brown furze, any thing: The wills above be done! | That my remembrance warrants: Had I not but I would fain die a dry death. [Exit. Four or five women once, that tended me? Pro. Thou had'st, and more, Miranda: But how is it,

SCENE II. The Island: before the Cell of Pros-
pero. Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.
Mira. 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 suffer'd
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.
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er1
It should the good ship so have swallowed, and
The freighting souls within her.

Pro.

Be collected: No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, There's no harm done.

Mira.
Pro.

O, woe the day!

No harm.

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 order'd, that there is no soul-
No, not so much perdition as an hair,
Betid to any creature in the vessel

That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm" of time?
If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here,
How cam'st thou here, thou may'st.
But that I do not.

Mira.
Pro. Twelve years since, Miranda, twelve
years since,

Thy father was the duke of Milan, and
A prince of power.
Mira.

Sir, are not you my father?
Pro. 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.

Mira.
O, the heavens !
What foul play had we, that we came from thence?
Or blessed was't we did ?

Pro.

Both, both, my girl:
By foul play, as thou say'st, where we heav'd thence;
But blessedly holp hither."

Mira.
O, my heart bleeds
To think o' the teen" that I have turned you to,
Which is from my remembrance! Please you

I

further.

Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio-
pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should
Be so perfidious !-he whom, next thyself,
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my state; as, at that time,
Through all the signiories 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 wrapped in secret studies. Thy false uncle-
Dost thou attend me?

Mira.

Sir, most heedfully. Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom

Sit down;

For thou must now know further.

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;

Obey, and be attentive. Can'st thou remember

A time before we came unto this cell?

Or else new form'd them: having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' th' state
To what tune pleas'd 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.
Mira. O good sir, I do.
Pro.

I pray thee mark me.

I do not think thou can'st; for then thou wast not I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate
Outs three years old.

cumber and trash"-" to trash or overslow "-and

1 i. e. or ever, ere ever; signifying, in modern Eng-"foreslowed and trashed." lish, sooner than at any time.

2 Instead of freighting the first folio reads fraughting. 3 The double superlative is in frequent use among our elder writers.

4 To meddle, is to mix, or to interfere with.

5 Lord Burleigh, when he put off his gown at night, used to say "Lie there, Lord Treasurer."-Fuller's Holy State, p. 257.

6 Out is used for entirely, quite. Thus in Act iv: "And be a boy right out."

7 Abysm was the old mode of spelling abyss; from its French original abisme.

There was another word of the same kind used in Falconry (from whence Shakspeare very frequently draws his similies ;) "Trassing is when a hawk raises aloft any fowl, and soaring with it, at length descends there with to the ground."-Dictionarium Rusticum, 1704.

Probably this term is used by Chapman in his ad
dress to the reader prefixed to his translation of Homer
"That whosesoever muse dares use her wing,
When his muse flies she will be trass't by his,
And show as if a Bernacle should spring
Beneath an Eagle."

There is also a passage in the Bonduca of Beaumon
and Fletcher, wherein Caratach says:
"I fled too,

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,
Made such a sinner of his memory,
To credit his own he,'-he did believe

He was indeed the duke; out of the substitution,
And executing the outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative:-Hence his ambition
Growing,-Dost hear?

Mira. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.
Pro. 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
He thinks me now incapable: confederates
(So dry he was for sway) with 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.
Mira.
O the heavens.

Pro. By Providence divine.
Some food we had, and some fresh water, that
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,
Which since have steaded much; so, of his goa.
tleness,

Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me,
Pro. Mark his condition, and the event; then From my own library, with volumes that

tell me,

If this might be a brother.

Μίτα,
I should sin
To think but nobly of my grandmother:
Good wombs have borne bad sons.

Pro.

Now the condition.
This king of Naples, being an enemy
To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit;
Which was, that he in lieu3 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,
The ministers for the purpose hurried thence
Me, and thy crying self.

Mira.

Alack, for pity!

I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then,
Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint,*

That wrings mine eyes to't.

Pro.

Hear a little further,
And then I'll bring thee to the present business
Which now's upon us; without the which, this story
Were most impertinent.
Mira.

That hour destroy us?
Pro.

Wherefore did they not

Well demanded, wench;

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst

not;

(So dear the love my people bore me) nor set
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 prepar'd
A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd,

common rate of men has generally a son below it. HeToum filii naræ.

"Who having made his memory such a sinner to truth as to credit his own lie by telling of it."

2 Tooke, in his Diversions of Purley, has clearly wn that we use one word, But, in modern English, or two words Bot and But, originally (in the Anglo Saxon) very different in signification, though (by repeated abbreviation and corruption) approaching in sound. Bot is the imperative of the A. S. Botan, to boot. But is the imperative of the A. S. Be-utan, to be out. By this means all the seemingly anomalous uses of But may be explained; I must however content myself with referring the reader to the Diversions of Purley, vol. i. p. 190. Merely remarking that but (as distinguished from Bot) and be-out have exactly the same meaning, viz in modern English, without.

3 In lieu of the premises; that is, "in consideration of the premises, &c." This seems to us a strange use of this French word, yet it was not then unusual. 44 But takes their oaths in lieu of her assistance." Beaumont and Fletcher's Prophetess.

I prize above my dukedom.
Mira.

But ever see that man!

Pro.

"Would I might

Now I arise:-
Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow.
Here in this island we arriv'd; and here
Have I, thy school-master, made thee more prɔht |
Than other princes can, that have more time
For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.

Mira. 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?

Pro.
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
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 inclin'd to sleep; 'tis a good dulness,
And give it way;-I know thou can'st not choose.-
[MIRANDA sleeps.
Come away, servant, come: I am ready now;
Approach, my Ariel; come.

"Tis a villain, sir,

But, as 'tis,

Yields us kind answer.

Mira.

I do not love to look on.
Pro.

We cannot miss' him: he does make our fire,
Fetch in our wood; and serves in offices
That profit us. What ho! slave! Caliban!
Thou earth, thou! speak.
Cal. [Within.]

There's wood enough within. Pro. Come forth, I say; there's other business for thee:

Come forth, thou tortoise! when??

Re-enter ARIEL, like a Water-nymph.

Fine apparition! My quaint3 Ariel,
Hark in thine ear.
Ari.

My lord, it shall be done. [Exit.
Pro. Thon poisonous slave, got by the devil him-

self

1 i. e. we cannot do without him. The phrase is still common in the midland counties.

2 This is a common expression of impatience. Vide note on King Richard II. Act i. Scene 1.

3 Quaint here means brisk, spruce, dexterous, from the French cointe.

4 Urchins were fairies of a particular class. Hedgehogs were also called urchins; and it is probable that the sprites were so named, because they were of a mischievous kind, the urchin being anciently deemed a very noxious animal. Shakspeare again mentions these fairy beings in the Merry Wives of Windsor. "Like urchins, ouphe In the phrase still cr the fairy still rem:

5 That vast

Hamlet:

"In the

vasta, m' making

La th

nd fairies green and white."
"a little urchin," the idea of

at space of night. So, in

Hag-seed, hence!
Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou wert best,
To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice?
If thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly
What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps;
Fill all thy bones with aches: make thee roar,
That beasts shall tremble at thy din!

Cal. No, 'pray thee!-

I must obey his art is of such power,
It would control my dam's god, Setebos,
And make a vassal of him."

Pro.

[Anide,

So, slave; hence!
[Exit CALIBAN.

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

Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands:

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

(The wild waves whist3)

Foot it featly here and there;

And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.
Hark, hark!

Bur. Bowgh, wowgh.

The watch-dogs bark:
Bur. Bowgh, wowgh.
Hark, hark! I hear

The strain of strutting chanticlere
Cry, Cock-a-doodle-doo.

[dispersedly.

[dispersedly.

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

the earth?

It sounds no more ;--and sure, it waits upon
Some god of the island. Sitting on a bank,
Weeping again the king my father's wreck,
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.

had different allotments of time suitable to the variety and nature of their agency.

6 Destroy.

7 The word aches is evidently a dissyllable here and in two passages of Timon of Athens. The reader will remember the senseless clamour that was raised against Kemble for his adherence to the text of Shakspeare in thus pronouncing it as the measure requires. "Ake,” says Baret in his Alvearie, "is the verb of this substantive Ache, ch being turned into k." And that ache was pronounced in the same way as the letter h is placed beyond doubt by the passage in Much Ado about Nothing, in which Margaret asks Beatrice for what she cries Heigh ho, and she answers for an h. i. e. ache. See the Epigram of Heywood adduced in illustration of that passage. This orthography and pronunciation continued even to the times of Butler and Swift., It woula be easy to produce numerous instances.

'dle of the night," nor 8" The giants when they found themselves fettered 's are quiet and still, roared like bulls, and cried upon Setebos to help them " reat uninhabited waste.-Eden's Hist. of Travuyle, 1577. p. 434 ent times visionary beings 9 Still, silent

bt.

...

Jonson for an improper use of this

wong :” word, the sense of which he altogether mistakes."