And on this couple drop a bleffed crown;
For it is you, that have chalk'd forth the way
Which brought us hither!

Alon.

I fay, amen, Gonzalo !
Gon. Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue
Should become kings of Naples? O, rejoice
Beyond a common joy; and set it down
With gold on lafting pillars: In one voyage
Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis ;
And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife,
Where he himself was loft; Profpero his dukedom,
In a poor ifle; and all of us, ourselves,
When no man was his own.7

Alon.

Give me your hands:

[To FER. and MIR.

Let grief and forrow still embrace his heart,
That doth not wish you joy!

Gon.

Be't fo! Amen!

Re-enter ARIEL, with the Mafter and Boatfwain amazedly

following.

O look, fir, look, fir; here are more of us!

I prophefy'd, if a gallows were on land,

This fellow could not drown :-Now, blafphemy,
That fwear'ft grace o'erboard, not an oath on fhore?
Haft thou no mouth by land? What is the news?
Boats. The best news is, that we have fafely found
Our king, and company: the next, our fhip,-
Which, but three glaffes fince, we gave out fplit,-
Is tight, and yare, and bravely rigg'd, as when
We first put out to sea.,

Ari..

Sir, all this fervice

Have I done fince I went.

7

Pro.

My tricksy spirit!

E 5

For when perhaps fhould be read-where. JOHNSON.

}

[Afide.

Alon.

When is certainly right; i. e. at a time when no one was in his fenfes, Shakspeare could not have written where, [i. e. in the island,] becaufe the mind of Profpero, who lived in it, had not been difordered. It is ftill faid, in colloquial language, that a madman is not his ozun man, i. e. is not mafter of himself. STEEVENS.

8 My trickfy fpirit!] Is, I believe, my clever, adroit spirit.

STEEVENS.

Alon. These are not natural events; they strengthen,
From ftrange to ftranger:-Say, how came you hither?
Boats. If I did think, fir, I were well awake,
I'd ftrive to tell you. We were dead of fleep,
And (how, we know not,) all clapp'd under hatches,
Where, but even now, with strange and several noifes
Of roaring, fhrieking, howling, gingling chains,
And more diverfity of founds, all horrible,
We were awak'd; ftraitway, at liberty:
Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld
Cur royal, good, and gallant fhip; our mater
Cap'ring to eye her: On a trice, fo please you,
Even in a dream, were we divided from them,
And were brought moping hither.

Ari.

Was't well done?

Pro. Bravely, my diligence. Thou shalt be free.
Alon. This is as ftrange a maze as e'er men trod :
And there is in this bufinefs more than nature
Was ever conduct of: 9 fome oracle

Muft rectify our knowledge.

Pro.

Sir, my liege,

Do not infeft your mind with beating on

The ftrangeness of this bufinefs; at pick'd leifure,
Which fhall be shortly, fingle I'll refolve you

2

} [Afide.

(Which to you fhall feem probable,) of every
Thefe happen'd accidents: till when, be cheerful,
And think of each thing well.-Come hither, fpirit; [Afide.
Set Caliban and his companions free:

Untie the fpell. [Exit ARIEL.] How fares my gracious fir?
There are yet mifling of your company

Some few odd lads, that you remember not.

9 Conduct for conductor. REED.

Re-enter.

Conduct is yet ufed in the fame fenfe: the perfon at Cambridge who reads prayers in King's and in Trinity College Chapels, is ftill fo ftyled. HENLEY.

2 Thefe words feem, at the first view, to have ho ufe; fome lines are perhaps loft with which they were connected. Or we may explain them thus: I will refolve you, by yourself, which method, when you hear the ftory [of Antonio's and Sebaftian's plot], fhall feem probable; that is, shall deferve your approbation. JOHNSON.

6

Surely

Re-enter ARIEL, driving in CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, in their stolen apparel.

Ste. Every man fhift for all the reft, and let no man take care for himfelf; for all is but fortune: Coragio, bully

monster, Coragio!

Trin. If these be true fpies which I wear in my head, here's a goodly fight.

Cal. O Setebos, thefe be brave fpirits, indeed! How fine my mafter is! I am afraid

He will chastise me.

What things are these, my lord Antonio!
Will money buy them?

Ant.

3

Very like; one of them.

Is a plain fish,3 and, no doubt, marketable.

Pro. Mark but the badges of these men, my lords,
Then fay, if they be true: +- This mif-shapen knave,—
His mother was a witch; and one fo ftrong

That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs,
And deal in her command, without her power:"

Thefe

Surely Profpero's meaning is: "I will relate to you the means by which I have been enabled to accomplish thefe ends; which means, though they now appear ftrange and improbable, will then appear otherwife." ANONYMUS.

3 That is, plainly, evidently a fish. M. MASON.

It is not easy to determine the fhape which our author defgned to beftow on his monster. That he has hands, legs, &c. we gather from the remarks of Trinculo, and other circumstances in the play. How then is he plainly a fish? Perhaps Shakspeare himself had no fettled. ideas concerning the form of Caliban. STEEVENS.

4 That is, boneft. A true man is, in the language of that time, oppofed to a thief. The fenfe is, Mark what theje men wear, and say if they are boneft. JOHNSON.

5 His mother was a witch; and one fo strong

That could control the moon, &c.] This was the phrafeology of the times. After the ftatute against uitches, revenge or ignorance frequently induced people to charge thofe against whom they harboured refentment, or entertained prejudices, with the crime of witchcraft, which had just then been declared a capital offence. In our ancient reporters are fevera' cafes where perfons charged in this manner fought redrefs in the cou ts of law. And it is remarkable in all of them, to the fcandalous imputation being witsbes, the terma ftrong one, is conftantly added. In Mickar'

These three have robb'd me; and this demi-devil
(For he's a baftard one,) had plotted with them
To take my life: two of these fellows you
Must know, and own; this thing of darkness I
Acknowledge mine.

Cal.

I shall be pinch'd to death. Alon. Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler?

Seb. He is drank now: where had he wine?

Alon. And Trinculo is reeling ripe: Where fhould they Find this grand liquor that hath gilded them ? —7

How cam'ft thou in this pickle ?

Trin. I have been in fuch a pickle, fince I faw you laft, that, I fear me, will never out of my bones: Ishall not fear fly-blowing.8

Seb. Why, how now, Stephano?

Ste. O, touch me not; I am not Stephano, but a cramp.9 Pro. You'd be king of the ifle, firrah?

Ste. I fhould have been a fore one then.

Alon. This is as ftrange a thing as e'er I look'd on.

[Pointing to CALIBAN.

Pro.

mas Term, 9 Car. I. the point was fettled that no action could be fupported on fo general a charge, that the epithet Arong did not enforce the other words. In this inftance, I believe, the opinion of the people at large was not in unifon with the fages in Weftminster-Hall. Several of thefe cafes are collected together in I. Viner, 422. REED.

I fuppofe Profpero means, that Sycorax, with lefs general power than the moon, could produce the fame effects on the fea. STEEVENS.

7 Shakspeare, to be fure, wrote-grand 'LIXIR, alluding to the grand Elixir of the alchymifts, which they pretend would restore youth and confer immortality. This, as they fajd, being a preparation of gold, they called Aurum potabile; which Shakspeare alluded to in the word gilded. But the joke here is to infinuate, that, notwithstanding all the boafts of the chemifts, fack was the only reftorer of youth and beftower of immortality. WARBURTON.

As the alchymift's Elixir was fuppofed to be a liquor, the old reading may ftand, and the allufion holds good without any alteration.

STEEVENS

8 This pickle alludes to their plunge into the stinking pool; and pickling preferves meat from fly blowing. STEEVENS.

9. e. I am all over a cramp. Profpero had ordered Ariel to fhorten up their finews with aged cramps. Touch me not alludes to the forenes occafioned by them. In his next fpeech Stephano confirms this meaning by a quibble on the word fore. STEVENS.

Pr. He is as difproportion'd in his manners,
As in his fhape:-Go, firrah, to my cell;
Take with you your companions; as you look
To have my pardon, trim it handfomely.

Cal. Ay, that I will; and I'll be wife hereafter,
And feek for grace: What a thrice-double afs
Was I, to take this drunkard for a god,

And worship this dull fool?

Το

Pro.

Go to; away

Alon. Hence, and bestow your luggage where you found it.
Seb. Or ftole it, rather. [Exeunt CAL. STE. and TRIN.
Pro. Sir, I invite your highnefs, and your train,

my poor cell: where you fhall take your reft
For this one night; which (part of it,) I'll waste
With fuch discourse, as, I not doubt, shall make it
Go quick away: the ftory of my life,
And the particular accidents, gone by,
Since I came to this ifle: And in the morn,
I'll bring you to your fhip, and fo to Naples,
Where I have hope to fee the nuptial
Of thefe our dear-beloved folemniz'd;
And thence retire me to my Milan, where
Every third thought fhall be my grave.

Alon.
I long
To hear the story of your life, which must
Take the ear ftrangely.

Pro.

I'll deliver all;

And promife you calm feas, aufpicious gales,
And fail fo expeditious, that fhall catch

Your royal fleet far off.-My Ariel ;-chick,-
That is thy charge; then to the elements

Be free, and fare thou well!-[afide.] Please you, draw near.

[Excunt.