323. you...ye. Originally ye is nominative, you accusative; but the distinction is not observed by Elizabethan authors.. Ye is often used for you where an unaccented syllable is wanted.

326. pen thy breath up, make thee gasp for breath.

urchins, hobgoblins. The meaning of the word is made evident by the connections in which it is used by Shakespeare and other Elizabethan writers, e.g. Merry Wives, iv. 4. 49: "Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies". So Reginald Scot in his Discovery of Witchcraft speaks of having been frightened in childhood by stories about 'spirits, witches, urchins, elves, hags, fairies". An old song, The Urchins' Dance, runs as follows:

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"By the moon we sport and play,
With the night begins our day:
As we frisk, the dew doth fall,
Trip it, little urchins, all,
Lightly as the little bee,

Two by two, and three by three,
And about go we, go we'

The word has also the meaning of hedgehog, and it is probable that the uncanny, nocturnal habits of this animal came to be attributed to the obsession of fairies, and thence the name itself to be attributed to a class of malicious spirits.

327, 328. Shall, during that desolate period of night when they are permitted to work, all practise upon thee.' For this use of vast cf. Hamlet, i. 2. 198: "In the dead vast and middle of the night". The various orders of spirits were supposed to have certain stated limits of time during which they might be active. Thus in King Lear, iii. 4. 121, the foul fiend, Flibbertigibbet, "begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock". The Ghost in Hamlet departs at daybreak.

334. Water with berries in 't. Some critics have detected in this a reference to coffee, which was as yet little known in England. But such an interpretation is very doubtful.

339. Cursed be I that did so! the reading of F 1, but the later Ff. read 'Curs'd be I that I did so', which is preferable as throwing the emphasis on curs'd instead of I.

342. sty, keep pent up as in a sty.

351-362. This speech is assigned by the Ff. to Miranda. Theobald, following Dryden's version, transferred it to Prospero, and the change has been accepted by practically all modern editors. Yet the evidence against the Ff. reading is not entirely conclusive. The passage as a whole certainly suits the lips of Prospero better than those of Miranda, and it is natural that the enchanter, whom Caliban has already admitted to be his teacher, should remind the monster of the instruction that he has bestowed on him. Moreover, Prospero must almost inevitably have taken pains to make Caliban speak be

fore Miranda was old enough to act as tutor; on the other hand, if the speech be Miranda's it explains how Caliban had opportunities of associating with her, which he sought to turn to evil account. The words "I pitied thee" fall naturally from Miranda, with her tender heart, and there is possibly a reminiscence of the maiden's instructions in Caliban's reply to Stephano's claim of having been 'the man i' the moon', ii. 2. 127, 128:

"I have seen thee in her...My mistress show'd me thee". 358. race, hereditary nature.

364. red plague. Cf. Coriolanus, iv. 1. 13: "Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome". In The General Practise of Physicke, 1605, three different kinds of plague sore are mentioned: "Sometimes it is red, otherwhiles yellow, and sometimes black".

rid, despatch, destroy.

365. learning, used here as often in E.E. in the sense of 'teaching'. In O.E. leornian = learn, and læran=teach, but already in M.E. the meanings had become to some extent confused.

Hag-seed, son of a hag.

366. thou'rt best: a confusion of two constructions: 'To thee it were best', and 'Thou had'st best'.

367. malice, malicious thing.

369. old may either (1) be used in an intensive tense, cf. Much Ado About Nothing, v. 2. 98: "Yonder's old coil at home"; or (2) it may mean 'Such as age brings on'; cf. iv. I. 255: "aged cramps".

370. aches, pronounced dissyllabically. In E.E. the noun is spelt ache, and the verb ake. This distinction is invariably preserved in the Ff. The pronunciation of ache, like the letter H, is made clear by an epigram of Heywood, quoted by Wright:

"H, is worst among letters in the crosse row,

For if thou finde him other in thine elbow,

In thine arme, or leg, in any degree,

In thine head, or teeth, in thy toe or knee,
Into what place soever H may pike him,

Where euer you find ache, thou shalt not like him".

373. Setebos. The name was probably taken by Shakespeare from Eden's History of Travayle, 1577, which contains a translation from the Italian narrative of Antonio Pigafetta, who accompanied Magellan in his circumnavigation of the globe. He relates that Magellan "took by deceit" two gigantic Patagonians "by loading them with presents, and then causing shackles of iron to be put on their legs, making signs that he would also give them those chains; but they began to doubt, and when at last they saw how they were deceived, they roared like bulls, and called upon their great devil Setebos to help them ".

Stage-direction, Re-enter Ariel, invisible. A conventional stage costume was used to indicate invisibility. Henslowe in his diary mentions among the wardrobe of his company, the Lord Admiral's men, 'a robe for to go invisible".

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376-379. Mr. Gosse has suggested that in these lines we have a reminiscence of the passage in Marlowe's Hero and Leander, where Hero describes her watch-tower to her lover as standing

377. kiss'd.

"Where all is whist and still,

Save that the sea playing on yellow sand
Sends forth a rattling murmur to the land".

This was customary at the time before certain

dances. Cf. Henry VIII., i. 4. 95, 96:

"I were unmannerly, to take you out,
And not to kiss you".

The

377, 378. If the Ff. punctuation be preserved, as in the text, the American critic Allen's interpretation is probably correct: nymphs are formed on the sands for a dance; the waves are converted by the poet's imagination into a crowd of spectators, restless and noisy, until the spectacle shall begin; when the nymphs indicate by taking hands, courtesying to, and kissing partners, that they are beginning, the waves are hushed by the signal into silent attention, and thus the nymphs do, in effect, kiss the wild waves whist, although they actually kiss, not the waves, but each other". Most editors put a comma after kissed, and interpret The wild waves whist as a parenthesis, 'the wild waves being silent'. Such a parenthesis, however, is awkward in a song, and the Ff. punctuation is preferable. For whist in the sense of 'hushed or 'silenced' cf. Spenser, Faerie Queene, vii. 7. 59: "So was the Titanesse put down and whist".

379. Foot it featly, dance gracefully.

380. the burthen bear: Pope's emendation of the Ff. reading 'bear the burden'.

381, 382. The Ff. print these lines as the burden of the song, in which case Hark, hark! and The watch-dogs bark are probably said by the 'sweet sprites', and the double Bow-wow is supposed to come from watch-dogs behind the scenes. Capell assigns Hark, hark! and The watch-dogs bark to Ariel, in which case Bow-wow alone forms the burden.

387. waits upon, attends.

389. again, probably used for 'again and again'.

395. fathom: another use of the singular for the plural. Cf. 1. 53. The Ff. reading is fadom.

398, 399. "Everything about him that is liable to alteration undergoes a change through the action of the sea.'

404. ditty: properly the words of a song'. Cf. Bacon's Essays, xxxviii.: "And the ditty high and tragical, not nice or dainty".

remember, commemorate.

405. nor no. For the double negative cf. Abbott, § 406.

For this

For a

407. 'Raise your eyelids with their fringe of lashes.' use of advance cf. iv. 1. 177: "Advanced their eyelids". justification of Prospero's stilted phraseology here, see Coleridge, PP. 144, 145.

413. but, except that.

something, somewhat.

418. It goes on, the plan prospers.

431. A single thing. Ferdinand plays upon the word. He believes that himself and the King of Naples are one and the same person; he therefore uses this epithet with reference to its further sense of 'solitary', and so 'feeble and helpless'.

432. Naples, the King of Naples. "myself am Naples ".

Cf. the following line:

434. never since at ebb, always since then flooded with tears. 437. And his brave son. There is no further allusion in the play to a son of the Duke of Milan. He may have appeared in some lost source of The Tempest, and this accidental reference may have been preserved. Or Shakespeare, as Theobald suggested, may have marked out such a character in his first plan, but on second thoughts found it unnecessary.

The Duke of Milan, Prospero, the rightful Duke.

438. more braver. For the double comparative cf. Abbott, § II.

440. changed eyes, exchanged loving glances. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 13. 156, 157:

"To flatter Cæsar, would you mingle eyes

With one that ties his points?"

442. you have done yourself some wrong, you have injured your honour by asserting what is not the case, i.e. that you are King of Naples.

449. both in either's powers. Both seems put for 'each', or either used for each other. There may, however, be an ellipsis of each after both-They are both (each) in either's powers'. Cf. Sonnet cxxxi:

"A thousand groans

Came (one) on another's neck ". (Abbott, § 12.) 456-458. "Miranda's creed seems to be a simple faith in beauty" (Moulton). Her speech, however, is not quite logical. She declares (1) that nothing evil can dwell in such a temple as Ferdinand's

body; (2) that if the evil spirit have so fair a mansion, good things will strive to dwell with it. According to her second statement the 'mansion' will be shared by the ill spirit' and 'Good things', and this contradicts her first statement. To get over the difficulty it has been suggested that (1) with 't is a misprint for in't; or (2) that with is used in the sense of chez, though no other instance of this is forthcoming.

464. entertainment, treatment.

467. gentle and not fearful. The most natural interpretation of these words is harmless and not terrible', in which case "Make not too rash a trial of him" in 1. 466 must mean, 'Do not rashly determine to put him to severe tests'. This interpretation best suits Miranda's attitude throughout this episode, in which her anxieties are on behalf of Ferdinand, not of her father. It is possible, however, that gentle and not fearful means 'of gentle birth and not a coward', and that therefore Prospero is warned not to 'make too rash a trial of him' by engaging unadvisedly in a duel with him.

468. My foot my tutor! This pregnant phrase may be paraphrased: You, Miranda, to instruct me! The foot to lecture the head.' Cf. Lyly's Euphues, p. 261: "Then how vaine is it, Euphues (too mylde a worde for so madde a mind), that the foot should neglect his office to correct the face".

472. Beseech, used, like pray, without the personal pronoun. 477. there is. Cf. note on i. 1. 15, 16.

479. To the most of men, as compared with the majority. 483. nerves. See Glossary.

487. nor. Used inaccurately where 'and' or 'or' would be in place. The origin of the error is probably a confusion of two constructions. Shakespeare intending perhaps at first to employ some such word as 'heavy', and then substituting 'but light'.

Act II.-Scene I.

This scene enlightens us further as to the character of Prospero's enemies; it shows that Antonio, the arch-traitor, has been merely hardened in villainy by the lapse of years, and that he has found a fit associate in Alonso's brother, Sebastian. The remarks of the pair, throughout the earlier half of the scene, are an unconscious self-revelation. "The prolonged and dull joking of Sebastian in this scene cannot be meant by Shakespeare to be really bright and witty. It is meant to show that the intellectual poverty of the conspirators is as great as their jovial obliquity" (Dowden). We are "shown the tendency in bad men to indulge in scorn and contemptuous expressions, as a mode of getting rid of their own uneasy