Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs Pros. Of the King's ship The mariners, say, how hast thou disposed, Ari. Safely in harbour Is the King's ship; in the deep nook, where once Who, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour, Supposing that they saw the King's ship wreck'd, Pros. Ariel, thy charge Exactly is perform'd: but there's more work. 60 Odd angle is insignificant or out-of-the-way corner. 61. His arms folded up as in sorrowful meditation. 62 Still-vex'd is ever-troubled. The Poet very often uses still in the sense of ever or continually. The Bermudas were supposed to be inhabited or haunted by witches and devils, and the sea around them to be agitated with perpetual storms. Bermoothes was then the common spelling of Bermudas. So in Fletcher's Women Pleased, i. 2: The Devil should think of purchasing that egg-shell, to victual such a witch for the Burmoothes." Also in Webster's Duchess of Malfi, iii. 2: "I would sooner swim to the Bermootha's on two politicians' rotten bladders." ་་ 63 Flote, like the French flot, is flood, wave, or sea. This passage shows that the scene of the play is not laid in the Bermudas, as there has not been time for the rest of the fleet to sail so far. And Ariel's trip to fetch the dew mentioned above was a much greater feat than going from one part of the Bermoothes to another. What is the time o' the day? Ari. At least two glasses.64 Pros. Past the mid season, The time 'twixt six and now Must by us both be spent most preciously. Ari. Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains, Let me remember 65 thee what thou hast promised, Which is not yet perform'd me. Pros. What is't thou canst demand? Ari. How now! moody? My liberty. Pros. Before the time be out? no more! Remember I have done thee worthy service; Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, served I pr'ythee, Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst promise Pros. Dost thou forget No. From what a torment I did free thee? Ari. Pros. Thou dost; and think'st it much to tread the ooze Of the salt deep; to run upon the sharp Wind of the North; to do me business in The veins o' the earth when it is baked with frost. Ari. I do not, sir. Pros. Thou liest, malignant thing! 66 Hast thou forgot The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy 64 Two glasses is two runnings of the hour-glass. 65 Remember for remind, or put in mind. Often so. 67 66 Prospero should not be supposed to say this in earnest: he is merely playing with his delicate and amiable minister. 67 Here, as commonly in Shakespeare, envy is malice. And so he has envious repeatedly for malicious. The usage was common. Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her? Ari. No, sir. Pros. tell me. Thou hast where was she born? speak; Ari. Sir, in Argier.68 Pros. O, was she so? I must Once in a month recount what thou hast been, Which thou forgett'st. This damn'd witch Sycorax, To enter human hearing, from Argier, Thou know'st, was banish'd: for one thing she had,69 Pros. This blue-eyed hag 70 was hither brought, And in her most unmitigable rage, Into a cloven pine; 73 within which rift 68 Argier is the old English name for Algiers. 69 What this one thing was, appears in Prospero's next speech. 70 Blue-eyed and blue eyes were used, not for what we so designate, but for blueness about the eyes. So, in As You Like It, iii. 2, we have “a blue eye, and a sunken," to denote a gaunt, haggard, and cadaverous look. And so, in the text, blue-eyed is used as signifying extreme ugliness. In the Poet's time, what we call blue eyes were commonly called gray, and were considered eminently beautiful. 71 Here, as often, for is because. See The Merchant, page 96, note 6. 72 Hests is commands, orders, or behests. 73 Into and in were often used indiscriminately. Here, however, I suspect the sense of both words is implied: "She thrust you into a splitted pine, and there fastened you in." Imprison'd thou didst painfully remain A dozen years; within which space she died, And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy groans As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this island. Save for the son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp, hag-born - not honour'd with A human shape. Ari. Yes, Caliban her son. Pros. Dull thing, I say so; Whom now I keep in service. he, that Caliban, Thou best know'st What torment I did find thee in thy groans When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape Ari. I thank thee, master. Pros. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak, And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till Thou'st howl'd away twelve Winters. What shall I do? say what; what shall I do? Pros. Go make thyself like to a nymph o' the sea: Be subject to no sight but mine; invisible To every eyeball else. Go take this shape, 74 Correspondent for responsive; that is, obedient, or submissive. And hither come in't: hence, with diligence!· Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well; [Exit ARIEL. Mira. [Waking.] The strangeness of your story put Heaviness in me. 'We cannot miss him :75 he does make our fire, That profit us. - What, ho! slave! Caliban ! Cal. [Within.] There's wood enough within. Pros. Come forth, I say! there's other business for thee: Come forth, thou tortoise! when ! 76 Re-enter ARIEL, like a Water-nymph. Fine apparition! My quaint77 Ariel, Hark in thine ear. ་ 75 Cannot do without him, or cannot spare him. So in Lyly's Euphues : 'Honey and wax, both so necessary that we cannot miss them." 76 When! was in common use as an exclamation of impatience. 77 Ingenious, artful, adroit, are old meanings of quaint. 78 ་་ 'Wicked dew" is, probably, dew that has been cursed, and so made poisonous or baleful. See Critical Notes. |