form of the word. (2) Clothes-line, the alternative interpretation, is, à priori, less probable, for it is incongruous to suppose that such an appliance of civilization should be hanging outside of Prospero's cell. Yet it must be allowed that this interpretation gives more point to Stephano's jests in 1. 241– 245. The words " now is the jerkin under the line are more applicable in the case of a cord than of a tree, and the joke about the jerkin losing its hair and proving a bald jerkin seems to refer to the fact that clothes-lines in Shakespeare's time were usually made of hair. 200-201. played the Jack. Either "played Jack with the lantern," and so beguiled us into the mire; or played the knave or rogue." Cf. Much Ado about Nothing, i. 1. 185–187: "do you play the flouting Jack, to tell us Cupid is a good harefinder? 206. hoodwink, blindfold; hence here-cover, put out of sight. 218. I, for me. Cf. Abbott, § 209. 222-223. The allusion is to the ballad containing the stanza: 'King Stephen was a worthy peere, 231. Let's alone. This is the reading of the Ff, and if correct, has the sense of "let's along." Staunton quotes from Beaumont and Fletcher's Loyal Subject, iii. 5, a passage where alone is used in the sense of along, and where it cannot be a misprint, as it rhymes with gone. A conjectural reading is Let it alone," repeating the words in l. 224. 235-238. These words contain a complex series of puns: (1) Now is the jerkin under the line is probably a reference to the custom at tennis of staking the wager under the line, sc as to be taken by the winner. Thus, as Stephano advances toward the jerkin, he cries that it now hangs up ready for a claimant; then as he utters the second now he pulls the garment off the line and makes the joke about its losing its hair, explained in the note on 1. 193. (2) Under the line is also a slang phrase for "hanging by the neck," as is shown by Staunton's quotation from An Elegy upon Edward Dun, Esq., the Citie's Common Hangman, who Dyed Naturally in his Bed, 1663: "It was (oh, Death!) an unjust thing, Or else thou 'adst took him under-line." (3) There may be a further reference to the nautical phrase under the line, and the fevers often contracted there, which cause loss of hair. 239. by line and level, according to rule, methodically; a metaphor taken from carpentry. The phrase is introduced merely as another pun upon line." 244. pass of pate, sally of wit. 246. lime, bird-lime. As the punning upon "line" is still being continued, line" and lime must evidently have been convertible forms in this, as in other senses of the word. 249. barnacles, geese that were supposed to breed out of certain shellfish which grew upon trees. 250. foreheads villanous low. A low forehead was counted a deformity in Shakespeare's time. 261. aged cramps. Cf. note on i. 2. 369. 264. Lie. Rowe's correction for the Ff reading lies, which may, however, be supported on the analogy of i. 1. 15. Prospero, having all his enemies at his mercy, makes use of his magic power for the last time, before he lays it aside forever. He releases them from the trance into which they have been plunged, and extends to them degrees of pardon (cf. Introduction, pp. xxi-xxii), while Gonzalo is embraced with loving words. Thereupon follow universal reunion and restoration. Ferdinand, with his newly-won bride, is given back to his father's arms. The Master and the Boatswain rejoin their fellow-voyagers and report that the ship, which had been given up for lost, is safe in "all her trim.” Caliban and his allies are driven in to be claimed by their respective masters, and to be forgiven on condition of penitence and surrender of stolen goods. Ariel is restored to his home, the air; and finally Prospero strains his eyes across the sea toward his Milan, and beyond that, toward his grave. 2. crack not. This probably refers to the magic bonds which Prospero weaves around his victims. Thus he afterward declares (1. 31) my charms I'll break." 3. Goes upright with his carriage, marches on erect, not bending under his load. 10. line-grove. Cf. note on iv. 1. 193. 23-24. relish all as sharply Passion as they. The punctuation of F 1 and F 2, putting a comma after sharply, makes passion a verb (cf. Venus and Adonis, 1059: "Dumbly she passions"; and Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 4. 172: ""Twas Ariadne passioning "). The words then mean "feel joy just as keenly, and am as much moved with sorrow as they." F 3 and F 4 omit the comma after sharply," thus treating passion as a noun governed by "relish." 33-50. This passage has so remarkable a likeness in its phraseology to Medea's incantation in Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, that it must have been partly modeled on it. Wright quotes the following passage from the edition of 1603: "Ye Ayres and Windes: ye Elues of Hilles, of Brookes, of Woods alone, Of standing Lakes, and of the Night approche ye euerychone. Through helpe of whom (the crooked bankes much wondring at the thing) I have compelled streames to run cleane backward to their spring. By charmes I make the calme Seas rough, and make the rough Seas plaine. And couer all the Skie with Cloudes and chase them thence againe. By charmes I raise and lay the windes, and burst the Vipers iaw. And from the bowels of the Earth both stones and trees doe draw. Whole woods and Forestes I remoue: I make the Mountaines shake, And euen the Earth it selfe to grone and fearefully to quake. Moone, I darken oft, though beaten brasse abate thy peril soone. 66 66 37. green sour ringlets: the circles of a deeper green than the surrounding grass, and bitterer in taste, which are found in meadows, and were popularly supposed to be caused by the dancing of fairies. These," says Miss Porter, are now commonly attributed to growths of mushrooms circling a space and enriching it with their nitrogen, which causes the grass to sprout more luxuriantly there." Note II. 39-40. 41. Weak masters, weak adepts in magical powers. 43. azured, azure. Cf. Abbott, § 294. 47. spurs, the roots which project. 51. required, asked for. 59. unsettled fancy, distorted imagination. 60. boil'd. The Ff read boile. For the use of the word in this connection cf. Winter's Tale, iii. 3. 64-65: "Would any but these boiled brains of nineteen and two-and-twenty hunt this weather?' 63. sociable to, in sympathy with. show, appearance. 64. Fall. Cf. ii. 1. 296, note. fellowly, companionable. 67. ignorant, producing ignorance. 71. Home, thoroughly. Cf. Measure for Measure, iv. 3. 148: "Accuse him home and home." 76. remorse, pity. 81. reasonable shore, the shore of reason. 85. discase me, strip off my disguise. 86. Milan, Duke of Milan. Cf. i. 2. 109. 90. when owls do cry, i.e. at night. 92. summer, changed by Theobald into " sunset," on the ground that bats do not migrate with the close of summer. But Shakespeare is here dealing with fairy-lore, not with natural history, and the idea of spirits flying after summer is akin to that in A Midsummer Night's Dream, iv. 1. 101: Trip we after the night's shade." 102. drink the air, an analogous expression to way." 103. Or ere. Cf. note on i. 2. 11. 112. trifle, phantom. abuse, deceive. 66 "devour the 117. An if this be at all, if this have any real existence. 118. Thy dukedom I resign. Antonio had made Milan a fief of Naples, and Alonso herewith disclaims the sovereign rights he had thus acquired. 119. my wrongs, the wrongs I have done. 120. noble friend, Gonzalo. 123-124. taste Some subtilties o' the isle. Taste used in the sense of "experience” probably suggested subtilties, which besides meaning, as here, deceptions," denoted devices in pastry. Wright quotes from Fabyan's account of the feast at the coronation of Katharine, queen of Henry V: "And a sotyltye called a Pellycane sytting on hir nest with he byrdes." 128. justify, prove. 129. No. This is a curiously curt answer to Sebastian's remark, which is, moreover, supposed to be an aside not overheard by Prospero. A plausible emendation is Now, used as the opening of the address to Antonio. 139. I am woe for 't, I am sorry for it. Cf. Abbott, § 230. 145-146. "As great to me as it is recent; and to make the keen loss bearable I have much weaker means.' 154. do so much admire, are so much astonished. 155. devour their reason, refuse to believe what their reason tells them. 156. do offices of truth, perform their functions truthfully. 164. relation for a breakfast, a short story to be told at breakfast. Playing at chess. This introduction of chess into the enchanted island, especially as Shakespeare nowhere else directly mentions the game, is so curious that attempts have been made to assign some special reason for it. Steevens thought that Shakespeare borrowed the idea from the romance of Sir Huon de Bordeaux, where the hero and heroine engage in the same pastime. Allen ingeniously conjectures that he made the Neapolitan prince and Miranda play chess because Naples was at that time the chief center of the game. 174. a score. Used either in the ordinary sense of " or, more probably, in that of “ a stake." twenty," you should wrangle. The usage of 'should' and 'would' in this sentence becomes like our own by a very slight change: for a score of kingdoms should you wrangle I would call it fair play (Wright). 181-184. Notice Miranda's "child-like naïveté of admira |