Trin. And this.

Ste. Ay, and this.

A noise of hunters heard.

Enter divers Spirits, in shape

of hounds, and hunt them about; PROSPERO and ARIEL

setting them on.

Pro. Hey, Mountain, hey!

Ari. Silver! there it goes, Silver !

Pro. Fury, Fury! there, Tyrant, there! hark, hark! [CAL. STE. and TRIN. 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.
Pro. Let them be hunted soundly: At this hour
Lie at my mercy all mine enemies:

Shortly shall all my labours end, and thou
Shalt have the air at freedom: for a little,
Follow, and do me service.

[Exeunt.

ACT V..... SCENE I.

Before the Cell of Prospero.

Enter PROSPERO in his magick robes; and ARLEL.
Pro. Now does my project gather to a head:
My charms crack not; my spirits obey; and time
Goes upright with his carriage.1 How's the day?

9 A noise of hunters heard.] Shakspeare might have had in view "Arthur's Chase," which many believe to be in France, and think that it is a kennel of black dogs, followed by unknown huntsmen with an exceeding great sound of horns, as if it was a very hunting of some wild beast." See a Treatise of Spectres, translated from the French of Peter de Loier, and published in quarto, 1605. Grey.

"HECATE, (says the same writer, ibid.) as the Greeks affirmed, did use to send dogges unto men, to feare and terrifie them." Malone.

Goes upright with his carriage.] Alluding to one, carrying a burthen. This critical period of my life proceeds as I could wish.

Ari. On the sixth hour; at which time, my lord, You said our work should cease.

Pro.

When first I rais'd the tempest.
How fares the king and his?2

Ari.

I did say so,

Say, my spirit,

Confin'd together

In the same fashion, as you gave in charge:
Just as you left them, sir; all prisoners

release.3

In the lime-grove, which weather-fends your cell;
They cannot budge, till your
The king,
His brother, and yours, abide all three distracted;
And the remainder mourning over them,
Brim-full of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly
Him 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 them,
That if you now beheld them, your affections

Would become tender.

Pro.

Dost thou think so, spirit?

Ari. Mine would, sir, were I human.
Pro.

And mine shall.

4

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 mov'd than thou art?

Time brings forward all the expected events, without faultering under his burthen. Steevens.

2

the king and his?] The old copy reads-" the king and his followers?" But the word followers is evidently an interpolation, (or gloss which had crept into the text,) and spoils the metre, without help to the sense. In King Lear, we have the phraseology I have ventured to recommend:

"To thee and thine, hereditary ever," &c. Steevens.

3 till your release.] i. e. till you release them. Malone. a touch, a feeling-] A touch is a sensation. So, in Cymbeline:

4

66

a touch more rare
"Subdues all pangs, all fears."

So, in the 141st sonnet of Shakspeare:

"Nor tender feeling to base touches prone."

Again, in the Civil Wars of Daniel, B. I:

"I know not how their death gives such a touch." Steevens.

that relish all as sharply,

Passion as they,] I feel every thing with the same quick sensibility, and am moved by the same passions, as they are.

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

In virtue, than in vengeance: they being penitent,
The sole drift of my purpose doth extend

Not a frown further: Go, release them, Ariel;
My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore,
And they shall be themselves.

Ari.

I'll fetch them, sir. [Exit. Pro. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and

groves;

A similar thought occurs in K. Richard II:

"Taste grief, need friends, like you." &c. Steevens.

6 Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves;] This speech Dr. Warburton rightly observes, to be borrowed from Medea's in Ovid: and, "it proves, (says Mr. Holt,) beyond contradiction, that Shakspeare was perfectly acquainted with the sentiments of the ancients on the subject of inchantments." The original lines are these:

"Auræque, & venti, montesque, amnesque, lacusque,

"Diique omnes nemorum, diique omnes noctis, adeste." The translation of which, by Golding, is by no means literal, and Shakspeare hath closely followed it. Farmer.

Whoever will take the trouble of comparing this whole passage with Medea's speech, as translated by Golding, will see evidently that Shakspeare copied the translation, and not the original. The particular expressions, that seem to have made an impression on his mind, are printed in Italicks :

"Ye ayres and windes, ye elves of hills, of brookes, of woodes alone, "Of standing lakes, and of the night, approche ye everych one. "Through help of whom (the crooked bankes much wondering at the thing)

"I have compelled streames to run clear backward to their spring. "By charms I make the calm sea rough, and make the rough seas playne,

"And cover all the skie with clouds, and chase them thence again. "By charms I raise and lay the windes, and burst the viper's jaw, "And from the bowels of the earth both stones and trees do draw. "Whole woods and forrests I remove, I make the mountains shake, "And even the earth itself to groan and fearfully to quake. "I call up dead men from their graves, and thee, O lightsome

moone,

"I darken oft, though beaten brass abate thy peril soone.
"Our sorcerie dimmes the morning faire, and darks the sun at noone.
"The flaming breath of fierie bulles ye quenched for my sake,
"And caused their unwieldy neckes the bended yoke to take.
"Among the earth-bred brothers you a mortal warre did set,
"And brought asleep, the dragon fell, whose eyes were never
shet." Malone.

ms.1632

And ye, that on the sands with printless foot

7

Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him, When he comes back; you demy-puppets, that green By moon-shine do the"green-sour ringlets make, Sward Whereof the ewe not bites; and you, whose pastime Is to make midnight mushrooms; that rejoice To hear the solemn curfew: by whose aid (Weak masters though ye be,) I have be-dimm'd The noon-tide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds, And 'twixt the green sea and the azur'd 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-bas'd 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 them forth, By my so potent art: But this rough magick

9

Ye elves of hills, &c.] Fairies and elves are frequently, in the poets, mentioned together, without any distinction of character that I can recollect. Keysler says, that alp and alf, which is elf with the Suedes and English, equally signified a mountain, or a dæmon of the mountains. This seems to have been its original meaning; but Somner's Dict. mentions elves or fairies of the mountains, of the woods, of the sea and fountains, without any distinction, between elves and fairies. Tollet.

7 — with printless foot

Do chase the ebbing Neptune,] So Milton, in his Masque : "Whilst from off the waters fleet,

"Thus I set my printless feet."

Steevens.

8 (Weak masters though ye be,)] The meaning of this passage may be, Though you are but inferior masters of these supernatural powers-though you possess them but in a low degree. Spenser uses the same kind of expression, in The Fairy Queen, B. III. cant. 8. st. 4: "Where she (the witch) was wont her sprights to entertain. "The masters of her art: there was she fain

"To call them all, in order, to her aid." Steevens.

by whose aid,

(Weak masters though ye be,)] That is; ye are powerful auxiliaries, but weak if left to yourselves;-your employment is then to make green ringlets, and midnight mushrooms, and to play the idle pranks, mentioned by Ariel in his next song;-yet by your aid, I have been enabled to invert the course of nature. We say, proverbially, "Fire is a good servant, but a bad master." Blackstone.

9 But this rough magick, &c.] This speech of Prospero sets out with a long and distinct invocation to the various ministers> of his art: yet, to what purpose they were invoked does not very

I here abjure: and, when I have requir'd
Some heavenly musick, (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 musick.

Re-enter ARIEL: after him, ALONSO, with a frantick gesture, attended by GONZALO; SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO in like manner, 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

To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains, 1

Now useless, boil'd within thy skull!2 There stand,

distinctly appear. Had our author written" All this," &c. instead of "But this," &c. the conclusion of the address would have been more pertinent to its beginning. Steevens.

1 A solemn air, and the best comforter

To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains, &c.] Prospero does not desire them to cure their brains. His expression is optative, not imperative; and means—May music cure thy brains! i. e. settle them. Mr. Malone reads:

"To an unsettled fancy's cure! Thy brains,

"Now useless, boil within thy scull:"- Steevens.

The old copy reads-Fancy. For this emendation I am answerable. So, in King John:

"My widow's comfort, and my sorrow's cure."

Again, in Romeo and Juliet:

Confusion's cure

"Lives not in these confusions."

Prospero begins by observing, that the air, which had been played, was admirably adapted to compose unsettled minds. He then addresses Gonzalo and the rest, who had just before gone into the circle: "Thy brains, now useless, boil within thy skull," &c. [the soothing strain not having yet begun to operate.] Afterwards, perceiving that the musick begins to have the effect intended, he adds, "The charm dissolves apace." Mr. Pope and the subsequent editors read-boil'd. Malone.

2

Dream:

·boil'd within thy skull!] So, in A Midsummer Night's

"Lovers and madmen have such Seething brains," &c.

Steevens.