O heavens! that they were living both in Naples, Pro. In this last tempest. I perceive, these At this encounter do so much admire, Upon this shore, where you were wrecked, was landed, To be the lord on 't. No more yet of this; Not a relation for a breakfast, nor I have inly wept, Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you gods, And on this couple drop a blesséd crown; Alon. I say Amen, Gonzalo! Gon. Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue Should become kings of Naples? O, rejoice Re-enter ARIEL, with the Master and Boatswain amazedly following. O look, sir, look, sir; here are more of us! Our king and company: the next, our ship,- Do not infest your mind with beating on The strangeness of this business: at picked leisure, Which shall be shortly, single I'll resolve you (Which to you shall seem probable) of every These happened accidents: till when, be cheerful, And think of each thing well.-Come hither, spirit; [Aside. Set Caliban and his companions free : There are yet missing of your company Re-enter ARIEL, driving in CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, in their stolen apparel. Ste. 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. Cal. O Setebos, these be brave spirits, indeed! How fine my master is! I am afraid He will chastise me. Pro. 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 Cal. I shall be pinched 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 them?— How cam'st 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? Ste. O, touch me not; I am not Stephano, but a cramp. Pro. You'd be king of the isle, sirrah? looked on. [Pointing to CALIBAN. 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! For this one night; which (part of it) I'll waste Since I came to this isle: And in the morn Of these our dear-belovéd solemnised; EPILOGUE, Spoken by PROSPERO. Now my charms are all o'erthrown; "I have no long spoon."-Act II., Scene 2. I cannot reach both your mouths at once; besides, I don't like to come so near the devil. It also alludes to an old proverb, "A long spoon to eat with the devil;" and may be found in Chaucer, Tyrwhitt, &c. "Well drawn, monster, in good sooth."-Act II., Scene 2. Caliban has just had another draught from Stephano's bottle of "celestial liquor," and Trinculo compliments him upon having taken so capital a "pull" or "draw." "By'r lakin."-Act III., Scene 3. By our lady, or little lady, or lady-kin. "Each putter-out on five for one."-Act III., Scene 3. Alluding to a custom among travellers about to engage in perilous undertakings, who put out money to usurious interest, which was probably only paid in case they lived to return. --"Destiny, That hath to instrument this lower world."-Act III., Scene 3. That hath the world to play upon as an instrument. -"Is nothing, but heart's sorrow, And a clear life ensuing."-Act III., Scene 3. Nothing can avert this doom but sorrowful repentance and a good life henceforward. “It did bass my trespass.-Act III., Scene 3. "No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall." Act IV., Scene 1. "Aspersion," from aspersio, a sprinkling; now used in a calumnious sense, as, bespattering. -"Bring a corollary, Rather than want a spirit."-Act IV., Scene 1. Does "a corollary" mean a surplus (of spirits), rather than Prospero should be deficient? Is it used in a botanical sense for a crowd of petals in the centre of a flower, taken metaphorically for a crowd, a garland, or coronal of spirits? Or does Prospero desire Ariel to bring him a corollary from his magic books? "Lifted up their noses, As they smelt music."-Act IV., Scene 1. This passage is a most accurate description of the effect produced upon colts by music. On first hearing even a trumpet, instead of being terrified, they will often advance and thrust their nose up the very mouth of the instrument, while it is blown, provided this be done with some consideration. "Now is the jerkin under the line: now, jerkin, you are like to lose your hair.—Act IV., Scene 1. Malone says, that goat's-hair jerkins, both plain and ornamented, formed part of the theatrical wardrobes of this period; and he suggests, that in the present instance they were hung upon a hair line. Steevens thinks there is some gross allusion in the passage. Edwards says it refers to the loss of hair by fever on passing the equinoctial line! Did the sailors shave folks with an iron hoop in those days? Stephano was, however, drunk; half with wine, and half with his ideas of royalty. "And time Goes upright with his carriage."-Act V., Scene 1. Time goes upright with his burden: all events move on rightly. "Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves." Act V., Scene 1. The original of this speech will be found in the speech of Medea in Ovid :-"Auræque, et venti, montesque, amnesque, lacusque," &c. Shakspere availed himself of a free translation by Golding. Of this discovery, Warburton, Holt, Farmer, and Malone, make far more than it is worth. All the finer parts of the poetry belong to Shakspere. borrows a few words, and adds many ideas. "I drink the air before me, and return He Or ere your pulse twice beat."-Act V., Scene 1. An exquisitely poetical passage, wonderfully illustrating the rapidity of a spirit's flight to and fro on its errand. In explanatory elaboration,-I swallow the intervening space in one draught of pure ether: I return before the heavy fluid of mortality can twice perform the quickest movement of its most potent function. "That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs, And deal in her command without her power."Act V., Scene 1. Sycorax could deal in, or direct, the operations of the moon, without the moon having power to resist. SONGS IN THE "TEMPEST." THE Songs in the "TEMPEST" have troubled some of the learned commentators, and occasioned many remarks which were nothing to the purpose. Dr. Johnson apparently took up his pen to indite a grave reproof upon those who despised Ariel's songs, but concluded his sentence by coinciding with the objections. He observes, that "Ariel's lays (which have been condemned by Gildon as trifling, and defended, not very successfully, by Dr. Warburton), however seasonable and efficacious, must be allowed to be of no supernatural dignity or elegance; they express nothing great, nor reveal anything above mortal discovery." This is all very true, very wise, and quite inapplicable. Neither dignity nor elegance (in the scholastic sense in which the term is evidently used) is the attribute of any such elfish sprites as Ariel. How they could reveal anything above mortal discovery, or be intelligible to us if they did, we shall not enquire. All the songs in the "TEMPEST" are admirably characteristic of the different singers. The coarse, sea doggrel of Stephano is "of the earth, earthy," like his nature; and of the sea, scummy, like his circumstances: the songs of Ariel are those of a quaint and beautiful creature, who lives floating about in the air, or sits in a tree by night, and mimics the wind's echoes when they seem to bark or crow "dispersedly" (some of Ariel's songs are as though a bird warbled them): and the elated chant of Caliban may be regarded as an extraordinary ebullition of the rudimentary or lowest condition of humanity; while his repetition of parts of words conveys a clear impression of the aboriginal chorus, and how it first arose among the savage populations of the world. R. H. H. |