Pro. Thou dost! and think'st

It much, to tread the ooze of the salt deep;
To run upon the sharp wind of the north;

To do me business in the veins o' th' earth,
When it is bak'd with frost.

Ari. I do not, sir.

Pro. 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.

Pro. Thou hast: Where was she born? speak; tell me. Ari. Sir, in Argier.

Pro. 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.

Pro. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought with child,

And here was left by th' sailors: Thou, my slave,

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,

-Thou wast a spirit too delicate

To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands.

Over these spirits a power might be obtained by certain rites performed or charms learned. This power was called the Black Art,' or Knowledge of Enchantment. The enchanter being (as king James observes in his Demonology) "one who commands the devil, whereas the witch serves him." Those who thought best of this art. the existence of which was, I am afraid, believed very seriously, held, that certain sounds and characters had a physical power over spirits, and compelled their agency; others who condemned the practice, which in reality was surely never practised, were of opinion, with more reason, that the power of charms arose only from compact, and was no more than the spirits voluntarily allowed them for the seduction of man. The art was held by all, though not equally criminal, yet unlawful; and therefore Casaubon, speaking of one who had commerce with spirits, blames him, though he imagines bim "one of the best kind who dealt with them by way of command." Thus Prospero repents of his art in the last scene. The spirits were always considered as in some measure enslaved to the enchanter, at least for a time, and as serving with unwillingness, therefore Ariel so often begs for liberty; and Caliban observes, that the spirits serve Prospero with no good will, but "hate him rootedly."-Of these trifles enough. JOHNSON. F 2

9

VOL. 1.

Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprison'd, thou didst painfully remain

A dozen years; within which space she died,

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.

Pro. Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban, Whom now I keep in service.

Thou best know'st

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
To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax
Could not again undo; it was mine art,

When I arriv'd, and heard thee, that made
The pine, and let thee out.

Ari. I thank thee, master.

gape

Pro. 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 spiriting gently.

Pro. Do so; and after two days

I will discharge thee.

Ari. That's my noble master!

What shall I do? say what? what shall I do?

Pro. Go make thyself like to a nymph o' th' sea;
Be subject to no sight but mine; invisible
To every eye-ball else. Go, take this shape,
And hither come in't: hence, with diligence.

[Exit ARIEL

Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well;
Awake!

Mira. The strangeness of your story put
Heaviness in me.

Pro. Shake it off: Come on;

We'll visit Caliban, my slave, who never

Yields us kind answer.

Mira. 'Tis a villain, sir,

I do not love to look on.

Pro. 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!
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 quaint Ariel,

Hark in thine ear.

Ari. My lord, it shall be done.

[Exit.

Pro. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself

Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!

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!

Pro. 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 honey-combs, each pinch more stinging
Than bees that made them.

Cal. I must eat my dinner.

This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,

Which thou tak'st from me. When thou camest first, Thou strok'dst me, and mad'st much of me; would'st

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 lov'd thee,

And shew'd thee all the qualities o' th' isle,

[9] It should be remembered, that, in the pneumatology of former ages, these particulars were settled with the most minute exactness, and the different kinds of visionary beings had different allotments of time suitable to the variety or consequence of their employments. During these spaces, they were at liberty to act, but were always obliged to leave off at a certain hour, that they might not interfere in that portion of night which belonged to others. Among these, we may suppose urchins to have had a part subjected to their dominion. STEEVENS.

The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place, and fertile ; Cursed be I that did so!-All the charms

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 of the island.

Pro. Thou most lying slave,

Whom stripes may move, not kindness: I have us'd thee,
Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodg'd thee
In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate

The honour of my child.

Cal. O ho, O ho! 'would it had been done!
Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled else
This isle with Calibans.

Pro. Abhorred slave;

Which any print of goodness will 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, Tho' thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou Deservedly confin'd into this rock,

Who had'st deserv'd 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!

Pro. 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,

[Aside.

[1] This savage exclamation was originally 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. STEEVENS.

[2] The erysipelas was anciently called the red plague. STEEVENS,

And make a vassal of him.

Pro. So, slave; hence!

[Exit CAL,

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 whist,)

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 music be? i' th' air, or 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.

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,

[3] 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 any thing above mortal discovery.

The reason for which Ariel is introduced thus trifling is, that he and his companion are evidently of the fairy kind, an order of beings to which tradition has always ascribed a sort of diminutive agency, powerful but ludicrous, a humorous and frof controlment of nature, well expressed by the songs of Ariel. JOHNSON.