have the same form in i. 2. 47 of this play, and
in Hamlet, iv. 3. 44, ' The associates tend.' For whistle compare Pericles,
iv. 1. 64, and iii. 1. 8,
'The seaman's whistle
Is as a whisper in the ears of death,
Unheard.'
7. Blow ... This is of course an apostrophe to the storm or the
spirit of the storm. There is no need to adopt Steevens' conjecture,
'Blow till thou burst thee, wind !' See Pericles, iii . 1. 44, ‘ Blow and
split thyself.'
Ib. ifroom enough . Observe the ellipsis. See Abbott, § 403. The
meaning is ' if there be sea-room enough.' Compare Pericles, iii. 1. 45.
"
But sea-room, an the brine and cloudy billow kiss the moon, I care not.'
70 NOTES. [ACT 1.

8. have care. Elsewhere Shakespeare seems always to have used

the ordinary phrase ' have a care,' and with something to follow .
9. Play the men. See 2 Samuel x. 12 , ' Let us play the men for our
people ; ' and Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI, i. 6. 16,
' When they shall hear how we have play'd the men.'
11. boatswain. The word is spelt in the folio in this place ‘ boson,' in
accordance with the sailors' pronunciation.
13. you do assist the storm. Compare Pericles, iii. 1. 19,
' Patience, good sir ; do not assist the storm.'
The coincidences between the two plays are remarkable.
15. What cares these roarers. When the verb precedes the plural
noun which governs it, it is frequently in the singular, as in iv. I.
264,
At this hour
Lies at my mercy all mine enemies.'
And Cymbeline, v. 5. 233, in the folios,
How comes these staggers on me?'
This construction, though so commonly used, was no more grammati
cally correct in Shakespeare's time than it is in ours. In many instances
it may be due to transcriber or printer. For example, in Richard II,
iii. 4. 24, the first folio reads ' Here comes the gardeners,' but the first
quarto, by far the best authority for the text, has Here come the gar
deners.' The second and following quartos have by mistake ' cometh ,'
which the printer of the folio, copying the fourth quarto, changed to
6
comes.' Doubtless Shakespeare himself often used this license inad
vertently, and did not hesitate to avail himself of it when the rhyme
required it, as e. g. Richard II, iii. 3. 168,
'There lies
Two kinsmen digg'd their graves with weeping eyes.'
16. roarers. In the language of Shakespeare's time a blustering bully
was called ' a roarer.' See Massinger, The Renegado, i. 3 , ‘ A lady to
turn roarer, and break glasses.' Compare 2 Henry IV, iii. 1. 22, ' Who
take the ruffian billows by the top.'
21. present, present time. So Macbeth, i. 5. 58,
6 Thy letters
have transported me beyond
This ignorant present .'
And I Cor. xv. 6, ' Of whom the greater part remain unto this present.'
Ib. hand, handle. Cotgrave translates manier, ' to handle, hand,
manage, wield, use, touch.'
24. hap. Compare Hamlet, i . 2. 249,
'Whatsoever else shall hap to-night.'
We find ' hap ' a substantive in Richard II, i. 1. 23, ' Envying earth's
good hap .'
SC. 1.] THE TEMPEST. 71

27. complexion, constitution, or temperament, as shown by the outward

appearance ; hence in recent times the meaning of the word has been
narrowed. See notes on Merchant of Venice, iii. 1. 26, and Hamlet,
i. 4. 27.
28. perfect gallows. The allusion is of course to the proverb, He
that is born to be hanged will never be drowned.' See line 53 of this
scene and v. I. 217 ; also, Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 1. 157,
' Go go, begone, to save your ship from reck,
Which cannot perish having thee aboard,
Being destined to a drier death on shore.'
30. advantage. This verb is always used elsewhere by Shakespeare
with an objective case following, as Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii.
2. 42,
'Where your good word cannot advantage him,
Your slander never can endamage him.'
32. Down with the topmast ! One of the directions given by Captain
John Smith, a contemporary of Shakespeare, for the handling of a
ship in a storm is, ' Strike your topmasts to the cap.' (The Seaman's
Grammar, p. 40. The second Lord M ave furnished Malone with
a long and interesting criticism on the manner in which Shakespeare
makes his sailors handle their ship in the storm, which he thinks per
fectly suitable to the circumstances where a ship is drifting on to a lee
shore. He quotes from Sir Henry Mainwaring's Seaman's Dictionary :
' It is not yet agreed amongst all seamen whether it is better for
a ship to hull with her topmast up or down ; ' and ' If you have sea
room it is never good to strike the topmast.' The whole may be read
at length in the Variorum Shakespeare, 1821. For an explanation of
the scene the reader is referred to the Preface.
33. Bring her to try with main-course. Ralegh (Works, viii. 339) , de
scribing a ship, says, ' To make her a good sea ship, that is, to hull and try
well, there are two things specially to be observed ; the one, that she have
a good draught of water ; the other, that she be not overcharged, which
commonlythe king's ships are ; and therefore in them we are obliged to
lie at trye with our main course and mizen, which with a deep keel and
standing streak, she will perform.' ' To lie at try ' is to keep as close
to the wind as possible ; and the storm-sails, which are adapted for the
purpose, and are always set on such occasions, are called try-sails. The
' main-course ' is the main-sail. The following account of the disasters
which befell Ralegh's ships at the outset of the Island voyage in 1597
will illustrate the present passage : ' On Twesday morninge, my sealf,
the Bonaventer, the Mathew, and Andrew, were together, and steered
for the North Cape, not doubtinge butt to have crost the fleet within
six howres, butt att the instant the winde changed to the south, and
72 NOTES. [ACT I.

blew vehemently ; so as wee putt our sealves under our fore corses, and
stood to the west into the sea. Butt on Twesday night I perceved
the Mathew to labor very vehemently, and that shee could not indure
that manner of standinge of, and so putt her sealf a try with her mayne
course.' (Edwards, Life of Ralegh, ii. 171 , 172.)
34. they are louder than ... our office. By their howling they make
the boatswain's orders inaudible.
Ib. weather, storm. So Winter's Tale, iii. 3. 103, ' both roaring louder
than the sea or weather.' 1
39. incharitable, a more correct form than the one at present in use,
' uncharitable.' So we have ' infortunate,' King John , ii. 1. 178 ; ' in
certain,' Measure for Measure, iii. 1. 127 ; ' ingrateful,' King Lear, ii. 4.
165 ; and several others.
43. for drowning, as regards drowning.
45. Lay her a-hold. Admiral Smyth, in his Sailors' Wordbook, says,
· Ahold. A term of our early navigators
, for bringing a ship close to
the wind, so as to hold or keep to it.'
Ib. set her two courses ; off to sea again ! The two courses are the
mainsail and the foresail. The punctuation here adopted is that of
Holt ; the folio reads ' set her two courses off to Sea againe,' which
would mean, keep her out two points more away from the land.
51. merely, absolutely. So Hamlet, i. 2. 137,
"
Things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely.'
55. at widest. We still say ' at most,' ' at least,' ' at last,' ' at latest.'
Observe that · widest ' is here a monosyllable .
Ib. glut, swallow up ; a meaning for which we should now use
' englut.' The use of the word in this sense is rare. It does not occur
elsewhere in Shakespeare. Johnson refers to Milton [Par. Lost, x. 633] ,
' Nigh burst
With suck'd and glutted offal.'
And Steevens quotes Gorges's Lucan [p. 241 , ed. 1614], vi. [537] ,
' And oylie fragments scarcely burn'd
Together she doth scrape and glut.'
61. ling, heath, broom, furze. This is Hanmer's emendation of the
' Long heath, Browne firrs ' of the folio. It was approved by Sidney
Walker and adopted by Dyce. The epithets long,' ' brown, ' are not
specially applicable to heath and furze, and any epithets seem out of
place. Neither is the mention of ' ling ' and ' heath ' tautological. Any
one acquainted with the moors of northern England knows that ' ling '
and ' heather ' denote different varieties of erica. Farmer quotes from
Harrison's Description of England in Holinshed (fol. 91 a), ' Brome ...
heth, firze, brakes, whinnes, ling,' &c.
Sc. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 73

62. The wills above, the will of the powers above. See Winter's Tale,
v. i. 46,
"'Tis your counsel
My lord should to the heavens be contrary,
Oppose against their wills.'

Scene II.

1. In many parts of this play the lines end with unemphatic mono
syllables, making the verse sound like prose. In lines 12, 17, 54, for
examples. This is characteristic of Shakespeare's latest manner.
2. roar. For this usage of the substantive for the verbal noun,
compare ' stare,' iii. 3. 95.
4. welkin, sky ; A. S. wolcen, cloud. Compare Love's Labour's Lost,
iv. 2. 5, ' Like a jewel in the ear of caelo, the sky, the welkin, the
heaven.' It occurs as an adjective in Winter's Tale, i. 2. 136,
' Look on me with your welkin eye,'
i. e. sky-blue eye. Compare also King Lear, iii . 7. 61 , where we have
a similar example of poetic exaggeration ; Winter's Tale, iii. 3. 85 ; and
Othello, ii. I. II - 15.
Ib. welkin's cheek. So in Richard II, iii. 3. 57, the cloudy cheeks of
heaven.' And Coriolanus, v. 3. 151 , ' the wide cheeks o' the air.'
5. fire, a dissyllable, as in Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 7. 22,
' But qualify the fire's extreme rage.'
See Webster and Marston's Malcontent, iv. I ,
'A town on fire be extinct with tears.'
And Abbott, § 480.
6. brave, fine, the Scottish braw. See i . 2. 206, 411.
7. Who follows a neuter antecedent when it is personified, as here,
in her.' So 2 Henry IV, iii. 1. 22,
'The winds
Who take the ruffian billows by the top.'
II. or ere. See v. 1. 103. So Macbeth, iv. 3. 173,
' Dying or ere they sicken.'
And King John, iv. 3. 20,
Two long days' journey, lords, or ere we meet.'
In Old English ' or ' was used in the sense of " before,' as Chaucer,
Flower and Leaf, 28 (ed. 1598),
' Long or the bright sonne vp risen was.'
In Daniel vi. 24 we have or ever they came at the bottom of the den'
And in Hamlet, i . 2. 183, according to the reading of the quartos,
'Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio ! '
74 NOTES. [ACT 1.

The reading of the first folio is ' Ere I had ever.' This reduplication,
which generally, but not always, intensifies the meaning of the adverb,
may be paralleled by ' for because,' ' and if.'
13. fraughting. Pope read freighted.' The meaning is clear-the
souls which made up the freight of the vessel. Theobald unnecessarily
altered the word to ' freighting.' Cotgrave has Freter. To hire a ship of
burden ; and to fraught, or load her, hired.' ' Freteure : A fraughting,
loading, or furnishing of a (hired) ship .'
14. amazement means more than mere astonishment, confusion, and
distress of mind. Compare Troilus and Cressida, v. 3. 85,
' Behold, distraction, frenzy, and amazement,
Like witless antics, one another meet.'
See 1 Peter iii. 6, and our note on Hamlet, iii . 2. 294.
Ib. piteous heart. So Richard II, v. 3. 126,
' Or in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear.'
'Piteous ' is more commonly used of the object which excites pity.
15. woe the day ! Compare Julius Cæsar, i. 3. 82 ,
' But, woe the while ! our fathers' minds are dead.'
19. Of whence. A redundant phrase, which may be compared
with or ever,' &c., though not exactly parallel. See Pericles, ii .
3. 80,
" And further he desires to know of you,
Of whence you are, your name, and parentage.'
Ib. more better. So in line 439 of this scene, more braver.' Compare
' more nearer,' Hamlet, ii. 1. 11 , and ' more elder,' Merchant of Venice,
iv. I. 251 .
20. full poor. So in this scene, line 155, ' full salt.'
24. The stage direction, ' Lays down his mantle,' was inserted by
Pope. Steevens quotes Fuller's Holy State, p . 257, of Lord Burleigh,
' At night when he put off his gown, he used to say, Lye there, Lord
Treasurer.'
26. wreck. The first folio has ' wracke,' and in lines 390, 414, and 488.
This represents the pronunciation of the word in Shakespeare's time.
See Venus and Adonis, 558. Florio (Ital. Dict. ) has, Naufragio, a
wracke, a shipwracke.' And in the Authorised Version of 1611 the form
of the word is 6 shipwracke,' in 2 Cor. xi. 25, 1 Tim. i. 19.
28. provision. Dyce reads ' prevision ,' which means the same thing.
Cotgrave gives ' Prouvoyance : Purveyance, provision , foresight.'
29. soul . The sense is here imperfect. Rowe read, to the detriment
of the metre, ' no soul lost.' Others have proposed to change ' soul ' to
'loss,' soil,' ' foil.'
30. Compare line 217, ' not a hair perish'd ' ; and 1 Henry IV, iii. 3. 66,
" The tithe of a hair was never lost in my house before.'
SC. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 75

31. Betid. We have the same form in Richard II, v. 1. 42,

6
•Tales
Of woeful ages long ago betid.'
32. Observe here the curious repetition of ' which,' the first refer
ring to ' creature,' the second to ' vessel.' For a similar distribution
compare Winter's Tale, iii. 2. 164, 165 , 206, and Macbeth, i. 3 .
60, 61 ,
' Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate.'
35. bootless, profitless. So bootless prayers,' Merchant of Venice,
iii. 3. 20. We have ‘ boot ,' a substantive, meaning ‘ profit,' in Richard II,
i. 1. 164, ' There is no boot,' i. e. there is no use in resisting. It comes
from A. S. bót. The impersonal verb ' it boots ' is frequent, e. g. Two
Gentlemen of Verona, i. 1. 28, ' it boots thee not.'
37. ope, open, as in v. i. 49.
38. Pope, for the sake of the metre, omitted " thou.' .
C
41. Out, fully, completely. Compare right out,' iv. I. IOI .
43. Observe the inversion of the sentence. See below, 204, 224, and
compare Timon of Athens, v. 1. 167,
'So soon we shall drive back
Of Alcibiades the approaches wild.'
47. tended. See i. 1. 6, and compare Richard II, iv. 1. 199,
' They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay.'
50. backward. As examples of adverbs first turned into adjectives
and then used as nouns, see Measure for Measure, iii. 2. 138, ' I was an
inward of his ' ; and Sonnet cxxviii. 6, ' To kiss the tender inward of thy
hand.' · Outward ' is a substantive in Sonnet lxix. 5.
Ib. abysm. See Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 13. 147, ' the abysm of
hell.' It comes from the old French abysme, so spelt in Cotgrave, who
gives as the English equivalent 6 abysmus.' He gives however ' abisme '
as the English for ' barathre.'
53. Twelve year ... twelve year. Pope altered ' year ' in both cases to
' years,' objecting to the use of the singular as too colloquial and vulgar.
Other instances of this use are in Taming of the Shrew, Induction 2,
115, where Sly talks of ' fifteen year ; ' in 1 Henry IV, ii. 4. 50 , the prince
says, ' five year' ; 2 Henry IV, iii. 2. 224, Silence says, ' That's fifty-five
year ago .' We still use ' pound ' and ' stone ' with plural numerals, as
did Hamlet (iii. 2. 298) , ‘ I'll take the Ghost's word for a thousand
pound.'
Ib. Observe that the first ' year ' is a dissyllable, the second a mono
syllable, like ' fare ' in Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. 4. 98,
' Farewell, gentle mistress : farewell, Nan .'
In both cases the first word is more emphatic than the second.
76 NOTES. [ACT 1.

56. piece, a sample or perfect specimen. See Pericles, iv. 6. 118 ,

where Lysimachus says to Marina, ' Thou art a piece of virtue.' And
Antony and Cleopatra, iii . 2. 28,
' Let not the piece of virtue, which is set
Between us as the cement of our love,
To keep it builded, be the ram to batter
The fortress of it.'
See also Beaumont and Fletcher, Bonduca, v. 1,
6 This worthy Roman
Was such another piece of endless honour.'
59. A princess. So Pope. The folios have And Princesse.'
Ib. issued, descended. So I Henry VI, v. 4. 38,
But issued from the progeny of kings.'
63. holp. Altered by Pope to helped.' Shakespeare uses ' holp'
both as a participle (as Richard II, v. 5. 62,
•
For though it have holp madmen to their wits ')
and as a preterite (as King Lear, iii. 7. 62 , ‘ he holp the heavens to
rain '). The latter usage is still not uncommon in Suffolk.
64. teen, sorrow. Romeo and Juliet, i. 3. 13 , ‘ And yet to my teen be
it spoken.' Perhaps connected with A. S. teóna, injury, wrong, and
Icel. týna, to lose ; Scot. tyne.
65. from, away from, out of. So Julius Cæsar, ii. 1. 196,
' Quite from the main opinion he held once.'
Ib. Please you, if it please you, if you please. See ii. 1. 185.
67. that. Compare 2 Henry VI, i. 4. 31 , That I had said and
done !'
69, 70. to him put The manage. We have a somewhat similar phrase
in Macbeth, iv. 3. 122,
' I put myself to thy direction.'
And Richard III, i. 3. 12,
'his minority
Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloucester.'
70. manage, management, government ; as in King John, i. 1. 37,
'the manage oftwo kingdoms.' The word is technically used of horse
manship, as 1 Henry IV, ii. 3. 52,
' Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed .'
71. Signories, the states of Northern Italy, under the government of
single princes originally owing feudal obedience to the Holy Roman
Empire. Heylyn, in his Microcosmus ( 1633 ) , p . 219 , writes : ' Of 29
Cities under Millaine, there now remaines but 9 ; yet is this the prime
Dukedome of Christendome.'
72. prime. Florio gives ' Primo : Prime, or first in ranke or number.'
Compare Henry VIII , iii . 2. 162,
SC. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 77

Have I not made you

The prime man of the state ?'
76. my state, either my dignity ' or ' the state which I governed .'
For the former sense compare Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 1 .
158,
6 The summer still doth tend upon my state.'
78. attend, to be attentive to, as in line 453.
79. perfected, perfectly instructed . ompare Pericles, iii. 2. 67,
6'Apollo, perfect me in the characters ! '
80. who. The reading of the first folio. See Abbott, Shakespeare
Grammar, § 274, and our note on Macbeth, iii . 1. 122. The later folios
conform to modern usage in reading ' whom.'
81. To trash for over-topping. Two explanations have been given of
this phrase : one based upon the supposition that the expression is bor
rowed from the hunting field ; the other deriving it from the cultivation
of trees. According to the first, it signifies to check a hound for out
stripping, or to prevent his outstripping, the rest. This is supported by
the usage of the word ' trash ' in Warton's emendation of Othello, ii.
I. 312,
If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash
For his quick hunting, stand the putting on.'
There is no doubt that ' trash ' is a hunting term . On the other hand,
to ' overtop ' is used of trees. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 12. 24,
This pine is bark'd
That overtopp'd them all.'
But then there is no evidence that ' trash ' is a gardening term and equi
valent to ' plash.' This view was first taken by Steevens, but was after
wards abandoned by him in his note on the passage in Othello just
quoted. He there says, ' To trash is still a hunter's phrase, and signifies
to fasten a weight on the neck of a dog, when his speed is superior to
that of his companions.' In support of this interpretation he quotes
Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca, i. 1 : Caratach speaks
' I fled too ,
But not so fast ; your jewel had been lost then,
Young Hengo there ; he trasht me Nennius.'
' Trasht ' here signifies clogged or impeded me in my flight,' for Caratach
carried off the boy. The sense of ' correct, rate,' which Warton gives,
is apparently a secondary one. Both he and Douce appeal to its use by
sportsmen in the north of England. Todd, in his edition of Johnson's
Dictionary, quotes from Hammond's Works, iv. 563, ' There is no means
on earth, besides the very hand of God, able to trash, or overslow this
furious driver .' ' Trashes ' are mentioned by Gervase Markham, in his
Countrey Contentments (quoted by Nares), with couples, liams, and
78 NOTES. [ACT I.

collars (p. 13). To make the figure complete it is only necessary that an
undoubted example of ' overtop ' as a hunting term should be found.
Otherwise it would appear that in this passage we have, as elsewhere,
an instance of mixture of metaphors. ' For ' may perhaps, but not
necessarily, be used as in Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 2. 136,
'Yet here they shall not lie, for catching cold,'
that is, lest they catch cold.
82, 83. or ... Or, either ... or. Compare Cymbeline, v. 2. 17, 18,
' It is a day turned strangely ; or betimes
Let's reinforce, or fly.'
83. key. Sir John Hawkins points out that this is meant of a key for
tuning the harpsichord, spinnet, or virginals.
85. that, so that. See Macbeth , i. 2. 58 , i. 7. 8.
86. The ivy. Compare Marston and Webster's Malcontent, v. 3,
' O, I have seen strange accidents of state !
The flatterer, like the ivy, clip the oak,
And waste it to the heart.'
87. on 't, of it. See iv. 1. 157 ; Macbeth, i. 3. 84.
89. all, used adverbially, as in Richard II, ii. 2. 126.
90. closeness, privacy, retirement. Cotgrave gives ' Obscurité, . . .
closenesse, couertnesse.' In the sense of ' secret,' ' close ' is of common
occurrence. Compare 2 Samuel xxii. 46, Luke ix. 36, and Macbeth , iii.
5.7,
'The close contriver of all harms.'
92. O'er-prized all popular rate, surpassed in value all popular estima
tion. Shakespeare uses ' outprized ' in the same sense, Cymbeline, i .
5. 88, " Either your unparagoned mistress is dead, or she's outprized by
a trifle.' For ' rate,' see ii. 1. 103. ' But ' in the previous line is used
in the sense of ' except.'
93. Awaked. This form of the preterite is always found in Shake
speare. Both ' awaked ' and ' awoke ' occur in the Authorised Version ;
as for instance Gen. xxviii. 16, ' Jacob awaked out of his sleep ' ; and ix.
24, ' And Noah awoke from his wine.' Again, Shakespeare always
uses ‘ waked,' and never ' woke ’ ; and in this his usage agrees with that
of the Authorised Version. The two forms are perhaps due to the fact
that our word ' wake ' represents two A. S. words, wácian, pret. wácode
or wácude, and wacan, pret. wóc. But this will not explain the existence
of the two forms ' shook ' and ' shaked,' which are found in Shakespeare
as well as in the Authorised Version.
94. Like a good parent, whose children are, according to the proverb,
inferior to himself. Johnson quotes the Latin form Heroum filii noxae ' ;
and the Greek is given in Erasmi Adagia, ἀνδρῶν ἡρώων τέκνα πήματα .
95. in its contrary, that is, in its opposite nature.
Sc. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 79

95. its, spelt it's ' in the first folio. There are ten instances in
Shakespeare of this form of the neuter possessive pronoun. See line
393 of this scene and The Bible Wordbook (Eastwood and Wright) ,
p. 274. The earliest example there given is from Florio's Worlde of
Wordes, which appeared in 1598. It does not occur in the Authorised
Version of 1611, and the only passage in which it appears in modern
Bibles is Lev. xxv. 5, where the original had ' That which groweth of it
owne accord,' & c.
97. sans, without. This French preposition appears to have been
brought into the language in the fourteenth century, and occurs in the
forms saun,' ' sanz,' ' sauntz,' ' saunz,' and ‘ saunce. ' It may perhaps
have been employed at first in purely French phrases, such as sans ques
tion,'Love's Labour's Lost, v. I. 91 ; ·' sans compliment,' King John, v.
6. 16. But Shakespeare uses it with other words, as here and in Hamlet,
iii. 4. 79, ‘ sans all,' and other passages. Compare As You Like It, ii. 7.
166. Nares quotes instances from Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher,
Massinger, and others. So that it appears to have had an existence for a
time as an English word. Cotgrave (French Dict.) gives ' Sans. Sanse,
without, besides ' ; and Florio (Italian Dict.) has ' Senza, sans, without,
besides.'
Ib. lorded, invested with the dignity and power of a lord.
98. revenue occurs in Shakespeare both with the accent on the first
and on the second syllable. Compare Hamlet, iii . 2. 63, and Midsum
mer Night's Dream, i . 1. 6.
100. Who having unto truth, &c. The folios read into.' Warburton
made the correction. The whole construction of the sentence is loose.
6
' Unto truth ' depends upon sinner ' in the following line, and ‘ of it '
refers to his own lie.' The meaning is plain, ‘ like one who having
made his memory such a sinner against truth as to credit his own lie by
telling of it.' For the construction by telling of it,' compare Antony
and Cleopatra, ii. 1. 8, ' So find we profit by losing of our prayers ; '
where ' losing' is a verbal noun. See Abbott, § 178. Warburton made
a further change in the line, and read ' by telling oft,' but this is unne
cessary. A very parallel passage is quoted by Malone from Bacon's
account of Perkin Warbeck in his History of Henry VII, p. 120, ed.
1622, ' Nay himselfe, with long and continuall counterfeiting, and with
oft telling a Lye, was turned by habite almost into the thinge hee seemed
to be, and from a Lyar, to a Belieuer.' Bacon had the same idea in his
mind when he wrote (Advancement of Learning, i. 4, § 8, p . 34, ed.
Wright) ' he that will easily believe rumours will as easily augment
rumours and add somewhat to them of his own ; which Tacitus wisely
noteth, when he saith, Fingunt simul creduntque : so great an affinity
hath fiction and belief.'
80 NOTES. [ACT I.

102. To credit. For the omission of ' as,' compare Richard II, iii. 3. 12.
·
103. out o' the substitution, by reason of being my deputy. Substitute
is used for ' deputy ' in Measure for Measure, v. 1. 140, and Merchant of
Venice, v. 1. 94,
A substitute shines brightly as a king
Until a king be by.'
104. executing the outward face of royalty, performing the external
duties which belong to a king, acting as king to all appearance. A
singular instance of a mixed metaphor.
109. Absolute Milan, completely duke of Milan . Compare Hamlet,
i. 1. 61 .
Ib. Me, for me. Malone gives many instances of a similar omission
ofthe preposition in his note on Cymbeline, v. 5. 464, 465,
' Whom heaven, in justice, both on her and hers,
Have laid most heavy hand.'
See Abbott, § 201. Dyce quotes Timon of Athens, v. 1. 63, 64,
• Whose thankless natures-O abhorred spirits !—
Not all the whips in heaven are large enough.'
III. confederates, forms a league, conspires. Shakespeare uses the
participle, but not the verb, elsewhere. It appears to be generally em
ployed in a bad sense. So in Henry VIII, i. 2. 3 , ' confederacy ' is
equivalent to ' plot,' ' conspiracy,'
'I stood i' the level
Of a full-charged confederacy.'
112. dry, thirsty, still common in provincial English. See 1 Henry IV,
i. 3. 31,
'When I was dry with rage and extreme toil.'
And Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3. 234, 'Pour in, pour in ; his ambition is dry.'
Ib. wi' the. The folios have 'with .'
114. Subject, with the accent on the last syllable, as in As You Like
It, ii. 3. 35.
117. his condition and the event, the condition he made with the king
of Naples, and the consequences which followed.
118. might, used for ' could,' as in Hamlet, i . I. 56, i. 2. 141. 1
119. but nobly, otherwise than nobly.
120. Good ... sons. Hanmer, following Theobald's suggestion, gives
these words to Prospero, to whom they are inappropriate.
122. hearkens, gives ear to , listens to. It is used again as a tran
sitive verb in 2 Henry IV, ii. 4. 303 , where the folios read ' hearken
the end.' Compare Milton, Comus, 169, as punctuated in his own
MS.
' I fairly step aside,
And hearken, if I may, her business here.'
sc. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 81

123. in lieu o' the premises, in return for the fulfilment of the con
ditions. For ' in lieu of' in this sense compare As You Like It, ii.
3. 65,
' But, poor old man, thou prunest a rotten tree,
That cannot so much as a blossom yield
In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry.'
And Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 410. For ' premises ' in the sense of
' conditions ' see All's Well that Ends Well, ii . 1. 204,
་
Here is my hand ; the premises observed,
Thy will by my performance shall be served.'
125. presently, immediately. Compare iv. 1. 42, v. 1. 101 ; 1 Sam.
ii. 16.
128. levied, that is, being levied. Compare for this usage of the
participle Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 12. 12,
'Requires to live in Egypt ; which not granted,
He lessens his requests.'
See Abbott, § 377
129. Fated, suited by destiny.
Ib. purpose. Dyce, in his second edition, adopts ' practise,' the reading
of Collier MS.
130. the dead of darkness. Compare Hamlet, i. 1. 65, i. 2. 198.
134. Will cry it, that is, either ' will cry my crying,' in which case ' it '
refers to the previous line ; or it may be that ' it ' is here used indefi
nitely as in line 380, Foot it featly here and there.' Compare King
Lear, iv. I. 55 , ' I cannot daub it further ' ; and Coriolanus, v. 3. 48,
'My true lip
Hath virgin'd it e'er since.'
The usage still remains in such phrases as ' to fight it out.'
Ib. hint, subject, theme, as in ii. 1. 3 , and Othello , i. 3. 142,
'It was my hint to speak.'
135. wrings mine eyes to 't, forces mine eyes to shed tears. Compare
Much Ado about Nothing, v. 1. 302,
'Your over-kindness doth wring tears from me.'
Ib. to't, that is, to do it, referring to the crying of the previous
line. Steevens omitted the words as unnecessary both to sense and
metre.
137. the which. Compare, for this use of the definite article with the
relative pronoun, Comedy of Errors, v. 1. 229,
6 For the which
He did arrest me with an officer.'
And Gen. i. 29, ' every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding
seed.'
G
 82 NOTES. [ACT 1.

138. impertinent, irrelevant, not to the purpose. Compare King Lear,

iv. 6. 178,
' O matter and impertinency mix'd ! '
139. demanded, asked. ' Demand,' like the French demander, was
formerly used for ' to ask ' simply, without the idea which now attaches
to it of asking with authority or as a right. Compare 2 Sam. xi. 7, and
Cymbeline, iii. 6. 92,
When we have supp'd,
We'll mannerly demand thee of thy story.'
Ib. wench, used in Shakespeare as a term of affectionate familiarity by
a superior. See lines 412 and 479 of this scene, and Henry VIII, iii. 1. 1 ,
'Take thy lute, wench ; my soul grows sad with troubles.'
141. nor might be omitted with advantage to the metre and without
injuring the sense.
144. In few, in few words, in short. See Hamlet, i. 3. 126.
Ib. Compare the story of Constance in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale.
146. butt. Rowe, following Dryden's version, substituted boat.' No
other instance is known of ' butt ' in this sense, although 6 buss,' which
has been conjectured, is still used at Yarmouth for a herring boat, and
the A. S. butse carlas, sailors, is found in the Saxon Chronicle, anno 1066.
6' Catch
' (compare ketch, or keech a tub) was the name of a small vessel.
146, 147. not rigg'd, Nor tackle, sail, nor mast. The construction is
irregular, but the meaning clear. ' Tackle ' and ' tackling ' are used for
the ropes of a vessel. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 2. 214,
'The silken tackle
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands.'
And Richard III, iv. 4. 233,
'Like a poor bark, of sails and tackling reft.'
148. have. So the folios. For a similar change from the past to the
present in a description see 1. 205, and Winter's Tale, v. 2. 83, ' She lifted
the princess from the earth, and so her in embracing as ifshe would
pin her to her heart.'
Ib. quit, quitted. The same form occurs for the past tense in line
211. Compare Henry V, iii. 2. 92, ' How now, Captain Macmorris !
have you quit the mines ?'
Ib. hoist, either the past tense of ' hoise,' or the present of ' hoist.'
The participle is found in Hamlet , iii . 4. 207.
149. To cry to the sea, &c. Steevens points out a similar conceit in
Winter's Tale, iii . 3. 100, ' How the poor souls roared, and the sea
mocked them.'
152. cherubin. See Merchant of Venice, v. 1. 62 ; Othello, iv. 2. 63 ;
and the Te Deum, thou in the last instance it is used for the plural.
The French form of the word is cherubin, the Italian cherubino.
SC. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 83

154. Infused, possessed. Compare Taming of the Shrew, Ind. 2. 17,

' O that a mighty man of such descent,
Of such possessions and so high esteem,
Should be infused with so foul a spirit !'
155. deck'd, sprinkled. The word ' deck ' appears to be equivalent to
' deg,' which is used in the Craven dialect. In Carr's Glossary it is
said, ' to deg clothes is to sprinkle them with water previous to ironing.'
·
On this Professor Sedgwick noted To make damp is the meaning.' In
Atkinson's Glossary of the Cleveland Dialect, " dagg ' or ' degg ' is
explained, to sprinkle with water, to drizzle,' and ' dagged,' ' wet,
bedaggled.' In Brockett's Glossary of North-Country Words we find,
' Dag, to drizzle ;' ' Dag, a drizzling rain, dew upon the grass ; ' and
' Daggy, damp, wet.' The three forms ' deck,' ' deg,' and ‘ dag ' are no
doubt connected with the Icelandic deigr, damp, wet.
156. which raised in me. This refers to ' Thou didst smile,' & c.
157. An undergoing stomach, an enduring courage. For ' undergo '
see iii. 1. 3 ; and for ' stomach ' see Henry V, iv. 3. 35,
' That he that hath no stomach to this fight
Let him depart.'
And 2 Macc. vii. 21 , ' stirring up her womanish thoughts with a manly
stomach.' In the sense of ' pride ' it occurs in the Prayer-book Version
of Psalm ci. 7, and in Henry VIII, iv. 2. 34,
'He was a man
Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking
Himself with princes.'
162. who being then appointed. This reading, which is found in the
folios, although it makes the construction confused, is most likely the
true one. Such careless constructions are not unusual in Shakespeare.
It may be mended either by omitting ' who ' with Pope, by reading ' he'
for ' who ' with Capell ; or, substituting ' was ' for ' being,' the clause
may be read parenthetically, as it is printed in the folios.
165. have steaded much, have stood us in good stead, have been of much
service. Compare Merchant of Venice, i. 3. 7, and Othello, i. 3. 344,
' I could never better stead thee than now,'
Ib. of his gentleness. Compare Richard III, i. 3, 63,
6
The king of his own royal disposition .'
169. But ever, that is, but at any time. ' Ever ' is used here as in
many other cases, to give emphasis. Compare if ever,' ' or ever.'
Ib. Now I arise. These words have given occasion to much discus
sion. Steevens thinks that they must refer to the fact that Prospero
approached the climax of his narrative. But they rather indicate that
the crisis ofhis own fortunes was come. He says a few lines further down,
G 2
84 NOTE . [ACT 1.
S
' I find my zenith doth depend upon
A most auspicious star, whose influence
If now I court not but omit, my fortunes
Will ever after droop.'
At this point his fate culminated and his reappearance from obscurity
was a kind of resurrection , or like the rising of the sun.
Ib. The stage direction Resumes his mantle ' is not in the folios, and
was first added by Dyce in his first edition in the form ' Resumes his
robe.' Something of the kind appears to be wanted in order to account
for the words that follow, ' Sit still,' Miranda apparently offering to rise
when she saw her father do something which indicated departure.
170. sea-sorrow. This compound , like ' sea-storm,' ' sea-change,' is
peculiar to The Tempest.
172. more profit. The same transposition of the adverb occurs in
v. I. 38, ' Whereof the ewe not bites.'
173. princesses. The first three folios have ' princesse,' the fourth
' princess.' Rowe reads ' princes,' and Dyce ' princess, ' following the
conjecture of Sidney Walker, that this was an abbreviation of ' prin
cesses.' Compare As You Like It, i . 2. 175 , where the first folio,
followed substantially by the others, reads ' the Princesse cals for you ;'
Orlando's answer being, ‘ I attend them with all respect and duty.' In
this passage, as in the one before us, there is a choice of difficulties,
either to regard the plural in Orlando's speech as a piece of carelessness
on the part of the writer or to consider ' cals ' a blunder of the scribe or
printer, in which case ' princesse ' is for ' princesses.' Similarly ' sense '
for 6 senses ' occurs in Macbeth , v. 1. 29, where the folios read, ' their
sense are shut.' See Sonnet cxii. 10, and Gen. xlix. 17, ' the horse
heels.' In support of Rowe's reading, ' princes,' may be quoted Bacon's
Advancement of Learning, i . 7. § 9, where Queen Elizabeth is spoken
of as 'a prince.'
174. vainer hours. ' Hours ' of course is here used for the occupations
with which time is employed, as in Richard II, iii . 1. 11 , ' sinful hours,'
and v. 1. 25, ' profane hours.' It would be unnecessary to call attention
to this, but that it has been proposed in the present passage to change
hours' into ' loves.'
175. Heavens thank you for't. This euphemism is probably due to
the Act of Parliament, 3 James I, c. 21, quoted in the notes to the
Merchant of Venice, 2.99 .
176. beating, working violently. Compare iv. I. 163, v. 1. 246, and
Hamlet, iii. 1. 182,
'Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus
From fashion of himself.'
sc. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 85

177. farforth. Compare Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 6. 11 ,

' So far forth as herself might be her chooser.'
179. Now my dear lady, now my auspicious mistress. Compare
Cymbeline, ii. 3. 158,
Your mother too :
She's my good lady,'
where of course it is used ironically. And King Lear, ii. 1. 42,
' Conjuring the moon
To stand auspicious mistress.'
181. zenith. Strictly speaking, the zenith of any place on the earth's
surface is the point in the heavens vertically overhead. Here it appar
ently denotes the highest or culminating point in the path of a heavenly
body, and this points to the idea in Prospero's mind, when he says,
' Now I arise,' like the sun emerging from obscurity. For " omit ' in
·
the sense of neglect,' see ii. 1. 187, and with the whole passage com
pare Julius Cæsar, iv. 3. 218-221 ,
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.'
182. influence. There is in this word a trace of the old astrological
belief in the control exercised by the planets over human destinies.
Compare Job xxxviii . 31 ; Hamlet, i. 1. 119 ; and King Lear, i. 2.
130-136.
185. dulness, sleepiness, stupor. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, ii.
I. 27,
' That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour
Even till a Lethe'd dulness.'
186. And appears to be used to mark the consequence, and is almost
"
equivalent to therefore ' or ' and therefore.' Compare Much Ado
about Nothing, iv. 1. 287,
Beat. I was about to protest I loved you.
Ben. And do it with all thy heart.'
And As You Like It, ii. 7. 104,
' I almost die for food ; and let me have it.'
Ib. give it way, give way to it. Compare Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 216,
'Give them way till he take leave.' And King John, ii. 1. 324,
'Open your gates and give the victors way.'
Ib. thou canst not choose, thou canst not help it, hast no choice in the
matter. Compare ii. 2. 23 , and Twelfth Night, ii. 5. 189 , Thou canst
not choose but know who I am.'
Ib. The stage direction, ' Miranda sleeps ,' was added by Theobald.
86 NOTES. [ACT I,

193. quality, professional skill. Compare Hamlet, ii . 2. 452, ' Come,

give us a taste of your quality ; come, a passionate speech.' It was
most commonly applied to the profession of players. See Massinger,
The Picture, ii. 1 ,
' How do you like the quality ?
You had a foolish itch to be an actor,
And may stroll where you please.'
Steevens and Malone understand the word to denote Ariel's confederates,
all those of the same profession.
194. Perform'd to point, executed in every detail, exactly. Cotgrave
(Fr. Dict.) gives, À poinct. Aptly, fitly, conueniently. Compare
Measure for Measure, iii. 1. 254, ‘ Agree with his demands to the point ; '
and Spenser, Fairy Queen, i. 2. 12,
'A faithlesse Sarazin, all armde to point.'
196. Capell, in his School of Shakespeare, p. 7, has pointed out a
passage in Hakluyt's Voyages, ed . 1598 (iii . 450), which strikingly
illustrates this speech of Ariel, ' I do remember that in the great and
boysterous storme of this foule weather, in the night, there came vpon
the toppe of our maine yarde and maine maste, a certaine little
light, much like vnto the light of a little candle, which the Spaniards
called the Cuerpo -santo, and saide it was S. Elmo, whom they take
to bee the aduocate of Sailers. . . . This light continued aboord our
ship about three houres, flying from maste to maste, & from top
to top and sometime it would be in two or three places at once.'
Malone copied this from Capell without acknowledgment. In Pur
chas his Pilgrimes (ed. 1625), Part I, lib. iii . c. 1 , § 6, p. 133 , is a
narrative of a storm which happened to John Davis in a voyage to the
East Indies. · In the extremitie of our storme appeared to vs in the
night, vpon our maine Top-mast head, a flame about the bignesse of a
great Candle ; which the Portugals call Corpo Sancto, holding it a most
diuine token, that when it appeareth the worst is past. As, thanked be
God, we had better weather after it. Some thinke it to be a spirit :
others write that it is an exhalation of moyst vapours, that are ingen
dred by foule and tempestuous weather.'
Ib. beak, the bow of the ship, Lat. rostrum. Compare Holland's
Pliny, xxxiv. 5 , ‘ Upon the victorie atchieved of the Antiats, the citie of
Rome ordained, That the beake-heads with their brasen tines, which
were taken from them in a conflict at sea, should be fastened unto the
pulpit of publicke pleas and Orations, which thereupon was ever after
C
called Rostra.' And Holland's Livy, xxviii. p. 692, Adherball being
thus surprised on a suddaine, for a while stood in feare and doubt what
to doe ; whether hee had best to follow on after his own Caravell, or
SC. 2. ] THE TEMPEST. 87

turn the prows and beaks of his gallies, and make head against the
enemie.' According to Falconer's Marine Dictionary ( 1769), ' Beak
head ' is ‘ a name given to a ship's head whose forecastle is square or
oblong.' See quotation from Hakluyt on 1. 200.
197. waist, that part of a ship which is contained between the quarter
deck and forecastle, being usually a hollow space, with an ascent of
several steps to either of those places. See Hakluyt's Voyages (ed. 1598) ,
ii. pt. ii. p. 164 , in the account of the Earl of Cumberland's voyage to the
Azores, ' The raging waues and foming surges of the sea came rowling
like mountaines one after another, and ouerraked the waste of the shippe
like a mightie riuer running ouer it.'
198. sometime, sometimes. See ii. 2. 9.
200. bowsprit. The first folio has ' bore-spritt,' of which no other
example has been found. Rowe read ' boltsprit.' Both forms were in
existence. Minsheu, in his Spanish Dictionary ( 1599) has, " Bauprés, m.
the bolt-sprit of a ship.' So also Percyvall ( Sp . Dict. 1591 ) , Cevadera,
the saile of the boltspreet, Velum antennale, dolon.' In the account of
the firing and sinking of the Spanish carack Las cinque Llagas in 1593
we read (Hakluyt, ii. pt. ii. p. 2co), ' We fired a mat on her beak-head,
which more and more kindled, and ran from thence to the mat on the
bow-sprit, and from the mat vp to the wood of the bow-sprit.'
Ib. distinctly, separately, in divers places. Compare Coriolanus, iv.
3. 48, · The centurions and their charges, distinctly billeted.'
202. momentary, lasting for an instant, quickly passing. Night, says
Troilus (Troilus and Cressida, iv. 2. 14),
'flies the grasps of love
With wings more momentary swift than thought.'
See Macbeth, iii. 4. 55 , and Richard III, iii. 4. 98,
' O momentary grace of mortal men.'
203. cracks. Compare Macbeth, iv. 1. 117, and Titus Andronicus, ii.
1. 3,
' Secure of thunder's crack or lightning flash .'
206. The halting verse has been mended thus by Theobald, My
brave, brave spirit : ' and by Hanmer thus, That's my brave spirit.'
207. constant, self-possessed. Compare Merchant of Venice, iii.
2. 250,
' Else nothing in the world
Could turn so much the constitution
Of any constant man.'
Ib. coil, turmoil, confusion , stir. Compare King John, ii. 1. 165,
' I am not worth this coil that's made for me.'
209. afever ofthe mad, that is, such as madmen feel. Dryden altered
88 NOTES. [ACT I.

' mad ' to ' mind,' and was followed by Rowe in his second edition, and
afterwards by Pope.
211. quit. See note on 1. 148, and Abbott, § 341 .
212. afire, on fire. Compare Coriolanus, v. 3. 181 ,
' I am hush'd until our city be afire.'
The folios read a fire.' Similarly we have afoot ' and ' on foot,'
'asleep ' and ' on sleep,' ' aboard ' and ' on board.'
213. up-staring, standing on end. Compare Julius Cæsar, iv. 3. 280,
' Art thou some god , some angel, or some devil,
That makest my blood cold and my hair to stare ?'
6
And Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) has, Accroüé. Drooping, as a bird that sits
with her feathers loose, or staring, about her.'
Ib. like reeds, not hair. Compare Hamlet, i . 5. 20.
215. that's my spirit. Compare 1. 300.
217. Not a hair perished. See 1. 30 of this scene.
218. their sustaining garments. If this be the true reading it must
mean " the garments that bore them up,' and not as Monck Mason
explained it, the garments which bore, without being injured, the
drenching ofthe sea.' Compare Hamlet, iv. 7. 176, 177,
' Her clothes spread wide ;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up.'
218, 219. not a blemish, But fresher, that is, there is not a blemish,
but they are fresher, &c. For instances of similar ellipses see Abbott,
§ 403.
222. cooling of the air. Compare by telling of it,' 1. 100.
223. an odd angle, a corner that has been taken no account of. Com
pare v. I. 255,
' Some few odd lads that you remember not.'
For ' angle ' compare Beaumont and Fletcher, The Woman Hater,
i. 2, ' Go, run, search, pry in every nook and angle of the kitchens,
larders, and pastries.'
224. this sad knot. Folded arms were a token of melancholy. Com
pare Titus Andronicus, iii. 2. 4 ,
' Marcus, unknit that sorrow-wreathen knot.'
Ariel folds his arms in imitation. Compare Hamlet, i . 5. 174,
'With arms encumber'd thus.'
226. Safely. Adverb for adjective. Compare Love's Labour's Lost,
iii. 1. 117, ' I Costard, running out, that was safely within .' See Abbott,
§ 78. ´Safely in harbour ' may be equivalent to ‘ Safely harbour'd.'
227. nook, bay. See Purchas his Pilgrimes, Part I, lib. vii. chap. 7,
§ 5, • A description of the Nooke or Bay beyond Toro, and how by it
is vnderstood the Gulfe Elaniticus.'
SC. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 89

229. still-vex'd, constantly tormented, as by storms. Compare still

closing,' iii. 3. 64. For ' still ' as an adjective see Titus Andronicus,
iii. 2. 45,
‘ And by still practice learn to know thy meaning.'
Ib. Bermoothes, Bermudas. Compare Webster, Duchess of Malfi, iii. 2.
' I would sooner swim to the Bermootha's on
Two politicians' rotten bladders.'
In the year 1609 a fleet sent out by the Virginia Company, Sir George
Summers being admiral, was encountered by storms and the admiral
ship was driven to the Bermudas. ' Sir George Sommers, sitting at the
stearne, seeing the ship desperate of reliefe, looking euery minute when
the ship would sinke, hee espied land , which , according to his, and Cap
taine Newports opinion, they iudged it should be that dreadfull coast
of the Bermodes, which Iland [s] were of all Nations, said and supposed
to bee inchanted and inhabited with witches, and deuills, which grew by
reason ofaccustomed monstrous Thunder, storme, and tempest, neere vnto
those Ilands, also for that the whole coast is so wonderous dangerous, of
Rockes, that few can approach them, but with vnspeakeable hazard of
ship-wrack.' Stow's Annals (ed. Howe, 1631 ) , p. 1020. See also
Purchas his Pilgrimage (ed. 1614) , pp. 910, 911. Another form of
the word is found in Webster, The Devil's Law-case, iii. 2 ,
' Why, 'tis an engine
That's only fit to put in execution
Barmotho pigs.'
Again, in Fletcher's Women Pleased, i. 2,
The devil should think of purchasing that egg-shell,
To victual out a witch for the Burmoothes.'
231. Who for ' whom.' See Abbott, § 274 and note on line 80 of
this scene.
232. for, as for, as regards. Compare Hamlet, i. 5. 139,
6
For your desire to know what is between us,
O'er-master it as you may.'
And Bacon, Advancement of Learning, i. 2 , § 8, ' Again, for that other
conceit that learning should undermine the reverence of laws and
government, it is assuredly a mere depravation and calumny, without
all shadow of truth .' Again, Webster, Duchess of Malfi, iii. 2,
36 : For Antonio,
His fame shall likewise flow from many a pen.'
234. flote, flood, sea ; like A. S. and Fr. flot, and Germ . fluth. Min
sheu, The Guide into Tongues ( 1617 ) , has, ‘ a Flote or waue. G. Flót.
L. Fluctus.' 6 Float,' in the sense of flood,' occurs in Ford, Love's
Sacrifice, i. 3,
90 NOTES. [ACT 1.

Though the float

Of infinite desires swell to a tide
Too high so soon to ebb.'
See also Middleton, Spanish Gipsy, i. 5.
236. wreck'd. In the folios wrackt.' See note on 1. 26.
240. At least two glasses. Warburton, adopting Theobald's conjec
ture, gives these words to Ariel. The ' glasses ' are of course hour
glasses. See v. 1. 223 , and All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 1. 168,
' Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass
Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass.'
And I Henry VI, iv. 2. 35,
For ere the glass, that now begins to run,
Finish the process of his sandy hour.'
Mr. Staunton reads
' At least two glasses- the time 'twixt six and now
Must,' & c.
But this would make it four in the afternoon, which hardly answers to
Ariel's Past the mid season.'
242. pains, labours, tasks. We use the word in this sense in the
phrase ' take pains ' ; but ' give pains,' in the sense of ' impose tasks,' is
obsolete. For a similar usage, see Measure for Measure, v. 1. 246,
' Lend him your kind pains
To find out this abuse '
243. remember, remind. Compare Winter's Tale, iii. 2. 231 ,
' I'll not remember you of my own lord.'
And King John, iii . 4. 96,
' Remembers me of all his gracious parts.'
244. me, that is, ' for me,' the dative. See 1. 255, and Hamlet, ii. 2.
602, 'Who does me this ?' Abbott, § 220.
249. or .... or, either ... or.' See i. 2. 82.
Ib. grudge, complaint, murmur. The verb occurs in this sense in
Ps. lix. 15, ‘ And grudge if they be not satisfied .' Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.)
has ' Murmurer. To murmure, mutter, grumble ; grunt ; to grudge, repine
at.' The more common meaning of reluctantly giving or complying is
a derived sense.
252. think'st it much, reckonest highly as an act of importance ; hence,
grudgest, takest it ill. Compare King Lear, iii. 4. 6,
' Thou think'st ' tis much that this contentious storm
Invades us to the skin : so 'tis to thee.'
And Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 1, § 5, ' He did think
much to dispute with any that did allege such base and sordid in
stances.'
sc. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 91

Ib. ooze. Cotgrave (Fr. Dict. ) gives, ' Glastre. Ouse, or mud of the
sea.' Compare iii. 3. 100.
255. To do me business. See 1. 495 and note on 1. 244 above.
258. Sycorax. Douce, in his Illustrations of Shakespeare (ed. 1839),
p. 6, suggests that the following passage from Batman upon Bartholo
mew, De proprietatibus rerum, xii. 10, may have been the origin of this
name, ' The Rauen is called corvus of Corax. . . . It is sayd that rauens
birdes be fed with deaw of heauen all the time that they have no blacke
feathers by benefite of age .' Mr. Watkiss Lloyd proposes a conjectural
etymology of the name, ' Psychorrhagia is the death-struggle, and
Psychorrhax may be translated " heart-breaker " ( vxopphέ).' But it
must be admitted that these conjectures have little semblance of pro
bability.
Ib. envy, malice. The word had formerly a stronger sense than at
present. Compare Merchant of Venice, iv. I. 10.
262. Argier. The old form of Algiers. In Purchas his Pilgrimage
(ed. 1614), pp. 607, 609, &c., it is called ' Algier,' but in his larger
work, issued in 1625, Part I. lib. vi. chap. 7, we find an account of
' The wonderfull recouery of the Exchange of Bristow, from the Turkish
Pirats of Argier, published by John Rawlins,' and throughout this narra
tive the form‘Argier ' is used . In Massinger it appears in the form
' Argiers.' See The Unnatural Combat, i. 1, ' with the pirates of
Argiers and Tunis ; ' and again,
'Stow'd under hatches
By the pirates of Argiers.'
265. sorceries terrible, that is, too terrible ; and so Dryden reads in
his version of the play. Compare Macbeth, iii. 4. 78,
' Murders have been perform'd
Too terrible for the ear.'
Or it may be that ' terrible to enter human hearing ' is simply equivalent
to terrible to hear.' " Too ' is apparently omitted in ' far unworthy,'
2 Henry VI, iii. 2. 286, and ‘ far unfit,' 3 Henry VI, iii. 2. 92.
267. for one thing she did. Unless the explanation of this is found in
1. 270, it is difficult to know where we should seek for it. Boswell sup
posed it to refer to some incident in the novel upon which the play was
founded, which had been purposely omitted by Shakespeare, and this is
the more probable solution. Some such supposition may also serve to
explain 1. 438.
270. blue-eyed. Staunton would read ' blear-eyed.' But ' blue-eyed '
does not describe the colour of the pupil of the eye, but the livid colour
of the eye-lid, and a blue eye in this sense was a sign of pregnancy.
See Webster, Duchess of Malfi , ii. 1 , ' The fins of her eyelids look most
92 NOTES. [ACT I.

teeming blue.' In As You Like It, iii. 2. 393 , ' a blue eye and sunken '
is characteristic of a lover.
273. for, because. Compare Othello, iii. 3. 263,
' Haply, for I am black.'
274. act, do, perform. Not now used in the phrase ' act a command.'
Compare Hamlet, iii . 4. 108,
The important acting of your dread command.'
With · deed ' it occurs in King John, iv. 2. 240.
Ib. earthy, gross, material, opposed to spiritual. Rowe, in his second
edition, altered it to ' earthly.' Compare 1 Cor. xv. 47, ' The first man
is of the earth, earthy.' And Comedy of Errors, iii. 2. 34, ‘ Lay open to
my earthy gross conceit.' In i. 2. 315 Prospero calls Caliban Thou
earth, thou!'
275. hests, orders, behests ; A.S. hæs, a command. See iii. 1. 37, iv. 1 .
65. For ' grand,' in the sense of authoritative, compare Hamlet, v. 2. 18,
'To unseal
Their grand commission.'
277. unmitigable, unappeasable, implacable.
278. Into. With confine into ' compare 1. 361 , and Coriolanus ,
iv. 6. 87,
'Your franchises, whereon you stood, confined
Into an auger's bore.'
283. litter spelt ' littour ' in the folios.
298. correspondent, answerable, obedient.
299. spriting, as a dissyllable in the folios. So ' sprites ' for ' spirits '
in Macbeth, iv. 1. 127,
'Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites,
And shew the best of our delights .'
' My spriting ' signifies ' my duties as a sprite.'
302. Go ... be subject. This arrangement is that of Malone. In the
folios the words ' Be subject ' begin the following line. With either
arrangement the metre is faulty. Rowe, in his second edition, following
the division of lines in the folios, omits the words ' thine and ' in 1. 302,
which Dryden also omitted. The three later folios make the first line
scan by reading ' like to.'
Ib. It is not obvious why Ariel should take the form of a sea-nymph,
if he were invisible to every one but Prospero, except that in this shape
he would be in harmony with the scene to the audience.
308. Heaviness, sleepiness. Compare ' heavy,' ii. 1. 182. In Shake
speare it is generally used for sorrow.
309. Caliban. Supposed by Dr. Farmer to be by metathesis for
' canibal.'
sc. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 93

310. 'Tis a villain. Compare As You Like It, i. 1. 148, ' It is

the stubbornest young fellow of France ' ; and Macbeth, i. 4. 58,
• 6
It is a peerless kinsman ' ; also Othello, v. 2. 239, 'Tis a notorious
villain.'
312. miss , do without. Compare Lyly's Euphues and his England
(ed. Arber), p. 264, ‘ Bringing vnto man both honnye and wax, each so
wholsome that wee all desire it, both so necessary that we cannot misse
them.' According to Malone the word is still used provincially in this
sense in the midland counties, but it does not appear to be recorded in
any local glossary. In the North of England similarly ' want ' signifies
'to do without ' as well as ' to need,' and is equivalent both to carere
and egere.
313. serves in offices. Compare Richard II, ii. i . 47,
"This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall.'
317. when ? an expression of impatience. See note on Richard II, i.
I. 162.
318. quaint. Cotgrave's explanation of the French original of this
word covers all the senses in which it is used by Shakespeare. He says
Coint ... Quaint, compt, neat, fine, spruce, briske, smirke, smug,
daintie, trim , tricked vp.' Compare Midsummer Night's Dream,
ii. 2. 7,
'The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits.'
320, 321. The common belief in this intercourse between demons and
witches is seriously refuted by Scot in his Discovery of Witchcraft,
book iv, where he shews it to be ' flat knavery.' The issue of such
parentage ' will very naturally (they say) become a Witch, and such a
one, they affirm, Merlin was ' (Ibid. book iii. ch. 19) .
322. wicked, baneful, mischievous. Compare King Lear, ii. 1. 41 ,
Mumbling of wicked charms.' Cartwright, suspecting a corruption
from the previous line, conjectures ' cursed,'
324. a south-west. The southerly winds were supposed to be the
bearers of noxious fogs and vapours. See Coriolanus, ii. 3. 34, 35, where
the Third Citizen says,
' But if 'twere at liberty, 'twould, sure, southward.
Sec. Cit. Why that way?
Third Cit. To lose itself in a fog, where being three parts melted
away with rotten dews, the fourth would return for conscience sake.'
As You Like It, iii. 5. 50,
' Like foggy south, puffing with wi and rain.'
Troilus and Cressida, v. I. 21 , " the rotten diseases of the south.'
94 NOTES. [ACT I.

Coriolanus, i. 4. 30,
All the contagion of the south light on you !'
C
Cymbeline, ii. 3. 136, The south-fog rot him !'
Ib. ye. In this line and the next the old distinction between ' ye '
nominative and ' you ' accusative is inverted. Compare Julius Cæsar,
6
iii. 1. 157, ' I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard.' Ye ' appears to be
used when the pronoun is less emphatic, and so unaccented. See
Abbott, § 236.
327. urchins . Harsnet, Declaration of Popish Impostures (1603),
"
p. 14, uses urchins ' for ' hobgoblins ' : And further, that these ill
mannered vrchins , did so swarme about the priests , in such troupes , and
thronges , that they made them sometimes to sweat , as seemes , with the
very heate of the fume, that came from the devils noses .' Cotgrave (Fr.
Dict. ) gives ‘ Herisson : m. An Vrchin , or Hedgehog .' The ' hedgepig '
plays a part in the witch scene in Macbeth , iv. 1. 2, as one of the
6
witches' familiars . See ii. 2. 10 of this play. Thorny hedgehogs ' are
exorcised in the incantation of the fairies , Midsummer Night's Dream ,
ii. 2. 10. For 6 urchins ' in similar associations see ii. 2. 5 ; Merry
Wives of Windsor , iv. 4. 49, ‘ Like urchins , ouphes , and fairies ' ; and
Titus Andronicus , ii. 3. 101, Ten thousand swelling toads, as many
urchins .' The word is still used in the north of England . See Carr's
Craven Dialect , and Brockett's Glossary of North -Country Words .
328. Shall, for that vast of night that they may work, All exercise on thee,
that is, shall, during that desolate period of night when they are per
mitted to work, all practise upon thee. The first folio, followed sub
stantially by the others, reads,
' Shall for that vast of night, that they may worke
All exercise on thee ' ;
and this punctuation has given occasion to a very plausible conjecture,
which however can only be regarded as ingenious though it has been
graced with the epithet ' palmarian.' Mr. T. White proposed,
6 Shall forth at vast of night, that they may work
All exercise on thee.'
The objections to this emendation appear to lie in the two phrases , ‘ at
vast of night,' and ' work exercise.' So far as can be ascertained ' vast
of night' denotes an interval of time between certain limits and not
a definite point of time, and therefore would not be used with the pre
6
position at.' We have of course the adverbial phrase ' at night,' but
' at vast of night ' does not seem a natural expression. The same remark
applies to work exercise.' With vast ' in the sense of desolate, here
applied to time as elsewhere to space, compare Hamlet, i. 2. 198,
In the dead vast and middle of the night.'
sc. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 95

And see the note on that passage. For ' vast ' in the sense of a desolate
place compare Pericles, iii. 1. 1,
' Thou god of this great vast, rebuke these surges.'
Ib. that they may work. It was believed that spirits had periods
assigned to them during which they had power to act. The Ghost in
Hamlet appeared as the bell was beating one, and at cock-crow started
like a guilty thing. See Hamlet, i. 1. 39, 148–156 ; and King Lear, iii.
4. 121 , This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet : he begins at curfew and
walks till the first cock.'
330. honeycomb, altered in modern editions to ' honeycombs.' With
the phrase as thick as honeycomb ' compare as thick as tale,' the
reading of the folios in Macbeth, i. 3. 97 ; but the expression is doubt
6ful and the passage probably corrupt. The meaning is clear enough,
as thick as the cells of the honeycomb.' Compare iv. 1. 256.
334. madest is the reading of Rowe, following Dryden's version. The
folios have made,' and ' stroakst ' for ' strokedst.'
335. Waterwith berries in't. It would almost seem as if this were intended
"
as a description of the yet little-known coffee. The Turkes,' says Burton
(Anatomy of Melancholy, part ii . sect. 5, mem. 1. subs. 5), ' haue a drinke
called coffa (for they use no wine), so named of a berry as blacke as soot,
and as bitter, (like that blacke drinke which was in vse amongst the
Lacedemonians, and perhaps the same) which they sip still of, and
sup as warme as they can suffer.' This passage occurs for the first
time in the fourth edition of Burton which was printed in 1632, and it
shews that the virtues of this drink were as yet only known in England
by report.
336. Gen. i. 16.
339. brine-pits. Compare Titus Andronicus, iii. 1. 129;
' And made a brine-pit with our bitter tears.'
340. Cursed be I that did so. This is Steevens' emendation of the
reading of the first folio, 6 Curs'd be I that did so.' The other folios
read ' Curs'd be I that I did so .'
343. Which. Pope changed this to ' Who,' in the spirit of those who
would re-write our old authors.
Ib. sty me, pen me as in a sty.
344. whiles, while, from Anglo-Saxon hwil, time. With the two forms
compare beside ' and ' besides.' See 2 Henry VI, iii. 1. 348,
' Whiles I in Ireland nourish a mighty band.'
L. 350. Oho, o ho ! Steevens says that • this savage exclamation was origin
ally and constantly appropriated by the writers of our ancient Mysteries
and Moralities to the Devil ; and has, in this instance, been transferred
to his descendant Caliban .' Malone maintains that Shakespeare was
 S
96 NOTE . [ACT 1.

led to put this ejaculation in the mouth of his savage by the following
passage : They [the savages] seemed all very ciuill and very merry,
shewing tokens of much thankfulnesse for those things we gaue them ;
which they expresse in their language by these words, oh, ho, often re
peated.' James Rosier's Account of Captain Waymouth's Voyage, Purchas,
iv. 1661. It would have been well if Steevens had given a single instance
in support of his positive assertion, which has not been confirmed by an
examination of the old plays. Perhaps also Shakespeare may have been
capable of putting so very common an exclamation into the mouth of
Caliban without having it suggested to him in the way indicated by
Steevens and Malone. The latter would hardly have maintained that Oh
ho ! in this passage is an ejaculation expressive of thankfulness.
352. Abhorred slave, given to Prospero by Theobald, following
Dryden's version. In the folios it is assigned to Miranda.
354. capable, apt to receive an impression. Compare All's Well that
Ends Well, i. I. 106,
' Heart too capable
Of every line and trick of his sweet favour.'
357. Know thine own meaning. Hanmer reads ' Shew.' Thetext as it
stands signifies ' know how to attach meaning to the sounds thou didst
utter.'
359. vile. Spelt ‘ vild’in the folios ; but they as frequently adopt
the modern spelling, which is uniformly employed throughout the Au
thorised Version of 1611.
Ib. race, hereditary nature . Compare Measure for Measure, ii. 4. 160,
' I have begun,
And now I give my sensual race the rein.'
The word is used in this secondary sense like ' strain ' (A. S. strynd,
a stock, from strynan, to beget) in Troilus and Cressida, ii. 2. 154 ,
'Can it be
That so degenerate a strain as this
Should once set footing in your generous bosoms ? '
362. confined into. See i. 2. 275, 278.
364. on ' t. See i . 2. 87.
365. The red plague. Steevens says, ' The erysipelas was anciently
called the red plague,' but he gives no instance of it, and it is not likely
that Shakespeare intended to point to so special a disease. Compare
Coriolanus, iv. 1. 13 , ' Nowthe red pestilence strike all trades in Rome ! '
And Troilus and Cressida, ii. 1. 20 , 6 A red murrain o' thy jade's
tricks ! '
Ib. rid you, despatch you. Compare Richard II, v. 4. 11 , ' I am the
king's friend, and will rid his foe.'
SC. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 97

366. learning, teaching. See the Prayer-book Version of Psalm xxv.

4, 'Lead me forth in thy truth and learn me.'
367. thou'rt best, it were best for thee. Compare 2 Henry VI, ii . 1. 189 ,
' And look thyself be faultless, thou wert best.'
If other instances of this singular construction did not occur we should
be tempted to suppose that the phrase was a corruption of 6 thee were
best ' ; but as we find ' I were better ' in 2 Henry IV, i. 2. 245 ; ' I were
best ' in Cymbeline, iii. 6. 19, Merchant of Venice, v. I. 177 ; ' she
were better ' in Twelfth Night, ii . 2. 27 ; and ' you were best ' in Merchant
of Venice, ii. 8. 33, and Othello, i. 2. 30, there can be little doubt that,
however ungrammatical, the idiom was common. See note on Hamlet,
ii. 2. 508.
368. Shrug'st thou ? used absolutely, as in Coriolanus, i . 9. 4,
'Where great patricians shall attend and shrug,
I' the end admire.'
Ib. malice. Abstract for concrete.
370. old cramps. ' Old ' occurs frequently as an intensive epithet.
6
Compare Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 4. 5, Here will be an old abusing
of God's patience and the king's English ' ; and Much Ado about
Nothing, v. 2. 98, Yonder 's old coil at home.' But it may be that in
the present instance ' old ' is used in its more common sense. Compare
iv. 1. 256, aged cramps.'
371. aches, a dissyllable, as in Timon of Athens, i . 1. 257,
' Aches contract and starve your supple joints !'
See also v. 1. 202 of the same play. Moreover the ' ch ' was pronounced
soft, as is shown by the following epigram of Heywood's ' Of the letter
H ' (p. 111, Spenser Society Reprint),
' H, is worst among letters in the crosse row,
For if thou finde him other in thine elbow,
In thine arme, or leg, in any degree,
In thine head, or teeth, in thy toe or knee,
Into what place soeuer H, may pike him,
Where euer you find ache, thou shalt not like him .'
It was the origin of many a poor jest : see Much Ado about Nothing,
iii. 4. 56. In Baret's Alvearie, as Boswell pointed out, there is a dis
tinction between the verb and the noun. 6 Ake is the Verbe of this sub
stantiue Ache, Ch. being turned into K. ' The same distinction is kept
in the first folio throughout.
372. That, so that. See i. 2. 85.
374. my dam's god, Setebos, the chief deity of the Patagonians. Dr.
Farmer quotes from Eden's History of Travel (ed . 1577), p. 434. The
passage to which he refers is probably the one from which Shakespea: e
borrowed the name. It is a translation from the Italian of M. Antonio
H
 S
98 NOTE . [ACT I.

Pigafetta, of Vicenza, who accompanied Magellan in his circumnaviga

tion of the globe. The original is contained in Ramusio, Navigationi
et Viaggi (Venetia, 1554), i. pp. 391 , 392, and another account was
printed separately at Milan in 1800. From Eden it was transferred to
Purchas his Pilgrimes, and from this work (Part I. book ii. ch . 2, p. 35)
the following quotation is taken. The captain by a stratagem had
6
shackled two gigantic Patagonians, and when they saw how they were
deceiued, they roared like Bulls, and cryed vpon their great Deuill
Setebos, to helpe them. . . . They say, that when any of them die, there
appeare ten or twelue Deuils, leaping and dancing about the bodie of the
dead, and seeme to haue their bodies painted with diuers colours, and
that among other, there is one seene bigger than the residue, who
maketh great mirth and reioycing. This great Deuill they call Setebos,
and call the lesse Cheleule.' In saying that Setebos is mentioned in
Hakluyt's Voyages Malone appears simply to copy Capell who gives
no reference.
378. A custom in dancing. Compare Henry VIII, i. 4. 95, 96,
' I were unmannerly to take you out,
And not to kiss you.'
There is a veiled allusion to the same ceremony in Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 163 .
378, 379. kiss'd The wild waves whist. This is the punctuation of the
folios, and it appears to have some support in what Ferdinand says,
11. 392, 393,
· Allaying both their fury and my passion
With its sweet air.'
"
But if we take kiss'd ' to refer to the fairies who before beginning their
dance courtsy to and kiss their partners, the words ' the wild waves whist '
6
must be read parenthetically, the wild waves being silent,' and as it is
Ariel's music that stills the waves and not the fairies, this seems to be
•
the better reading. For whist ' in the sense of hushed , silent, see Lyly's
Euphues (ed. Arber), p. 283 , " But seeing all were whist to heare my
iudgement, I replied thus. ' And Milton, Hymn on the Nativity, 64,
6 The winds, with wonder whist,
Smoothly the waters kist.'
Again Marlowe, Dido Queen of Carthage, iv. I,
' The air is clear, and southern winds are whist.'
And Spenser, Fairy Queen, vii . 7. 59,
' So was the Titanesse put downe and whist.'
380. Foot it. See note on i. 2. 134 ; and Abbott, § 226. With ' foot'
in the sense of ' dance ' compare ' footing ' iv. 1. 138, and Romeo and
Juliet, i. 5. 28,
"
A hall, a hall ! give room and foot it, girls.'
Ib. featly, nimbly, gracefully. Compare Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 176,
sc. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 99

She dances featly. Baret (Alvearie, ed. 1580) gives, Proper, feat,
well-fashioned, minikin, handsome. Concinnus : ' and ' Prettily, featly.
Bellè & festiuè dicere .'
381. the burthen bear, Pope's correction of the folio reading ‘ bear the
6
burthen.' In the folios the stage direction Burthen dispersedly ' is ap
"
parently made to refer to Hark, hark ! ' and ' The watch-dogs bark,' as
well as to ' Bow-wow !' But the manner in which it is printed renders
this very doubtful, and Capell's arrangement is to be preferred. In the
Cambridge and Globe editions the burthen is distributed between the
fairies and the distant watch-dogs. Mr. Chappell (Popular Music ofthe
Olden Time, pp. 222, 223 ) says, ' The burden of a song, in the old ac
ceptation of the word, was the base, foot, or under-song. It was sung
throughout, and not merely at the end of a verse. Many of these
burdens were short proverbial expressions, such as
'Tis merry in hall when beards wag all.
Other burdens were mere nonsense words that went glibly off the
tongue, giving the accent of the music, such as hey nonny, nonny no ; hey
derry down, &c.'
385. chanticleer. Compare As You Like It, ii. 7. 30,
' My lungs began to crow like chanticleer.'
6
In the old story of Reynard the Fox Chaunticler the Cock ' plays a con
spicuous part. See also Chaucer, The Nonne Prestes Tale, line 16335 :
the poor widow had a yard,
'In which sche had a cok, hight Chaunteclere,
In al the lond of crowyng was noon his peere.'
388. waits upon, attends. Compare Winter's Tale, v. i. 142,
6
• Infirmity
Which waits upon worn times.'
390. again, changed unnecessarily by Rowe, following Dryden's
o'against.' The change is defended by Malone on the ground
that Ferdinand's tears had never ceased to flow. See 1. 435 .
392. passion, grief. The word is used for strong emotion of any kind.
See iv. 1. 143 , and Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 51 .
393. its. See i. 2. 95.
396. fathom. The folios have ' fadom,' but in this spelling they are
not uniform, for in As You Like It, iv. 1. 210, the first folio reads, that
thou didst know how many fathome deepe I am in love.' Nor is Shake
speare consistent in using the singular and plural forms of the word, for
we find both used for the plural. Compare Romeo and Juliet, i . 4. 85,
'Of healths five fathom deep ' ; and Troilus and Cressida, i. I. 50,
' Reply not in how many fathoms deep
They lie indrench'd.'
See note on 1. 53.
H2
100 NOTES. [ACT I.

399. For instances of the ellipsis of ' there is ' see Abbott, § 403 .
405. ditty, properly the words of a song. Compare Bacon, Essay
xxxvii. p. 156 (ed. Wright), ' And the Ditty High and Tragicall ; Not
nice or Dainty ' ; and Ecclesiasticus xliv. 5 , ' Such as found out musical
tunes, and recited verses in writing ' ; where the marginal note on the
word ' verses ' (ễπŋ ) is ' ditties.' See also Massinger, The Guardian,
iv. 2, ' A well-penn'd ditty.'
Ib. remember, commemorate, mention. Cotgrave (Fr. Dict. ) gives
'Commemorer. To commemorate, remember, mention, rehearse.' Com
pare 1 Henry IV, v. 4. 101 ,
•
Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave,
But not remember'd in thy epitaph !'
And 2 Henry IV, v. 2. 142, I will accite,
6 As I before remember'd , all our state.'
406. nor no. See Taming of the Shrew, i. 1. 31 , and Richard III ,
iii. 7. 207.
407. owes, owns, possesses. See i. 2. 454, iii. 1. 45 ; and Macbeth,
iii. 4. 113,
6 You make me strange,
Even to the disposition that I owe.'
408. fringed curtains. Compare Pericles, iii. 2. IOI ,
(
Her eyelids, cases to those heavenly jewels
Which Pericles hath lost,
Begin to part their fringes of bright gold.'
Ib. advance, raise, lift up. Compare iv. 1. 177, ‘ Advanced their eye
lids ' ; and Romeo and Juliet, ii . 3. 5,
' Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye.’
It is the proper phrase for raising a standard. Compare Love's Labour's
Lost, iv. 3. 367,
' Advance your standards, and upon them, lords.'
And 1 Henry VI, i. 6. 1,
' Advance our waving colours on the walls.'
409. yond, yonder. See ii. 2. 20.
413. gallant, fine fellow. See Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 4. 96,
' All the gallants of the town.'
414. but, but that, except that. Compare Cymbeline, v. 5. 41 ,
And, but she spoke it dying, I would not
Believe her lips.'
Ib. something, used adverbially, as in Merchant of Venice, i. 1. 124,
Hamlet, iii. 1. 181 .
415. Compare King John, iii. 4. 82,
But now will canker sorrow eat my bud,
And chase the native beauty from his cheek.'
SC. 2.] THE TEMPEST. IOI

And for ' stain ' see Richard II, iii. 1. 14,
' And stain'd the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks
With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul wrongs.'
416. goodly, fair, handsome. Compare Gen. xxxix. 6 ; Hamlet, i.
2. 186,
' I saw him once, he was a goodly king.'
Ib. fellows, companions. Compare Romeo and Juliet, i. 5. 51 ,
' So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.'
419. It goes on ; that is, the plan which Prospero had set his heart on.
See below, 1. 493.
421. Most sure, the goddess, &c. The resemblance of this passage to
the ' O dea certe ' of Virgil has been thought a sufficient ground for
attributing to Shakespeare a knowledge of Latin.
425. prime. See i. 2. 72.
427. Ifyou be maid or no. The fourth folio here reads ' made ' which
has been adopted by some editors, considering it as equivalent to
' created, ' and so ' mortal.' There is no necessity for the change. See
1. 447.
432. single. Ferdinand plays upon the word. He believes that him.
self and the King of Naples are one and the same person ; he therefore
6
uses this epithet with a reference to its further sense of solitary,' and so
' feeble and helpless.' Compare Macbeth, i. 6. 16.
434. myself am Naples. See i. 2. 109.
435. at ebb. For a similar figure of speech compare Cymbeline, i . 7.
74, With his eyes in flood with laughter.'
438. There is no other hint in the play of any son of Antonio being
with him in the wreck. It may have been an incident in the old story.
Ib. twain, two ; A. S. twegen. See 1 Sam. xviii. 21 .
439. more braver. See i. 2. 6, 19.
1b. control, check, contradict. The French contrerolle is defined by
Cotgrave as ' the copie of a roll ( of account, &c.; ) a Paralell of the
same qualitie and content, with th' originall.' Compare Bacon, History
of Henry VII , p. 116 (ed. 1622) , ‘ As for the times while hee was in the
Tower, and the manner of his Brothers death, and his owne escape ; shee
knew they were things a verie few could controll .'
441. They have changed eyes. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, iii.
13. 156,
To flatter Cæsar, would you mingle eyes
With one that ties his points ? '
443. you have done yourself some wrong, a polite way of saying ' you
are much mistaken,' or something plainer still. See Merry Wives of
Windsor, iii . 3. 221 , ' You do yourself mighty wrong, Master Ford.'
 102 NOTES. [ACT 1. SC. 2.

447, 448. For the ellipsis in these lines see Abbott, § 387.
453. attend. See i. 2. 78.
454. owest. See i. 2. 407.
457. ill, bad, evil ; of which it is a contraction. It has to a great
extent gone out of use as an adjective. Compare Bacon, Advancement
of Learning, i. 8, § 2, ‘ Like an ill mower, that mows on still and never
whets his scythe.' See also Bacon, Essay xlv. p. 180 (ed. Wright).
Ib. For the omission of the relative see Abbott, § 244.
Ib. in such a temple. Compare 1 Cor. vi. 19.
463. The fresh-brook muscles, according to Payen (Précis des Sub
stances alimentaires, p. 51 ) , are eatable but wanting in flavour, and
therefore little used as an article of food. In some parts of England the
country people regard them as poisonous.
468. He's gentle and not fearful. The natural sense of these words is
6
conveyed by taking ' fearful ' to mean capable of inspiring fear, terrible,'
although there may also be a covert play upon the other significations
6
both of ' gentle ' and ' fearful. ' In this case gentle ' must be regarded
as equivalent to ' of gentle birth,' ' high-born, ' and in a secondary sense
high-spirited and dangerous to provoke. But the word is nowhere used
by Shakespeare in this secondary sense.
469. Myfoot my tutor ? Compare Lyly's Euphues and his England
(ed. Arber), p. 261 , ' Then how vaine is it Euphues (too mylde a worde
for so madde a minde) that the foote should neglect his office to correct
the face.' Again Timon of Athens, i. 1. 94,
'Yet you do well
To show lord Timon that mean eyes have seen
The foot above the head.'
Compare in the same sense, though with a play upon the word ' base,'
Fletcher, Woman Pleased, i. 1 , ' If thy base will be thy master.'
471. thy ward, thy posture of defence. Compare 1 Henry IV, ii. 4.
215, ' Thou knowest my old ward ; here I lay, and thus I bore my
point.' Also Winter's Tale, i. 2. 33.
473. Beseech, like ' pray ' (i . 2. 372), used without the personal pro
noun. See ii. 1. 1 ; and Winter's Tale, i. 2. 264, ‘ But, beseech your
grace, be plainer with me.'
478. there is, followed by a plural, is a construction of common oc
currence in Shakespeare. Compare Cymbeline, iv. 2. 371 , ' There is no
more such masters.'
480. To the most of men. We should in modern language say either
' to most men ' or ' to the majority of men.' See Sonnet lxxxv. 10,
‘ And to the most of praise add something more.'
' To ' of course is equivalent to ' compared to ' as in Cymbeline, iii. 3. 26,
No life to ours.'
ACT II. SC. 1. ] THE TEMPEST. 103

483. goodlier. See i. 2. 416.

484. nerves, sinews. Compare Hamlet, i. 4. 83,
' As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.'
Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) has ' Nerf : m. A Synnow ; (and thence, might,
strength, force, power).'
486. My spirits as in a dream are all bound up. See iii. 3. 89 ; and
compare Virgil, Aeneid, xii. 908–912,
' Ac veluti in somnis, oculos ubi languida pressit
Nocte quies, nequidquam avidos extendere cursus
Velle videmur, et in mediis conatibus aegri
Succidimus ; non lingua valet, non corpore notae
Sufficiunt vires, nec vox aut verba sequuntur.'
6
488. nor, used inaccurately where and,' as Rowe (after Dryden)
reads, or ' or,' as Capell, would be in place. The origin of the error is
probably a confusion of two constructions, Shakespeare intending perhaps
at first to employ some such word as ‘ heavy ' and then substituting ' but
light.' It is analogous to the use of the double negative. A somewhat
similar case occurs in Sonnet lxxxvi. 9,
He, nor that affable familiar ghost,
Which nightly gulls him with intelligence,
As victors of my silence cannot boast.'
489. are. Malone conjectured ' were.'
490. Steevens very appropriately quotes from Chaucer's Knight's Tale
(Cant. Tales, 1. 1230),
For elles had I dweld with Theseus,
Ifetered in his prisoun for evere moo :
Than had I ben in blis and nat in woo.
Oonly the sight of her whom that I serve,
Though that I hir grace may nat deserve,
Wold han sufficed right ynough for me.'
495. shalt do me. See i. 2. 244.

ACT II.
Scene I.
1. Beseech. See i. 2. 473.
3. hint. See i. 2. 134.
5. masters. The folios have Masters,' for which Johnson substituted
' master ' and Steevens proposed ' mistress.' If the plural be the true
reading we must suppose that • the masters of some merchant ' are the
joint owners of a merchantman, who grieve for the loss of the vessel
while the merchant laments the loss of the cargo . For ' merchant ' in
104 NOTES. [ACT II.

the sense of merchantman,' see Marlowe, The First Part of Tambur

laine, i. 2,
6' And Christian merchants, that with Russian stems
Plough up huge furrows in the Caspian Sea.'
12, 13. The invention of striking watches is ascribed to Peter Hele of
Nuremberg, about the year 1510.
15. tell, that is, count. See 1. 282, and compare Hamlet, i . 2. 238,
'While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.'
18, 19. A similar pun upon ‘ dolours ' is to be found in King Lear,
ii. 4. 54, ' Thou shalt have as many dolours for thy daughters as thou
canst tell in a year.'
20. truer, more truly. For this form of the adverb see 2 Henry VI,
iii. 1. 183 , ' Far truer spoke than meant.'
21. wiselier. With this comparative form of the adverb, compare
' earthlier happy ' in Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 1. 76.
27. Which, ofhe or Adrian. In this irregular construction it is difficult
to say what the irregularity is a departure from. To remedy it Rowe, in
his second edition, reads 6 Which of them, he,' &c. It seems as if ‘ of ’
could be dispensed with, as in Midsummer Night's Dream, iii . 2. 337,
'Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right,
Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.'
And Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, ii. 4,
' I never knew man and beast, of a horse and a knight,
So weary of each other.'
Sidney Walker quotes incidentally a passage from Sidney's Arcadia
(p. 63 , ed. 1598 ) , ' But then the question arising, who should be the
former against Phalantus, of the blacke, or the ill apparelled knight,' &c.
35, 36. Seb. Ha, ha, ha ! Ant. So, you're paid. So the folios.
Theobald gives both speeches to Sebastian. There does not seem
sufficient reason for departing from the old arrangement, ' paid ' being
used in the sense of ' rewarded,' of course ironically, as in Antony and
Cleopatra, ii. 5. 108, ' I am paid for❜t now.'
41. temperance, temperature.
42. Temperance, like Charity, used as a proper name.
51. lush, rank, full of sap, luxuriant. Compare Golding's translation
of Ovid's Metamorphoses xv (quoted by Malone), p . 182, ed. 1603,
་ Then green, and voyd of strength and lush and foggy is the blade,
And cheeres the husbandman with hope.'
The original is,
Tunc herba recens et roboris expers
Turget, et insolida est, et spe delectat agrestes .'
Tennyson has revived and preserved the word in his Dream of Fair
Women, 1. 71 ,
SC. 1.] THE TEMPEST. 105
• And at the root thro' lush green grasses burn'd
The red anemone.'
Ib. lusty, fresh, vigorous. See As You Like It, ii . 3. 47,
' Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty.'
52. an eye ofgreen, a slight shade of green. Cotgrave (Fr. Dict. ) has
' Couleur de Minime. A huswiues darke gray, or light soote colour,
wherein there is an eye of gray.' Sandys (Travels, p. 73, ed. 1637),
describing the dress of Sultan Achmet, says, His under and upper
garments are lightly of white sattin, or cloth of silver tissued with an
eye of greene, and wrought in great branches.'
58. vouched, warranted. Compare All's Well that Ends Well, i. 2. 5,
'A certainty, vouch'd from our cousin Austria.'
60. glosses. We should now use the singular. See the note on
Richard II, iv. 1. 315.
64. pocket up. Compare King John, iii. 1. 200,
' Well, ruffian, I must pocket up these wrongs.'
C
66. Afric. First folio Affricke.' The Translators to the Reader,
in their preface to the Authorised Version of 1611 , say of the Greek
·
tongue, For the same causes also it was well vnderstood in many
places of Europe, yea, and of Affrike too .'
71. to their queen. Compare iii . 3. 54, and Richard II, iv. 1. 308,
' I have a king here to my flatterer.'
72. ofthat, about that. See Abbott, § 174.
79. This Tunis, sir, was Carthage. See Purchas his Pilgrimage (ed.
6
1614) , p. 602, Tunis is now a great Citie, since the ruines of Carthage,
neere vnto which it standeth.'
82, 83. These two speeches are printed as one by the Cambridge
editors and given to Sebastian. But the latter throughout the dialogue
supplements what Antonio says.
82. the miraculous harp of Amphion, the music of which raised the
walls of Thebes. See Horace, De Art. Poet. 394-6,
' Dictus et Amphion, Thebanae conditor urbis,
Saxa movere sono testudinis et prece blanda
Ducere quo vellet.'
Or the reference may be to the harp of Apollo which raised the walls of
Troy. See Ovid, Heroid. xvi. 179, 180 ; and Tennyson, Enone, 39, 40,
'As yonder walls
Rose slowly to a music slowly breathed.'
89. Gon. Ay. Mr. Staunton gives this sigh or exclamation to the king
"
upon awaking from his trance of grief.' But it seems appropriate
to Gonzalo, who is not quite certain what these running comments of
Sebastian and Antonio mean, and makes a half- enquiring exclamation.
106 NOTES. [ACT II.'

102. The stomach of my sense. Steevens says ' sense ' means reason
and natural affection .' Monck Mason supposes it to signify ' feeling.'
But surely Alonso only intends to say that these words of Gonzalo
are forced into his ears without his wishing to hear them, as food is
crammed into the mouth of one who has no desire to eat.
104. rate, estimation. See i. 2. 92.
113. oar'd Himself, impelled himself as if with oars. Pope uses the
same verb, Odys. xvi. 247,
' And what bless'd hands have oar'd thee on the way.'
And again in Odys. xii. 526,
' And oar'd with labouring arms along the flood ;'
where the original (Odys. xii. 444) has, diηpeσa xepoìv ẻμņσiv.
Chapman renders it,
' And there row'd off with owers of my hands.'
115. shore, applied to cliffs, as in King John, ii. 1. 23 to the white
cliffs of England,
' That white-faced shore,
Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides.'
116. As, as if. See King Lear, iii. 4. 15,
• Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand
For lifting food to 't?'
Ib. I not doubt. For this transposition of the negative, compare v. ì .
6
38, Whereof the ewe not bites.' And Richard III, i. 2. 250,
' On me whose all not equals Edward's moiety.'
See also v. 1. 113, 303, and Abbott, § 305.
122. Who hath cause, &c. Who lost to sight by banishment though
not by death hath yet cause to fill your eyes with tears.
125. Weigh'd, evenly balanced. Compare King Lear, i. 1. 6, ‘ For
equalities are so weighed, that curiosity in neither can make choice of
eit moiety.'
Ib. loathness, unwillingness, reluctance. Compare Antony and
Cleopatra, iii. 11. 18,
Pray you, look not sad,
Nor make replies of loathness.'
125, 126. at Which end o' the beam should bow. Various attempts have
been made to amend this reading of the folios. Mr. Collier's MS.
substitutes ' as ' for ' at ' ; Rowe (ed . 2) reads ' the ' for ' o'the ' ; and
Malone regards ' should ' as a corruption of ' she would.' The text is
probably correct, ' it ' being omitted as is not uncommonly the case in
Shakespeare. See Abbott, §§ 399, 404. The antecedent of this omitted
' it ' is the balancing or indecision of Claribel described in the preceding
line.
 SC. 1.] THE TEMPEST. 107
128. Mo, more ; used both as an adjective and adverb. See v. I. 234,
Henry VIII, iii. 2. 3 , and Merchant of Venice , i. 1. 108. It is of fre
quent occurrence in the Authorised Version , but is changed to ' more '
in modern editions. See Numbers xxii. 15 , 6 And Balak sent yet againe
Princes, moe, and more honourable then they.'
130. the dear'st o' the loss. Compare Cymbeline v. 5. 345,
6 Their dear loss,
The more of you 'twas felt, the more it shaped
Unto my end of stealing them.'
And Richard III, ii. 2. 77-79. In the same intensive sense ' dearest ' is
used in Hamlet, i. 2 , 182,
6 Would I
had met my dearest foe in heaven,
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio ! '
But a still more instructive passage is Richard III, v. 2. 21 , which is
printed thus on the authority of the quartos,
'Which in his greatest need will shrink from him : '
while the first folio, followed by the rest, has,
' Which in his deerest neede will flye from him.”
135. chirurgeonly, like a surgeon. See Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.), ' Chir
urgien : m. A Surgeon.'
137. cloudy, gloomy, whether from sorrow or anger. Compare
Macbeth, iii. 6. 41 ,
"The cloudy messenger turns me his back.'
And Richard III, ii. 2. 112 ,
6 You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers.'
142-159. Capell was the first to point out the remarkable resem
blance which this description by Gonzalo of his imaginary kingdom
bears to a passage in Montaigne (bk. i. c. 30), ' Of the Canibalies,'
p. 102 of Florio's translation. It is a nation, would I answer Plato,
that hath no kinde of traffike, no knowledge of Letters, no intelligence
of numbers, no name of magistrate, nor of politike superioritie ; no vse
of service, of riches or of povertie ; no contracts, no successions, no
partitions, no occupation but idle ; no respect of kinred, but common,
no apparell but naturall, no manuring of lands, no vse of wine, corne, or
mettle. 1 The very words that import lying, falshood, treason , dissimula
tions, covetousnes, envie, detraction, and pardon, were never heard of
amongst them.'
147. Bourn, a boundary, limit. See Hamlet, iii. 1. 79, and Troilus
and Cressida, ii. 3. 260,
' Thy wisdom,
Which like a bourn, a pale, a shore, confines
Thy spacious and dilated parts.'
108 NOTES. [ACT II.

Ib. tilth, tillage. Compare Measure for Measure, i. 4. 44,

' Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.'
Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) has, ' Labour : m. Tilth, tillage, husbandrie,
labouring, ploughing, or breaking vp of the ground.' See also Drayton,
Polyolbion, iii. 352,
' And giue the fallow lands their seasons and their tylth .'
152. latter end, a redundant expression which occurs also in Numbers
xxiv. 20.
155. endeavour in the time of Shakespeare had much more the idea
of laborious effort attached to it than now. See Trench, On the
Authorised Version of the New Testament, p. 44.
156. engine, that is, of war. Compare King Lear, i. 4. 290,
' That, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature
From the fix'd place.'
And Othello, iii . 3. 355 , of the cannon,
" And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats
The immortal Jove's dread clamours counterfeit,
Farewell !'
158. it own. See note on i. 2. 95. Compare Winter's Tale, ii. 3.
178, where the first folio reads,
And that there thou leaue it
(Without more mercy) to it owne protection ,
And fauour of the Climate.'
And the Geneva version of Acts xii. 10, ' They came vnto the yro gate,
"
that leadeth vnto the citie, which opened to them by it owne accorde ?
In the Authorised Version of Lev. xxv. 5, ' it own ' retained its place as
late as 1673, ' its own ' being substituted for the first time in a London
edition printed in that year.
Ib. foison, plenty, from Fr. foison, which again is from Low Lat.
fusionem. Cotgrave gives ' Foison : f. Store, plentie, abundance,
great fullnesse, enough ' ; and in the English-French Dictionary by
Sherwood we find • Foison. Abondance, foison .' The word still exists in
the Scotch foison or fusion, and the adjective fusionless or fissenless. Ray
gives it as a Suffolk word, and in Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia it
is defined as ' Succulency ; natural nutritive moisture, as in herbage.
Ex. " There is no foison in this hay." We do not use it in its general
sense of abundance.' See iv. I. 110, Macbeth, iv. 3. 88, Measure for
Measure , i. 4. 43,
'As blossoming time
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison.'
163. Save, that is, God save. See iii. 2. 104.
SC. 1.] THE TEMPEST. 109

165. nothing, nonsense. Compare Merchant of Venice, i. 1. 114,

•
Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing.'
167. minister occasion. Compare Twelfth Night, i . 5. 93 , ' Unless you
laugh and minister occasion to him, he is gagged.'
168. sensible, sensitive. Compare Measure for Measure, iii. 1. 120,
'This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod.'
And Coriolanus, i. 3. 95, ' I would your cambric were sensible as your
finger, that you might leave pricking it for pity. ' These gentlemen ' of
sensible and nimble lungs ' are like those described in Hamlet, ii . 2. 317
(337 Globe ed.) , ' whose lungs are tickle o' the sere.' See the note on
the passage.
Ib. use, are accustomed. Compare Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 2 .
58, ' There they always use to discharge their birding pieces.'
174. An, if. Printed C And ' in the folios. The word occurs in the
same form unsuspected in Gen. xliv. 30, 6 And the lad be not with us.'
6
Compare Bacon, Essay xxiii. p. 97 (ed . Wright), ' And certainly, it is
the nature of extreme selfe-lovers, as they will set an house on fire, and it
were but to roast their egges .'
Ib. flat-long. Compare, for other instances of this adverbial suffix,
" 6
´ along,' ‘ headlong,' ' sidelong.' The termination ling ' was used in the
same way. So in Hollyband's Dictionarie, Frapper du plat de l'espée,
to strike with a sword flatling.' And Spenser, Faery Queen, v. 5. 18,
6
Tho with her sword on him she flatling strooke.'
See Morris, English Accidence, § 311 , and Mätzner, Englische Gram
matik, i. 381.
175. mettle, spelt ' mettal ' or ' metal ' in the folios.
176. sphere, orbit. See Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1. 7,
Swifter than the moon's sphere.'
Ib. if she would continue. • Would ' here is certainly used for the
conditional should .' Dr. Abbott (Shakespearian Grammar, § 329)
says that to assert this is a natural and common mistake.' But it
6
cannot be denied that Elizabethan writers employed would ' in con
structions in which we now use ' should.' He explains the usage in
some instances by considering ' would ' as equivalent to ' were willing to '
or wish to ' or ' should like to,' or ' require to,' but none of these are
suitable here.
178. a bat-fowling. Compare ' a dying ' (Luke viii. 42 ), ‘ a fishing '
(John xxi. 3) : ' a ' is here the worn-out preposition ' on .' See Mr. Skeat's
paper in the Journal of Philology, v. 34. Compare Generydes, 1. 37,
' Vppon a day the kyng for his disporte
An huntyng went onto a fayre forest.'
110 NOTES. [ACT II.

Again, 1. 477,
' Not long after the kyng on hunteng went.'
See Abbott, § 180. A description of ' bat-fowling,' or catching birds by
night, is given in an extract from Gervase Markham quoted at length in
the Preface. Cotgrave has (Fr. Dict.) ' Breller, To batfowle ; to catch
birds by batfowling ; also, to twinkle or glitter.' See Webster, The
Devil's Law- Case, iii. I,
'So here should I repeat what factions,
What bat-fowling for offices,
As you must conceive their game is all i' the night.'
179. good my lord. Compare King John, ii. 1. 163 , ' Good my1
mother, peace ! '
180. adventure my discretion, put my character for discretion in peril.
181. laugh me asleep. Compare Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 2. 7.
· Sing me now asleep .'
182. heavy. See i. 2. 308 and Luke ix. 32.
183. Go sleep. See note on ' go pray,' Hamlet, i. 5. 132.
187. omit, neglect, as in i. 2. 183. Compare Henry VIII, iii. 2. 3,
' If you omit
The offer of this time, I cannot promise
But that you shall sustain moe new disgraces.'
Ib. heavy is here used proleptically or by anticipation. The heavy
offer ' is the offer which brings drowsiness or heaviness. See note on
Macbeth, i. 6. 3 ; iii. 4. 76. With the whole passage compare Mid
summer Night's Dream, iii. 2. 84-87,
'So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow
For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe ;
Which now in some slight measure it will pay
If for his tender here I make some stay.'
195. nimble. Compare Love's abour's Lost, iv. 3. 306,
6
The nimble spirits in the arteries.'
200. what thou shouldst be, what thou oughtest to be. See Abbott,
§ 323, and Macbeth, i. 3. 45.
Ib. speaks thee, proclaims thee, declares what thou mayest be. Com
pare Macbeth, iv. 3. 159,
' And sundry blessings hang about his throne,
That speak him full of grace.'
And Henry VIII, ii. 4. 140,
' Thy parts
Sovereign and pious else could speak thee out
The queen of earthly queens.'
SC. I.] THE TEMPEST. III

Again, Cymbeline, i. 1. 24, ‘ You speak him far ' ; that is, you go to a
great length in proclaiming his merits.
209. wink'st, closest thine eyes. See 1. 278, and compare Two Gen
tleman of Verona, i. 2. 139,
'I see things too, although you judge I wink.'
210. whiles, while. Compare Matt. v. 25, and Julius Cæsar, i. 2. 209,
' Such men as he be never at heart's ease
Whiles they behold greater than themselves.'
For the form of the word see Morris, English Accidence, § 311.
213. if heed me. Rowe mended the phrase by inserting ' you' and
Pope made the verse run more smoothly by. further omitting ' too.'
For the ellipsis see Abbott, § 387. Compare Timon of Athens, iv. 3. 102,
6 Tim. Warr'st thou 'gainst Athens ?
Alcib. Ay, Timon, and have cause .'
Also Twelfth Night, v. 1. 357, and Measure for Measure, ii. 4. 103,
And strip myself to death, as to a bed
That longing have been sick for.'
214. Trebles thee o'er, makes thee three times as great. Compare
Merchant of Venice, iii. 2. 309,
You shall have gold
To pay the petty debt twenty times over.'
Ib. standing water, neither ebbing nor flowing, and so ready to be
moved one way or the other. Compare Twelfth Night, i . 5. 168 , ' 'Tis
with him in standing water, between boy and man.'
219. Ebbing men, men whose fortunes are on the ebb or decline.
Compare Antony and Cleopatra, i . 3. 43,
· And the ebb'd man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth love,
Comes dear'd by being lack'd .'
222. proclaim. The verb is attracted into the plural by the preceding
' eye and cheek.' Compare Acts i . 15 , and Love's Labour 's Lost, iv. 3.
345,
' And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Make heaven drowsy with the harmony.'
223. A matter, an important business, full of meaning. Compare
King Lear, iv. 6. 178,
' O, matter and impertinency mix'd !
Reason in madness !'
And Hamlet, iv. I. I , ' There's matter in these sighs.'
224. throes thee, pains thee, tortures thee, from A. S. browian, to
suffer pain. Generally used of the pangs of childbirth. In the first
6
folio it is spelt throwes,' as in Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 7. 81 ,
· With Newes the times with Labour,
And throwes forth each minute, some.'
112 NOTES. [ACT II.

227. earth'd, buried in the earth. Compare Massinger, The Fatal

Dowry, ii, 1,
' My root is earth'd, and I, a desolate branch,
Left scatter'd in the highway of the world.'
228, 229. only Professes to persuade, persuasion is his only profession.
Compare I Henry IV, v. 2. 92,
' I thank him, that he cuts me from my tale,
For I profess not talking.'
And Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3. 270, ' Why, he'll answer nobody ; he
professes not answering.'
235. a wink, the smallest space ; originally of time. Compare
Twelfth Night, v. I. 93,
'And grew a twenty years removed thing
While one would wink.'
The change in the figure may perhaps have been suggested by the per
sonification of ambition with a piercing eye, the utmost range of which
is the height which Antonio pictures to Sebastian.
236. But doubt, that is , cannot but doubt. It does not seem necessary,
with Capell, to change ' doubt' into ' doubts.' To ' doubt discovery
there,' must mean to be uncertain about what it finds there ; the point
being at the extreme limit of ambition's vision.
239, &c. Steevens in an unnecessary note points to this passage as in
dicating among others Shakespeare's ignorance of geography. He
appears to have overlooked the fact that Antonio's language is intention
ally exaggerated and that Sebastian is fully aware of it. Hunter, with
curious ingenuity, suggested that ' man's life ' is a translation of Zoa, à
city south of Tunis mentioned by Leo Africanus ; as if a distance of
'thirty miles beyond Zoa,' would be an appreciable distance in Antonio's
inflated description .
241. note, knowledge, intimation. Compare Henry VIII, i. 2. 48,
" These exactions,
Whereof my sovereign would have note, they are
Most pestilent to the hearing .'
Ib. post. Compare Coriolanus, v. 5. 50,
' Your native town you enter'd like a post.'
242. The man i the moon. Compare ii . 2. 126.
243. razorable, ready for shaving, and so bearded. The first folio
prints it ' Razor-able.'
Ib. she that from whom, &c. , Rowe omitted that.' If the present
reading is correct, and there is no great reason to doubt it, there is a
confusion of two constructions ; Antonio beginning a fresh sentence as
he had done the three previous ones with ' She that,' and then changing
SC. I.] THE TEMPEST. 113

abruptly to ' from whom, ' which made the preceding relative superfluous.
Mr. Spedding conjectured ' She that-from whom ? All were sea
swallow'd,' &c.; that is, ' From whom should she have note ? The
report from Naples will be that all were drowned. We shall be the
only survivors.' Singer reads, ' She from whom coming,' which gives
more fully the sense of the present reading.
244. cast, suggested by the previous ' sea-swallow'd.' Compare
Pericles, ii. 1. 62, ' What a drunken knave was the sea to cast thee in
our way !' The other sense of the word cast,' which in theatrical
language is to assign their parts to the actors, seems to have suggested
the act' and ' prologue ' which follow.
245. by that destiny ; that is, by the same destiny by which we were
cast ashore, we are fated to perform, &c. Mr. Staunton reads ' And
that by destiny.'
245, 246. act ... prologue. Compare Macbeth, i. 3. 128,
'Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.'
246, 247. what to come In yours and my discharge, what is to come is for
you and me to complete. For the use of the pronouns compare iii. 3. 93,
And his and mine loved darling.'
252. Keep. Johnson conjectured ' Sleep .'
259. A chough. Compare Macbeth, iii. 4. 125, Hamlet, v. 2. 89, and
All's Well that Ends Well, iv. 1. 22, ' Choughs' language, gabble enough,
and good enough .'
Ib. ofas deep chat, that is, able to talk as profoundly.
263. Tender, regard. Compare As You Like It, v. 2. 77, " By my
life, I do ; which I tender dearly.'
266. feater, more gracefully. See i. 2. 380.
267. fellows. See i. 2. 416.
269. kibe, a chilblain on the heel. See Hamlet, v. 1. 153 , and King
Lear, i. 5. 9, ' If a man's brains were in 's heels, were 't not in danger
of kibes ?' Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) gives 6 Mules : f. Mules ; also, kibes ;
also, moyles, pantofles, high slippers.'
272. candied, sugared over, and so insensible. Compare Timon of
Athens, iv. 3. 225,
6 Will the cold brook,
Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste,
To cure thy o'er night's surfeit ?'
See also Hamlet, iii . 2. 65, and in the opposite sense, ' discandy' in
Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 12. 22.
273. Frozen or melting they would be equally insensible.
I
114 NOTES. [ACT II.

278. wink. See ii. 1. 209, and compare Winter's Tale, i. 2. 317,
' To give mine enemy a lasting wink.'
Ib. for aye. Compare Hamlet, iii. 2. 210,
This world is not for aye.'
" 279. morsel, used familiarly and contemptuously. Compare Measure
for Measure, iii. 2. 56, ' How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress ?' On
the other hand, ' piece' is used in a good sense in i. 2. 56.
280. Should not, would not in that case. See Abbott, § 322.
281. suggestion, prompting, temptation. See iv. I. 26, and Macbeth,
i. 3. 134.
282. tell the clock, count the strokes of the clock. Compare Richard
III, v. 3. 276, Tell the clock there ' ; the stage direction being ' Clock
striketh .'
284. precedent. Spelt ' president ' in the folios.
285. come by, get, acquire. Compare Acts xxvii. 16, and Merchant of
Venice, i. I. 4,
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff ' tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn.'
288. rear, raise. Compare Julius Cæsar, iii. 1. 30,
' Casca, you are the first that rears your hand.'
289. To fall it, to let it fall. See v. 1. 64, and compare Midsummer
Night's Dream, v. 1. 143,
'And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall.'
And As You Like It, iii. 5. 5,
The common executioner,
Whose heart the accustom'd sight of death makes hard,
Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck
But first begs pardon.'
292. to keep them living. Dyce reads ' thee ' : but Ariel is half apos
trophizing the sleeping Gonzalo, and half talking to himself.
296. keep a care is an uncommon expression, though the equivalent
'have a care ' is of frequent occurrence. Compare King John, v. 5. 20,
'Well ; keep good quarter and good care to-night.'
299. sudden, swift, speedy. Compare As You Like It, ii . 7. 151 ,
' Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel.'
See also Hamlet, i . 5. 68.
301. Staunton continues this speech to Gonzalo and gives the next to
Alonzo. See below, 1. 312.
Ib. drawn. Compare Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2. 402,
' Here, villain ; drawn and ready. Where art thou?'
And Henry V, ii. 1. 39, ‘ O well a day, Lady, if he be not drawn now !'
SC. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 115

303. securing, guarding, protecting. Compare Hamlet, i . 5. 113 ,

"• Heaven secure him !'
304. Even now, just now, at this very moment. Compare Merchant
of Venice , i. I. 35,
" And, in a word, but even now worth this,
And now worth nothing.'
See also iii. 2. 171 of the same play.
312. shaked. The same form of the preterite is found in 1 Henry IV,
iii. 1. 17,
The frame and huge foundation of the earth
Shaked like a coward.'
It occurs also for the participle in Troilus and Cressida, i. 3. 101,
' O, when degree is shaked,
Which is the ladder to all high designs,
Then enterprise is sick !'
314, verily. Pope read ' verity.' But other instances of an adverb
used for an adjective are found. See i. 2. 226, and Titus Andronicus,
iv. 4. 76,
' That Lucius' banishment was wrongfully.'
Abbott § 78 .

Scene II.

3. Byinch-meal. The adverbial termination ‘ -meal,' as in ‘ piece-meal,'

'limb-meal, ' is from the A. S. mælum, the dative of mæl, a part, used
adverbially, both alone and in composition. For limb-meal,' see
Cymbeline, ii . 4. 147,
' O that I had her here, to tear her limb-meal !'
In the Wicliffite Version of Wisdom xviii. 25 we find ' hipyll-melum,'
in heaps.
4, 6. nor .. Nor, for ' neither .. nor.' Compare or .. or ' in i. 2. 82,
83, and Othello, iii. 4. 116, 117,
' If my offence be of such mortal kind,
That nor my service past, nor present sorrows,
Nor purposed merit in futurity,
Can ransom me into his love again,
But to know so must be my benefit.'
5. urchin-shows. See i. 2. 326.
9. Sometime, sometimes. Both forms occur in this play : see ii. 2. 158.
Compare ' while,' ' whiles,' ' beside,' ' besides.'
Ib. mow, make grimaces. See, for the substantive, iv. 1. 47, and
Hamlet, ii. 2. 381 (ii. 2. 353 Clar. Press ed., with note). In the folios
I2
116 NOTES. [ACT 13.

it is spelt ' moe.' So Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) , ' Mouë : f. A moe, or mouth ;
an (ill-fauoured) extension, or thrusting out, of the lips ' ; and again,
' Grimacer. To make a face, or a wry mouth; to mowe.' Douce (Illus
trations of Shakespeare) quotes from Harsnet's Declaration of Popish
Impostures a passage in which he speaks of the supposed possession of
young girls ; ' They make anticke faces, girn, mow and mop like an
ape, tumble like a hedge-hogge,' &c.
10. after, afterwards. See iii . 2. 145, and Gen. xxxiii. 7, ‘ And after
came Joseph near and Rachel.'
Ib. which takes the place of ' that' as a relative when more emphasis
is required. See Abbott, § 261. ·
11. in my barefoot way, in the way where I walk barefoot.
13. wound, twined about.
Ib. cloven tongues. Compare Macbeth, iv. 1. 17, and Midsummer
Night's Dream, ii. 2. 9,
' You spotted snakes with double tongue.'
15. and to torment me. See Abbott, § 96. The ellipsis has to be
supplied from what precedes, and he comes to torment me.'
17. mind, notice, regard. So Taming of the Shrew, i. 1. 254,
' My lord, you nod ; you do not mind the play.'
20. yond. This the spelling of the folios, which is not uniform,
either for the adjective or the adverb. A. S. geond.
21. bombard, a large vessel for holding liquor. See 1 Henry IV, ii. 4.
497, ' That swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack.”
And Henry VIII, v. 4. 85, .
6 And here ye lie baiting of bombards, when
Ye should do service.'
Again, Ben Jonson, Masque of Augurs, ' The poor cattle yonder are
passing away the time with a cheat loaf, and a bombard of broken beer.'
Ib. shed, used still with reference to tears or blood.
23. cannot choose but, must. Compare i. 2. 186, and Hamlet, iv. 5. 68,
'But I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him i̇' the cold
ground.' So Taming of the Shrew, v. 1. 12, ' You shall not choose but
drink before you go.'
26. poor-John, hake salted and dried. Compare Romeo and Juliet,
i. 1. 37, ''Tis well thou art not fish ; if thou hadst, thou hadst been
poor John.' And Massinger, The Renegado, i. 1,
' I would not be of one that should command me
To feed upon poor John.'
29. make a man, that is, make his fortune. Compare Midsummer
Night's Dream, iv. 2. 18, ' If our sport had gone forward, we had all
been made men.'
SC. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 117

30. doit, the smallest piece of money. See note on Merchant of

Venice, i. 3. 128, and compare Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 12. 37,
Most monster-like be shown
For poor'st diminutives, for doits.'
34. suffered, that is, suffered death. Compare ' suffered under Pontius
Pilate,' in the Apostles' Creed ; and in the Nicene, ‘ he suffered and was
buried.'
36. gaberdine, a long coarse smock-frock. See note on Merchant of
Venice, i. 3. 100.
37. hereabout. The two forms ' hereabout ' and ' hereabouts ' are
•
found in Shakespeare. See Romeo and Juliet, v. 1. 38, And hereabouts
he dwells ; ' and v. 3. 43, ' I'll hide me hereabout.'
Ib. acquaints a man, makes a man acquainted or familiar. Compare
Bacon, Essay vii. p. 24 (ed. Wright), 6 The illiberalitie of parents, in
allowance towards their children, is an harmefull errour ; makes them
base ; acquaints them with shifts. '
38. shroud, take shelter, conceal myself. Compare 3 Henry VI, iii. 1. 1 ,
'Under this thick-grown brake we'll shroud ourselves.'
44. swabber, one who sweeps the deck with a swab or mop. Compare
Twelfth Night, i. 5. 217, ' No, good swabber ; I am to hull here a little
longer.' See also Lodge, Wits Miserie, p. 4, ' He telleth them of
wonders done in Spaine by his ancestors : where, if the matter were
well examined, his father was but Swabber in the ship where Ciuill
Oranges were the best merchandize.'
48. tang, a twang, an unpleasant tone. The word is used in Suffolk
of an unpleasant, generally a bitter flavour. Compare Harsnet, Decla
ration of Popish Impostures, p. 21, ' Who had not been long within
the compasse of that holy circle, but shee was discouered to haue a tang
of possession.' Used as a verb in Twelfth Night, ii. 5. 163.
54. savages. The folios read ' salvages,' but there is no consistency
in their spelling, for we find in Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3. 222,
‘ That (like a rude and sauage man of Inde).
And in v. 2. 202 ,
' That we (like sauages) may worship it.'
In the Dramatis Personæ at the end of the play in the folios, Caliban
is described as 6 a saluage and deformed slaue.'
Ib. Ind, India. Compare As You Like It, iii. 2. 93,
'From the east to western Ind.'
55. 'scaped, escaped, see 1. 102.
Ib. afeard, afraid. Compare Merchant of Venice, ii. 7. 29,
And yet to be afeard of my deserving
Were but a weak disabling of myself.'
118 NOTES. [ACT II.

Ib. yourfour legs. Your' is here used in the colloquial sense as in

Hamlet, iv. 3. 24, ' Your worm is your only emperor for diet ; ... your fat
king and your lean beggar is but variable service.' See Abbott, § 221.
57. give ground, give way. See Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 334, ' Give
ground, if you see him furious.'
59. at nostrils. The first folio has ' at ' nostrils.' The rest at nostrils .'
Compare Julius Cæsar, i. 2. 255, ' He fell down in the market place, and
foamed at mouth ; ' Coriolanus, iv. I. 47, ' at gate ; ' iv. 5. 204, ' at upper
end o' the table ; ' Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 73, ' at palace.'
64. recover, restore. See 71 , 85. Compare As You Like It, iv. 3. 151,
' Brief, I recover'd him, bound up his wound.'
66. neat's leather. Compare Julius Cæsar, i. 1. 29, ‘ As proper men
as ever trod upon neat's leather have gone upon my handiwork.' And
Winter's Tale, i. 2. 125,
" And yet
the steer, the heifer, and the calf
Are all call'd neat.'
Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) has, Vache : f. A Cow ; also, Neats-leather.'
69. after the wisest, in the wisest fashion, following the wisest pattern.
71. afore, before ; still in common use provincially. Compare
Romans ix. 23, ' Which were afore prepared unto glory.'
Ib. it will go near to remove his fit, it will very nearly remove, will be
within a little of removing, his fit. Compare Midsummer Night's Dream,
V. I. 294, ' This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near
to make a man look sad.'
72. I will not take too much for him, of course said ironically.
73. soundly, an adverb implying thoroughness, completeness. See
1. 78, and iv. 1. 258. Compare Coriolanus, ii . 1. 139, ' Has he dis
ciplined Aufidius soundly ?' Richard III, iii. 1. 186,
"Good Catesby, go, effect this business soundly.'
75. thy trembling, a sign of possession. Compare Comedy of Errors,
iv. 4. 54, 6 Mark how he trembles in his ecstasy ! ' And Harsnet's
Declaration of Popish Impostures (1603) pp. 58, 59, ' All the spirits
with much adoe being commaunded to goe downe into her left foote,
they did it with vehement trembling, and shaking of her leg.'
•
76. Come on your ways. Ways' is probably the old genitive used
adverbially. Compare the German ' er zog seines Weges,' 6 he went his
ways.' See Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2. 47, ' Come your ways, come
your ways.' And As You Like It, iv. 1. 186, · Ay, go your ways, go
your ways .'
77. cat. A term ofcontempt. See Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2. 260.
Compare also The Old and New Courtier (Percy's Reliques), ' And old
liquor able to make a cat speak, and man dumb.'
SC. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 119

83. Steevens quotes from Greene, Penelope's Web, Fame hath two
faces, readie as well to back-bite as to flatter.'
85. help, cure. Compare Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 2. 47, 48,
' Love doth to her eyes repair,
To help him of his blindness,
And, being help'd, inhabits there.'
And Topsell's History of Serpents ( 1658), p. 629, ' Adders or Vipers
included in a pot with the scrapings of Vines, and therein burnt to ashes,
do help the Wens or Kings-evill.' See also Milton, Comus, 845.
86. Amen! That is, hold, stop !
89. I have no long spoon. Compare Comedy of Errors, iv. 3, 64,
' Marry, he must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil.' And
Webster, Devil's Law Case, iv. 2, ' Here's a latten spoon, and a long
one, to feed with the devil.' .
91. beest. This form occurs again iii. 2. 20, and Milton, Paradise
Lost, i. 84, ' If thou beest he.' Ben Jonson, in his English Grammar,
gives ' be, beest, beeth,' for the singular inflections. Similarly in the
Geneva Version of Deut. xxx. 4, we find, ' Thogh thou werest cast vnto
the vtmost parte of heauen.'
96. Thou art very Trinculo, that is, really Trinculo. Compare Cym
beline, iv. 2. 107,
'I am absolute
'Twas very Cloten.'
And Gen. xxvii. 24, Art thou my very son Esau?'
99. overblown, blown over. See Taming of the Shrew, v. 2. 3,
་
To smile at scapes and perils overblown.'
100. moon-calf, an abortion. See Holland's Pliny, vii. 15, ‘ A false
conception called Mola, i. a moone calfe, that is to say, a lumpe of flesh
without shape, without life, and so hard withall, that uneth a knife will
enter and pierce it either with edge or point.'
104. is not constant, is qualmish.
105. an if. The folios ‘ and if.' Compare Matthew xxiv. 48, and
Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 1. 257,
I pray thee, Launce, an if thou seest my boy,
Bid him make haste and meet me at the North-gate.'
Ib. sprites. See note on i. 2. 299.
106. and bears. For the omission of the pronoun see iii. 1. 65, and
note on ii. 1. 213.
110. sack. A name applied to various white wines of Spain. In
Sherwood's Eng. and Fr. Dictionary ( 1632), we find ‘ Sacke, Vin d'Es
pagne, Vin sec,' thus giving one of the three etymologies of the word
which have been suggested. Mandelslo derives it from Xeque, a city of
120 NOTES. [ACT II. SC. 2.

Morocco ; another from ' saccus,' a wineskin. There were as many

kinds of the wine as there are etymologies of the name. Markham
(English Housewife, p . 118), enumerates them as follows, ' Your best
Sacks are of Seres in Spain, your smaller of Galicia and Portugall,
Your strong Sacks are of the Islands of the Canaries, and of Malligo .'
Butler (English Grammar, 1633) marks the pronunciation thus in his
phonetic spelling, ‘ a Sak, saccus | sek, F. vin sec.'
115. Ritson, following Fope, arranged the line thus,
" Ste. [to Cal.] Here, swear then. [To Trin.] How escaped'st thou ?'
But Delius points out that Stephano does not appear to notice Caliban's
interruptions till 1. 122, ' How now, mooncalf!'
120. hast. For the omission of ' thou ' in such interrogations, where
the person is marked by the inflexion of the verb, see iii. 2. 148, and
Abbott § 241.
126. when time was, once upon a time.
128. thy dog and thy bush. See Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1. 136,
' This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,
Presenteth Moonshine.'
Steevens mended the metre by leaving out ' and ' twice.
131. By this good light ! a common oath. See iii. 2. 14.
133. Trinculo, recovering his courage, compliments Caliban on his
deep draught. ¿ ..
138. rob his bottle, that is, steal from it.
142. could find in my heart, I am almost inclined, could almost make
up my mind. Compare As You Like It, ii. 4. 4, ' I could find in my
heart to disgrace my man's apparel and to cry like a woman .'
154. crabs, crab-apples. Compare King Lear, i. 5. 16, ' For though
she's as like this as a crab's like an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell.'
155. pig-nuts, or earth-nuts, the bulbous roots of the plant called
Bunium flexuosum, or Conopodium flexuosum.
157. marmoset . The animal known at present by this name is a
native of South America , but the word is found in the language long
before the discovery of America. In Maundevile's Travels (ed . Halli
well, 1866), p. 210, we read, ' In that Hille and in that Gardyn , ben
many dyverse Bestes, as of Apes, Marmozettes , Babewynes , and many
other dyverse Bestes.' The following definition occurs in an early
Latin and English Dictionary , Bibliotheca Eliotæ (1548 ) : ' Cercopi
thecus, an ape with a taile, called a marmoset .' In the first folio it is
spelt 6 Marmazet .'
159 scamels. Theobald, reading ' Shamois,' conjectured ' sea-mells,'
or ' sea-mews,' and ' stannels.' Others have suggested ' staniels,' ' sea
gells.' Holt says that ' scam ' is a limpet, and ' scamel ' probably a
ACT III. SC. 1.] THE TEMPEST. 121

diminutive. There is reason however to suppose, as Caliban says

' sometimes,' that the word must be the name of a bird, and Mr. Steven
son, in his Birds of Norfolk, ii. 260, tells us that the female Bar-tailed
Godwit is called a ‘ scamell ' by the gunners of Blakeney. But as this
bird is not a rock-breeder, it cannot be the one intended in the present
passage if we regard it as an accurate description from a naturalist's point
of view. We must suppose therefore either that the description is not
strictly accurate, or that in Shakespeare's time the word ' scamel ' may
have had a wider application .
162. inherit, take possession.
169. trencher. The reading of Pope. The folios have ' trenchering.'
Baret (Alvearie, 1580) gives, ‘ a Trencher to eate meate on. Quadra.'
172. hey-day, an exclamation of joy. So printed by Rowe. The
folios have high-day.' In Richard III, iv. 4. 460, we find it ‘ hoy-day,'
' Hoy-day, a riddle ! neither good nor bad !'
6
And in Troilus and Cressida, v. 1. 73, Hoy-day ! spirits and fires !'
Again, Timon of Athens, i. 2. 137,
' Hoy-day, what a sweep of vanity comes this way !'
But in Hamlet, iii. 4. 69, the word is used as a substantive and spelt
'hey-day.'

ACT III.

Scene I.

1. There be some sports are painful. The omission of the relative is

common. See Abbott, § 244. For the use of ' be' see Abbott, § 300.
6. which, used of persons, as in the Lord's Prayer. Abbott, § 265.
Ib. quickens, gives life to. Compare All's Well that Ends Well,
ii. 1. 77,
'I have seen a medicine
That's able to breathe life into a stone,
Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary.'
15. Most busy lest, when I do it. This unquestionably corrupt passage
is thus printed in the first folio,
'Most busie lest, when I doe it.'
Pope read, 6 Least busie when I do it ; ' Theobald, 6 Most busie-less,
when I do it.' Holt conjectured, ' Most busiest, when I do it,' and his
emendation has been carried a step further by Mr. Spedding in giving
what uponthe whole appears the best suggestion yet made, Most busiest
when idlest.' A very slight change would make a certain sense, ' Most
busy left when I do it,' that is, when I indulge these thoughts.
122 NOTES. [ACT III.

The same idea is found in Romeo and Juliet, i. 1. 134,

" I, measuring
his affections by my own,
That most are busied when they're most alone.'
31. Poor worm. 'Worm ' is used metaphorically for " creature,' as
even ofthe mole in Pericles, i. I. 102 ,
The blind mole casts
Copp'd hill towards heaven, to tell the earth is throng'd
By man's oppression ; and the poor worm doth die for it.'
Compare also Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3. 154,
' Good heart, what grace hast thou, thus to reprove
These worms for loving, that art most in love ? '
31, 32. infected ... visitation. Prospero adopts language which was
familiar when the plague was of common occurrence. Compare Love's
Labour's Lost, v. 2. 419-423 ,
' Write 66 Lord have mercy on us "" on those three ;
They are infected ; in their hearts it lies ;
They have the plague, and caught it of your eyes ;
These lords are visited ; you are not free,
For the Lord's tokens on you do I see.'
32. wearily, adverb for adjective. Compare Merry Wives of Windsor,
ii. I. 198, ' There is either liquor in his pate, or money in his purse,
when he looks so merrily.'
33. Malone compares Tibullus, iv. 13 ,
6
Tu mihi curarum requies, tu nocte vel atra
Lumen.'
37. broke, broken ; as in Macbeth, ii. 3. 73,
' Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
The Lord's anointed temple.'
Ib. hest. See i. 2. 275.
38. the top of admiration, that which admiration cannot go beyond.
Compare Measure for Measure, ii. 2. 76, ' He which is the top of judge
ment ' ; and Coriolanus, i . 9. 24,
·
To the spire and top of praises vouch'd.'
Ferdinand plays upon the name Miranda.
45. owed, possessed, owned. See i. 2. 407.
46. put it to the foil, foiled, defeated it. Perhaps the word ' foil ' was
suggested to Shakespeare by the contrast between the grace and the
defect which is as a foil to it, although in this sense the result would have
been the opposite of what is intended . The word ' quarrel' points to the
struggle between the grace and the defect, in which the former is
worsted.
48. Of every creature's best. Compare As You Like It, iii. 2. 157
160 .
SC. I.] THE TEMPEST. 123

Thus Rosalind of many parts

By heavenly synod was devised,
Of many faces, eyes and hearts,
To have the touches dearest prized.'
Steevens quotes from Sidney's Arcadia, iii. [p. 386, ed. 1598] , a passage
which describes how the animals in choosing a king each contributed a
part of his composition, and the result was man,
'Thus Man was made ; thus Man their Lord became.'
52. features, shapes, bodily proportions generally. Now in use con
fined to the face. Compare Richard III, i. 1. 19,
• Cheated of feature by dissembling nature.'
53. skilless of, ignorant of, unacquainted with . Compare Twelfth
Night, iii. 3. 9,
' But jealousy of what might befall your travel,
Being skilless in these parts.'
57. to like of. Compare Much Ado about Nothing, v. 4. 59,
' I am your husband if you like of me.'
And Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1. 65,
' Or else you like not of my company.'
58. something. See i . 2. 414.
60. See i. 2. 434.
62. than to suffer. For this mixture of constructions compare Timon
of Athens, iv. 2. 33,
'Who would be so mock'd with glory? or to live
But in a dream of friendship ? '
And All's Well that Ends Well, i . 1. 61 , as it stands in the first folio,
'least it be rather thought you affect a sorrow then to haue.' Again in
the Prayer-book Version of Psalm lxxviii. 4, 8, ‘ That we should not
hide ... but to shew,' &c., ' That they might put their trust in God, and
not to forget,' &c.
63. blow. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2. 60,
'Rather on Nilus' mud
Lay me stark naked, and let the water-flies
Blow me into abhorring.'
' To ' is omitted after ' suffer ' as well as after ' let.' Compare B. Jonson,
Sejanus, iii. 1 , ' Suffer him speak no more.'
70. hollowly, insincerely. Compare Measure for Measure, ii. 3. 23,
' And try your penitence, if it be sound,
Or hollowly put on .'
Ib. invert, change to the contrary, pervert. Compare Troilus and
Cressida, v. 2. 122,
' An esperance so obstinately strong,
That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears.'
124 NOTES. [ACT. III.

71. boded, portended, prognosticated.

72. what, used for the indefinite pronoun ' any,' ' anything.' Compare
Winter's Tale, i. 2. 44,
'I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind
What lady-she her lord.'
73, 74. I am afool ... glad of. Compare Macbeth, i. 4. 33-35,
' My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow.'
And Romeo and Juliet, iii. 2. 103.
77. that dare not. The nominative has to be supplied from the pre
ceding possessive pronoun, as in Coriolanus, iii. 2. 119 (Abbott, § 218),
or ' dare ' may be used, as in iii. 2. 63, for ' dares.'
78. and much less take, that is, and dare much less take.
79. die to want, that is, die for wanting. Compare Merchant of
Venice, iv. 1. 431 , ' I will not shame myself to give you this ' ; and
Much Ado about Nothing, iv. 1. 293 , ‘ You kill me to deny it.'
So. it, the feeling with which she was struggling.
84. fellow. See i. 2. 416.
93. withal. So Theobald. The folios read ' with all.' Here ' withal '
has not merely the sense of with it,' but of ' moreover,' ' besides.' See
note on Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 408.
94. my book, that is, my conjuring book. See iii. 2. 87. So in
Spenser, Fairy Queen, i. 1. 36, the enchanter Hypocrisy, when his guests
are asleep, resorts to his magic arts.
' He to his studie goes ; and there amiddes
His magick bookes, and artes of sundrie kindes,
He seekes out mighty charmes to trouble sleepy mindes.'
Scene II.
1. Tell not me. For this transposition of the negative see ii . 1. 116,
and All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 2. 53, ' O Lord, sir ! spare not me.'
2. bear up and board 'em. Admiral Smyth (Sailor's Word-Book) says,
6 To bear up, put the helm up, and keep a vessel off her course.' See
Othello, i. 3. 8,
'Yet do they all confirm
A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus.'
3. Servant-monster. Theobald has pointed out a reference to this in
Ben Jonson's Induction to his Bartholomew Fair, If there be never
a servant monster in the fair, who can help it, he says, nor a nest of
antiques ? he is loth to make nature afraid in his plays, like those that
beget tales, tempests, and such like drolleries.'
sc. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 125
6. brained like us, with such brains as ours.
8. set. Compare 1 Kings xiv. 4, and Twelfth Night, v. 1. 205, ‘O,
he's drunk, Sir Toby, an hour agone ; his eyes were set at eight i'the
morning.'
14. By this light. See ii. 2. 131.
15. standard, like ' ancient ' or ' ensign,' is used for the man who carried
the standard. So in the romance of Kyng Alisaunder, 1995, ' Sendith
Ymagu youre standard.' Compare Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5. 6,
6
Thou, trumpet, there's my purse.'
In the same way the French guidon was used in both senses. Cotgrave
·
(Fr. Dict.) gives, Guidon : m. A Standard, Ensigne, or Banner, vnder
which a troupe of men of Armes doe serue ; also, he that beares it.'
16. list, like. Compare Coriolanus, iii. 2. 128, ‘ Do as thou list ' ;
and John iii. 8, ' The wind bloweth where it listeth.'
Ib. he's no standard, is too drunk to stand.
20. once, for once. See 1 Henry IV, i. 2. 159 , ‘ Well then, once in my
days I'll be a madcap.'
Ib. beest. See ii. 2. 91.
25. in case to justle, in the condition or humour for justling.
25. deboshed represents the spelling and pronunciation of the word in
the time of Shakespeare. Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) has ‘ Desbauché . . .
Deboshed, lewd, incontinent, vngracious, dissolute, naught,' and ' Des
baucher. To debosh, marre, corrupt, spoyle, viciate.' Compare All's
Well that Ends Well, v. 3. 206,
With all the spots o' the world tax'd and debosh'd .'
35. mutineer. In the only other passage where it occurs, Coriolanus
i. 1. 254, it is spelt ' mutiner.' Compare enginer,' ' pioner.' Cotgrave
(Fr. Dict.) has ' Mutinateur : m. A mutiner.'
49. by this hand. See iii. 2. 69, and Twelfth Night, i. 3. 36, ‘ By this
hand they are scoundrels and substractors that say so of him.'
51. Mum, hush. See Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 1. 128, ' Go to,
mum, you are he.'
•
59. the party. Compare Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2. 138, I will
look again on the intellect of the letter, for the nomination of the party
writing to the person written unto.'
61. Like Jael, Judges iv. 21.
63. a pied ninny. Trinculo as jester was in his motley dress. For
' pied ' see Merchant of Venice, i. 3. 80,
‘ That_all_the_eanlings which were streak'd and pied
Should fall as Jacob's hire.'
And compare Midsummer Night's Dream, iv. I. 207, ' But man is but a
patched fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had.'
126 NOTES. [ACT III,

Ib. patch. Ital. pazzo, which Florio (New Worlde of Wordes) defines
as ' foolish, fond, mad, rash, doting, rauing or simple. Also a foole,
a gull, an idiot, a mad man, a naturall.'
67. the quick freshes, the living springs of fresh water. See i. 2. 339
70. make a stock-fish of thee. Compare Hollyband (Fr. Dict. 1593),
' Ie te frotteray à double carrillon, I will beate thee like a stockefish.'
Cotgrave (Fr. Dict., s. v. Carillon) has, ‘ Ie te frotteray à double carillon.
I will beat thee like a stockfish, I will swinge thee while I may stand
ouer thee.' See also Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, iii. 2,
"
'Slight, peace ! thou wilt be beaten like a stockfish else.' &
78. A murrain. Compare Troilus and Cressida, ii. 1. 20, ‘ A red
murrain o' thy jade's tricks ! ' See also Exodus ix. 3, where the murrain,
a disease among cattle, is the rendering of one of the plagues of Egypt.
86. Compare Hamlet, i . 5. 60.
88. paunch him, run him through the paunch, rip his belly up. Com
pare Chapman, The Widdowes Teares, v. 1 (Works, iii. p. 69),
6
But I remorselesse, panch't him, cut his throat.'
89. wezand, windpipe ; A. S. wasend, or wasend. See Gale's translation
of Vigo's Anatomie, p. 8, ' The other conduit called Trachea arteria or
the wesand, is yt by which the winde or aire is conuaied to the lungs .'
And Spenser, Fairy Queen, iv. 3. 12 ,
' His weasand-pipe it through his gorget cleft.'
< 90. to possess, to seize, take possession of, as in Numbers xiii. 30 ; and
in the Authorised Version frequently.
91. a sot, a fool. See King Lear, iv. 2. 8,
• When I inform'd him, then he call'd me sot.'
Cotgrave's definition will supply as many equivalents as could be desired.
' Sot : m. A sot, asse, dunce, dullard, blockhead, loggerhead, growtnoll,
iobernoll, growthead, ioulthead ; also, a foole, or vice in a play ; and,
any fond, vaine, or trifling fellow.'
Ib. nor hath not. For the double negative see Hamlet, iii. 2. 210, and
Abbott, § 406.
92, 93. they all do hate him As rootedly as I, their hatred of him is as
deeply-rooted as mine. Compare All's Well that Ends Well, iv. 5. 13,
'I could not have owed her a more rooted love.'
93. but, only ; in two senses. Only burn his books, says Caliban,
but burn them only : He has brave utensils, &c.
95. Which ... withal, that is, with which he will deck his house when
he has it a confused construction. The sentence which he will deck
his house withal ' is interrupted by the change to ' when he has a house.'
96. that, that which. Compare Ruth ii. 17, ' So she gleaned in the
field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned.' See Abbott, § 244.
Sc. 2.] THE TEMPEST. 127

Ib. to consider, for ' to be considered. ' ' Compare Twelfth Night, iii. 3 .
18, 6 What's to do ? ' Macbeth, v. 7. 28, Little is to do.' See Abbott,
§§ 359, 405.
99. she for ' her.' See Abbott, § 211 , who quotes Troilus and Cres
sida, ii. 3. 252,
Praise him that got thee, she that gave thee suck.'
And Othello , iv. 2. 3,
6 Yes, you have seen Cassio and she together.'
IOI. it. See i. 2. 310.
114. troll, run glibly over. An imitative word. In Serenius' Swedish
Dictionary we find ‘ holla samma trall, to sing the same song over and over.'
Compare Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, i. 2 , " Well, if he read
this with patience, I'll . . . troll ballads for Master John Trundle yonder,
the rest of my mortality.' Littleton, in his English-Latin Dictionary has,
' To troll along his words. Volubiliter loqui , sive rotunde.' So Webster,
The Devil's Law Case, iv. I,
6
This is the man that is your learned counsel,
A fellow that will troll it off with tongue.'
And Milton, Paradise Lost, xi. 620,
$
' To dress, and troll the tongue, and roll the eye.'
Ib. the catch. A catch is a part-song. Cotgrave (Fr. Dict .) has,
6 Strambot : m. A Iyg, Round, Catch, countrey Song.' Mr. Chappell, in
his Popular Music of the Olden Time (p . 108, note), says, ' Catch, Round
or Roundelay, and Canon in unison, are, in music, nearly the same
thing. In all, the harmony is to be sung by several persons ; and is so
contrived, that, though each sings precisely the same notes as his fellows,
yet, by beginning at stated periods of time from each other, there results
a harmony of as many parts as there are singers. The Catch differs
only in that the words of one part are made to answer, or catch the
other; as " Ah ! how, Sophia," sung like " a house o' fire," " Burney's
History,"
6 like " burn his history," &c. ' Compare Twelfth Night, ii. 3 .
60, Shall we rouse the night-owl in a catch that will draw three souls
out of one weaver ? '
115. but while-ere, only a short time since. ' Whileer ' is given as a
provincial word in the Glossary to ' An Exmoor Scolding.'
116. doreason, do what is right or reasonable. Compare Merry Wives of
Windsor, i. 1. 218, ' I shall do that that is reason. In a similar way Bacon
(Essay viii. p. 26, ed. Wright) uses ' reason ' : ' Yet it were great reason,
that those that have children, should have greatest care of future times.'
120. Thought is free. Perhaps the burden of a song. See Twelfth
6
Night, i . 3, 73 , Now, sir, thought is free : I pray you, bring your hand
to the buttery-bar, and let it drink.' And Lyly, Euphues and his Eng
128 NOTES. [ACT III.

land (ed. Arber), p. 281 : ' No quoth she, I beleue you, for none can
iudge of wit, but they that haue it, why then quoth he, doest thou thinke
me a foole, thought is free my Lord quoth she.'
123. the picture of Nobody. Reed says, ' The allusion is here to the
print of No-body, as prefixed to the anonymous comedy of " No-body,
and Some-body" ; without date, but printed before the year 1600.' The
figure is copied in Knight's Shakespeare.
134. twangling, an tative ord describing the und of stringed
instruments. Compare Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1. 159,
'While she did call me rascal fiddler
And twangling Jack.'
139. that, so that. See i. 2. 85.
144. by and by, immediately. Compare Luke xxi. 2 , ' The end is not
by and by.'
145. after. See ii. 2. 10.
148. taborer. A tabor is a small side-drum, generally associated with
the pipe. See iv. 1. 175 ; Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 3. 15, ‘ I have
known when there was no music with him but the drum and the fife ;
and now had he rather hear the tabor and the pipe.' Cotgrave (Fr.
Dict.) has Tabourineur : m. A Taborer ; one that playes on a Tabor.'
Steevens, in illustration ofthis passage, quotes from Frampton's translation
of Marco Polo's Travels (ed. 1579 ), p. 32, ' You shall heare in the ayre
the sound of tabers and other instruments, to put the trauellers in feare,
&c. by euill spirites that make these soundes, and also do call diuerse of
the trauellers by their names, &c.' See also Milton's Comus, 207–209.
149. Ritson would give ‘ Wilt come ? ' to Stephano. For the omission
of the pronoun see ii. 2. 120.
Scene III.
1. By'r lakin, that is, by our ladykin, or little lady. Compare Mid
summer Night's Dream, iii. 1. 14, •' By 'r lakin a parlous fear.'
2. ache. The first folio has 6 aches,' and on the basis of this and
similar misprints Dr. Abbott (Shakespeare Grammar, § 333) has built a
theory that the old northern third person plural in s was of common
use in Shakespeare.
3. forth-rights, straight paths. Compare Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3. 158,
If you give way,
Or hedge aside from the direct forthright.'
"
The first folio has fourth rights.' Knight says, The passage is ex
plained by the fact of the allusion being to an artificial maze, some
times constructed of straight lines (forth-rights), sometimes of circles
(meanders).'
SC. 3.] THE TEMPEST. 129

Ib. Byyour patience. Compare Coriolanus, i . 3. 81 , ' Indeed, no, by your

patience ; I'll not over the threshold till my lord return from the wars.'
5. attach'd, seized. Compare Henry VIII, i. 1. 95,
6 For France hath flaw'd the league, and hath attach'd
Our merchants' goods at Bourdeaux.'
8. for myflatterer, to flatter me.
10. frustrate, frustrated, baffled. For this form of the participle see
Antony and Cleopatra, v. 1. 2,
'Being so frustrate, tell him he mocks
The pauses that he makes.'
And Abbott, § 342.
12. forgo. The first folio spells this word correctly, so far as regards
the first syllable, everywhere ' forgo ' or ' forgoe.'
6
14. throughly, thoroughly ; as in Matthew iii. 12, he will throughly
purge his floor.'
16. nor cannot. See Abbott, § 408. 6 Will not, nor cannot,' that is,
neither will nor can.
17. After this line the first folio inserts the stage direction, ' Solemne
and strange Musicke : and Prosper on the top (inuisible :) Enter seuerall
strange shapes, bringing in a Banket ; and dance about it with gentle
actions of salutations, and inuiting the King, &c. to eate, they depart.'
21. A living drollery, a puppet-show in which the figures are alive.
See the quotation from Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair in the note on
iii. 2. 3. Compare also Beaumont and Fletcher's Valentinian, ii. 2 , ‘ I
had rather make a drollery till thirty ' ; that is, work a puppet-show.
22. unicorns. In Topsell's History of Four-footed Beasts (1658) a
"
chapter Of the Vnicorn ' is devoted to an attempt to convince the
vulgar sort of Infidel people which scarsely believe any herb but such as
they see in their own Gardens , or any beast but such as is in their own
flocks,' that there is such a creature as the unicorn , whose horn has
virtue against poison .
23. one tree the phoenix' throne. Compare The Phoenix and the Turtle,
' Let the bird of loudest lay,
On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be.'
Pliny (Holland's translation , 1601 ) book x. c. 2 , says of the bird, ' How
beit, I cannot tell what to make of him : and first of all, whether it be a
tale or no, that there is never but one of them in the whole world, and
the same not commonly seen.' Malone quotes from Lyly's Euphues
་
and his England [p. 312, ed. Arber], ' For as there is but one Phoenix in.
the world, so is there but one tree in Arabia, where-in she buyldeth.'
And Florio's New Worlde of Wordes ( 1598), 6 Rasin, a tree in Arabia,
whereof there is but one found, and vpon it the Phenix sits.'
K
130 NOTES. [ACT III.

29. islanders. The reading of the second and later folios. The first
folio has Islands.'
30. certes, certainly. Sometimes a monosyllable. Compare Henry VIII,
i. I. 48,
' One, certes, that promises no element
In such a business.'
Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) gives, ' Certes. Surely, verily, truly &c.'
31, 32. Who ... Their manners. For a similar construction with re
gard to the pronouns see Merchant of Venice, iv. I. 134,
' A wolf, who hang'd for human slaughter,
Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet.'
32. gentle-kind. So printed first by Theobald. For examples of such
compounds see Abbott, § 2 .
36. muse, wonder at : not elsewhere in Shakespeare used in such a
construction. See Macbeth, iii. 4. 85,
'Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends.'
39. Praise in departing, that is, praise not too soon, till the entertain
ment is over. Steevens points out that this is a proverbial phrase, and
that a lost play of Gosson's was called ' Praise at Parting.' Mr. Hazlitt
(English Proverbs and Proverbial phrases, p. 318) gives, Praise at
parting, and behold well the end.'
45. The goitre of the Alps and other mountainous districts is well
known to be no traveller's tale.
46. Compare Othello, i. 3. 144, 145,
6 The Anthropophagi and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.'
See Sir John Maundevile's Travels (ed . Halliwell) , p. 203 , ' And in an
other Yle, toward the Southe, duellen folk of foule Stature and ofcursed
kynde, that han no Hedes : and here Eyen ben in here Scholdres.' Also
Holland's Pliny, v. 8, 6 The Blemmyi, by report, haue no heads, but
·
mouth and eies both in their breast.' Again, vii. 2 : Beyond these
Westward, some there bee without heads standing upon their neckes, who
carrie eies in their shoulders .'
48. Each putter-out offive for one. It was the custom for one who
was on the point of setting out on a long and dangerous journey to
invest a sum of money on condition of being paid a large amount of
interest on his return. Theobald quotes from Ben Jonson's Every Man
out of his Humour [ii. 1 ] , ' I do intend, this year of jubilee coming on,
to travel ; and (because I will not altogether go upon expence) I am deter
mined to put forth some five thousand pound, to be paid me five for one,
upon the return of myself and wife, and my dog, from the Turk's court in
Constantinople.'Each putter-out of five for one ' means of course every
one who invests his money with the view of getting this rate of interest.
sc. 3.] THE TEMPEST. 131

52. Steevens has pointed out that the device of making Ariel appear
like a harpy and remove the banquet was taken from Virgil (Aeneid iii .)
and adopted by Milton, Paradise Regained, ii. 401-403.
53-56. whom . you. With this construction compare, for the
redundant pronoun , Winter's Tale, v. i. 138,
' Whom,
Though bearing misery, I desire my life
Once more to look on him.'
See Abbott, § 249.
54. hath to instrument. See ii. 1. 71.
56. to belch up you. For an instance of this transposition see Hamlet,
V. 2. 14,
6 Up from my cabin,
My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
Groped I to find out them.'
59. such-like. A pleonastic form : for ' such ' is swa-lîc, so-like. Com
pare Hamlet, v. 2. 43,
And many such-like As ' es of great charge.'
64. the still-closing waters, the waters which constantly close over the
wounds inflicted on them. See Chapman's Bussy d'Ambois (Works, ii. 6,
ed. 1873),
' Like the Sea
That shuts still as it opes, and leaues no tracts.'
6
Compare the still-vexed Bermoothes,' i. 2. 229 ; and Abbott, § 69.
65. dowle, and ' down ' appear to be equivalent. Mr. Tollett com
municated to Steevens some references which make this evident. The
latter says , ' In a small book, entitled Humane Industry : or, A History
of most Manual Arts, printed in 1661 , p . 93, is the following passage :
“ The wool-bearing trees in Æthiopia, which Virgil speaks of, and the
Eriophori Arbores in Theophrastus, are not such trees as have a certain
wool or dowl upon the outside of them, as the small cotton ; but short
trees that bear a ball upon the top, pregnant with wool, which the
Syrians call Cott, the Græcians Gossypium, the Italians Bombagio, and
we Bombase." ‫ و‬Malone says that Cole in his Latin Dictionary, 1679,
interprets " young dowle " by lanugo.' The word is still used in
Gloucestershire. See Glossary of the Cotswold Dialect, and Notes and
Queries, Second Series, viii. 483, ' the plumage of young goslings before
they have feathers is called dowle.' In the Suffolk dialect the word
appears with another liquid as ‘ doom .' With the whole passage Ritson
compares the following from Phaer's translation of Virgil [ Book iii, ed.
1620] ,
·
Their swords by them they laid ...
And on the filthy birds they beat .. ..
K2
132 NOTES. [ACT III. SC. 3.

But feathers none do from them fal, nor wound nor stroke doth
bleed,
Nor force of weapons hurt them can.'
66. like, similarly. Seldom used as an adverb in this sense. Com
pare Richard III , i. 3. 201 ,
' Edward thy son, which now is Prince of Wales,
For Edward my son, which was Prince of Wales,
Die in his youth by like untimely violence.'
And Othello, i. I. 75 ,
' Do, with like timorous accent and dire yell
As when, by night and negligence, the fire
Is spied in populous cities .'
67. massy, massive. Compare Hamlet, iii. 3. 17 , ' It is a massy wheel .'
Ib. strengths. See below, line 79, and note on Richard II, iv. 1. 315 .
71. requit. Compare for this form of the participle ‘ quit ' in i. 2. 147.
Shakespeare elsewhere uses ' requited.' See Coriolanus, iv. 5. 76,
' The extreme dangers and the drops of blood
Shed for my thankless country are requited
But with that surname.'
79. whose wraths. The antecedent is ' powers ' in line 73.
80. falls, irregularly singular, in consequence of the singular sub
stantive ' isle ' occurring immediately before. For an instance of the
contrary see ii. 1. 222, and Hamlet, i. 2. 37, 38, with the note on that
passage. Abbott ( § 412) gives many examples. Theobald removed the
error by reading ' wrath ' in the previous line.
81. is, there is. See Abbott, § 404.
Ib. heart-sorrow. The reading of the Cambridge editors. The folios
have hearts-sorrow .'
82. clear, innocent. Compare Macbeth, i. 7. 18,
'Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office .'
Ib. Stage direction. From the folios. ' Mocks and mows,' mocking
gestures and grimaces . See ii. 2. 9.
86, 87. with good life And observation strange, with lifelike truthful
ness and rare attention to their several parts. For ' life ' in this sense
see Much Ado about Nothing, ii . 3. 110, ' There was never counterfeit
of passion came so near the life of passion as she discovers it.'
88. Their several kinds have done. Compare Antony and Cleopatra,
v. 2. 264, ' You must think this, look you, that the worm will do his kind.'
89. knit up, fast bound. See Romeo and Juliet, iv. 2. 24,
I'll have this knot knit up to-morrow morning.'
92. whom they suppose is drown'd. A confusion of two constructions,
ACT IV. SC. 1.] THE TEMPEST. 133
• whom they suppose to be drowned,' and ' who, they suppose, is
drowned.' See Abbott, § 410.
93. his and mine. See ii. 1. 246.
95. stare. For instances of substantives formed from verbs, see
Richard II, i. 2. 2, Hamlet, i. I. 57, and Abbott, § 451 .
99. did bass my trespass, proclaimed my guilt in its deep bass roar.
Steevens quotes from Spenser, Fairy Queen, ii. 12. 33,
6
With that the rolling sea, resounding soft,
In his big base them fitly answered.'
102. But onefiend, &c.; that is, let there be but one fiend at a time.
106. 'gins, begins. So Hamlet, i. 5. 90.
108. ecstasy, mental disturbance, by whatever emotion it may be
caused, whether joy, grief, or fear. See Macbeth, iii. 2. 22 .

ACT IV.

Scene I.

3. a thrid. The folios have ' third ' : Theobald read ' thread,' and
Tollett conjectured ' thrid,' which is merely a variety of spelling.
Compare ' brid ' for ' bird ' in early and provincial English. For the form
of the word Sir John Hawkins quotes from the comedy of Mucedorus
(1619) sig. C3,
To cut in twaine the twisted third of life.'
6
And for the sense Steevens from Acolastus, a comedy, 1540,' ' One of
worldly shame's children, of his countenance, and threde of his body.'
4. who, for whom,' as in i . 2. 231 .
7. strangely, wonderfully, marvellously ; as in v. I. 313. For
' strange ' in a similar sense, see iii. 3. 87.
Ib. afore. Compare Romans ix. 23 , ' which he had afore prepared
unto glory.'
9. boast her off, set forth her merits boastfully.
10, 11. Compare Winter's Tale, v. 2. 61-63 , ‘ I never heard of such
another encounter, which lames report to follow it and undoes descrip
tion to do it.'
13. gift. So Rowe. The folios have ' guest,' which is an easy
corruption of ' guift,' in which form ' gift ' appears in line 8.
14. purchased, acquired, won. Compare 1 Tim. iii. 13, ' For they that
have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree.'
15. Compare Pericles, iv. 2. 160,
' Untied I still my virgin-knot will keep.'
16. sanctimonious, holy. Used now, as in the only other passage of
Shakespeare where it occurs, of a holiness which is only assumed. See
134 NOTES. [ACT IV.

Measure for Measure, i. 2. 7, 6 Thou concludest like the sanctimonious

pirate, that went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped one
out of the table.'
17. rite. The folio has ' right.'
18. aspersion, sprinkling, as of dew or gentle rain. Another instance
of a word which in modern usage has only a bad meaning. Bacon
employs it in its original sense of sprinkling. See Advancement of
Learning, i. 6, § 9 , p. 47 (ed. Wright), ' So in this and very many other
places in that law, there is to be found, besides the theological sense,
much aspersion of philosophy.'
21. weeds, instead of flowers, with which the bridal bed was decked.
See Romeo and Juliet, v. 3. 12 , Hamlet, v. 1. 268.
Ib. loathly, loathsome. Compare 2 Henry IV, iv. 4. 122,
' Unfather'd heirs and loathly births of nature.'
25. as ' tis now . Capell reads ' is, ' which would be more in accordance
with modern usage .
26. opportune with the accent on the second syllable. Compare
Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 511,
' And most opportune to our need I have
A vessel rides fast by.'
Ib. strong'st, a monosyllable, as in Richard II, iii . 3. 201 ,
" That know the strong'st and surest way to get.'
Ib. suggestion. See ii. 1. 281 .
27. worser. Compare Hamlet, iii. 4. 157,
'O, throw away the worser half of it.'
And King Lear, iv. 6. 222,
Let not my worser spirit tempt me again
To die before you please.'
Ib. genius. See note on Macbeth, iii. 1. 55, 56. In medieval
theology, the rational soul is an angel, the lowest in the hierarchy for
being clothed for a time in the perishing vesture of the body. But it
is not necessarily an angel of light. It may be a good or evil genius, a
guardian angel or a fallen spirit, a demon of light or darkness.'
Edinburgh Review, July 1869, p. 98.
Ib. can, is able to make. Compare King Lear, iv. 4. 8,
' What can man's wisdom
In the restoring his bereaved sense.'
27, 28. shall never melt Mine honour, which is like ice or snow ; see
1. 55. Compare As You Like It, iii. 4. 18, 6 The very ice of chastity is
in them.' And Timon of Athens, iv. 3. 386,
' Thou ever young, fresh, loved and delicate wooer,
Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
That lies on Dian's lap !'
SC. I.] THE TEMPEST. 135

30. founder'd, footsore. Compare 2 Henry IV; iv. 3. 39, ' I have
foundered nine score and odd posts .' Cotgrave (Fr. Dict. ) gives,
• Courbature : f. The foundering of a horse, or heating of his feet, by ouer
much trauell.' See Markham's Maister-Peece, Lib. 2 , chap. 62.
... Or. See i. 2. 82 , 83.
30, 31. or ... 7
31. spoke, spoken. See Hamlet, i. 1. 45, ' It would be spoke to.'
For similar instances, see Abbott, § 343.
33. What, used as an interjection, like A.S. hwat.
41. Some vanity, some insubstantial spectacle or illusion. Steevens
quotes from the romance of Emare, 105 (Ritson, Romances ii. p. 208),
The emperour sayde on hygh,
Sertes thys ys a fayry,
Or ellys a vanyté .'
42. Presently, immediately. See i. 2. 125.
43. with a twink. Compare Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1. 312,
And kiss on kiss
She vied so fast, protesting oath on oath,
That in a twink she won me to her love.'
And line 164 of this scene, ' Come with a thought.' The word
' twink ' is given in Miss Baker's Glossary of the Northamptonshire
Dialect.
47. with mop and mow. Compare King Lear, iv. 1. 64, ' Flibberti
gibbet, of mopping and mowing.' See note on ii. 2. 9.
54. good night your vow ! Farewell to your vow. Compare Taming
of the Shrew, ii. 1. 303, ' Is this your speeding? nay, then, good night
our part !' #
56. liver, supposed to be the seat of love and passion. Compare
Much Ado about Nothing, iv. 1. 233,
If ever love had interest in his liver.'
And Twelfth Night, ii. 4. 101 ,
' Alas, their love may be call'd appetite,
No motion of the liver, but the palate.'
57. a corollary, a supernumerary. See Cotgrave (Fr. Dict .) : ' Coro
laire : m. A Corollarie ; a surplusage, overplus, addition to, vantage
aboue measure.'
58. pertly, nimbly, briskly. Compare Milton's Comus, 118, ' the pert
fairies ;' and Midsummer Night's Dream, i. I. 14,
' Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth.'
60. leas, originally pastures : A. S. læs. But Shakespeare uses it here
of arable land. See Timon of Athens, iv. 3. 193 , ' plough - torn leas.'
And Henry V, v. 2. 44, ' her fallow leas.'
61. vetches. The folios spell it ' Fetches,' and this is still the common
provincial pronunciation ofthe word. In the Authorised Version of Isaiah
136 NOTES. [ACT IV.

xxviii. 25, 27 ; and Ezek. iv. 9, it is spelt ' fitches.' In Chaucer,

Troilus and Cressida, iii. 887, we have the spelling as in the folios,
· This is said by hem that be not worth two fetches.'
63. thatch'd. The first folio has thetchd.' Compare the spelling of
'thresh' and ' thrash.'
Ib. stover is the term now applied to the coarser hay made of clover
and artificial grasses, which is kept for the winter feed of cattle. But in
Shakespeare's time the artificial grasses were not known in England, and
were not introduced till about the middle of the seventeenth century.
In Cambridgeshire I am informed that hay made in this manner is not
called ' stover ' till the seeds have been threshed out. In the sixteenth
century the word was apparently used to denote any kind of winter
fodder except grass hay. For instance, in Tusser's Five Hundred Points
of Good Husbandry (ed. Mavor), p. 47, we find,
' Thresh barley as yet, but as need shall require,
Fresh threshed for stover, thy cattle desire.'
And again, p. 60,
Serve rye-straw out first, then wheat-straw and pease,
Then oat-straw and barley, then hay if ye please :
But serve them with hay, while the straw stover last,
Then love they no straw, they had rather to fast.'
See also Drayton, Polyolbion, xxv. 145,
And others from their Carres, are busily about,
To draw out Sedge and Reed, for Thatch and Stover fit.'
The word is derived from the Old French estavoir, estovoir, estouvier, or
estouvoir, which denotes, according to Roquefort (Glossaire de la langue
Romane), ' provision de tout ce qui est nécessaire.' 'Stover,' is enumer
ated by Ray among the South- and East-Country words as used in Essex,
and is to be found in Moor's Suffolk Words and Forby's Vocabulary of
East Anglia.
64. pioned and twilled. These words still remain an unsolved difficulty.
Hanmer read ' peonied and lilied,' and Steevens was in favour of this , on
the ground that in poem called The Herring's Tayle ( 1598) , we read
of the mayden piony,' and that Pliny mentions the water-lily as a pre
server of chastity. However, finding ' twill-pants ' in a passage of
Chapman, he thought it possible that ' twill ' might be the old name of
a flower, and so ' twilled ' might stand. But ' twill-pant ' is merely a
corruption of tulipant,' a tulip. It has been objected to the reading
' peonied ' that the peony is a garden plant and not a wild flower, but it
is stated in an article in the Edinburgh Review (Oct. 1872, p. 363)
that peony ' is the provincial name in Warwickshire for the marsh
marygold, which ' haunts the watery margins as the constant associate
of reeds and rushes, blooms in " spongy April," and in common with
SC. 1.] THE TEMPEST. 137

other water flowers is twined with sedge " to make cold nymphs chaste
crowns.999 The form of the word in the first folio, ' pioned,' represents,
the writer of the article maintains, the local pronunciation . Again,
since ' twills ' is given by Halliwell as an older word for reeds, ' twilled
is the very word to describe the crowded sedges in the shallower reaches
of the Avon as it winds round Stratford.' But Halliwell, following
Ray, gives Twills ' as equivalent to ‘ quills, reeds,' for winding yarn.
By the common interchange of ' t ' and ' k ' sounds, as in ' twitch ' and
፡
quitch,' ' twilt ' and ' quilt,' ' twill ' is another form of ' quill,' but there
is no authority for going further and saying that it means ' reed,
the name of a plant.' Indeed it is questionable whether these two
participles are derived from the names of flowers or plants at all, for
after they are employed to describe the brims of Ceres ' banks, these
brims are said to be betrimmed by spongy April ' ; so that ' pioned
and twilled ' would appear to be descriptive of the banks before they
were ornamented with flowers. Henley therefore excited the scorn of
Steevens by suggesting that ' pioned ' meant simply ' dug,' since
Spenser uses ' pioning ' for digging ; and that ' twilled ' is from the
French touiller, which Cotgrave interprets • filthily to mix or mingle ;
confound or shuffle together ; bedirt ; begrime ; besmear.' His inter
pretation of the passage is as follows, regarding the ' banks' as those of
the flat meads ' and not of a river : The giving way and caving in of
the brims of those banks, occasioned by the heats, rains, and frosts of
the preceding year, are made good, by opening the trenches from whence
the banks themselves were at first raised , and facing them up afresh with
the mire those trenches contain.' An anonymous correspondent sug
"
gested to Malone, that twilled brims meant banks fringed with thickly
matted grass, resembling the stuff called twilled cloth, in which the cords
appear closely twisted together.' To others the application of the word
to cloth appears to have suggested the meaning ' ridged ' which they have
given to the word. It seems quite possible that ' pioned and twilled'
may be terms which describe some operations in agriculture, and there
fore in the absence of any absolutely certain conjectural emendation
they are retained in the text.
65. hest. See i. 2. 274.
66. broom-groves. Professor Martyn pointed out to Steevens that at
Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire the broom (Spartium Scoparium) grows
high enough to conceal the tallest cattle as they pass. Still ' grove '
does not seem applicable to broom however tall. Hanmer therefore
conjectured ' brown groves,' not very happily, although Mr. Staunton's
objection is founded on a mistake.
67. Compare Romeo and Juliet, i . 1. 128, &c.
Ib. the dismissed bachelor, the rejected suitor.
138 NOTES. [ACT IV.

68. lass-lorn, forsaken ofhis mistress. Compare As You Like It, v. 317,
'It was a lover and his lass.'
And ' lorn ' as in ' forlorn,' Germ. verloren.
Ib. pole-clipt vineyard. Toʻclip ' is to embrace, twine about, and ‘ pole
clipt vineyard ' must therefore mean the vineyard in which the vines
are twined about the poles, not enclosed or surrounded by poles ; nor,
as Delius interprets, the vineyard in which the tendrils of the vines
are clipped or cut on the poles. This passive form of the participle
used actively is not uncommon in Shakespeare. Indeed lass-lorn ' in
the same line is almost a parallel case.
Ib. vineyard is pronounced as three syllables.
69. sea-marge, the edge of the sea. Compare Midsummer Night's
Dream, ii. 1. 85, ' Or in the beached margent of the sea.'
70. thou thyself dost air. Compare Cymbeline, i . 1. 110,
'Were you but riding forth to air yourself.'
74. her. Rowe's correction. The folios have 'here.'
Ib. amain, at full speed, swiftly. Compare 2 Maccabees xii. 22 , ' The
enemies, being smitten with fear and terror through the appearing of
him that seeth all things, fled amain. ”
78. saffron wings. Douce quotes from Phaer's Virgil [Book iv, ed.
1620],
· Dame Rainbow down therfore with saffron wings of dropping
shours,
Whose face a thousand sundry hewes against the sunne deuours,
From heauen descending came."
80. thy blue bow. Compare Troilus and Cressida, i. 3. 380,
'And make him fall
His crest that prouder than blue Iris bends.' -
81. bosky, woody, from Middle Latin boscus, a wood. Milton has
borrowed the word in his Comus, 313,
I know each lane, and every alley green,
Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood,
And every bosky bourn from side to side.'
6
85. freely, liberally. Compare Matt. x. 8, Freely ye have received ,
freely give.'
Ib. to estate, to give, settle as an estate. Compare Midsummer
Night's Dream, i. 1. 98,
And she is mine, and all my right of her
I do estate unto Demetrius.'
And As You Like It, v. 2. 13 , 6 And all the revenue that was Sir
Rowland's will I estate upon you.'
89. dusky Dis, Pluto, who carried off Proserpine. Compare Winter's
Tale, iv. 4. 118,
SC. 1.] THE TEMPEST. 139
O Proserpina,
For the flowers now, that frighted thou let'st fall
From Dis's waggon ! '
90. scandal'd, marked by scandal, and so disgraceful. For the verb
'to scandal,' see Julius Cæsar, i. 2. 76, Coriolanus, iii. 1. 44.
94. Dove-drawn. Compare Romeo and Juliet, ii . 5. 7,
' Therefore do nimble-pinion'd doves draw love.'
Venus and Adonis, 153 ,
' Two strengthless doves will draw me through the sky.'
And Merchant of Venice, ii . 6. 5.
96. bed-right. So the folios. Steevens reads ' bed-rite.' The folios
do not always distinguish between these words . See above 1. 17. In
the present instance the reading of the folios is preferable. A ' right'
may be paid, but a ' rite ' is performed. There is however great con
fusion between the words in old writers. For instance, in Chapman's
Bussy d'Ambois (Works, ii. 41 ),
Then come my loue, Now pay those Rites to sleepe
Thy faire eies owe him.'
98. Mars's. The folio has ' Marses.'
Ib. minion, darling. See note on Macbeth, i. 2. 19.
99. broke, broken. See notes on iii. 1. 37, iv. I. 31.
IOI. right out, outright.
Ib. High'st. For instances of this contraction of the superlative
termination, see v. 1. 186, and Abbott, § 473. !
102. by her gait. Compare Pericles, v. I. 112, ' In pace another
Juno.' The entrance of Juno is marked in the folios by the stage
direction Juno descends,' opposite lines 72, 73.
110-117. Given to Ceres by Theobald. The folios continue it to
Juno.
110. Earth's, a dissyllable. Compare Midsummer Night's Dream, ii.
1. 7,
' Swifter than the moon's sphere.'
And iv. I. 101 , as it stands in the first quarto,
'Trippe we after nights shade.'
And Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 332,
" To show his teeth as white as whale's bone.'
Ib. foison. See ii. 1. 158.
Ib. plenty, plentiful. So in Lever's Sermons (ed. Arber) , p. 130, ´ All
thyngs wylbe more plentye and better chepe.' And in 1 Henry IV, ii. 4.
265, the first folio reads , ' If Reasons were as plentie as Black-berries.'
114, 115. Mr. Staunton quotes from Spenser's Fairy Queen, iii. 6. 42,
There is continuall Spring, and harvest there
Continuall, both meeting at one tyme.'
140 NOTES. [ACT IV.

119, 120. bold To think, that is, so bold as to think. Compare Julius
Cæsar, iii. 1. 39, 40,
' Be not fond
To think that Cæsar bears such rebel blood.'
121. confines, bounds, limits to which they are confined. Compare
Hamlet, i. 1. 155,
'The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine.'
123. So rare a wonder'd father and a wise. The copies of the first
folio vary between ' wise ' and ' wife.' The former reading is per
petuated in the later folios, the latter is preferred by Rowe, who con
jectured it independently. Both readings of course yield an excellent
sense, but it must be admitted that the latter seems to bring Ferdinand
from his rapture back to earth again. He is lost in wonder at Prospero's
magic power. It may be objected that in this case Miranda is left out
altogether, but the use of the word ' father ' shows that Ferdinand
regarded her as one with himself.
Ib. wonder'd, able to perform wonders. The participle is formed from
the noun, as ' gifted,' not from the verb. Compare " disdain'd ' in
1 Henry IV, i. 3.183,
' Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt.'
124. The stage direction in the folios follows line 127.
Ib. Sweet, now. It would seem more natural that these words should
be addressed to Miranda. If they are properly assigned to Prospero, we
should have expected that part of the previous speech would have been
spoken by Miranda. They might form a continuation of Ferdinand's
speech, which would then be interrupted by Prospero's ' Silence ! '
Otherwise the difficulty might be avoided by giving ' Sweet ... to do '
to Miranda and the rest of the speech to Prospero.
126. to do. See note on iii. 2. 96.
128. windring. So the folios. Rowe read ' winding ,' Steevens
6
' wand'ring.' Compare wilderness ' for ' wildness ' in Measure for
Measure, iii. 1. 142,
"
For such a warped slip of wilderness
Ne'er issued from his blood.'
130. crisp, curled with the ripple of the water. Compare 1 Henry IV,
i. 3. 106, of the Severn,
6
Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank,
Blood-stained with these valiant combatants.'
' Crisp ' is also used as the epithet of heaven,' because curled with
clouds, in Timon of Athens, iv. 3. 183,
SC. 1.] THE TEMPEST. 141

' With all the abhorred births below crisp heaven.'

Ib. land. This is the 6 short-grass'd green ' of line 83 , and we should
rather have expected laund,' which occurs as a form of ' lawn ' in
3 Henry VI, iii. 1. 2 ,
For through this laund anon the deer will come.'
The first folio reads ' greene-Land.'
138. footing, dancing. See i . 2. 380.
142. avoid ! be gone. Compare Winter's Tale, i. 2. 462 , ' Let us
avoid.' And Comedy of Errors, iv. 3. 48,
' Satan, avoid ! I charge thee, tempt me not.'
143. passion. See i. 2. 392.
144. works him strongly, affects him powerfully. See v. 1. 17,
'Your charm so strongly works 'em.'
And Macbeth, i. 3. 149,
6 My dull brain was wrought
With things forgotten.'
145. distemper'd, discomposed, distracted. See Hamlet, iii. 2. 312,
Is in his retirement marvellous distempered .'
146. sort, manner. Compare Coriolanus, i. 3. 2, ' I pray you, daughter,
sing; or express yourself in a more comfortable sort.' And Julius
Cæsar, i. 2. 205,
' Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort
As if he mock'd himself.'
154. inherit, possess. Compare Richard II, ii. 1. 83,
6 Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave,
Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones.'
156. rack, the mass of clouds. Etymologically connected by Horne
Tooke with ' reek,' vapour. See Hamlet, ii. 2. 506,
' But, as we often see, against some storm ,
A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still.'
And Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, cent. ii . § 115, ' The winds in the upper
region (which move the clouds above, which we call the rack, and are
not perceived below,) pass without noise.' Compare 3 Henry VI ,
ii. 1. 27,
' Not separated with the racking clouds.'
Malone regarded ' rack ' as a mis-spelling of ' wrack, ' i. e. wreck, and
' wreck ' is the reading on the monument to Shakespeare in Westminster
Abbey, which was erected in 1740.
157. on. See i. 2. 87.
158. rounded, finished off, as with a crown. For the word, see Mid
summer Night's Dream, iv. 1. 56,
' For she his hairy temples then had rounded
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers.'
142 NOTES. [ACT IV.

Ib. a sleep. See Hamlet, iii. 1. 60.

163. beating, agitated. See i. 2. 176.
164. with a thought, as quick as thought. Compare 1 Henry IV, ii. 4.
242, ' And with a thought seven of the eleven I paid.' And see iv. 1. 43.
Ib. I thank thee, Ariel : come. Theobald reads, ' I thank you.-Ariel ,
come.' Staunton, ' I thank thee :-Ariel, come.' But no change is
really necessary.
165. cleave to, follow closely. Compare Macbeth, ii. 1. 25,
' If you shall cleave to my consent.'
166. to meet with, to encounter, counteract, check. Johnson quotes
from Herbert's Country Parson [chap. x] , ' He knows the temper and
pulse of every person in the house, and accordingly either meets with
their vices, or advanceth their virtues.' See also Rowley's When you
see me you know me, p. 69 (ed. Elze) , ' Crafty varlets, make thee a
traitor to old Harry's life ! Well, well, I'll meet with some of them.'
167. presented, represented. Compare Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1 .
140, 6 He shall present Hercules in minority.'
174. For kissing of their feet. Compare by telling of it,' i. 2. 100,
and see i. 2. 222.
177. Advanced their eyelids. See i. 2. 408.
178. As, as if. See Abbott, § 107.
180. goss, gorse. In the same way a waterfall in Westmoreland and
Cumberland is called either a ' foss ' or a ' force.' Professor Sedgwick
used to maintain that the latter was a corruption introduced by the
Lake Poets ; but both forms ' foss ' and ' fors ' are found in Icelandic, the
former being more modern. Cotgrave gives ' Ajous : m. Furze, Gorse ' ;
and ' Genest espineux. Furres, Whinnes, Gorse, Thorne-broome.' It is not
clear that there was any distinction between ' furze ' and ' goss.' Gerarde,
in his Herbal, says, ' There be diuers sorts of prickley Broome, called in
our English toong, by sundry names according to the speech of the
countrey people where they do growe, in some places Furzes, in others
Whinnes and Gorsse, and of some pricklie Broome ' (p. 1138, ed. 1597).
Tollett maintains that by ' goss ' Shakespeare ' means the low sort of
gorse that only grows upon wet ground.'
182. thefilthy-mantled pool. Compare King Lear, iii. 4. 139, ' Drinks the
green mantle of the standing pool.' And Merchant of Venice, i. 1. 89,
6 There are a sort of men whose visages
Do cream and mantle like a standing pond.'
'Mantle ' is the scum that forms on the surface of stagnant water. See
v. I. 67. In the Exmoor Dialect ' to mantle ' is ' to froth as beer does.'
183. that, so that.
184. O'erstunk their feet. Mr. Spedding proposed to mend this
unsavoury passage by reading ' fear.'
sc. I.] THE TEMPEST. 143

Ib. my bird. A term of familiar endearment. Compare Hamlet,

i. 5. 116, . Hillo, ho, ho, boy ! come, bird, come.' See also in the
present play, v. 1. 316, ' My Ariel, chick !'
"
186. trumpery. Cotgrave gives, Agobilles : f. Trifles, nifles, trinkets,
trash, trumperie, paultrie stuffe .'
6
187. stale, a decoy. Compare Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) , Estalon . . . a
stale (as a Larke, &c.) wherewith Fowlers traine sillie birds vnto their
destruction.' And Comedy of Errors, ii . I. 101 , ' Poor I am but his stale.'
For a definition of the word see Gervase Markham's Hunger's Preuen
tion (1621 ), p. 28, ‘ In the very heart or midst of the haunte you shall
first pinne downe a stale, which should be a liue foule formerly taken,
of the same kinde which they are that now haunt the place, and for
which you now lay.'
189. Nurture, training, education. See As You Like It, ii. 7.97,
'Yet am I inland bred
And know some nurture.'
"
190. all, all lost. Malone conjectured are all lost.' Better perhaps,
if any change be made, ' all are lost.'
193. Even to roaring, that is, till they roar. Compare Antony and
Cleopatra, iii. 2. 55,
'When Antony found Julius Cæsar dead,
He cried almost to roaring.'
Ib. Stage direction : ' loaden ' for ' laden ' occurs several times. See
1 Henry IV, i. 1. 37, ‘ A post from Wales loaden with heavy news.'
' Glistering ' or glittering is found in Richard II, iii. 3. 178,
' Down, down, I come ; like glistering Phaethon.'
Ib. line, lime-tree ; one of the trees of ' the line-grove ' mentioned in
v. I. 10. Gerarde, in his Herbal, p. 1298, has a chapter Of the Line
or Linden Tree.' In the rest of the scene there is of course a punning
reference to the other meanings of ' line.'
194. the blind mole, &c. See Topsell, History of Four-footed Beasts
(ed. 1658), p. 389, These Moles have no ears, and yet they hear in the
earth more nimbly and perfectly then men can above the same, for at
every step or small noise, and almost breathing, they are terrified and
run away.'
197. played the Jack, played the knave, deceived. See Much Ado
about Nothing, i. 1. 186, ' But do you speak this with a sad brow ? or
do you play the flouting Jack, to tell us Cupid is a good harefinder, and
Vulcan a rare carpenter ?'
201. Good my lord. Compare Hamlet, iii. 3. 35, ' Thanks, dear my
lord,' and Richard II, i. 1. 184,
Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try.'
Again, Hamlet, i. 3. 46, ' Good my brother.' Abbott, § 13.
144 NOTES. [ACT IV.

203. hoodwink, properly to blindfold, must here signify to cover,

conceal.
215. I for ' me.' See Merchant of Venice, iii . 2. 321 , ' All debts are
cleared between you and I.' And As You Like It, i. 2. 279,
'What he is indeed,
More suits you to conceive than I to speak of."
219. The allusion is to the song, quoted in Othello, ii. 3. 92 , and
printed in Percy's Reliques under the title of ' Take thy old cloak
about thee,' in which the following stanza occurs :
6 King Stephen was a worthy peere,
His breeches cost him but a crowne,
He held them sixpence all too deere ;
Therefore he calld the taylor Lowne.'
In the reprint of Bishop Percy's folio MS. by Messrs. Furnivall and
6
Hales (vol. ii. p. 320) the same ballad appears under the title Bell my
Wiffe,' and King Henry is substituted for King Stephen.
222. a frippery, an old-clothes shop . Cotgrave (Fr. Dict. ) has,
·
Friperie : f. A friperie, Brokers shop, street of Brokers, or of Fripiers.'
6
And Fripier : m. A Fripier, or broker ; a mender, or trimmer vp of old
garments, and a seller of them so mended .' Compare Massinger, The
City Madam, i. I,
'He shows like a walking frippery' -
the stage direction just before being, Enter Luke, with shoes, garters,
fans, and roses.' See also Bacon's Advancement of Learning, Bk. ii. 17,
§ 14, ' Which collections are much like a fripper's or broker's shop, that
hath ends of everything, but nothing of worth.'
224. by this hand. See iii. 2. 48.
228. luggage. See v. 1. 298.
Ib. Let's alone. This is the reading of the folios, and if it be the true
one must be explained by supposing the verb of motion omitted, as in
Macbeth, iv. 3. 136, ' Now, we'll together.' It would then be addressed
to Stephano only. Theobald read ' Let's along,' to which Mr. Staunton
regards ' Let's alone ' as equivalent. Hanmer has ' Let it alone,' and
Collier ' Let't alone,' as in 1. 221 .
233. under the line. Dr. Nicholson (Notes and Queries, Third Series,
ii. 49) explains this as ' meaning it was put as were the stakes at tennis,
and so could be taken by the winner.' He quotes, in support of this,
Florio's Second Frutes, ch . 2, p. 25.
' T. Let vs keepe the lawes of the court.
G. That is, stake money vnder the line, is it not so ?
T. Yea sir, you hitt it right.
H. Here is my monie, now stake you .'
But the phrase may have another meaning derived from the same game.
SC. 1.] THE TEMPEST. 145

In Heywood's Proverbs and Epigrams (Spenser Society's reprint) , p. 35 ,

we find, ' Thou hast striken the ball, vnder the lyne,' meaning ' Thou
hast lost.'
234. like, likely. See Merchant of Venice, i. 3. 131 ,
I am as like to call thee so again .'
235. by line and level ; that is, according to rule, methodically. Com
pare Cotgrave ( Fr. Dict, ) , ' Bois de ligne. Timber squared out by line and
leuell.' And again, ‘ A l'esquierre. Iustly, directly, euenly, straightly ;
by line and leuell, to a haire .' Compare also Florio, Second Frutes
(1591 ), p. 43, 6 Why staiest thou ? Why goest thou so softly ? come
neare, mee thinkes thou treadest by line and measure.'
Ib. like, please. See Hamlet, ii. 2. 80, ' It likes us well.'
239. pass ofpate, witty sally.
241. lime, that is, bird-lime, to which everything will stick. See Two
Gentlemen of Verona , iii . 2. 68,
'You must lay lime to tangle her desires.
244. barnacles. In Gerarde's Herbal ( 1597), p. 1391 , is a chapter
' Of the Goose tree, Barnakle tree, or the tree bearing Geese,' in which
it is said, ' There are founde in the north parts of Scotland, & the
Ilands adiacent, called Orchades, certaine trees, whereon doe growe
certaine shell fishes, of a white colour tending to russet ; wherein are
conteined little liuing creatures : which shels in time of maturitie doe
open, and out of them grow those little liuing things ; which falling into
the water, doe become foules, whom we call Barnakles, in the north of
England Brant Geese, and in Lancashire tree Geese.' Gerarde then goes
on to tell what he had himself seen in a small Ilande in Lancashire
called the Pile of Fouldres,' where branches of trees were cast ashore,
' wheron is found a certaine spume or froth, that in time breedeth vnto
certaine shels, in shape like those of the muskle, but sharper pointed,
and of a whitish colour.' In process of time the thing contained in
these shells ' falleth into the sea, where it gathereth feathers, and
groweth to a foule, bigger then a Mallard, and lesser then a Goose ;
hauing blacke legs and bill or beake, and feathers blacke and white,
spotted in such maner as is our Magge-Pie, called in some places a Pie
Annet, which the people of Lancashire call by no other name then a
tree Goose ; which place aforesaide, and all those parts adioining, do so
much abound therewith, that one of the best is bought for three pence :
for the truth heerof, if any doubt, may it please them to repaire vnto
me, and I shall satisfie them by the testimonie of good witnesses.'
After this it is difficult to understand why Douce should charge Collins,
who first referred to this passage, with attributing to Gerarde ‘ an
opinion not his own.' Sir John Maundevile (Travels, p. 264) matches
the story of a tree in Caldilhe beyond Cathay, which produced a gourd
L
146 NOTES. [ACT IV. SC. I.

like fruit, out of which came · as though it were a lytylle Lomb,' by

telling his informant of the barnacles.
245. With foreheads villanous low. A low forehead was regarded as
a deformity. See Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 4. 198,
' Ay, but her forehead's low, and mine's as high.'
And Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 3. 35,
'And her forehead
As low as she would wish it.'
On the other hand, a broad or high forehead was esteemed a good
feature in a woman's face. Chaucer, in his description of the Prioress
(Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, 154, 155 ), says,
' But sikurly sche hadde a fair foreheed ,
It was almost a spanne brood, I trowe.'
And Spenser ( Fairy Queen, ii. 3. 24), of Belphoebe,
'Her yvorie forhead, full of bountie brave,
Like a broad table did it selfe dispred.'
246. lay to, apply. See Ps. cxix. 126 (Prayer-book), ' It is time for
thee, Lord, to lay to thine hand.'
248. go to, an expression of impatience. See Hamlet, i. 3. 112 ,
' Ay, fashion you may call it ; go to, go to !'
256. aged cramps. See i. 2. 369.
257. pard, panther. See As You Like It, ii. 7. 150,
' Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard. '
Naturalists are not in accord as to the distinction between the panther
and the leopard.
Ib. cat o' mountain. Topsell (History of Four-footed Beasts), p. 448 ,
says, ' The greatest therefore they call Panthers, as Bellunensis writeth.
The second they call Pardals, and the third, least of all, they call
Leopards, which for the same cause in England is called a Cat of the
•
Mountain .' Minsheu (Span . Dict.) gives, Gato montes. A cat ofmoun
taine, a wilde cat.' But what is now known as the wild cat is rather
striped than spotted . Florio ( New Worlde of Words) says, ' Onza, an
ounce weight. Also a beast called called an ounce or cat of mountaine.'
It was probably one of the smaller varieties of the leopard, and the
name was apparently not strictly confined to one animal. In The Merry
Wives of Windsor, ii. 2. 27, Falstaff reproaches Pistol with his ' cat-a
mountain looks.'
258. soundly. See ii. 2. 73.
259. Lies. Rowe was the first to correct this to ' Lie.' But, though
undoubtedly an inaccuracy, there is reason to believe that Shakespeare
may have written it, either on the ground given in the note on i. 1. 17,
or because of the immediately preceding singular noun ' hour.' See note
on Hamlet, i. 2. 38.
ACT V. SC. 1.] THE TEMPEST. 147

ACT V.

Scene I.

2. crack not, are without a flaw.

3. Goes upright with his carriage, bends not under the burden he has
to bear.
4. On the sixth hour. See Hamlet, i. 1. 6,
' You come most carefully upon your hour.'
That is, as the hour is about to strike.
5. See i. 2. 240.
7. How fares. See note on i. I. 15.
8. gave in charge, commanded. See I Henry VI, ii. 3. 1 ,
' Porter, remember what I gave in charge.'
And 1 Timothy v. 7, ' And these things give in charge, that they may
be blameless .'
10. line-grove. See iv. 1. 193.
Ib. weather-fends, protects from the weather or storm . Jamieson
(Scottish Dict.) gives ' fend ' in the sense of defend, or ward off, quoting
from Blind Harry's Wallace, iv. 615,
To fende his men with his deyr worthi hand .'
' Fend ' for ' defend ' also occurs in Beaumont and Fletcher, The
Humorous Lieutenant, v. 4,
6 And such a coil there is,
Such fending and such proving .'
11. budge, from French bouger, which Cotgrave explains, ' to stirre,
budge, flit, remoue, part from.'
Ib. till your release, till released by you.
15. Him. See note on iv. 1. 215 , and Abbott, § 208.
17. works. See iv. 1. 144.
21. a touch, a delicate power of feeling, sensibility ; also applied to
the feeling or emotion itself, as in Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii.
7. 18,
' Didst thou but know the inly touch of love.'
Again, it signifies the expression of emotion. See All's Well that Ends
Well, i. 3. 122 , ' This she delivered in the most bitter touch of sorrow
that e'er I heard virgin exclaim in.'
23, 24. that relish all as sharply, Passion as they, that feel as keenly the
emotions ofjoy and express sorrow as they do. This is the punctuation
of the first and second folios. The third and fourth omit the comma
L2
148 NOTES. [ACT V.

after ' sharply,' and with this pointing ' Passion ' is a substantive. For
' passion ' as a verb see Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 4, 172,
'Madam , ' twas Ariadne passioning
For Theseus' perjury and unjust flight.'
And Venus and Adonis, 1059,
' Dumbly she passions, franticly she doteth.'
33, &c. Warburton observed that this speech was borrowed from
Medea's incantation in Ovid ( Metam. vii . 197-219) . There is a certain
resemblance in expression to the English version by Golding, which
makes it probable that Shakespeare had read the latter, as Heywood
evidently had (see The Brazen Age, Works, iii. 215 , ed. 1874) , but with
the external resemblance the likeness ceases. The following is from
:
-
the edition of 1603 :
'Ye Ayres and Windes : ye Elues of Hilles, of Brookes, of Woods alone,
Of standing Lakes, and of the Night approche ye euerychone.
Through helpe of whom (the crooked bankes much wondring at the
thing)
I haue compelled streames to run cleane backward to their spring.
By charmes I make the calme seas rough, & make the rough seas playne.
And couer all the Skie with clouds and chase them thence againe.
By charmes I raise and lay the windes, and burst the Vipers iaw.
And from the bowels of the earth both stones and trees do draw.
Whole woods and Forrests I remooue : I make the Mountaines shake,
And euen the earth it selfe to grone and fearefully to quake.
I call vp dead men from their graues and thee, O lightsome Moone
I darken oft, through beaten brasse abate thy perill soone.
Our Sorcerie dimmes the Morning faire, and darkes the Sun at Noone.
The flaming breath of fierie Bulles ye quenched for my sake
And caused their vnwieldy neckes the bended yoke to take.
Among the earth-bred brothers you a mortall warre did set
And brought asleepe the Dragon fell whose eyes were neuer shet.'
33. elves, fairies ; from A. S. alf, Icel . álfr, of which another form used
by Shakespeare is ouphe (Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4. 49). In the
Norse mythology the elves haunted the hills, but in Anglo-Saxon the
word ' elf' was applied to fairies generally.
34. printless foot. Compare Milton, Comus, 897, and Venus and
Adonis, 148 ,
' Dance on the sands, and yet no footing seen.'
37. the green sour ringlets. Douce conjectured ' green-sward,' which
in Shakespeare's time was spelt and pronounced ' sord,' as in Winter's
Tale, iv. 4. 157, where the first folio reads,
"
This is the prettiest Low-borne Lasse, that euer
Ran on the greene- sord .'
SC. 1.] THE TEMPEST. 149

But the change is unnecessary. For the popular belief that these rings
were caused by the dancing of fairies see Merry Wives of Windsor, v.
5. 69, 70, and Drayton's Nymphidia , 69–72,
And in their courses make that Round,
In Meadowes and in Marshes found,
Of them so call'd the Fayrie ground,
Of which they haue the keeping.'
And Midsummer Night's Dream, ii . 1. 86,
' To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind.
On the whole subject consult Keightley's Fairy Mythology.
38. not bites. See ii . 1. 116.
39. mushrooms . The first folio reads ' Mushrumps .' Compare Lyly,
Euphues (ed. Arber), p . 62, ' that the greatest Mushrompe groweth in
one night ?'
41. Weak masters though ye be. Blackstone explains this, Ye are
powerful auxiliaries, but weak if left to yourselves.'
Ib. bedimm'd. The prefix ' be ' ' adds an intensitive force to transitive
verbs.' (Morris, English Accidence , § 324.)
43. azured. Sidney Walker conjectured ' azure.' Milton (Comus ,
893 ) has azurn.' There is a somewhat similar use of the participle
for the adjective in Sonnet cxv. 5 ,
6
But reckoning Time, whose million'd accidents,' & c.
47. the spurs, the roots which project like spurs from the trunk.
Compare Cymbeline, iv. 2. 55 ,
' I do note
That grief and patience, rooted in him both,
Mingle their spurs together.'
49. oped. See i. 2. 37.
51. required, asked for. Both ' require ' and ' demand ' were formerly
used in a sense slightly different from that attached to them now.
Compare Psalm cxxxvii. 3, ‘ For there they that carried us away captive
required of us a song,' where there is no idea of asking as a right.
55. certain, used of an unspecified number. See Julius Cæsar, iv.
3.70,
' I did send to you
For certain sums of gold, which you denied me.'
And Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 7. 21 ,
'They take the flow o' the Nile
By certain scales i' the pyramid.'
57. my book. See iii. 1. 94 .
58. Capell omits ' and.'
59. unsettled fancy, disturbed imagination. Compare King Lear, iii.
4. 167, His wits begin to unsettle.' And Winter's Tale, ii. 3. 119 ,
L3
150 NOTES. [ACT V.

' Not able to produce more accusation

Than your own weak-hinged fancy.'
60. boil'd. Pope's reading for ' boile ' or ' boil ' of the folios. Com
pare Midsummer Night's Dream, v. I. 4,
' Lovers and madmen have such seething brains .'
•
And Winter's Tale, iii . 3. 64, Would any but these boiled brains of
nineteen and two-and-twenty hunt this weather ?'
62. Holy Gonzalo. Compare Winter's Tale, v. I. 170,
'You have a holy father,
A graceful gentleman.'
And King John, iii. 3. 15,
' Grandam, I will pray,
If ever I remember to be holy,
For your fair safety.'
63. even sociable to, in close companionship and sympathy with.
Compare King John, iii. 4. 65,
Where but by chance a silver drop hath fallen
Even to that drop ten thousand wiry friends
Do glue themselves in sociable grief.'
Ib. show, appearance.
64. Fall, let fall . See ii. 1. 288.
Ib. fellowly, companionable, sociable. See Abbott, § 447. Johnson
(Dict.) quotes from Tusser [p. 182, ed. Mavor],
' One seed for another, to make an exchange,
With fellowly neighbourhood , seemeth not strange.'
67. ignorant fumes, fumes that produce ignorance. Compare Webster,
Appius and Virginia, iv. 1 ,
' So far benighted in an ignorant mist.'
Ib. fumes. See note on Macbeth, i. 7. 65–67.
Ib. mantle. See iv. 1. 182. The meaning is ‘ the fumes of ignorance
that have spread like a scum over and obscured their clearer reason.'
69. sir, a gentleman. See Cymbeline, i. 6. 160 , 175,
'A lady to the worthiest sir that ever
Country call'd his.'
In the election of a sir so rare.'
71. Home, thoroughly, to the utmost. See 1 Henry IV, i. 3. 288,
' Till he hath found a time to pay us home.'
In a similarly intensive sense it occurs in Measure for Measure, iv.
3. 148,
' Accuse him home and home.'
74. Theobald reads,
' Thou'rt pinch'd for't now, Sebastian, flesh and blood.'
75-79. On the change from ' you ' to ' thou ' when Prospero pro
SC. 1.] THE TEMPEST. 151

nounces his brother's forgiveness, see Abbott, § 232, and lines 130-132
of this scene.
76. remorse, tender feeling. Compare King John, iv. 3. 110,
And he, long traded in it, makes it seem
Like rivers of remorse and innocency.'
Ib. who. The folios have ' whom.' See iii. 3. 92, and v. 1. 136.
77. pinches, pangs. Compare Cymbeline, i. 2. 130,
' There cannot be a pinch in death
More sharp than this is.'
81. the reasonable shore, the shore of reason which has just been, by
another figure, compared to clear water covered with a scum of ignorant
fumes.
82. Not one, &c, For the omission of ' there is ' compare Richard III ,
ii. 1. 84,
' No one in this presence
But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks.'
85. discase me, strip off my disguise. See Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 648,
' Therefore discase thee instantly,—thou must think there's a necessity
in't, and change garments with this gentleman.' ' Case ' was the
technical term for the skin of a beast. Compare Twelfth Night, v.
1. 168,
' O thou dissembling cub ! what wilt thou be
When time hath sow'd a grizzle on thy case ?'
Hence it was applied to a dress, as in Measure for Measure , ii. 4. 13 ,
' O place, O form,
How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,
Wrench awe from fools.'
And hence the verb is used in the sense of ' disguise ' in 1 Henry IV, ii.
2. 55, C Case ye, case ye ; on with your vizards .'
86. sometime, once, formerly. See Hamlet, i. 2. 8,
6 Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen.'
Ib. Milan. See i. 2. 109.
89. a cowslip's bell. Compare Drayton, Nymphidia, 115,
At mid night the appointed hower,
And for the Queene a fitting Bower,
(Quoth he) is that faire Cowslip flower,
On Hipcut hill that groweth.'
90, 91. Capell pointed these lines thus,
"There I couch : when owls do cry,
On the bat's back,' & c.
92. summer. Theobald reads ' sunset.'
95. that's my dainty Ariel. See i . 2. 215.
98, 99. See i. 2. 230.
 152 NOTES. [ACT. V.

IOI. presently. See i. 2. 125.

102, drink the air. Compare 2 Henry IV, i. 1. 47,
' He seem'd in running to devour the way.'
The expression ' drink the air ' but in a different sense occurs in Venus
and Adonis, 273 , His nostrils drink the air.'
103. Or ere. See i. 2. II.
III . Whether. The folios print ' Where.' For instances of ' whether'
used metrically as a monosyllable, see Abbott, § 466, and Julius Cæsar,
i. I. 66,
'See whether their basest metal be not moved.'
112. trifle, an insubstantial thing, a phantom. Compare ' vanity ' in
iv. 1. 41. This meaning of the word must have been in Shakespeare's
mind when he wrote, Othello, iii. 3. 322,
'Trifles light as air
Are to the jealous confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ.'
Ib. abuse, deceive. See Webster, Duchess of Malfi, iii. 1 ,
6 Away! these are mere gulleries, horrid things,
Invented by some cheating mountebanks
To abuse us .'
113. I not know. See v. 1. 38 .
·
117. An ifthis be at all, ifthis have any real existence. For An if' the
6
folios print And if,' as in Matthew xxiv. 48, ' But and if that evil servant
shall say in his heart,' &c. See note on ' or ere,' i . 2. 11 .
Ib. For ' be' in the sense of ' have a real existence,' see Bacon's Ad
vancement of Learning, ii . 14, § 9 , ' Yet the cogitations of man do feign
unto them relatives, parallels, and conjugates, whereas no such thing is.'
See also below, lines 122, 123 .
118. Thy dukedom I resign, which Antonio had made a fief of Naples.
See i. 2. 123-127, ii . 1. 1c6, 107.
119. my wrongs, the wrongs I have done. See 1. 25 .
123. taste, experience. Compare Timon of Athens, i . 1. 285 ,
'Come, shall we in,
And taste Lord Timon's bounty ?'
And Henry V, iv. 7. 68,
6 And not a man of them that we shall take
Shall taste our mercy.'
124. subtilties, like ‘ vanity,' in iv. 1. 41. The word, which is borrowed
from the language of cookery, was most probably suggested by the word
' taste' which precedes. It denoted a device in pastry and confectionery
work such as is described by Fabyan in his account of the feast at the
Coronation of Katharine queen of Henry V (Chronicle, ed. 1542, ii.
366), ' And a sotyltye called a Pellycane syttyng on his nest with he
SC. 1.] THE TEMPEST. 153

byrdes, and an ymage of saynte Katheryne holdyng a boke and disputyng

with the doctoures.'
128. justify, prove. See All's Well that Ends Well, iv. 3. 64, ' How
is this justified ?' And Winter's Tale , i. 2. 278, ‘ Say't and justify 't .'
136. who. The first folio has ' whom.' See above, 1. 76.
"
139. woe. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 14. 133, Woe, woe
are we.' And Cymbeline, v. 5. 2 , ' Woe is my heart ' ; though this is not
clearly a parallel case. Again, in Cymbeline, v. 5. 297, if the reading
of the first folio be correct, · I am sorrow for thee.'
145. As great to me as late, as great to me as it is recent.
146. dear loss. See ii. 1. 130.
154. do so much admire, are so much astonished . Compare Twelfth
Night, iii. 4. 165 , ' Wonder not, nor admire not in thy mind, why I do
call thee so .'
164. relation, narration. See Pericles, v. 1. 124,
' I will believe thee,
And make my senses credit thy relation.'
174. a score of kingdoms, not only for the world, but for a game in
which the score is reckoned by kingdoms. Or ' score ' may be used in
its ordinary sense.
Ib. you should wrangle. The usage of ' should ' and ' would ' in this
sentence becomes like our own by a very slight change, ' for a score of
kingdoms should you wrangle I would call it fair play.' This is merely
an illustration of the manner in which the sentence would be changed in
adopting it to modern habit. Another modern form would be obtained
by substituting ' might ' for ' should .'
Ib. wrangle. Cotgrave gives ( Fr. Dict.) , ' Noiser. To brawle, chide,
scould, brabble, squabble, wrangle, brangle, fall at odds, or be at
variance, with.' The folios have a comma at ' kingdoms.'
199. remembrance. The folios read ' remembrances.'
200. heaviness, sorrow. See 2 Henry IV, iv. 5. 8,
' I am here, brother, full of heaviness.'
Ib. inly, inwardly. See Henry V, iv. Chorus, 24,
• Sit patiently and inly ruminate
The morning's danger.'
201. spoke. See iv. 1. 31.
216. In the Stage direction ' amazedly' signifies in a state of bewil
derment. Compare Midsummer Night's Dream, iv. 1. 143,
' My lord, I shall reply amazedly,
Half sleep, half waking.'
:
Ib. here is. Compare Cymbeline, iv. 2. 371 , There is no more such
masters.' And see note on i. I. 15.
217. See i. 1. 27.
154 NOTES. [ACT V;

223. glasses. See i. 2. 240.

224. tight, free from leaks. See Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1. 381 ,
'Besides two galliases
And twelve tight galleys.'
Ib. yare. See i. 1. 3.
Ib. bravely. See i. 2. 6.
226. tricksy, full of tricks, sportive. Compare Merchant of Venice,
iii. 5. 74,
' That for a tricksy word
Defy the matter.'
It also signifies " trim, neatly adorned .'
2.30. of sleep. Malone takes this as equivalent to ' on sleep,' or
' asleep.'
234. mo. See ii. 1. 128.
238. on a trice, in an instant. In Spanish en un tris signifies ‘ in a
moment.' Compare King Lear, i . 2. 219,
' Should in this trice of time
Commit a thing so monstrous.'
And Cymbeline, v. 4. 171 , ' It sums up thousands in a trice.'
240. moping. To ' mope ' is originally to be dimsighted , but is ap
plied to dullness of sense generally. Compare Hamlet, iii. 4. 81 ,
' Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope.'
244. conduct, conductor, guide, escort. See Romeo and Juliet, iii. 1. 129,
' Away to heaven, respective lenity,
And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now !'
And Richard II , iv. 1. 157, ' I will be his conduct.'
245. Sir, my liege. Compare Winter's Tale, v. I. 224,
Sir, my liege,
Your eye hath too much youth in't.'
246. infest, disturb, vex. Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) gives ' Infester. To
infest, annoy, molest.'
Ib. beating. See i. 2. 176, and iv. 1. 163.
247. pick'd, selected ; and so appropriate.
248. single, by
" myself. See Timon of Athens, v. I. 110,
Each man apart, all single and alone.'
Ib. resolve you, answer your questions. See Measure for Measure, iii .
1. 194, ' I am now going to resolve him .'
249. Which to you shall seem probable. The antecedent to ' which ' is
Prospero's solution of the mystery implied in ' I'll resolve you. ' See
Abbott, § 271.
SC. 1.] THE TEMPEST. 155

Ib. every. So ' each ' is used for ' all,' or ' each one of.' See Winter's
Tale, ii. 3. 35 , ' At each his needless heavings.' Again iv. 4. 143. Compare
also Antony and Cleopatra, i. 3. 36, None our parts.' See Abbott, § 12 .
250. These happen'd accidents. For a similar use of the participle see
Bacon's Advancement of Learning, i. 8, § 1 (ed. Wright, p. 67), ‘ To accept
of nothing but examined and tried ; ' that is, that which is examined and
tried.
253. Untie the spell, by which their senses were knit up. See i . 2. 486,
and iii. 3. 89.
255. odd, unreckoned , unnoticed. See i. 2. 223 .
257. Coragio. So All's Well that Ends Well, ii . 5. 97, ' Bravely,
coragio !'
258. bully, a cant word in frequent use in Shakespeare's time. See
Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3. 6, Discard, bully Hercules ; cashier : let
them wag; trot, trot.'
259. true, honest. See Venus and Adonis, 724,
' Rich preys make true men thieves.'
261. Setebos . See i . 2. 374.
268. true. See above, 1. 259.
269, 270. and one so strong That could control the moon. See below,
line 315 , and Troilus and Cressida, v. 2. 121. The personal pronoun is
omitted as in the following passage of Spenser, Fairy Queen, i . I. 7,
6 Whose loftie trees, yclad with sommers pride,
Did spred so broad, that heavens light did hide.'
271. deal in her command without her power. Malone understands this
to mean, exercise the same influence as the moon, and act as her vice
gerent, without being empowered to do so. But Mr. Staunton more
properly interprets ' without her power,' as meaning ' beyond her power,'
and refers to Midsummer Night's Dream, iv. 1. 150,
Our intent
Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,
Without the peril of the Athenian law.'
Compare also 2 Corinthians x. 13 , ' But we will not boast of things
without our measure.' And Chapman, Bussy D'Ambois (Works, ii. 65),
'Not I, it is a worke, without my power.'
279. reeling ripe. Compare weeping ripe,' Love's Labour's Lost,
v. 2. 274, ' The king was weeping-ripe for a good word.' And Sidney's
Arcadia (ed. 1598) , i. p. 61 , But Lalus (euen weeping ripe) went among
the rest.' See also Beaumont and Fletcher, Woman's Prize, i. I ,
' Being drunk and tumbling ripe.'
And in the same play, ii. 1 ,
'He's like little children
That lose their baubles, crying ripe.'
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280. gilded ' em, made them drunk. Compare Beaumont and Fletcher,
The Chances, iv. 3,
' Duke. Is she not drunk too ?
2 Con. A little gilded o'er, sir.'
For ' grand liquor,' Warburton conjectured and Theobald read ‘ grand
'lixir,' referring to the aurum potabile of the alchemists, which was sup
posed to restore youth and confer immortality. This is no doubt the
reference, but there is no need to alter the reading.
282, 283. in such a pickle .. that, &c. Compare Hamlet, iii. 4, 41,
· Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty.'
283. will never out. For the ellipsis of the verb of motion in such
cases, see Abbott, § 405 .
288. a sore one. Steevens points out that the same quibble is to be
found in 2 Henry VI, iv. 7. 9 , - Mass, ' twill be sore law, then ; for he
was thrust in the mouth with a spear, and 'tis not whole yet.'
289. a strange thing as, that is , ' as strange a thing as .' For the
omission of the first ' as ' in such cases, see 1 Henry IV, iii. 2. 168,
6
A mighty and a fearful head they are
As ever offered foul play in a state.'
298. bestow, stow away, dispose of. See 2 Kings v. 24.
301. poor cell. See i. 2. 20.
303. I not doubt. See ii . 1. 116.
308. nuptial. Shakespeare always uses the singular form, except in
Othello, ii. 2. 8, where however, ' nuptialls' is the reading of the quartos
only ; and Pericles, v. 3. 80.
310. retire me. ' Retire,' like ' repent,' ' remember ,' ' endeavour,' and
many other words has become intransitive from having been formerly
reflexive .
315. so expeditious that. See above, 269, 270.
316. chick. See iv. 1. 184.
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