Indeed the top of admiration; worth

What's dearest to the world! Full many a lady
I've eyed with best regard; and many a time
The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage
Brought my too diligent ear: for several virtues
Have I liked several women; never any
With so full soul, but some defect in her
Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed,
And put it to the foil :3 but you, O you,
So perfect and so peerless, are created
Of every creature's best!

I do not know

Mira.
One of my sex; no woman's face remember,
Save, from my glass, mine own; nor have I seen
More that I may call men, than you, good friend,
And my dear father: how features are abroad,
I'm skilless of; but, by my modesty, -

The jewel in my dower, I would not wish

Any companion in the world but you ;

Nor can imagination form a shape,

Besides yourself, to like of. But I prattle
Something too wildly, and my father's precepts
I therein do forget.

Ferd.

I am, in my condition,

A prince, Miranda; I do think, a king, —

I would, not so ! — and would no more endure

This wooden slavery than to suffer

The flesh-fly blow my mouth. Hear my soul speak:

8" Put it to the foil" means, apparently, compel it to fight, or to stand on its defence; foil being often used as a general term for weapons of the sword kind. Here, as usual, owed is owned.

4 The flesh-fly is the fly that blows dead flesh, that is, lays maggot-eggs upon it, and so hastens its putrefaction.

The very instant that I saw you, did

My heart fly to your service; there resides,
To make me slave to it; and for your sake

Am I this patient log-man.

Mira.

Do you love me?

Ferd. O Heaven, O Earth, bear witness to this sound, And crown what I profess with kind event,

If I speak true! if hollowly, invert

What best is boded me to mischief! I,

Beyond all limit of what else 5 i' the world,
Do love, prize, honour you.

Mira.

To weep at what I'm glad of.

Pros. [Aside.]

I am a fool

Fair encounter

Of two most rare affections! Heavens rain grace
On that which breeds between them!

Ferd.

Wherefore weep you?

Mira. At mine unworthiness, that dare not offer
What I desire to give; and much less take

What I shall die to want. But this is trifling;
And all the more it seeks to hide itself,

The bigger bulk it shows.

Hence, bashful cunning!
And prompt me, plain and holy innocence !
I am your wife, if you will marry me ;
If not, I'll die your maid: to be your fellow 7
You may deny me; but I'll be your servant,

5 "What else" for whatsoever else. The Poet has many instances of relative pronouns thus used indefinitely. So in King Lear, v. 3: "What in the world he is that names me traitor, villain-like he lies." And in Othello, "Who steals my purse steals trash."

iii. 3:

6 Die from wanting, or by wanting. Another gerundial infinitive. We have a like expression in Much Ado: "You kill me to deny it."

7 Fellow for companion or equal, as before. See page 89, note 50.

Ferd. Ay, with a heart as willing

As bondage e'er of freedom: 8 here's my hand.

Mira. And mine, with my heart in't: and now farewell Till half an hour hence.

Ferd.

A thousand thousand !9

[Exeunt FERDINAND and MIRANDA.

Pros. So glad of this as they, I cannot be, Who am surprised withal; 10 but my rejoicing At nothing can be more. I'll to my book; For yet, ere supper-time, must I perform Much business appertaining.

[Exit.

8 The abstract for the concrete. "I accept you for my wife as willingly as ever a bondman accepted of freedom."

9 Meaning a thousand thousand farewells; this word being taken literally, like the Latin bene vale. — Coleridge comments on this sweet scene as follows: "The whole courting-scene, in the beginning of the third Act, is a masterpiece; and the first dawn of disobedience in the mind of Miranda to the command of her father is very finely drawn, so as to seem the working of the Scriptural command, Thou shalt leave father and mother, &c. O, with what exquisite purity this scene is conceived and executed! Shakespeare may sometimes be gross, but I boldly say that he is always moral and modest. Alas! in this our day, decency of manners is preserved at the expense of morality of heart, and delicacies for vice are allowed, whilst grossness against it is hypocritically, or at least morbidly, condemned."

10 Prospero may well be surprised at what has shot up between his daughter and the Prince; for, though the result is just what he has planned and hoped for, it has come on far better than he has dared to expect. See Critical Notes.

SCENE II.

- Another part of the Island.

Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, with a bottle.

Steph. Tell not me: when the butt is out, we will drink water; not a drop before: therefore bear up, and board 'em.1 Servant-monster, drink to me.

Trin. Servant-monster! the folly of this island! They say there's but five upon this isle: we are three of them; if th' other two be brain'd like us, the State totters.

Steph. Drink, servant-monster, when I bid thee: thy eyes are almost set 2 in thy head. [CALIBAN drinks. Trin. Where should they be set else? he were a brave monster indeed, if they were set in his tail.

Steph. My man-monster hath drown'd his tongue in sack : for my part, the sea cannot drown me; I swam, ere I could recover the shore, five-and-thirty leagues, off and on, by this light. Thou shalt be my lieutenant, monster, or my standard.3

Trin. Your lieutenant, if you list; he's no standard.4
Steph. We'll not run, Monsieur Monster.

Trin. Nor go neither: but you'll lie like dogs, and yet say nothing neither.

Steph. Moon-calf, speak once in thy life, if thou be'st a good moon-calf.

1 "To bear up, put the helm up, and keep a vessel off her course." So says Admiral Smith.

2 Set here means, I suppose, fixed in a vacant stare. So in Twelfth Night, v. 1: “He's drunk, Sir Toby, an hour agone; his eyes were set at eight i' the morning."

3 Standard, like ensign, is put for the bearer of the standard.

4 Trinculo is punning upon standard, and probably means that Caliban is too drunk to stand.

Cal. How does thy Honour? Let me lick thy shoe. I'll not serve him, he is not valiant.

Trin. Thou liest, most ignorant monster: I am in case to justle a constable.5 Why, thou debosh'd fish, thou, was there ever man a coward that hath drunk so much sack as I to-day? Wilt thou tell a monstrous lie, being but half a fish and half a monster?

Cal. Lo, how he mocks me! wilt thou let him, my lord? Trin. Lord, quoth he. That a monster should be such a natural! 7

Cal. Lo, lo, again! bite him to death, I pr'ythee.

Steph. Trinculo, keep a good tongue in your head: if you prove a mutineer, the next tree. The poor monster's my subject, and he shall not suffer indignity.

Cal. I thank my noble lord. Wilt thou be pleased

To hearken once again the suit I made thee?

Steph. Marry, will I: kneel, and repeat it; I will stand, and so shall Trinculo.

Enter ARIEL, invisible.

Cal. As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant; a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island. Ari. Thou liest.

Cal.

Thou liest, thou jesting monkey, thou:

I would my valiant master would destroy thee !

I do not lie.

5 The jester is breaking jests upon himself; his meaning being, "One so deep in drink as I am is valiant enough to quarrel with an officer of the law."

6 Debosh'd is an old form of debauched. Cotgrave explains, "Deboshed, lewd, incontinent, ungracious, dissolute, naught."

7 Natural was used for simpleton or fool. There is also a quibble intended between monster and natural, a monster being unnatural.