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But yet thou shalt have freedom: fo, so, so.-
To the king's fhip, invifible as thou art:

he fpeaks of his present situation only; nor triumphs in the idea of his future liberty, till the laft couplet :

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Merrily, merrily," &c.

The bat is no bird of paffage, and the expreffion is therefore probably used to fignify, not that he purfues fummer, but that, after fummer is paft, he rides upon the warm down of a bat's back, which fuits not improperly with the delicacy of his airy being. After Jummer is a phrafe in K. Henry VI. P. ÍI. A& II. fc. iv.

Shak fpeare, who, in his Midfummer Night's Dream, has placed the light of a glow-worm in its eyes, might, through the fame ignorance of natural history, have fuppofed the bat to be a bird of paffage. Owls cry not only in winter. It is well known that they are to the full as clamorous in fummer; and as a proof of it, Titania, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the time of which is fuppofed to be May, commands her fairies to

-keep back

"The clamorous owl, that nightly boots." STEEVENS. Our author is feldom folicitous that every part of his imagery fhould correfpond. I therefore, think, that though the bat is "no bird of paffage," Shakspeare probably meant to express what Dr. Warburton fuppofes. A fhort account, however, of this winged animal may perhaps prove the beft illuftration of the paffage before us:

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The bat (fays Dr. Goldfmith, in his entertaining and in"ftructive Natural Hiftory,) makes its appearance in fummer, and begins its flight in the dusk of the evening. It appears only in the "moft pleafant evenings; at other times it continues in its retreat; "the chink of a ruined building, or the hollow of a tree. Thus "the little animal even in fummer fleeps the greatest part of his "time, never venturing out by day-light, nor in rainy weather. But "its fhort life is ftill more abridged by continuing in a torpid "ftate during the winter. At the approach of the cold feafon, the bat prepares for its ftate of lifelefs inactivity, and feems "rather to choose a place where it may continue fafe from interruption, than where it may be warmly or commodiously lodged."

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When Shakspeare had determined to fend Ariel in purfuit of fummer, wherever it could be found, as moft congenial to fuch an airy being, is it then surprising that he fhould have made the bat, rather than "the wind, his poft-horfe;" an animal thus delighting in that feason, and reduced by winter to a state of lifeless inactivity? MALONE.

There fhalt thou find the mariners asleep
Under the hatches; the mafter, and the boatswain,
Being awake, enforce them to this place;

And presently, I pr'ythee.

ARI. I drink the air before me, and return

Or e'er your pulfe twice beat.

[Exit ARIEL. GON. All torment, trouble, wonder, and amaze

ment

Inhabits here; Some heavenly power guide us
Out of this fearful country!

PRO.

Behold, fir king,
The wronged duke of Milan, Profpero:
For more affurance that a living prince
Does now fpeak to thee, I embrace thy body;
And to thee, and thy company, I bid

A hearty welcome.

ALON.

-fball I live now,

Whe'r thou beest he, or no,*

Under the bloffem that hangs on the bough.] This thought is not thrown out at random. It compofed a part of the magical fyftem of thefe days. In Taffo's Godfrey of Bulloigne, by Fairfax, B. IV.

ft. 18:

"The goblins, fairies, feends, and furies mad,

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Ranged in flowrie dales, and mountaines hore, "And under everie trembling leafe they fit."

The idea was probably firft fuggefted by the defcription of the venerable elm which Virgil planted at the entrance of the infernal fhades. Æn. vi. v. 282:

"Ulmus opaca, ingens; quam fedem fomnia vulgò
"Vana tenêre ferunt, foliifque fub omnibus hærent."
HOLT WHITE.

9 I drink the air-] To drink the air-is an expreffion of swiftnefs of the fame kind as to devour the way in K. Henry IV. JOHNSON. 2 Whe'r thou beeft be, or no,] Whe'r for whether, is an abbreviation frequently ufed both by Shakspeare and Jonfon. So, in Julius Cæfar:

"See, whe'r their baseft metal be not mov'd."

Or fome inchanted trifle to abuse me,

As late I have been, I not know: thy pulfe

Beats, as of flesh and blood; and, fince I faw thee,
The affliction of my mind amends, with which,
I fear, a madness held me: this must crave
(An if this be at all,) a moft strange story.
Thy dukedom I refign; and do intreat

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Thou pardon me my wrongs:-But how fhould Profpero

Be living, and be here?

PRO.

Firft, noble friend,

Let me embrace thine age; whofe honour cannot Be measur'd, or confin'd.

GON.

Or be not, I'll not swear.

PRO.

Whether this be,

You do yet taste

Some fubtilties o' the ifle, that will not let you

Again, in the Comedy of Errors:

"Good fir, fay he'r you'll answer me, or not."

M. MASON. 3 Thy dukedom I refign;] The duchy of Milan being through the treachery of Antonio made feudatory to the crown of Naples, Alonso promises to refign his claim of fovereignty for the future. STEEVENS.

4 You do yet tafte

Some fubtilties o' the ifle,] This is a phrafe adopted from ancient cookery and confectionary. When a dish was fo contrived as to appear unlike what it really was, they called it a fubtilty. Dragons, caftles, trees, &c. made out of fugar, had the like denomination. See Mr. Pegge's gloffary to the Form of Cury, &c. Article Sotiltees.

Froiffard complains much of this practice, which often led him into mistakes at dinner. Defcribing one of the feafts of his time, he fays there was "grant planté de meftz fi etranges & fi defguifez qu'on ne les pouvait devifer;" and L'Etoile fpeaking of a fimilar entertainment in 1597, adds " Tous les poiffons eftoient fort dextrement defguifez en viande de chair, qui estoient monftres marins pour la pluspart, qu'on avait fait venir exprèi de tous les coftez." STEEVENS.

Believe things certain:- Welcome, my friends

all:

But you, my brace of lords, were I fo minded,

[Afide to SEB. and ANT. I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you, And juftify you traitors; at this time.

I'll tell no tales,

SEB. The devil speaks in him.

No:

[Afide.

PRO. For you, moft wicked fir, whom to call brother Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive Thy rankest fault; all of them; and require My dukedom of thee, which, perforce, I know, Thou must restore,

ALON.

If thou beeft Profpero,

Give us particulars of thy prefervation:

How thou haft met us here, who three hours fince'
Were wreck'd upon this fhore; where I have lost,
How sharp the point of this remembrance is!
My dear fon Ferdinand.

PRO.

I am woe for't, fir."

5-who three hours fince-] The unity of time is most rigidly obferved in this piece. The fable fcarcely takes up a greater number of hours than are employed in the reprefentation; and from the very particular care which our author takes to point out this circumftance in fo many other paffages, as well as here, it fhould feem as if it were not accidental, but purposely defigned to fhew the admirers of Ben Jonfon's art, and the cavillers of the time, that he too could write a play within all the ftricteft laws of regularity, when he chose to load himself with the critick's fetters.

The Boatswain marks the progrefs of the day again-which but three glaffes fince, &c. and at the beginning of this act the duration of the time employed on the ftage is particularly afcertained; and it refers to a paffage in the firft act, of the fame tendency. The ftorm was raised at least two glaffes after mid day, and Ariel was promised that the work should cease at the fixth hour. STEEVENS, 6 I am woe for't, fir.] i. e. I am forry for it. To be woe, is often used by old writers to fignify, to be forry.

ALON. Irreparable is the lofs; and patience Says, it is past her cure.

PRO.

I rather think,

You have not fought her help; of whofe foft grace, For the like lofs, I have her fovereign aid,

And reft myself content.

ALON.

You the like lofs?

PRO. As great to me, as late; and, portable' To make the dear lofs, have I means much weaker Than you may call to comfort you; for I Have loft my daughter.

ALON.

A daughter?

O heavens! that they were living both in Naples, The king and queen there! that they were, I wish Myfelf were mudded in that oozy bed

Where my fon lies. When did you lofe your daughter?

PRO. In this laft tempeft. I perceive, these lords At this encounter do fo much admire,

That they devour their reason; and scarce think
Their eyes do offices of truth, their words
Are natural breath: but, howfoe'er you have

So, in the play of The Four Ps, 1569:

"But be ye fure I would be woe

"That you should chance to begyle me fo." STEEVENS. As great to me, as late;] My lofs is as great as yours, and has as lately happened to me. JOHNSON.

7 — portable—] So, in Macbeth:

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thefe are portable "With other graces weigh'd."

The old copy unmetrically reads—“ Supportable." STEEVENS.

8

their words

Are natural breath:] An anonymous correfpondent thinks that their is a corruption, and that we should read-these words. His conjecture appears not improbable. The lords had no doubt concerning themfelves. Their doubts related only to Profpero, whom they at first apprehended to be fome "inchanted trifle to abuse

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