gined his father was wrecked, when he fuddenly hears with aftonishment aërial mufic creep by him upon the waters, add the spirit gives him the following information in words not proper for any but a fpirit to utter: Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Hark! now I hear them-Ding-dong-bell! This is fo truly poetical, that one can farce forbear exclaiming with Ferdinand, This is no mortal bufinefs, nor no found That the earth owns! The happy verfatility of Shakespeare's genius enables bim to excel in lyric as well as in dramatic poely. But the poet rifes ftill higher in his management of this character of Ariel, by making a moral ufe of it, that is, I think, incomparable, and the greatest effort of his art. Ariel informs Profpero, that he has fulfilled his orders, and punished his brother and companions fo feverely, that if he himself was now to behold their fufferings, he would greatly compaffionate them. To which Profpero answers, Doft thou think so, spirit? ARIEL. Mine would, fir, were I human. PROSP. And mine fhall. He then takes occafion, with wonderful dexterity and humanity, to draw an argument from the incorporeality of Ariel, for the juftice and neceffity of pity and forgiveness: Haft thou, which art but air, a touch a feeling Paffion'd as they. be kindlier mov'd than thou art ? The poet is a more powerful magician than his own Profpero we are transported into fairy land; we are wrapt in a delicious dream, from which it is mifery to be disturbed; VOL. I. D 1 all around is enchantment! -The ifle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Will hum about mine ears, and fometimes voices; Would make me fleep again: and then in dreaming, I cry'd to dream again! THE ADVENTURER, No. 97. Χρὴ δὲ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἤθεσιν, ὥσπερ καὶ ἐν τῇ τῶν πραγμάτων συςάσει, αεὶ ζητεῖν, ἡ τὸ ἀναίκαῖον, ἥ τὸ εἰκὸς. ARIST. POET. As well in the conduct of the manners as in the conftitution of the fable, we must always endeavour to produce either what is neceffary or what is probable. "WHOEVER ventures, fays Horace, to form á character totally original, let him endeavour to preserve it with uniformity and confiftency: but the formation of an original character is a work of great difficulty and hazard." In this arduous and uncommon tafk, however, Shakespeare has wonderfully fucceeded in his tempeft: the monfter Caliban is the creature of his own imagination, in the formatian of which he could derive no affiftapce from obfervation or experience. Caliban is the fon of a witch, begotten by a demon: the forceries of his mother were fo terrible, that her countrymen banished her into this defert ifland as unfit for human fociety in conformity therefore, to this diabolical propagation, he is represented as a prodigy of cruelty, malice, pride, ignorance, idleness, gluttony and luft. He is introduced with great propriety, curfing Profpero and Miranda whom he had endeavoured to defile; and his execrations are artfully contrived to have reference to the occupations of his mother: As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd Drop on you both! All the charms Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you! His kindness is, afterwards, expreffed as much in character, as his hatred, by an enumeration of offices, that could be of value only in a defolate ifland, and in the esti mation of a favage: I pr'ythee, let me bring thee where crabs grow; I'll fhew thee the best springs;. I'll pluck thee berries; Which laft is, indeed, a circumftance of great ufe in a place, where to be defended from the cold was neither eaty nor ufual; and it has a farther peculiar beauty, because the ga thering wood was the occupation to which Caliban was fubjected by Profpero, who, therefore, deemed it a fervice of high importance. The grofs ignorance of this monster is reprefented with delicate judgment: he knew not the names of the fun and moon which he calls the bigger light and the lefs; and he believes that Stephano was the man in the moon, whom his mistress had often fhewn him: and when Profpero reminds him that he first taught him to pronounce articulately, his anfwer was full of malevolence ond rage: vour. You taght me language; and my profit on't I know how to curfe : The propereft return for fuch a fiend to make for fuch a fa- It is fcarcely poffible for any speech to be more expreffive of the manners and fentiments, than that in which our poet has painted the brutal barbarity, and unfeeling savagenefs of this fon of Sycorax, by making him enumerate, with a kind of horrible delight, the various ways in which it was poffille for the drunken failors to kill and furprize his master: -There thou may'ft brain him, Having first feiz'd his books; or with a log He adds, in allufion to his own abominable attempt, Shakespeare feems to be the only poct, who poffeffes the power of uniting poetry with propriety of character; of which I know not an inftance more ftriking, than the image Caliban makes ufe of to exprefs filence, which is at once highly poetical and exactly fuited to the wildness of the feaker: Pray you tread foftly, that the blind mole may not Hear a foot fall. I always lament that our author has not preferved this fierce and implacable spirit in Caliban, to the end of the play; instead of which, he has, I think, injudiciously put into his mouth, words that imply repentance and understanding: -I'll be wife hereafter And feek for grace. What a thrice double afs And worship this dull fool? It must not be forgotten, that Shakespeare has artfully taken occafion from this extraordinary character, which is finely contrafted to the mildnefs and obedience of Ariel, obliquely to fatirize the prevailing paffion for new and wonderful fights, which has rendered the English ridiculous. "Were I in England now, fays Trinculo, on firft discovering Caliban, and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of filver. When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to fee a dead Indian." Such is the inexhaustible plenty of our poet's invention, that he has exhibited another character in this play, entirely his own; that of the lovely and innocent Miranda. When Profpero first gives her a fight of prince Ferdinand, fhe eagerly exclaims, -What is't? a fpirit? Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, fir, It carries a brave form. But 'tis a fpirit. Her imagining that as he was fo beautiful he must neceffarily be one of her father's aërial agents, is a ftroke of nature worthy admiration as are likewife her entreaties to her father not to use him harfhly, by the power of his art; Why fpeaks my father fo ungently? This Is the third man that e'er I saw; the first Here we perceive the beginning of that paffion which Profpero was defrous fhe fhould feel for the prince; and which fhe afterwards more fully expreffes upon an occafion which difplays at once the tenderness, the innocence, and the fimplicity of her character. She discovers her lover employed in the laboricus task of carrying wood, which Profpero had enjoined him to perform. Would, fays fhe, the lightning had burnt up thofe logs that you are enjoined to pile!" If you'll fit down I'll bear your logs the while. Pray give me that, You look wearily. It is by felecting su h little and almost imperceptible circumftances, that Shakespeare has more truly painted the paffions than any other writer: affection is more powerfully expreffed by this fimple with and offer of affiftance, than by the unnatural eloquence and witticisms of Dryden, or the amorous declamations of Rowe. The refentment of Profpero for the matchlefs cruelty and wicked ufurpation of his brother; his parental affection and folicitude for the welfare of his daughter, the heiress of his dukedom; and the awful folemnity of his character, as a kilful magician; are all along preferved with equal conûift |