Mira. Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle,32 And I would call it fair play.

Alon.

If this prove

A vision of the island, one dear son

Shall I twice lose.33

Sebas.

A most high miracle!

Ferd. Though the seas threaten, they are merciful! I've cursed them without cause.

Alon.

[Kneels to ALON.

Now all the blessings

Of a glad father compass thee about!

Arise, and say how thou camest here.

Mira.

O, wonder !

How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't! Page 143.

Pros.

'Tis new to thee.

Alon. What is this maid with whom thou wast at play? Your eld'st acquaintance cannot be three hours:

Is she the goddess that hath sever'd us,

And brought us thus together?

82 The sense evidently wanted here is, "you might play me false"; but how to get this out of wrangle, is not very apparent. Was wrangle used as a technical term in chess and other games? In King Henry V., i. 2, we have this: "He hath made a match with such a wrangler, that all the Courts of France will be disturb'd with chases." This is said with reference to the game of tennis; and wrangler here seems to mean opponent or antagonist. Wrangle, however, is from the same original as wrong, and its radical sense is the same. Mr. Joseph Crosby thinks the word is used here in this its radical sense. He writes me as follows: "In the North of England, wrangdom is a common word for wrong, and wrangously for wrongfully. Wrangle in this sentence is an explanatory parallelism of Miranda's 'play me false,' and means wrong me, cheat me in the game."

38 "Shall twice lose" appears to mean "shall lose a second time." He has in effect lost his son once in supposing him drowned; and will lose him again in the dispelling of the vision, if vision it should prove.

Ferd.

Sir, she's mortal;

She

But by immortal Providence she's mine:
I chose her when I could not ask my father
For his advice, nor thought I had one.
Is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan,
Of whom so often I have heard renown,
But never saw before; of whom I have
Received a second life; and second father
This lady makes him to me.

Alon.

I am hers: But, O, how oddly will it sound that I

Must ask my child forgiveness!

Pros.

There, sir, stop:

Let us not burden our remembrance with

A heaviness that's gone.

Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you gods,

And on this couple drop a blessèd crown!

For it is you that have chalk'd forth the way

Which brought us hither.

Alon.

I say, Amen, Gonzalo !

Gonza. 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 lasting pillars: In one voyage
Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis ;

And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife
Where he himself was lost; Prospero, his dukedom,
In a poor isle; and all of us, ourselves,

When no man was his own.34

84 When no man was in his senses, or had self-possession.

Alon. [To FERD. and MIRA.] Give me your hands: Let grief and sorrow still embrace his heart

That doth not wish you joy!

Gonza.

Be't so! Amen!end.

Re-enter ARIEL, with the Master and Boatswain amazedly fel

lowing.

O, look, sir, look, sir! here is more of us :

I prophesied, if a gallows were on land,

This fellow could not drown. Now, blasphemy,
That swear'st grace o'erboard, not an oath on shore?
Hast thou no mouth by land? What is the news?
Boats. The best news is, that we have safely found
Our King and company; the next, our ship—
Which, but three glasses since, we gave out split-
Is tight, and yare, and bravely rigg'd, as when
We first put out to sea.

Ari. [Aside to PROS.] Sir, all this service
Have I done since I went.

Pros. [Aside to ARIEL.] My tricksy 35 spirit!
Alon. These are not natural events; they strengthen
From strange to stranger. Say, how came you hither?
Boats. If I did think, sir, I were well awake,

I'd strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep,

And how we know not

- all clapp'd under hatches; Where, but even now, with strange and several noises

Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains,
And more diversity of sounds, all horrible,
We were awaked; straightway, at liberty:
When we, in all her trim, freshly beheld

85 Ariel seems to be called tricksy, because his execution has the celerity of magic, or of a juggler's tricks: "clever, adroit, dexterous," says Dyce.

Our royal, good, and gallant ship; our master

Capering to eye her: 36 on a trice, so please you,
Even in a dream, were we divided from them,
And were brought moping 37 hither.

Ari. [Aside to PROS.]

Was't well done?

Pros. [Aside to ARI.] Bravely, my diligence. Thou shalt

be free.

Alon. This is as strange a maze as e'er men trod ;

And there is in this business more than Nature

Was ever conduct of: 38 some oracle

Must rectify our knowledge.

Pros.

Sir, my liege,

Do not infest your mind with beating on 39

The strangeness of this business; at pick'd leisure,
Which shall be shortly, single I'll resolve 40

you

Which to you shall seem probable — of every

These happen'd accidents: till when, be cheerful,

And think of each thing well. — [Aside to ARIEL.] Come hither, spirit:

Set Caliban and his companions free;

Untie the spell. [Exit ARI.] - How fares my gracious sir? There are yet missing of your company

Some few odd lads that you remember not.

36"Capering to eye her" is leaping or dancing with joy at seeing her. Still another instance of the infinitive used gerundively.

37 To mope is to be dull or stupid; originally, dim-sighted.

38 Conduct for conductor; that is, guide or leader. Often so.

89 We have a like expression in use now, -"Still hammering at it." 40 In Shakespeare, to resolve often means to satisfy, or to explain satisfactorily. - Single appears to be used adverbially here, its force going with the predicate; and the last which refers to resolve: "I will explain to you -and the explanation shall seem to you natural and likely—all these incidents, severally, or in detail, as they have happened."

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

Steph. Every man shift for all the rest,41 and let no man take care for himself; for all is but fortune..- Coragio, bullymonster, coragio !

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

Cal. O Setebos, these be brave spirits indeed!

How fine my master is! I am afraid

He will chastise me.

Sebas. Ha, ha !

What things are these, my Lord Antonio?
Will money buy 'em?

Anto.

Very like; one of them Is a plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable.

Pros. Mark but the badges of these men, my lords,
Then say if they be true. This mis-shaped knave,-
His mother was a witch; and one so strong

That could control the Moon, make flows and ebbs,
And deal in her command without her power.4 42
These three have robb'd me; and this demi-devil
For he's a bastard 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.

41 Stephano's tongue is rather tipsy still, and staggers into a misplacement of his words. He means "Let every man shift for himself."

42 Without has here the sense of beyond; a common usage in the Poet's time. So in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, iv. I: "Where we might be without the peril of th' Athenian law." And in Jonson's Cynthia's Revels, i. 4: "O, now I apprehend you: your phrase was without me before." So that the meaning of the text is, "who could outdo the Moon in exercising the Moon's own command."