Profpero's interruption produces, he goes on in pursuing his former question. O, if a virgin, I'll make you queen of Naples. L. 21. the Duke of Milan, JOHNSON. And bis brave fon, being twain,] Here feems a flight forgetfulness in our Poet: No body was loft in this wreck, as is manifeft from feveral paffages: and yet we have no fuch character introduc'd in the fable, as the Duke of Milan's fon. THEOB. control thee,] i. e. fhew thee thy error. WARB.* L. 23. P. 24. L. 25. Mira. O dear father, JOHNSON. Make not too rafh a tryal of him; for He's gentle, and not fearful. This seems to be a very odd way of expreffing her sense of her lover's good qualities. It is certain the beauty of it is not seen at first view. Miranda, till now, had never seen any mortal (her father excepted) but Caliban. She had frequently beheld him under that kind of difcipline which her father here threatens to inflict upon her lover. I'll manacle thy neck and feet together: Sea-water fhalt thou drink, thy food shall be The perverfity of Caliban's nature, and the cowardliness of it, made punishment neceffary, and eafy to be inflicted: finding, therefore, Ferdinand threatened with the like treatment, out of tenderness both to her father and lover the cries-He's gentle, not like the favage Caliban, and fo deferves not punishment; this fhe gathered from his preceding converfation with her-and not fearful, like that coward, and fo is not to be eafily managed. This the collected from his drawing his fword, and standing on his defence. WARB.* Ibid.] Miranda affigns two reafons to induce her father not to make too rash a trial of Ferdinand, that is, not to atVOL. I. B tempt a combat, which the apprehends, will be attended with great hazard and danger. The first is, that he is gentle, which every one fees is fo far from being pertinent, that its natural tendency is rather to encourage fuch an attempt. The fecond, that he is not fearful, is indeed, in the common and ordinary acceptation of the word, a perfuafive one; but to pafs over the faintness and coldness of the expreffion, he is not fearful, to denote that he is a man of fpirit and refolution, the propriety of language would, in this cafe, have inclined the poet to have said, though he is gentle, he is not fearful, or at least, he is gentle, but not fearful, that the oppofition between those characters might have appeared. I cannot, therefore, help thinking that Shakespeare wrote, Make not too harsh a trial of him; for He's gentle, and not fearful. REVISAL. P. 25. 1. 1. Come from thy ward.] Defift from any hope of awing me by that pofture of defence. JOHNSON. L. 22. My fpirits, as in a dream, are all bound up.] Alluding to a common fenfation in dreams, when we struggle, but with a total impuifiance in our endeavours, to run, ftrike, &c. WARB.* P. 26. 1. 13. Our HINT of woe] bint of woe, can fignify only prognoftic of woe: which is not the fenfe required. We should read STINT, i. e. proportion, allotWARB. ment. Ibid.] Hint is that which recals to the memory. The caufe that fills our minds with grief is common. JOHNS. L. 20. Alon. Pr'thee peace.] All this that follows after the words Prythee peace.- -to the words, You cram thefe words, &c. feems to have been interpolated, (perhaps by the Players) the verfes there beginning again; and all that is between in profe, not only being very impertinent ftuff, but moft improper and ill-plac'd drollery, in the mouths of unhappy fhipwreckt people. There is more of the fame fort interfperfed in the remaining part of the scene. POPE Ibid.] I cannot be of Mr. Pope's opinion, that it is interpolated. For fhould we take out this intermediate part, what would become of these words of the King? Would I had never Married my daughter there! What daughter? and, where married? For it is from this intermediate part of the scene only, that we are told, the King had a daughter nam'd Claribel, whom he had married in Tunis. "Tis true, in a subsequent fcene, betwixt Antonio and Sebaftian, we again hear her and Tunis mention'd: but in fuch a manner, that it would be quite obfcure and unintelligible without this previous information. Befides, poor and jejune as the matter of the dialogue is, it was certainly defign'd to be of a ridiculous stamp; to divert and unfettle the King's thoughts from reflecting too deeply on his fon's fuppofed drowning. THEOB. P. 26. 1. 22. The VISITOR will not give o'er fo.] This Vifitor is a comforter or adviser. We must read then, 'VISER, i. e. the adviser. WARB. Ibid.] Why Dr. Warburton fhould change Vifitor to 'Vifer for Advifer I cannot discover. Gonzalo gives not only advice but comfort, and is therefore properly called the Vifitor, like others who vifit the fick or diftreffed to give them confolation. In fome of the Proteftant churches there is a kind of officers termed confolators for the fick. JOHNSON. P. 28. 1. 12. As many voucht rarities are.] A fatire on the extravagant accounts that voyagers then told of the new difcovered world. WARB.* L. 27.] The name of a widow brings to their minds their own fhipwreck, which they confider as having made many widows in Naples. JOHNSON. P. 30. 1. 23. Than we bring men to comfort them.] It does not clearly appear whether the King and thefe lords thought the ship loft. This paffage feems to imply that they were themselves confident of returning, but imagined part of the fleet destroyed. Why, indeed, should Sebaftian plot against his brother in the following scene unless he knew how to find the kingdom which he was to inherit? JOHNSON. P. 31. L. 9. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning.] All this dialogue is a fine fatire on the Utopian treatifes of government, and the impracticable inconsistent fchemes therein recommended. WARB L. 12. wealth, poverty.] Read poverty, riches, against old copies. CAPELL.* L. 14.-Vineyard, olive, none.] An infertion by CAPELL.* L. 26. -all foyzon, all abundance.] Foyzon fignifies the great plenty of any thing. WARB.* P. 33. 1. 31. Trebles thee o'er.] i. e. makes thee thrice what thou now art. Thus the two first folio's, and all the other impreffions of any authority, that I have feen, exhibit the text and the phrafe is familiar both to our Poet, and other Stage-writers of his time. Troubles thee o'er-is a foolish reading, which, I believe, first got birth in Mr. Pope's two editions of our Poet; and, I dare fay, will be buried there in a proper obfcurity. THEOB.* Ibid.]hich to do, Trebles thee o'er.] i. e. follow my advice, and it will advance thy fortune to the height. So Fletcher in his Noble Gentleman, I now fee your father's bonours Tret ling upon you And again in his Maid of the Mill, How did you bear ber lofs? With thy grief trebled. Yet the Oxford Editor alters it to, Troubles thee not. WARB.* P. 34. 1. 16. This lord of weak remembrance.] This lord who being now in his dotage has outlived his faculty of remembring, and who once laid in the ground fhall be as little remembered himself as he can now remember other things. JOHNSON. Ibid. 1. 19. For be's a fpirit of perfuafion.] Of this entangled fentence I can draw no fenfe from the prefent reading, and therefore imagine that the author gave it thus: a For he, a fpirit of perfuafion, only Of which the meaning may be, either that be alone who is a fpirit of perfuafion, profeffes to perfuade the king; or that, He only profefes to perfuade, that is, without his being so persuaded bimfelf be makes a fhew of perfuading the king. JOHNSON. L. 28. Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond, But doubts difcovery there.-] The meaning is, that ambition would be fo affected with the pleafing profpect, that it would be a doubt whether the difcovery, it there made of future greatnefs, was a real representation, or only, what Shakespeare, in another place, calls a dreame of advan tage. The Oxford Editor changes doubt to drop, and fo makes nonfenfe of the whole fentence; to pierce a wink fignifies to fee or difcern: and to drop difcovery fignifies not to fee. So that the fentiment is, If you fee further into this matter you will not fee at all. WARB. Ibid. a wink beyond] That this is the utmost extent of the profpect of ambition, the point where the eye can pass no further, and where objects lofe their diftin&tnefs, so that what is there difcovered, is faint, obfcure, and doubtful. JOHNSON. She, for whom P. 35.1.7. We were fea-fwallow'd,] Thus Mr. Pope, with as little reafon, as authority. All the copies, that I have seen, read— from whom, &c• And why not from? Were they not fhipwreck'd, as is evident above, in their return from her? Would I had never Married my daughter there! for coming thence, &c. L. 8.] Thefe lines stand in the old edition thus: though fome caft again And by that deftiny, to perform an act, THEQB, Whereof what's paft is prologue, what to come In your The reading in the latter editions is without authority. The old text may very well ftand, except that in the laft line in fhould be is, and perhaps we might better fay-and that by deftiny. It being a common plea of wickedness to call temptation destiny. JOHNS. In your and my difcharge. CAPELL. Ibid. 1. 17. how fhall that Claribel Meafure us back by Naples? Keep in Tunis And let Sebaftian swake.] Modern editions for by read to; but I fuppofe the word fhould be written b'w'y, a corruption of God be with you; farewell; and that in |