Although my last: no matter, since I feel
The best is past.—Brother, my lord the duke,
Stand to, and do as we.

Thunder and lightning. Enter ARIEL, like a barpy: claps his wings upon the table; and, with a quaint device, the banquet vanishes.

Ari. You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,That hath to instrument this lower world, And what is in 't,—the never-surfeited sea Hath caused to belch up; and on this island, Where man doth not inhabit; you 'mongst men Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad;

[Seeing Alon., Seb., &c., draw their swords. And even with such-like valour men hang and drown

Their proper selves. You fools! I and my fellows Are ministers of Fate: the elements,

Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish

One dowle 25 that's in my plume: my fellow

ministers

If you could hurt,

Are like invulnerable.
Your swords are now too massy for your strengths,
And will not be uplifted. But remember,--
For that's my business to you,—that you three
From Milan did supplant good Prospero;
Expos'd unto the sea (which hath requit it)
Him and his innocent child: for which foul deed
The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
Incens'd the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,
Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso,
They have bereft; and do pronounce, by me,
Lingering perdition-worse than any death
Can be at once-shall step by step attend

You and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from,

Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls Upon your heads,-is nothing but heart's sorrow And a clear life 26 ensuing.

He vanishes in thunder; then, to soft music, enter the Shapes again, and dance with mocks and mows, and carry out the table.

Pros.

[Aside to Ari.] Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring: Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated, In what thou hadst to say so, with good life And observation strange," my meaner ministers Their several kinds have done. My high charms work,

And these, mine enemies, are all knit up
In their distractions: they now are in my power;
And in these fits I leave them, while I visit
Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose
drown'd,-

And his and my lov'd darling.

is

[Exit above. Gon. I' the name of something holy, sir, why stand you

In this strange stare?
Alon.
Oh, it is monstrous! monstrous!
Methought the billows spoke, and told me of it;
The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder,
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd
The name of Prosper: it did bass my trespass.
Therefore my son i' the ooze is bedded; and
I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded,
And with him there lie mudded.
Seb.
I'll fight their legions o'er.
Ant.

[Exit.

But one fiend at a time,

I'll be thy second. [Exeunt Seb. and Ant.

take this to mean: Also, with life-like enactment and curious (or punctilious) observance of my wish, my inferior sprites have performed their several parts.' We find "strangely" used also in an approving sense at the commencement of Act iv., where Prospero says, "Thou hast strangely stood the test;" that is, 'wonderfully well.'

28. Ecstacy. Shakespeare uses this word for a sudden emotion, disturbance, or even aberration of mind.

SCENE I-Before PROSPERO's cell. Enter PROSPERO, FERDINAND, and MIRANDA. Pros. If I have too austerely punish'd you, Your compensation makes amends; for I Have given you here a thread of mine own life,' Or that for which I live; whom once again I tender to thy hand. All thy vexations Were but my trials of thy love, and thou Hast strangely stood the test: here, afore Heaven, I ratify this my rich gift. O Ferdinand! Do not smile at me that I boast her off, For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise, And make it halt behind her.

1. Thread of mine own life. "Thread" is printed "third" in the Folio; which is probably a misprint for "thrid," an old way of spelling "thread." Although some support might be derived from a passage in "Antony and Cleopatra" (iii. 2), for supposing that "third" is possibly right, yet, taking into consideration the different speakers (which should always be remembered in judging Shakespeare's uniformly characteristic diction), the parallel does not hold good. The cold, measured Octavius Cæsar, even when speaking upon a point where his affections are strongly engaged-the giving his sister Octavia to Mark Antony in marriage-says "You take from me a great part of myself;" which seems somewhat like "a third of mine own life." But it is more in consonance with Prospero's enthusiastic and tender manner, when his only daughter Miranda is in question, to believe that "a thread of mine own life"-a fibre, an

Mine honour into lust, to take away
The edge of that day's celebration,
When I shall think, or Phoebus' steeds are
founder'd,

Or Night kept chain'd below.
Pros.
Fairly spoke.
Sit, then, and talk with her; she is thine own.-
What, Ariel! my industrious servant, Ariel!

Enter ARIEL, invisible.

Ari. What would my potent master? here I am. Pros. Thou and thy meaner fellows your last

service

actual piece of the fabric of his own existence-was what the poet here intended to make him say And then, how earnestly and paternally do those concluding lines come in; followed up by the sequent injunction in the next speech. The mingled fondness for his child, with solemnity of appeal to him to whose future love and care he commits her, form an epitome of all those anxious thoughts that stir a father's heart on such an occasion.

2. Aspersion. Shakespeare, according to a frequent mode of his, uses this word in its original meaning, “sprinkling." 3. Murkiest. Darkest.

4. Suggestion. Temptation, evil incitement.

Iris. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas
Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, and peas:
Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep,

And flat mead thatch'd with stover, 11 them to keep;
Thy banks with peonied and lilied brims,12
Which spungy April at thy hest betrims,

To make cold nymphs chaste crowns and thy broomgroves,

Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,
Being lass-lorn; 13 thy pole-clipt vineyard:
And thy sea-marge, sterile and rocky-hard,
Where thou thyself dost air: the queen o' the sky,
Whose watery arch and messenger am I,

Bids thee leave these; and with her sovereign grace,
Here on this grass-plot, in this very place,
To come and sport. Her peacocks fly amain :
Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain.

7. Ardour of my liver. The ancients supposed the liver to be the seat of the passions.

8. Corollary. A surplus, a crowning number or quantity. It means, Pring more than enough, rather than need one.' 9. Pertly. Alertly, briskly.

10. No tongue, all eyes; be silent. Speech was forbidden to those who were present at an incantation. Afterwards, Prospero again enjoins silence; and says, "Be mute, or else our spell is marr'd." In other plays of Shakespeare we meet with allusion to the same circumstance; as, in "Macbeth," when the Witch summons the apparition of the armed head, she says to Macbeth, "Hear his speech, but say thou naught."

11. Stover. Hay made of rank grass; used as fodder for cattle, and also as thatch. "Estovers" is the old law term for hay, straw, &c., from the old French estouvier.

12. Peonied and lilied brims. In the Folio this is 'printed pioned and twilled brims," which has been interpreted to mean "dug and begrimed," or "dug and ridged." Steevens suggested that it was a misprint for "peonied and lilied;" which reading presents a poetical picture of brilliant colouring that we have often heard both Keats and Leigh Hunt warmly admire. Some commentators have asserted that April is too early for peonies and lilies to bloom; but in Lord Bacon's Essay (published in 1597) "Of Gardens," where he gives a list of “things of beauty

Of her society

Be not afraid I met her Deity

Cutting the clouds towards Paphos, and her son

Dove-drawn with her. Here thought they to have done
Some wanton charm upon this man and maid,
Whose vows are, that no bed-rite shall be paid
Till Hymen's torch be lighted; but in vain :
Mars's hot minion is return'd again,

Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows,
Swears he will shoot no more, but play with sparrows,
And be a boy right out.

Cer.

Highest queen of state,

Great Juno, comes; I know her by her gait.

that may be then in season," and flowers that blossom in successive months, he says, “In April follow the double white violet, the wall-flower, the stock-gilly flower, the cowslip, flower-deluces, and lilies of all natures, rosemary flower, the tulip, the double piony, the pale daffodil, &c." It may be passingly remarked that Bacon spells the word piony, which is one form of "peony." Then, the line-" To make cold nymphs chaste crowns," seems to demand previous mention of flowers; and the epithet "chaste" applies to the peculiar flowers in question, as is evidenced by the following points. Lyte, in his "Herbal," says, "One kind of peonie is called by some maiden, or virgin peonie." Pliny mentions the water-lily as a preserver of chastity; and Edward Fenton, in his "Secret Wonders of Nature" (1569), says, "The water-lily mortifieth altogether the appetite of sensuality, and defends from unchaste thoughts." For these citations in support of our creed as to the right reading in this beautiful passage, we gladly avow our obligation to Mr. Hudson, in his note to the Boston Edition of Shakespeare. 13. Lass-lorn. Left by his lass.

14. Bosky acres. "Bosky" is woody; from the Latin boscus, and the Italian bosco, or boschetto, a little wood.

15. Harmonious charmingly. Charmingly" here, besides its usual acceptation of delightfully, means magically, as a witching spell, or charm.