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Line 16. Standard, that is, 'standard-bearer;' as we say 'ensign,' meaning ensign-bearer; or 'trumpet,' meaning trumpeter. Trinculo again puns upon the word standard, and says Caliban cannot be Stephano's standard, inasmuch as he cannot stand, scil. because he is so drunk.

19. Lie. Trinculo, who is a professional jester and an inveterate punster, again plays upon the word lie.

26. In case, &c. Trinculo says he is so valiant with drink that he would dare to jostle a policeman: that is his highest notion of valour. Case means 'state' or 'condition.'

33. Natural is an euphemism for an idiot; the word is still used by country folks, who speak of an idiot as 'a born natural.'

34. Bite, &c. Here Caliban's savage nature appears.

36. A mutineer. This is an example of the figure called aposiopesis. Stephano means, I will hang you on the next tree.'

47. Thou liest. Ariel says, Thou liest; but Caliban, not seeing him, thinks it is Trinculo who says so.

51. Supplant here means unplant or knock out.

53. Mum is an interjection commanding silence.

57. This thing; that is, Trinculo, whom Caliban despises. 61. Party. It appears that the vulgarism of calling a person a 'party' was extant in Shakespeare's time. He properly puts it into the mouth of a butler.

62. Yield him; that is, 'place him at your mercy.'

65. Pied ninny. Ninny means a fool. Caliban calls Trinculo pied from the particoloured coat which he wore in his character of jester. Patch means a paltry fellow.

69. Quick freshes. Quick means 'living,' as opposed to stagnant or dead; freshes, streams of fresh water.

72. Turn my mercy, &c. Stephano personifies Mercy as if she were one of his council, and warns Trinculo that he will punish him without regard to what Mercy would suggest. Stock-fish is a fish which is not only dead but dried.

93. Cut his wezand, &c. It will be observed that Caliban, in the simplicity of his savage nature, takes no pains to disguise his horrid proposal with euphemisms; he uses no innuendoes or half-finished sentences, as Antonio does when he would persuade Sebastian to murder the king.

95. Nor hath not, &c. It is commonly said in English grammars that two negatives make an affirmative. This is a mistake. As we may see from this and other passages, two negatives, in English as in Greek, only strengthen the negative signification.

Line 99. Withal means simply 'with,' and was formerly used instead of 'with' when it governed the relative pronoun and was at the end of a sentence. 'It' seems to be understood governed by deck.' The direct order is, 'With which, when he has a house, he will deck it.'

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100. That most deeply, &c. That is here equivalent to 'what.' 105. Is it, &c. He calls her it, in affected contempt.

109. Save our Graces. 'God' is understood before save'may God save our Graces.'

120. Troll means properly to roll, and is applied metaphorically to singing a round or catch. Catch is a song sung in parts, and so contrived that the melodies of the several parts combine to make a harmony.

134. Mercy, &c. Stephano first professes to be very courageous but immediately afterwards shows his cowardice by this exclamation of fear; and Caliban, who narrowly watches his new master, asks in surprise, "Art thou afeard?"

147. Where I shall have, &c. After Caliban's exquisitely beautiful description of the fairy apparitions of the isle, the contrast of Stephano's vulgarity is delightful: his only notion is that he will not have to pay the fiddler.

153. He lays it on; a cant expression, meaning 'he does it to perfection.'

154. Wilt come? a familiar expression for 'Wilt thou come?'

ACT III. SCENE III.

1. By'r lakin, a contraction of 'by our ladykin.' 'Ladykin' is the diminutive of 'lady,' as Perkin is of Peter.

2. Here's a maze, &c. A maze is a labyrinth. Gonzalo says the way they have walked has been as tortuous as a maze or labyrinth- -a pleasure-ground laid out in winding alleys made on purpose to puzzle.

3. Through forth-rights, that is, through straight paths; and meanders, winding ones.

5. Attached. The primary meaning of attached is arrested or seized, from the French attacher, and this is its meaning here.

6. To the dulling, &c. That is, so that my spirits are dulled.' So in the English version of the New Testament it is said, "He began to be exceeding sorrowful, even unto death;" that is, so that he was in danger of dying.

7. Put off, &c. That is, 'give up, let go.'

10. Frustrate is the past participle; the form now in use is 'frustrated.'

16. Nor cannot. This is an example of the double negative,

of which persons who compile English grammars persist in saying that they make an affirmative.

Enter Prospero above, invisible. The contrivances for scenery in the Elizabethan theatre were very simple, consisting merely of curtains with some conventional emblem to denote what place was intended to be represented. If a bedchamber was intended, a bed was placed on the stage; if a countinghouse, a table with pen and ink: at the back was a balcony which answered various purposes, one of which was to denote the appearance of supernatural persons. Prospero is of course visible to the spectators, and is only supposed to be invisible to the other persons of the drama.

Line 20. Kind keepers means guardian angels.

21. A living drollery, a puppet-show, in which the puppets were not of wood, but alive. This seems a contradiction in terms, or at least a paradox, and indeed is intended to be

one.

23. One tree, &c. The story of the Phoenix was current in Shakespeare's time. It is founded upon a passage in Pliny's Natural History, book xiii. chap. iv. thus translated by Holland, Shakespeare's contemporary: "I myself, verily, have heard strange things of this kind of tree; and namely in regard of the bird Phoenix, which is supposed to have taken that name of this date-tree [polvit] ; for it was assured unto me that the said bird died with that tree, and revived of itself as the tree sprung again."

25. What does else, &c. Sebastian and Antonio mean that this apparition is so strange that thenceforward they will believe anything however incredible.

26. Travellers ne'er did lie. In the Middle Ages, when few people travelled, and it was therefore difficult to verify or refute a story, the lying of travellers was proverbial. Thus, in Piers Ploughman it is said that after having made a pilgrimage they-

hadden leve to lyen

Al hire lif after.

32. Gentle-kind, a compound adjective. Shakespeare so far falls in with the affectations of the euphuists as frequently to use compound words such as 'honey-sweet,' 'childishfoolish,' 'senseless-obstinate.'

36. Worse than devils; scil. because they had conspired to murder the king and Gonzalo. Muse, in old writers, signifies admire, wonder at.

39. Praise in departing; a proverb meaning, 'Wait till the end of your entertainment before you praise it, or you may

see reason to retract your commendation.' The same sentiment is contained in the proverb, "Don't holloa till you 're out of the wood."

Line 41. Stomachs means good appetites. So, after the rebellion of 1745, when Lady Balmerinoch, who was dining with her husband in the Tower, fainted on the lieutenant's announcing that Lord Balmerinoch was to be beheaded next day, the latter exclaimed, " Lieutenant, with your damned warrant you have spoilt my lady's stomach."

44. Mountaineers, &c. He refers to the inhabitants of the Alps, who are subject to swellings of the glands of the throat, called goîtres. The men whose heads stood in their breasts were perhaps some kind of African apes or gorillas, whom the early travellers took for men. In Hakluyt's.Voyages is a description which probably applies to these animals: "On that branch [of the river] which is called Caora [Qworah ?] is a nation whose heads appear not above their shoulders. They are reported to have their eyes in their shoulders, and their mouths in the middle of their breasts."

48. Putter-out of five for one. The words of this sentence have obviously been transposed by mistake: they ought to stand, 'Each putter-out of one for five.' The allusion is to a custom then prevalent, that when a man went on a long voyage or pilgrimage, he lent money on condition that if he returned safe home he should receive five or six times the amount. Thus, in Ben Jonson's play, Every Man out of his Humour, Puntarvolo says, "I do intend, this year of jubilee coming on, to travel; and, because I will not altogether go upon expense, I am determined to put some five thousand pound, to be paid me five for one upon the return of my wife, myself, and my dog, from the Turk's court in Constantinople.'

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49. Stand to means to set about a thing. 50. Although my last; that is,

meal.'

although it be my last

54. That hath, &c. We should now say 'that hath for instrument.' The meaning is, that this world, and all that is in it, is the instrument by which destiny works out its purposes.

56. To belch up you. The construction of this sentence is not grammatical. Whom' in verse 53, is the accusative case governed by belch up; you is therefore redundant.

7. You 'mongst men, &c. This is what is called a Bminative absolute, neither the subject of a verb nor its

Line 59. The metre of this line is very irregular. It must be divided into feet thus:

And even with such | like valour | men hang | and drown. 61. The elements, &c.; that is, the metal.

63. Bemocked-at. At is redundant. Bemocked means 'mocked at;' as Shakespeare says elsewhere, "And the wolf behowls the moon ;" that is, 'howls at' the moon. This is an example of that carelessness of which Ben Jonson, in criticising Shakespeare, complains.

65. Dowle means wool or down, of which it seems to be another form. One dowle that's in my plume signifies' one single twirl of the feather which I wear in my hat.'

67. Too massy; we should say 'massive,' heavy. Ariel means that he has deprived them of strength to lift their swords.

71. Requit is the old form of the participle 'requited.' 73. Powers means gods, (Greek Suvάueis.) See Galatians vi. 12.

79. Whose wraths, &c. tecedent.

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Whose refers to powers as its an

80. Falls; which,' the relative pronoun in the plural nominative to agree with wraths, is the subject of falls. Else means otherwise. The direct construction of this rather intricate sentence is, 'To guard you from whose wraths there (understood) is nothing but heart-sorrow,' &c.

which else" to "heads" inclusive is a parenthesis.

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81. Heart-sorrow is a very beautiful compound substantive. We should now say 'heartfelt sorrow.'

82. Clear life, &c.; that is, 'a life free from guilt following' this heart-sorrow.

Stage direction.] Shapes means the apparitions. Mocks and mows; we should rather read 'mops and mows,' as in Lear Flibbertigibbet is said to be the demon of mopping and mowing. Mops means bobs or curtseys; mows, wry faces, from the French moue.

83. Bravely does not mean courageously in old English, but finely, handsomely; as, before, "these be brave spirits." 84. A grace it had, &c. Ariel, being so graceful a spirit by nature, preserved a certain grace even when he personated a harpy devouring the viands.

85. Bated means omitted or retrenched.

86. Good life means with accurate imitation of the life: a kindred expression is, 'He acted it to the life.'

87. By observation strange is meant quaint and minute observation of all the action required to represent the part.

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