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Tooth'd briars, fharp furzes, pricking gofs, and thorns,
Which enter'd their frail fhins: at laft I left them
I' the filthy mantled pool beyond your cell,

There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake
O'er-ftunk their feet.

Pro. This was well done, my bird:
Thy fhape invisible retain thou ftill;

The trumpery in my house, go, bring it hither, 6 For ftale to catch thefe thieves.

Ari. I go, I go.

[Exit.

Pro. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture can never ftick; on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all loft, quite loft;
And as, with age, his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers: I will plague them all,
Even to roaring: come, hang them on this line.

[Profpero remains invifible.

Enter Ariel loaden with glistering apparel, &c. Enter Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo, all wet.

Cal. Pray you, tread foftly, that the blind mole

may not

Hear a foot fall: we now are near his cell.

Ste. Monster, your fairy, which, you say, is a harmlefs fairy, has done little better than play'd the 7 Jack with us.

"At length upon his feet he gets,
"Hobgoblin fumes, Hobgoblin frets;
And as again he forward fets,

"And through the bufhes fcrambles,
"A ftump doth hit him in his pace,
Down.comes poor Hob upon his face,

"And lamentably tore his cafe

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Among the briers and brambles.” JOHNSON. -pricking gofs,-] I know not how Shakespeare diftinguished gofs from furge; for what he calls furze, is called gofs or gorfe in the midland counties. STEEVENS.

For tale to catch those thieves.] Stale is a word in fawling, and is used to mean a bait or decoy to catch birds. STEEVENS. 7 He has play'd Jack with a lantern] Has led us about like an ignis fatuus, by which travellers are decoyed into the mire,

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JOHNSON.

Trin.

Trin. Monster, I do fmell all horse-pifs, at which my nofe is in great indignation.

Ste. So is mine. Do you hear, monfter? If I fhould take a displeasure against you; look you

Trin. Thou wert but a loft monster.

Cal. Good my lord, give me thy favour still: Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to

Shall hood-wink this mifchance: therefore, fpeak foftly; All's hush'd as midnight yet.

Trin. Ay, but to lose our bottles in the poolSte. There is not only difgrace and dishonour in that, monster, but an infinite lofs.

Trin. That's more to me than my wetting yet this is your harmless fairy, monster.

Ste. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er ears for my labour.

Cal. Pr'ythee, my king, be quiet: seest thou here, This is the mouth o' the cell; no noise, and enter: Do that good mischief, which may make this island Thine own for ever; and I, thy Caliban,

For aye thy foot-licker.

Ste. Give me thy hand: I do begin to have bloody thoughts.

8 Trin. O king Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano!

Look, what a wardrobe here is for thee!

Cal. Let it alone, thou fool; it is but trash. Trin. Oh, ho, monster; 9 we know what belongs to a frippery :-O, king Stephano!

Trin. O king Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano!

Look, what a wardrobe here is for thee!] The humour of these lines confifts in their being an allufion to an old celebrated ballad, which begins thus: King Stephen was a worthy peer-and celebrates that king's parfimony with regard to his wardrobe. There are two ftanzas of this ballad in Othello. WARBURTON.

The old ballad is printed at large in The Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. 1. PERCY.

9

we know what belongs to a frippery :-] A frippery was a fhop where old cloaths were fold.

Beaumont

Ste. Put off that gown, Trinculo; by this hand, I'll have that gown.

Trin. Thy grace fhall have it.

Cal. The dropfy drown this fool! what do you

mean,

To doat thus on fuch luggage? Let's along,
And do the murder firft: if he awake,

From toe to crown he'll fill our fkins with pinches ;
Make us strange stuff.

Ste. Be you quiet, monfter. Mistress line, is not this my jerkin? Now is the jerkin under the line: now, jerkin, you are like to lose your hair, and prove a bald jerkin.

Trin. Do, do; we fteal by line and level, and't like your grace.

Ste. I thank thee for that jeft; here's a garment for't: wit fhall not go unrewarded, while I am king of this country: Steal by line and level, is an excellent pafs of pate; there's another garment for❜t.

Trin. Monster, come, 3 put fome lime upon your fingers, and away with the reft.

Cal. I will none on't: we fhall lofe our time, And all be turn'd 4 to barnacles, or apes

With foreheads villainous low.

Ste.

Beaumont and Fletcher ufe it in this fenfe, Wit without Money, A& 2.

"As if I were a running frippery.”

So in Monfieur de Olive, a comedy, by Chapman, 1606. "Paff"ing yesterday by the frippery, I fpied two of them hanging "out at a ftall with a gambrell thrust from fhoulder to fhoul"der." STEEVENS.

• First edit. Let's alone. JOHNSON.

2

under the line:] An allufion to what often happens to people who pafs the line. The violent fevers, which they contract in that hot climate, make them lose their hair. EDWARDS' MSS. 3 put fome lime, &c.] That is, birdlime. JOHNSON. 4to barnacles, or apes] Skinner fays barnacle is Anfer Seoticus. The barnacle is a kind of fhell-fish growing on the bottoms of fhips, and which was anciently fuppofed, when

F 2

broken

Ste. Monster, lay to your fingers; help to bear this away, where my hogfhead of wine is, or I'll turn you out of my kingdom: go to, carry this. Trin. And this.

Ste. Ay, and this.

5 A noife of hunters beard. Enter divers fpirits in fhape of bounds, bunting them about; Profpero and Ariel Setting them on. Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo driven out roaring.

Pro. Hey, Mountain, hey.

Ari. Silver; there it goes, Silver.

Pro. Fury, Fury; there, Tyrant, there; hark, hark.

[To Ariel.] Go, charge my goblins that they grind their joints

With dry convulfions; fhorten up their finews

With aged cramps; and more pinch-spotted make them,

Than pard, or cat o' mountain.

broken off, to become one of thefe geefe. Hall, in his Virge demiarum, lib. iv. fat. 2. feems to favour this fuppofition: "The Scottish barnacle, if I might choose,

"That of a worme doth waxe a winged goofe," &c. So Marston, in his Malecontent, 1604.

66 -like your Scotch barnacle, now a block,

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Inftantly a worm, and prefently a great goofe." "There are" (fays Gerard, in his Herbal, edit. 1597. page 1391)" in the north parts of Scotland certaine trees, whereon "do growe fhell-fifhes, &c. &c. which, falling into the water, "do become fowls, whom we call barnakles, in the north of "England brant geefe, and in Lancashire tree geefe," &c. For this extract from Gerard, I am indebted to Mr. Collins of Hampstead. STEEVENS.

A noife of hunters heard.-] Shakespeare might have had in view" Arthur's Chace, which many believe to be in France, "and think that it is a kennel of black dogs followed by un"known huntfmen with an exceeding great found of horns, "as if it was a very hunting of fome wild beaft." See A Treatife of Spectres tranflated from the French of Peter de Loier, and published in quarto, 1605. Dr. GRAY.

Ari. Hark, they roar.

Pro. Let them be hunted foundly. At this hour Lie at my mercy all mine enemies :

Shortly fhall all my labours end, and thou

Shalt have the air at freedom.

Follow, and do me fervice.

For a little,

[Exeunt.

ACT V. SCENE I.

Before the cell.

Enter Profpero in his magick robes, and Ariel.

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PROSPERO.

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I

OW does my project gather to a head:
My charms crack not; my fpirits obey; and
time

Goes upright with his carriage. How's the day?
Ari. On the fixth hour; at which time, my lord,
You faid, our work fhould ceafe.

Pro. I did fay fo,

When first I rais'd the tempeft. Say, my spirit,
How fares the king and his followers?

Ari. Confin'd together

In the fame fashion as you gave in charge;
Just as you left them; all prisoners, Sir,
In the lime-grove which weather-fends your cell.
They cannot budge, till you release. The king,
His brother, and yours, abide all three diftracted;
And the remainder mourning over them,

-and time

Goes upright with his carriage.-] Alluding to one carrying a burthen. This critical period of my life proceeds as I could wifh. Time brings forward all the expected events, without faultering under his burthen. STEEVENS.

F 3

Brim

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