Profpero here difcovers a great emotion of anger on his fudden recollection of Caliban's plot. This appears from the admirable reflection he makes on the infignificancy of human things. For thinking men are never under greater depreffion of mind than when they moralize in this manner: yet, if we turn to the occafion of his diforder, it does not appear, at first view, to be a thing capable of moving one in Profpero's circumftances: The plot of a contemptible favage and two drunken failors, all of whom he had abfolutely in his power. There was then no apprehenfion of danger : but if we look more nearly into the cafe, we fhall have reafon to admire our author's wonderful knowledge of nature. There was something in it with which great minds are most deeply affected, and that is the fenfe of ingratitude. He recalled to mind the obligations this Caliban lay under for the inftructions he had given him, and the conveniences of life he had taught him to use. But these reflections on Caliban's ingratitude would naturally recal to mind his brother's: and then these two working together, were very capable of producing all the diforder of paffion here reprefented.That these two, who had received at his hands the two beft gifts mortals are capable of, when rightly employed, regal power and the use of reafon; that thefe, in return, should confpire against the life of the donor, would surely afflict a generous mind to its utmost bearing. WARB.* P. 65. 1. 9. Meet with Caliban.] To meet with is to counteraft,- -to play ftratagem against ftratagem."The parfon knows the temper of every one in his houfe, and accordingly either meets with their vices, or advances their virtues." HERBERT'S Country Parfon. JOHNS. L. 20.] Thus Drayton, in his Court of Fairie Hobgoblin caught in a spell: But once the circle got within The charms to work do straight begin, For as he thus was bufy, A pain he in his head-piece feels, At length upon his feet he gets, And through the bushes scrambles, Among the briers and brambles. JOHNSON. P. 66. 1. 1. The trumpery in my house, go bring it hither For ftale to catch thefe Thieves-] If it be asked what neceffity there was for this apparatus, I answer that it was the fuperftitious fancy of the people, in our author's time, that witches, conjurors, &c. had no power over those against whom they would employ their charms, till they had got them at this advantage, committing fome fin or cther, as here of theft. WARB. Ibid.] Very ingenious-but how then came Profpero's charms to have power over Ferdinand, the HOLY Gonzalo, and Miranda? How over thefe very fellows, as defcribed in the fpeech immediately preceding? CAN. OF CRIT. L. 13. He has played Jack with a lanthorn, has led us about like an ignis fatuus, by which travellers are decoyed into the mire. P. 67. 1. JOHNSON. 12. Trin. O King Stephano! O Peer! O worthy Stephano! Look, what a wardrobe here is for thee!] The humour of thefe lines confifts in their being an allufion to an old celebrated ballad, which begins thus, King Stephano was a coorthy Peer and celebrates that King's parfimony with regard to his wardrobe.-There are two ftanzas of this ballad in Othello. WARB.* Time P. 69. 1. 3. Goes upright with his carriage-] The thought is pretty. -Time is ufually reprefented as an old man almoft worn out, and bending under his load. He is here painted as in great vigour, and walking upright, to denote that things went profperoufly on. WARB.* P. 70. 1. 5. Paffion'd as they.] Thus Mr. Pope in both his editions. But all the authentick copies read; Paffion as they i. e. feel the force of paffion; am mov'd with it. So Julia, in the Two Gentlemen of Verona; Madam, 'twas Ariadne paffioning For Thefeus' perjury, and unjuft flight. THEOB.* P. 70. L. 15. Te elves of bills, brooks, ftanding lakes and groves. Shakespeare here has clofely followed Golding's translation of Ovid, though it is by no means literal, Ye ayres and winds, ye elves of kills, of brooks, of woods alone, Of landing lakes, and of the night, approche ye everych one. P. 71. l. 1. FARMER. Graves at my command Have wak'd their fleepers ;] As odd, as this expreffion is, of graves waking their dead, instead of, the dead waking in their graves, I believe, it may be juftified by the ufage of Poets. Beaumont and Fletcher, in their Bonduca, fpeaking of the power of Fame, make it wake graves, Wakens the ruin'd monuments, and there, Where nothing but eternal death and fleep is, Informs again the dead bones. And Virgil, speaking of Rome as a city, fays, it furrounded its feven hills with a wall. Scilicet & rerum facta eft pulcherrima Roma, THEOBALD." Ibid.] Have wak'd their fleepers; op'd, and let them forth By my fo potent art.] Here is evidently an abfurd tranfpofition of the words in the last line but one. But Mr. Theobald's defence of the prefent reading is ftill more abfurd. He juftifies the expreffion of graves waking their sleep ers, by Beaumont and Fletcher's saying-Fame wakens the ruin'd monuments-which is an expreffion purely metaphorical, to fignify that those monuments are brought again into remembrance; and is therefore juftifiable. But-graves waking their fleepers must needs be understood literally. For Profpero would infinuate that dead men were actually raised to life by his art. Therefore the expreffion is abfurd, and confequently none of Shakespeare's, who certainly wrote Graves at my command, Have open'd, and let forth their fleepers, wak'd As a further proof that Shakespeare wrote it thus, we may observe, that he borrowed this fpeech from Medea's in Ovid. Stantia concutio cantu freta, nubila pello; Nubilaque induco: ventos abigoque vocoque: Vipereafque rumpo verbis & carmire fauces: Vivaque faxa fua convulfaque robora terra, Et filvas moveo: jubesque tremefcere Montes, Et mugire folum MANESQUE EXIRE SEPULCRIS. Now manefque exire fepulcris is justly expreffed as we have reformed the lines, Graves, at my command, Have open'd, and let forth their fleepers, wak'd The third line of his original containing an atchievement little in ufe amongst modern inchanters he has with judg ment omitted it in his imitation. L. 3. Some heavenly musick, which ev'n now I do, WARB. This airy charm is FOR ;) I'll break my staff, &c.] If the prefent reading be genuine, then, by [airy charm] is meant the beavenly mufick two lines before. But this admitted, the confequence will be, 1. A wretched tautology; He had faid-Some heavenly mufick to work mine end; and then immediately adds this airy charm of mufick is for working mine end. 2. As upardonable a defect; for, according to this fenfe and reading, we are not informed what this end was, by not being told the State of their fenfes. We muft needs then by [airy charm] understand the fire and cracks of fulphurous roaring, as it is called in the 3d Scene of A& Ĭ. and thunder and lightning in the 4th Scene of Act III. which had in the highest degree terrified the perfons concerned. That this was the airy charm is farther evident from these words, in the following Scene, The charm diffolves apace, and es, &c. It was diffolved, we fee, by the beavenly mufick, and therefore different from it. But if this be the fenie of airy charm, then we fee the reading [IS FOR] must be corrupt; and that Shakespeare wrote, -heavenly mufick To work mine end upon their fenfes, that This airy charm HAS FRAIL D. i. e. which fenfes the airy charm of Ariel above-mentioned has difturbed and shattered. For that this was their condition appears from the lines which follow in the next scene: -The charm diffolves apace; And as their morning fteals upon the night, P. 71. 1. 7. I'll break my staff; WARB. Bury it certain fadoms in the earth.] Certain in its prefent fignification is predicated of a precife determinate number. But this fenfe would make the thought flat and ridiculous: We must confider the word certain therefore as ufed in its old fignification of a many, indefinitely. So Bale in his Acts of English Votaries fays,-But be took with him a certen of bis idle companions. For a many. So that Shakespeare, I fuppofe, wrote the line thus, Bury't a certain fadom in the earth. WARB. Ibid.] Certain has now, as it alfo had of old, two fenfes : it may be either ufed indefinitely; or elfe (as Mr. W. chooses to express himself) may be "predicated of a precife determinate number." But how it came into our critic's head, that in its indefinitive ufe it must fignify a great number, or (as he elegantly calls it) a many; I am at a lofs to guefs. Nor can I conceive, what bulky grammarian fell from the shelves upon his head; that he takes fuch bitter |