Would, with themfelves, fhut up my thoughts: I find,

They are inclin'd to do fo.

Seb.

Please you, fir, Do not omit the heavy offer of it:

It feldom vifits forrow; when it doth,

It is a comforter.

Ant.

We two, my lord,

Will guard your perfon, while you take your reff,

And watch your safety.

Alon.

Thank you: Wondrous heavy.

[ALONSO Sleeps.. Exit ARIER

Seb. What a ftrange drow finefs poffeffes them?
Ant. It is the quality o' the climate.

Why

Seb.
Doth it not then our eye-lids fink? I find not.

My felf difpos'd to fleep.

Ant.
They fell together all, as by confent;

Nor I; my fpirits are nimble..

What might,

They dropp'd, as by a thunder-ftroke..

Worthy Sebaftian ?-O, what might ?—No more :—
And yet, methinks, I fee it in thy face,

What thou fhould't be the occafion speaks thee; and
My ftrong imagination fees a crown

Dropping upon thy head.

Seb.

What, art thou waking?

Ant. Do you not hear me speak?
Stb.

I do; and, furely,

It is a fleepy language; and thou speak'st

Out of thy fleep: What is it thou didst fay?
This is a ftrange repofe, to be afleep

With eyes wide open; ftanding, fpeaking, moving,
And yet fo faft afleep.

Ant.

Noble Sebaftian,

Thou let'ft thy fortune fleep-die rather; wink'st

Whiles thou art waking.

Seb.

Thou doft fnore diftinctly;

There's meaning in thy fnores.

Ant. I am more ferious than my cuftom you. Must be fo too, if heed me; which to do,

If you but knew, how you the purpose cherish,
Whiles thus you mock it! how, in ftripping it,
You more invest it! Ebbing men, indeed,
Moft often did fo near the bottom run,

By their own fear, or floth.

Seb.

Pr'ythee, fay on: The fetting of thine eye, and cheek, proclaim A matter from thee; and a birth, indeed, Which throes thee much to yield.

Ant.

Thus, fir;

8

Although this lord of weak remembrance, this (Who fhall be of as little memory,

When he is earth'd,) hath here almost persuaded (For he's a fpirit of perfuafion only,)

The king, his fon's alive; 'tis as impoffible

That he's undrown'd, as he that fleeps here, fwims."

6 You must put on more than your ufual ferioufnefs, if you are difprfed to pay a proper attention to my propofal; which attention if you bestow, it will in the end make you thrice what you are. Sebaftian is. already brother to the throne; but, being made a king by Antonio's contrivance, would be (according to our author's idea of greatnefs) thrice the man he was before. In this fenfe he would be trebled o'er. STLEVENS..

7 Sebaftian introduces the fimile of water. It is taken up by Antonio, who fays he will teach his ftagnant water to flow. It has already learn. d to ebb, fays Sebaftian.. To which Antonio replies, 0 if you but knew how much even that metaphor, which you use in jeft, encourages to the defign which I bint at; horv in stripping the words of their common meaning, and using them figuratively, you adapt them to your ozun fituation !!

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

8 This lord, who, being now in his dotage, has outlived his faculty of remembering; and who, once laid in the ground, fhall be as little remembered himself, as he can now remember other things. JOHNSON.

9 Of this entangled fentence I can draw no fenfe from the prefent reading, and therefore imagine that the author gave it thus:

For he, a fpirit of perfuafion, only

Profefes to perfuade the king, his fon's alive;

Seb. I have no hope

That he's undrown'd.

Ant.

O, out of that no hope,

What great hope have you! no hope, that way, is
Another way fo high an hope, that even
Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,2

But doubts difcovery there. Will you grant, with me,
That Ferdinand is drown'd?

Ant. She that is queen of Tunis; the that dwells
Ten leagues beyond man's life;3 fhe that from Naples
Can have no note,4 unless the sun were poft,

(The man i' the moon's too flow,) till new-born chins
Be rough and razorable; fhe, from whom'
We were all fea-fwallow'd, though fome cast again ;6
And,

Of which the meaning may be either, that be alone, who is a spirit of perfuafion, profeffes to perfuade the king; or that, He only professes to perfuade, that is, without being fo perfuaded himself, be makes a show of perfuading the king. JOHNSON.

The meaning may be-He is a mere rhetorician, one who profeffes. the art of perfuafion, and nothing elfe; i. . he profeifes to perfuade another to believe that of which he himself is not convinced; he is content to be plaufible, and has no further aim. STEEVENS.

2 That this is the utmost extent of the profpect of ambition, the point where the eye can país no farther, and where objects lofe their diftinctnefs, fo that what is there difcovered is faint, obfcure, and doubtful.

JOHNSON. 3. At a greater distance than the life of man is long enough to reach. STEEVENS.

4 Note (as Mr. Malone obferves) is notice, or information. Shakspeare's great ignorance of geography is not more confpicuous in any inftance than in this, where he fuppofes Tunis and Naples to have been at fuch an immeasurable distance from each other. He may, however, be countenanced by Apollonius Rhodius, who fays, that both the Rbone and Po meet in one, and discharge themfelves into the gulph of Venice; and by #fcbylus, who has placed the river Eridanus in Spain.

5 i. e. in coming from whom. MALONE.

STEEVENS,

Caft is here used in the fame fenfe as in Macbeth, Act II. fc. iii: though he took my legs from me, I made a shift to caft him."

STEEVENS.

And, by that, deftin'd' to perform an act,
Whereof what's paft is prologue; what to come,
In yours and my difcharge.

8

Seb. What stuff is this?-How fay you? 'Tis true, my brother's daughter's queen of Tunis; So is the heir of Naples; 'twixt which regions There is fome space.

Ant.

A space whofe every cubit Seems to cry out, How shall that Claribel

Meafure us back to Naples ?-Keep in Tunis,

And let Sebastian wake!-Say, this were death
That now hath feiz'd them; why, they were no worse
Than now they are: There be, that can rule Naples,
As well as he that fleeps; lords, that can prate
As amply, and unneceffarily,

As this Gonzalo; I myself could make

A chough of as deep chat. O, that you bore
The mind that I do! what a fleep were this
For your advancement! Do you understand me?
Seb. Methinks, I do.

Ant.

And how does your content Tender your own good fortune?

Seb.

I remember,

You did fupplant your brother Profpero.

Ant.

True:

And, look, how well my garments fit upon me;
Much feater than before: My brother's fervants
Were then my fellows, now they are my men.
Seb. But, for your confcience-

Ant. Ay, Sir; where lies that? if it were a kybe,
Twould put me to my flipper; But I feel not
This deity in my bofom: twenty confciences,
That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candy'd be they,

7

It is a common plea of wickednefs to call temptation destiny.

And

JOHNSON.

The late Dr. Musgrave very reafonably propofed to fubffitute-deftin’d for-deftiny. As the conftruction of the paffage is made eafier by this flight change, I have adopted it. STEEVENS.

i. e. depends on what you and I are to perform. STEEVENS. 9 A cbough] Is a bird of the jack-daw kind. STEEVLNS.

And melt, ere they moleft! Here lies your brother,
No better than the earth he lies upon,

If he were that which now he's like; whom I,
With this obedient fteel, three inches of it,
Can lay to bed for ever: whiles you, doing thus,
To the perpetual wink for aye might put
This ancient morfel,3 this fir Prudence, who
Should not upbraid our courfe. For all the reft,
They'll take fuggeftion, as a cat laps milk ;4
They'll tell the clock to any business that
We fay befits the hour.

Seb.

Thy cafe, dear friend,

Shall be my precedent; as thou got'ft Milan,

I'll come by Naples. Draw thy fword: one ftroke
Shall free thee from the tribute which thou pay 'ft;
And I the king shall love thee.

Ant.

And when I rear my hand, do you the like

To fall it on Gonzalo.

Seb.

Draw together:

O, but one word.

2. And melt ere they moleft!] I had rather read→→→

Would melt ere they moleft.

i. e. Twenty consciences, fuch as fland between me and my hopes, though they were congealed, would melt before they could moleft me, or prevent the execu tion of my purposes. JOHNSON.

Let twenty confciences be first congealed, and then diffolved, ere they moleft me, or prevent me from executing my purposes. MALONE.

If the interpretation of Johnson and Malone is juft, and is certainly as intelligible as or; but I can fee no reasonable meaning in this interpretation. It amounts to nothing more as thus interpreted, than My confcience muft melt and become fofter than it is before it molefts me; which is an infipidity unworthy of the Poet. I would read" Čandy'd be they, or melt ;" and the expreffion then has spirit and propriety. Had I twenty confciences, fays Antonio, they might be bot or cold for me; they should not give me the Smallest trouble.'-Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. STEEVENS.

3 For morfel Dr. Warburton reads ancient moral, very elegantly and judiciously; yet I know not whether the author might not write morfel, as we fay a piece of a man. JOHNSON.

4 i.. Receive any hint of villainy.

They, will adopt, and bear witnefs to, any tale you fhall invent; you. may fubern them as evidences to clear you from all fufpicion of having murthered the king. HENLEY.