Enter ARIEL.

Ari. All hail, great mafter! grave fir, hail! I coma To answer thy beft pleasure; be't to fly,

To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride

On the curl'd clouds; to thy ftrong bidding, task
Ariel, and all his quality.3

Pro.

Haft thou, fpirit,

Perform'd to point 4 the tempeft that I bade thee?
Ari. To every article.

6

I boarded the king's fhip; now on the beak,
Now in the waift, the deck, in every cabin,
I flam'd amazement: Sometimes, I'd divide,
And burn in many places; 7 on the top-maft,
The yards and bowfprit, would I flame distinctly,
'Then meet, and join: Jove's lightnings, the precurfors
O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And fight-out-running were not: The fire, and cracks
Of fulphurous roaring, the moft mighty Neptune
Seem'd to befiege, and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.

Pro.

My brave spirit!

Who was fo firm, so constant, that this coil
Would not infect his reason?

Ari.

Not a foul

But

3-and all bis quality.] i. e. all his confederates, all who are of the fame profeffion. STEEVENS.

4 Perform'd to point-] i. e. to the minutest article. STEEVENS. 5-now on the beak,] The beak was a strong pointed body at the head of the ancient gallies; it is used here for the forecastle, or the boltfprit. JOHNSON.

6 Now in the waist,] The part between the quarter-deck and the forecaftle. JOHNSON.

7 Burton fays, that the Spirits of fire, in form of fire-drakes and blazing ftars, oftentimes fit on fhip-masts,” &c. Melanch. P. I. § 2. P. 30. edit. 1632. T. WARTON.

Yea, bis dread trident fhake.] Left the metre fhould appear defective, it is neceffary to apprize the reader, that in Warwickshire and other midland counties, shake is ftill pronounced by the common people as if it was written-shaɑke, a dissyllable. FARMER.

But felt a fever of the mad,9 and play'd
Some tricks of defperation: All, but mariners,
Plung'd in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel,
Then all a-fire with me: the king's fon Ferdinand,
With hair up-ftaring (then like reeds, not hair)
Was the first man that leap'd; cried, Hell is empty,
And all the devils are here.

Not a hair perish'd;

On their fuftaining 2 garments not a blemish,
But trefher than before: and as thou bad'ft me,
In troops I have difpers'd them 'bout the isle:
The king's fon have I landed by himself;
Whom I left cooling of the air with fighs,
In an odd angle of the ifle, and fitting,
His arms in this fad knot.

Pro.

Of the king's fhip,

The mariners, fay, how thou haft difpos'd,
And all the reft o' the fleet ?

Ari.

Safely in harbour

Is the king's fhip; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dit me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the ftill-vex'd Bermoothes, 3 there he's hid:

The

9 But felt a fever of the mad,] If it be at all neceffary to explain the meaning, it is this: Not a foul but felt such a fever as madmen feel, when the frantick fit is upon them. STEEVENS.

2 fuftaining-] i. . their garments that bore them up and fupported them. Mr. M. Mason, however, obferves that the word fuflaining in this place does not mean fupporting, but enduring; and by their fuftaining garments, Ariel means their garments which bore, without being injured, the drenching of the fea," STEEVENS.

3 From the fill-vex'd Bermoothes,] Smith, in his account of thefe islands, p. 172, fays, "that the Bermudas were fo fearful to the world, that many call'd them The Ifle of Devils.-P. 174.- to all feamen no less terrible than an incbanted den of furies." And no wonder, for the clime was extremely fubject to ftorms and hurricanes; and the islands were furrounded with fcattered rocks lying fhallowly hid under the furface of the water. WARBURTON.

The mariners all under hatches ftow'd,

Whom, with a charm join'd to their fuffer'd labour,
I have left afleep and for the rest o' the fleet, a
Which I difpers'd, they all have met again;
And are upon the Mediterranean flote,+
Bound fadly home for Naples;

Suppofing that they faw the king's fhip wreck'd,
And his great perfon perish.

Pro.

Ariel, thy charge

Paft the mid feafon.

Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work:
What is the time o' the day?

Pro. At least two glaffes: The time 'twixt fix and now, Muft by us both be spent moft preciously..

Ari. Is there more toil? Since thou doft give me pains, Let me remember thee what thou haft promis'd,

Which is not yet perform'd me.

Pro.

What is't thou can't demand?

Ari.

How now ? moody ?

My liberty.

I pray thee

Pro. Before the time be out? no more.

Ari.
Remember, I have done thee worthy fervice;

Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, fervid
Without or grudge, or grumblings: thou didst promife
To bate me a full year.
Pro.

Doft thou forgets

From

The epithet here applied to the Bermudas, will be beft understood by those who have seen the chafing of the fea over the rugged rocks by which they are furrounded, and which render access to them fo dangerous. It was in our poet's time the current opinion, that Bermudas was inhabited by monsters, and devils.Setebos, the god of Caliban's dam, was an American devil, worshipped by the giants of Patagonia. HENLEY.

The opinion that Bermudas was haunted with evil spirits continued fo fate as the civil war. PERCY.

Bermudas was on this account the cant name for fome privileged place, in which the cheats and riotous bullies of Shakspeare's time affembled. STEEVENS.

4

the Mediterranean flate,] Flote is wave. Flot. Fr. STEEVENS. 5 Doft thou forget-] That the character and conduct of Prospero may be understood, fomething must be known of the fyftem of enchant

Pro. Thou doft; and think'st

It much, to tread the ooze of the falt deep;
To run upon the fharp wind of the north;
To do me bufinefs in the veins o' the earth,
When it is bak'd with frost.

Ari.

I do not, fir,

Pro. Thou lieft, malignant thing! Haft thou forgot
The foul witch Sycorax, who, with age, and envy,
Was grown into a hoop? Haft thou forgot her?
Ari. No, fir.

Pro.

tell me.

Thou haft: Where was the born? fpeak ́;

Ari. Sir, in Argier."

Pro.

O, was the fo? I must,

Once in a month, recount what thou hast been,

Which thou forget'ft. This damn'd witch, Sycorax,
For mischiefs manifold, and forceries terrible

To enter human hearing, from Argier,

Thou know'ft, was banish'd; for one thing fhe did,
They would not take her life: Is not this true?

Ari. Ay, fir.

Pro. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought with child, And here was left by the failors: Thou, my flave,

As thou report'ft thyfelf, waft then her fervant:

And, for thou waft a spirit too delicate

To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands,
Refufing her grand hefts, she did confine thee,
By help of her more potent minifters,

And

ment, which fupplied all the marvellous found in the romances of the middle ages. This fyftem feems to be founded on the opinion that the fallen fpirits, having different degrees of guilt, had different habitations allotted them at their expulfion, fome being confined in hell, fome (as Hooker, who delivers the opinion of our poet's age, expreffes it) difperfed in air, fome on earth, fome in water, others in caves, dens, or minerals under the earth. Of these some were more malignant and mifchievous than others. The earthy fpirits feem to have been thought the maft depraved, and the aerial the least vitiated. JOHNSON.

in Argieò.] Argier is the ancient English name for Algiers. STEEVENS.

And in her moft unmitigable rage,.
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprifon'd, thou didst painfully remain

A dozen years; within which space she died,.
And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy groans
As faft as mill-wheels ftrike: Then was this island,
(Save for the fon that she did litter here,

A freckled whelp, hag-born not honour'd with
A human shape.

Ari.

Yes; Caliban her fon..

Pro.. Dull thing, I fay fo; he, that Caliban,.
Whom now I keep in fervice. Thou beit know'ft
What torment I did find thee in:: thy groans
Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts
Of ever-angry bears; it was a torment
To lay upon the damn d, which Sycorax.
Could not again undo; it was mine art,
When I arriv'd, and heard thee, that made gape
The pine, and let thee out.

Ari.

I thank thee, mafter.. Pro. If thou more murmur'ft, I will rend an oak,. And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till:

Thou haft howl'd away twelve winters.

Ari:

Pardon, mafter:

I will be correfpondent to command,
And do my fpriting gently..

Pro.

I will discharge thee.

Ari.

Do fo; and after two days

That's my noble mafter!:

What fhall I do? fay what? what shall I do?

Pro. Go make thyfelf like to a nymph o' the fea ;?

Be fubject to no fight but mine; invifible

To every eye-ball elfe. Go, take this shape,.

And hither come in't: hence, with diligence. Exit ARIELL.
Awake, dear heart, awake! thou haft flept well;
Awake!

Mira.

to a nympho the fea ;] There does not appear to be fufficient caufe why Ariel should assume this new shape, as he was to be invisible te air eyes but thofe of Profpero. STEEVENS.