Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter : Flesh and blood, You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition, Expell'd remorse and nature; 15 who, with Sebastian, — Would here have your King; I do forgive thee, kill'd Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding Begins to swell; and the approaching tide Will shortly fill the reasonable shore,16 That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them That yet looks on me would know me. — Ariel, Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell: I will discase me,17 and myself present Thou shalt ere long be free. As I was sometime Milan:-quickly, spirit; [Exit ARIEL. ARIEL re-enters, singing, and helps to attire PROSPERO. Ari. Where the bee sucks, there suck I: In a cowslip's bell I lie, There I couch: when owls do cry, On the bat's back I do fly After Summer, merrily.18 Merrily, merrily shall I live now Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. 15 Here, as commonly in Shakespeare, remorse is pity or tenderness of heart. Nature is put for natural affection. Often so. 16"The reasonable shore" is the shore of reason. 17" Will put off my disguise." The Poet repeatedly uses case for clothes; also for skin. Sometime, in the next line, is formerly. Often so. 18 Ariel uses "the bat's back" as his pleasant vehicle, to pursue Summer in its progress to other regions, and thus live merrily under continual blossoms. Such appears the most natural as well as most poetical meaning Pros. Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee; To the King's ship, invisible as thou art And presently, pr'ythee. Ari. I drink the air before me, and return -Or e'er your pulse twice beat. [Exit ARIEL. Gonza. All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement Inhabit here: some heavenly power guide us Out of this fearful country! Pros. Behold, sir King, The wrongèd Duke of Milan, Prospero: Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body; reaand to thee and thy company I bid A hearty welcome. Alon. Whêr 19 thou be'st he or no, Or some enchanted trifle 20 to abuse me, As late I have been, I not know: thy pulse of this much disputed passage. As a matter of fact, however, bats do not migrate in quest of Summer, but become torpid in winter. Was the Poet ignorant of this, or did he disregard it, thinking that such beings as Ariel were not bound to observe the rules of natural history? See Critical Notes. 19 The Poet often so contracts whether. See Julius Cæsar, page 43, note 19. 20 Enchanted trifle probably means bewitching phantom. Enchanted for enchanting, in accordance with the usage, before noted, of active and passive forms indiscriminately. See page 60, note 59. Walker, however, thinks the meaning to be "some trifle produced by enchantment to abuse me." — Abuse, both verb and substantive, was often used in the sense of deceive, delude, or cheat. Beats, as of flesh and blood, and, since I saw thee, I fear, a madness held me this must crave Thy dukedom I resign 22 and do entreat Thou pardon me my wrongs.23 But how should Prospero Be living and be here? Pros. First, noble friend, Let me embrace thine age, whose honour cannot Be measured or confined. Gonza. Or be not, I'll not swear. Pros. Whether this be You do yet taste Some subtilties 24 o' the isle, that will not let you Believe things certain. — Welcome, my friends all: [Aside to SEBAS. and ANTO.] But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded, I here could pluck his Highness' frown upon you, I'll tell no tales. Sebas. [Aside to ANTO.] The Devil speaks in him. 21 That is, if there be any reality in all this. An if, again, as before ex plained. See page 96, note 20. 22 The dukedom of Milan had been made tributary to Naples by Antonio, as the price of aid in his usurpation. 23 Still another instance of the construction mentioned in note 3 of this scene. "My wrongs" may mean either the wrongs I have done, or the wrongs I have suffered. Here it means the former. 24 Subtilties are quaint deceptive inventions; the word is common to ancient cookery, in which a disguised or ornamented dish is so termed. Fabyan's Chronicle, 1542, describes one made of pastry, " called a pelican sitting on his nest with his birds, and an image of Saint Catharine holding a book, and disputing with the doctors." 25 "Prove you traitors," or, "justify myself for calling you such." Pros. Now, For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive Alon. If thou be'st Prospero, Give us particulars of thy preservation ; How thou hast met us here, who three hours since Pros. I'm woe 27 for't, sir. Alon. Irreparable is the loss; and patience Says it is past her cure. You have not sought her help; of whose soft grace, And rest myself content. Alon. You the like loss ! Pros. As great to me, as late ;28 and, portable To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker Than you may call to comfort you; for I Have lost my daughter. Alon. A daughter! O Heavens, that they were living both in Naples, 26 Perforce is of force, that is, necessarily or of necessity. 27 Woe was often used thus with an adjective sense; sorry. 28 "As great to me, and as recent." Or the meaning may be, "As great to me as it is recent." Either explanation suits, but I prefer the first.Portable is endurable. The Poet has it repeatedly. Myself were mudded in that oozy bed Where my son lies. When did you lose your daughter? Pros. In this last tempest. I perceives these lords At this encounter do so much admire,29 That they devour their reason, and scarce think Their eyes do offices of truth, these words. Are natural breath: 30 but, howsoe'er you have Which was thrust forth of Milan; who most strangely Not a relation for a breakfast, nor Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir; I will requite you with as good a thing; The entrance of the Cell opens, and discovers FERDINAND and Mira. Sweet lord, you play me false. Ferd. I would not for the world. No, my dear'st love, 29 Shakespeare commonly uses admire and its derivatives in the Latin sense; that of wonder or amazement. The meaning here is, that their reason is swallowed up in wonder. 30"That these words which I am speaking are the words of a real living man." 31 No more of this now, or for the present. So yet was often used. |