as Nares observes, a mere shrub, which gives no shade. In support, however, of the old reading, it is said that one kind of broom grows to the height of a tall man. So do some species of corn; yet who would speak of a grove of corn? Lettsom comments as follows: "The notion of disconsolate lovers betaking themselves to groves is common enough in poetry: Shakespeare himself has placed Romeo in a sycamore grove when Rosaline was cruel; and we may judge from this the sort of grove he would select for a young gentleman in like case. Till it can be shown that a growth of broom may be called a grove, it seems idle to dispute about the height of the shrub. In Babington's Botany it is said to be two and a half or three feet high; and this is certainly the usual height to which it grows on Hampstead Heath, though occasionally a plant may be found taller: I am told that in Italy it grows to the height of six or seven feet; but that surely is no great matter. The defences set up for the old reading appear to me singularly weak.” I must add that, in the first scene of the play, we have an instance of broom evidently misprinted brown in the original; and I do not see why brown might not as easily have been misprinted broom. See note on the passage, page 149.

P. 122. Earth's increase, and foison plenty.—So the second folio: the first omits and. The prefix "Cer." also wanting in the original.

P. 123. So rare a wonder'd father and a wife

Make this place Paradise.—The original has wise for wife and makes for make. The old reading has been stoutly maintained; but I can hardly think that Ferdinand would leave the wife out of such a reckoning, especially the wife being Miranda, or the Wonderful. Then too wise and Paradise make a disagreeable jingle. See foot-note 25.

P. 123. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the winding brooks,

With your sedge crowns and ever-harmless looks,

Leave your crisp channels, and on this green land

Answer our summons; Juno does command. In the first of these lines, the original has windring, which Rowe corrected to winding. Some editors read wandering. In the second line, the original has "sedg'd crowns." The reading in the text is Walker's, and is also

found in Collier's second folio. It appears that final d and final e were especially apt to be confounded. In the fourth line, the old text has your instead of our. Probably repeated by mistake from the line before.

P. 124. This is most strange: your father's in some passion

That works him strongly.— So Hanmer and Dyce. The original lacks most, which certainly helps the sense, and finishes the verse; still I am not quite sure about it.

P. 124. You do, my son, look in a moved sort. The original reads "You do look, my son," &c. The reading in the text was proposed by Seymour.

P. 125. And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. — So the old editions. Dyce and some others print wreck instead of rack; and Dyce produces several instances where the form rack is clearly used for wreck. But I think the sense of rack harmonizes best with the context. Thus the expressions, "Melted into thin air," "the baseless fabric of this vision," "shall dissolve," and "this insubstantial pageant faded," naturally draw into the sense of something thinner and more vapoury than is fairly expressed by the word wreck. See foot-note 32.

P. 125. Ferd. Mira.

We wish you peace.

Pros. [To ARIEL.] Come with a thought! — I thank ye. [Exeunt FERD. and MIRA.]— Ariel, come ! — The original has "wish your peace," and "I thank thee Ariel: come." The first correction is Walker's, the other Dyce's; and both seem eminently judicious. See foot-note 34.

P. 126. Well, say again, where didst thou leave these varlets? The original lacks Well.

P. 127.

On whom my pains,

Humanely taken, all are lost, quite lost. So Walker. original has "all, all lost." Hanmer reads are all lost."

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The

P. 128. Nay, good my lord, give me thy favour still.—The original lacks Nay, and thus defeats Caliban of his wonted rhythm.

And do the murder first. — The original has "Let's alone." The correction is Theobald's, and I think it needs no defence.

ACT V., SCENE I.

P. 132. In the same fashion as you gave in charge ;

Just as you left them; all are prisoners, sir,

In the line-grove, &c. - In the second of these lines, the old text reads "all prisoners, sir." The Poet could hardly have been so indifferent to rhythm as to leave such a gap. Pope reads "all your prisoners." The reading in the text is from Collier's second folio.

P. 132. And the remainder mourning over them,
Brimful of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly

He that you term'd "The good old lord, Gonzalo":

His tears run down his beard, like winter-drops

From eaves of reeds. — In the third of these lines, the original has Him for He, and inserts sir after term'd, to the manifest spoiling of the metre. In the fourth line, again, the old text has "winters drops." Corrected in the fourth folio.

P. 134. And 'twixt the green sea and the azure vault

Set roaring war. — - The original has “azur'd vault." See note

on "With your sedge crowns," page 166.

P. 135. A solemn air, as the best comforter

To an unsettled fancy, cure the brains,

Now useless, boil'd within the skull!-In the first of these lines, the old text has and instead of as. But the latter is clearly required; for Prospero certainly means that "a solemn air" is itself "the best comforter." Shakespeare is almost classical in his estimate of the power of music; and here he probably had in mind the effect of David's harp and voice in charming the evil spirit out of King Saul

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See I Samuel, xvi. 23.— In the second and third lines, again, the original has cure thy brains,” and “within thy skull." But Prospero is evidently speaking either to all six of the men or else to none of them. If he is speaking to them, it should be your—your; if merely in reference to them, it should be either the - the or their - their. The correction is Dr. C. M. Ingleby's, and is manifestly right; though, for my part, I should prefer their — their, but that it involves more of literal change. The old copies have many clear instances of like error. — The original also has boile instead of boil'd, which the sense naturally requires. Probably the Poet wrote boild; and here, as in many other cases, final d and final e were confounded. See foot-note 10.

P. 135.

O thou good Gonzalo,

My true preserver, &c.—So Walker. The original lacks thou, and so has an ugly gap in the verse. "O my good Gonzalo " is the reading of some editors.

After Summer merrily. — In the second of these lines, I adopt the punctuation proposed by Heath. The original reads "There I couch when owls do cry." Heath notes as follows: "If Ariel 'couches in the cowslip's bell when owls do cry,' it follows that he couches there in Winter; for that, as Mr. Warburton hath shown, from the authority of our Poet himself, as well as from the general notoriety of the fact, is the season when owls do cry. How, then, can it consistently be said, as it is in the words immediately following, that he constantly flies the approach of Winter, by following the Summer in its progress to other climates?"— In the fourth line, Theobald changed Summer to sunset; plausibly, as it assimilates the meaning to matter of fact. But the Poet ascribes to Ariel and his fellows something of the same qualities which the Fairies have, as delineated in A MidsummerNight's Dream. These beings move entirely according to the pleasure and impulse of their inner nature, unlimited by any external order of facts; wandering everywhere swifter than the moony sphere," in

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quest of whatever they have most delight in, or most affinity with. Oberon puts it thus : —

P. 137.

Then my Queen, in silence sad,

Trip we after the night's shade:

We the globe can compass soon,

Swifter than the wandering Moon.

The master and the boatswain

Being awaked, enforce them to this place. — So Walker conjectured, and so the context clearly requires. The original has awake. Another instance of d and e confounded, the Poet having probably written awakd.

P. 138. But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded,
I here could pluck his Highness' frown upon you,
And justify you traitors: at this time

I'll tell no tales.

Sebas. [Aside to ANTO.] The Devil speaks in him.
Pros.

Now,

For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother, &c. - In the last line but one, the original has No instead of Now. No must of course refer to what Sebastian has just said, "The Devil speaks in him." But this is evidently spoken either to himself or to his partner in guilt; and things so spoken are, I think, never supposed to be heard by the other persons of the scene. Besides, we naturally want the sense of now as a transitional word. The correction was proposed by the late Professor Allen, of Philadelphia.

P. 139. As great to me, as late; and, portable

To make the dear loss, &c.— The original has supportable, which makes shocking work with the metre. Steevens printed portable, which keeps the sense, saves the verse, and is elsewhere used by the Poet.

P. 140.

And scarce think

Their eyes do offices of truth, these words

Are natural breath. - So Capell. The original has “their words." But Prospero evidently refers to the words himself is speak ing. See foot-note 30.