II. ii. 67. This is some monster of the isle with four legs'; Shakespeare's contemporaries were familiar with descriptions of strange four-footed creatures: perhaps Topsell's famous Historie' was in Stephano's mind.

II. ii. 80. I will not take too much for him;' i.e. I will take as much as I can possibly get.' II. ii. 176. seamews';

4

From Topsell's "Historie of Foure-Footed Beastes, describing the true and lively figure of every Beast," 1607. Fol. 'scamels,' so Camb. Ed.: but the word is in all probability an error for 'seamells' or 'seamews,' referred to in Strachey and Jourdan's accounts of the Bermudas:-" a kind of web-footed fowle of the bignesse of a sea-mew (Quoted by W. G. Gosling). Many emendations have been made; 'staniel' (a species of hawk) has been adopted by some editors; the word occurs probably in Twelfth Night (II. v. 124), though the editions read stallion.' Mr. Wright has, however, pointed out that, according to Stevenson's "Birds of Norfolk," the female 'Bar-tailed Godwit' is called a 'Scamell' by the gunners of Blakeney."

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III. i. 15. Most busy least, when I do it'; the first folio retained by Camb. Ed. " most busy lest, when I do it." Various readings have been suggested; Pope, 'least busy when I do it'; Theobald, most busie-less when I do it'; Holt, 'most busiest, when I do it'; Spedding, 'most busiest when idlest,' etc., etc. It seems likely that the reading of the second, third, and fourth folios throws light on the real meaning of the line:-'most busy least, when I do it'; i.e. 'most busy when I indulge my thoughts, least busy when I am actually at work.' A comma after 'busy' instead of after 'least' would simplify this reading, but it is possible to understand it as punctuated in the folios; Shakespeare probably wished to make the superlatives as antithetical as possible; perhaps we should read 'labour' for 'labours.'

III. iii. 2. ' here's a maze trod, indeed, Through forth-rights and meanders'; i.e. prob. 'through straight lines and circles, one of the most usual forms of the maze,' according to Halliwell, who gives the engraving of one, from a collection in the Maison Rus

tique, or the Country Farme, 4to, Lond. 1606. According to other commentators, 'meanders' meandering paths, without absolutely reference to 'circles.' (See engraving at the end of Glos

sary.)

=

III. iii. 39. Praise in departing'; a proverbial expression: "stay your praises till you see how your entertainment will end." III. iii. 52. Ariel, like a harpy'; probably suggested by the harpy-episode in the Third Book of Eneid.

IV. i. 60. 'fetches, so Ff. an archaic and provincial form; Camb. Ed. 'vetches.'

IV. i. 64. "pioned and twilled'; various emendations have been suggested for these difficult words of the folio:-' peonied and lilied,' 'tullip'd,' 'tilled,' etc. It is noted that 'piony' is an old spelling of 'peony,' and that the flower was formerly spoken of as 'the mayden piony' and 'virgin peonie.' In all probability the meaning of the words has not yet been discovered; they are evidently technical terms of horticulture. (Cp. Glossary.)

IV. i. 110. Mr. Wright suggests that 'earths' should be read as a dissyllable, 'earthes'; this suggestion has been adopted in the present text; the second, third, and fourth folios read 'and' before 'foison.'

IV. i. 123. So rare a wonder'd father and a wise'; some few copies of the first folio are said to read wife' (a reading independently suggested by Rowe): the harsh change has little to commend itself.

IV. i. 147, etc. In The Tragedy of Darius, by William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Sterling, published in the year 1603, occurs the following passage, which, according to Steevens, may have been the original of Shakespeare's Speech :

"Let greatnesse of her glascie scepters vaunt:

Not scepters, no but reeds, soone bruis'd, soone broken:
And let this worldlie pomp our wits inchant.

All fades, and scarcelie leaues behind a token.

Those golden palaces, those gorgeous halles,

With fourniture superfluouslie faire:

Those statelie courts, those sky-encountering walles
Evanish all like vapours in the aire."

IV. i. 193. The folios read hang on them.'

IV. i. 221. O King Stephano; O peer!' an illusion to the old song, often referred to in Elizabethan literature, "Take thy old cloak about thee":

"King Stephen was a worthy peere,

His breeches cost him but a crowne,
He held them sixpence all to deere;

Therefore he called the taylor Lowne."

The ballad is printed in Percy's Reliques; Shakespeare quotes it also in Othello, II. iii. 92.

IV. i. 231. 'Let's alone'; some verb of motion must be understood, i.e. ‘let us go alone' (leaving Trinculo behind); ́alone' is possibly an error of the folios for 'along,' as suggested by Theobald.

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IV. i. 237. 'An allusion to what often happens to people who pass the line. The violent fevers which they contract in that hot climate make them lose their hair."-STEEVENS.

IV. i. 264. 'lies' (probably correctly, the verb preceding the plural noun), so Ff.; Camb. Ed. 'lie.'

V. i. 23, 24. The first and second folios place a comma after 'sharply,' making 'passion' a verb; the comma is omitted in the third and fourth folios.

V. i. 39. 'mushrumps' (the old form of the word), so Ff.; Camb. and Mod. Edd. 'mushrooms.'

V. i. 309. beloved,' trisyllabic; Ff. 'belov'd.'

Explanatory Notes.

The Explanatory Notes in this edition have been specially selected and adapted, with emendations after the latest and best authorities, from the most eminent Shakespearian scholars and commentators, including Johnson, Malone, Steevens, Singer, Dyce, Hudson, White, Furness, Dowden, and others. This method, here introduced for the first time, provides the best annotation of Shakespeare ever embraced in a single edition.

ACT FIRST,

Scene I.

[On a ship at sea] Upon this scene Coleridge finely remarks: 'The romance opens with a busy scene admirably appropriate to the kind of drama, and giving, as it were, the keynote to the whole harmony. It is the bustle of a tempest, from which the real horrors are abstracted;-therefore it is poetical, though not in strictness natural-(the distinction to which I have so often alluded)—and is purposely restrained from concentering the interest on itself, but is used merely as an induction or tuning for what is to follow."

10. Act with spirit, behave like men. So I Henry VI., I. vi. 16: "When they shall hear how we have play'd the men.'

34. Of this order Lord Mulgrave, a sailor critic, says: "The striking the topmast was a new invention in Shakespeare's time, which he here very properly introduces. Shakespeare has placed his ship in the situation in which it was indisputably right to strike the topmast-where he had not sea-room."

35. Bring her to try with main-course:-This was apparently a common nautical phrase, meaning to keep as close to the wind as possible. Thus, in Hakluyt's Voyages, 1598: "And when the barke had way, we cut the hauser, and so gate the sea to our friend, and tried out all that day with our maine course." Smith also has the phrase in his Sea Grammar, 1627.

48. unstanched:-In Beaumont and Fletcher's Mad Lover, Chi

lias says to the Priestess: “Be quiet, and be stanch too; no inundations."

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49. set her two courses:-Captain Glascock, a nautical critic, says: "The ship's head is to be put leeward, and the vessel to be drawn off the land under that canvas nautically denominated the two courses. Holt says: The courses meant are two of the three lowest and largest sails of a ship, so called because they contribute most to give her way through the water, and thus enable her to feel the helm, and steer her course better than when they are not set or spread to the wind." To lay a ship ahold, is to bring her to lie as near the wind as she can, in order to keep clear of the land, and get her out to sea.

70. Lord Mulgrave declares that the Poet must either have drawn his technical knowledge of seamanship from accurate personal observation, or else have had a remarkable power of applying the information gained from others. And he thinks Shakespeare must have conversed with some of the best seamen of the time, as "no books had then been published on the subject." Lord Mulgrave exhibits the ship in five positions, and shows how truly these are represented by the words of the dialogue, and says: "The succession of events is strictly observed in the natural progress of the distress described; the expedients adopted are the most proper that could have been devised for a chance of safety: 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. Shakespeare'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."

Scene II.

19. more better:-The doubling of comparatives is frequent among writers of Shakespeare's time.

25. Lie there, my art:-" Lord Burleigh," says Fuller (Holy State, iv. 6), "when he put off his gown at night, used to say, 'Lie there, Lord Treasurer.'

50. abysm: An old form of abyss; from the old French abisme. 81. To trash for over-topping:-To check the overgrowth. A hunting-term which meant to check or hamper a dog so that he would not overtop or outrun the pack. A trash was a halter fastened to a dog's neck and dragging on the ground. "Who