Line 88. Their several kinds have done; that is, 'have acted the several natures which they assumed.'

89. Knit up, &c.; that is, 'bound up in their madness.'

92. Whom they suppose, &c. This is ungrammatical. It ought to be either whom they suppose to be drowned,' or 'who they suppose is drowned.' An example of the same solecism is to be found in the authorised version of the New Testament: Whom do men say that I am?"

93. His and mine, &c.; scil. Miranda. Mine is now only used when it stands alone, and not before the substantive with which it agrees.

97. The winds, &c. Alonzo says the sound of the wind suggested the name of Prospero to his mind; and, following out the same metaphor, he compares the thunder to an organpipe which added a bass to the tune which spoke of his sin.. 100. Therefore, that is 'because of my trespass.'

102. But one, &c. ; that is, if but one fiend will come on at a time,' &c.

108. Ecstasy means madness, being out of one's mind, from the Greek ἔκστασις.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

3. A third. This is the old mode of spelling 'thrid,' or 'thread.' Thus, in some copies of Chaucer's poems, 'the Assembly of Fowls' is called 'the Parlement of Briddes,' and the City company which used to manufacture griddles is called the Worshipful Company of Girdlers.' The Shakespearian commentators have cited many other examples, of which the most apposite is from the comedy of Mucedonis, published in 1619:—

Long maist thou live, and when the sisters shall decree

To cut in twaine the twisted third of life,

Then let him die.

A third of mine own life, then, means 'a fibre of my own existence. We say, when a person is in danger of death, that his life hangs by a thread.

4. Who ought to be 'whom' in the accusative, governed by the active verb 'tender,' offer.

7. Strangely means marvellously, wonderfully.

II. Halt means limp, not stop.

12. Against an oracle; that is 'even though an oracle said the contrary.'

15. Virgin-knot. This is an allusion to the ancient custom which required that maidens should wear a zone as a mark of

virginity; so that 'to loose her zone,' was an equivalent to saying to marry her.'

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Line 18. Aspersion is here taken in its primary meaning, sprinkling; in allusion perhaps to the form of sprinkling the marriage-bed with holy water, which the priest was directed by the ante-Reformation ritual to do with these words: "Benedic, Domine Deus, thalamum hunc ut omnes habitantes in eo in tua pace consistant et in tua voluntate permaneant et senescant et multiplicentur in longitudine dierum, et ad regnum cœlorum perveniant, per Christum."

23. As Hymen's lamps, &c.; that is, 'as you hope that Hymen's lamps may light you.'

25. With such love, &c.; that is, 'with such love as we now bear to each other.'

27. Can is here taken in its primary sense of 'knows,' from the Anglo-Saxon kennan.

29. The edge, &c.; that is, 'the keen enjoyment of the celebration of our wedding-day.'

37. The rabble, &c., means those meaner spirits who were under the command of Ariel. The idea in the Middle Ages was that the fairies were the old false gods of heathenism, who still exercised a limited power. See note to the Wife of Bath's Tale, annotated edition of Chaucer, vol. ii. p. 73.

41. Vanity, vain show or illusion. So in the Psalms, "the gods of the heathen are but vanity."

43. Twink means the twinkling of an eye."

47. Mop and mow; see ante note, act iii. sc. iii. stage direction after line 82.

55. The white, &c. The heart was supposed to be the seat of the noble affection of love; the liver, of lust.

57. Corollary means properly an additional conclusion drawn from a proposition already complete; and so, as here, a surplus or superabundance.

58. Pertly means briskly as well as saucily.

63. Stover. In Suffolk and East Anglia generally, I think, stover is appropriated to hay made of clover. The people speak of stover-hay,' which they pronounce 'stuvver,' as opposed to meadow-hay.' Here I think it means hay in general. Thatched means covered, strewn.

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64. Pioned and twilled brims. The banks here spoken of are the banks of ditches, not rivers, because Ceres is the goddess of agriculture. Pioned means digged; twilled means plastered or smeared, as ditches are with the wet soil from the bottom when they are 'made up.'

65. April is called spongy because it is a rainy month, and

makes the earth spongy; and is said to betrim, i. e. trim with flowers, these banks, because in April the wild flowers begin to bud and blossom. Why these flowers are especially proper to make cold nymphs chaste crowns does not appear. But if instead of pioned and twilled we read 'peonied and lilied,' and understand banks to mean the banks of rivers, then the passage becomes more intelligible; because in Shakespeare's time the water-lily was supposed to "mortify altogether the appetite of sensualitie." See Edward Fenton's Secrete Wonders of Nature; and the peony is called in Lyte's Herbal, maiden or virgin peonie.' But there was also a flower called the 'twill-pant.'

Line 66. Broom-groves. The broom is a shrub of not very high growth, and could hardly be said to form a grove; it has therefore been proposed to read 'brown groves.'

68. Lass-lorn, that is, forsaken by his lass. Pole-clipt, that is, clipped so as to be trained to a pole, as the vines are in France.

74. Amain, that is, with vigour or haste.

81. Bosky means covered with wood, from the French bosquet, a wood.

83. Short-grassed means so fed upon by animals that the grass is short and green.

85. To estate means to settle as an estate.

110. Foison means abundance, and to say 'plenty of abundance' is tautology. It will be seen that plenty is made to rhyme with empty, which is certainly incorrect. Farthest and harvest, again, do not afford a rhyming consonance. 128. Windring, a poetical form of 'winding.' 130. Crisp channels; the channels may be said to be crisp, because of the crisply curled verdure on their banks.

The stage direction says that immediately on Prospero's starting and speaking, the charm is broken and the spirits Ivanish with a confused noise. It was the belief that to speak broke the charm; as before, "Hush, and be mute, or else our spell is marred."

145. Anger so distempered; that is, such intemperate or immoderate anger.'

154. All which it inherit; that is, all who inherit or possess it,' the globe.

156. Rack is merely the old spelling of 'wrack' or 'wreck.' Prospero says the world shall utterly vanish, like the spirits, and not even leave a ruin behind.

157. Made on, that is, made of."

158. Rounded means finished, completed.

And so

Line 164. Come with a thought; that is, 'come in obedience to my wish, even before it is expressed in words.' Ariel answers, Thy thoughts I cleave to; that is, 'I follow them closely.'

186. The trumpery, &c. It is placed in apposition to the trumpery.

187. Stale means a bait.

188. A devil, &c. says that Caliban is a

Prospero here, speaking to himself, devil.

189. Nurture, &c. Nurture means, training; and Prospero says, metaphorically, that Caliban's nature is so brutal that no training or education will adhere to it.

192. Cankers, 'becomes stunted and distorted,' as a rosebud eaten by a canker or caterpillar.

194. Blind mole, &c. It is to be observed what a poetical turn Caliban's continual metaphors and similes from nature give his language. Living in solitude, and having the quick observation which is fostered by it, he draws his ideas chiefly from the natural objects with which he is familiar.

197. Played the Jack; that is, the Jack-o'-lantern, or ignis fatuus.

206. Shall hoodwink. This is a metaphor from the art of falconry. A falcon's head was covered with a hood, to keep her from seeing anything till the game was on the wing. Here the word seems to mean merely to cover.

217. Good mischief; that is, 'that evil which shall have a good effect,' namely, the murder of Prospero. The folly and frivolity of the butler and fool are contrasted with Caliban's superior sense and strength of will. They are all equally guilty.

226. Frippery, a store of secondhand clothes. Belongs to means here 'becomes.'

231. Let's alone. The Cambridge edition, following the first folio, reads, Let's alone; but Johnson proposes to read Let's along, which means, of course, 'Let's go along.'

238. A bald jerkin. The meaning of this jest is not obvious. The pun depends upon the double meaning of 'line,' either the line on which the clothes were hung, or the equinoctial, under which people are subject to a disease which induces baldness. A bald jerkin is a threadbare, poor, shabby jerkin or short coat.

239. Line and level, systematically, as a carpenter works. 244. Pass of pate. A pass in fencing, means a thrust with the sword or foil. A pass of pate then means metaphorically a sally of wit or a repartee.

Line 245. Lime means birdlime, used probably by pickpockets to make coin and other articles adhere to their fingers. 247. Our time, that is, 'our opportunity.'

248. Barnacles. The barnacle is the solan goose, which was in the old times supposed to grow out of a sort of shellfish which adhered to trees.

249 With foreheads, &c. That is, foreheads low like those of villains' or slaves. The great difference between the formation of the head of man and that of the lower animals consists in the height of the foreheads of the former, indicating a larger brain.

255. Mountain, Silver, Tyrant, are all names of hounds. This is one among many passages in Shakespeare's works which show his familiarity with the chase, and render it probable that the tradition, that he was driven from Stratford for shooting Sir Thomas Lucy's deer, is true.

259. Dry convulsions. Such convulsions as would seem to dry up the joints with pain.

260. Agèd cramps; such cramps as aged people are subject to.

261. Pard or cat o' mountain; that is, the leopard and the wild cat.

263. Lies at my mercy.

Lies is, I think, a remnant of the

old plural liath. See note, act i. sc. i. l. 16.

265. Have the air, &c.; that is, 'be able to sport and wander at will through the air.'

ACT V. SCENE I.

1. Now does my project, &c. I think this is a metaphor from a tumour in the human body. Prospero compares his plan, for revenging himself on his enemies and recovering his dukedom, to a swelling which gradually increases till the purulent matter forms a gathering, and then it is ripe for the lancet of the surgeon.

2. Charms crack not. The magician was supposed to bind, as it were by some strong charm, his ministering spirits, who were ever ready to find some flaw in it, and to break from his obedience. Time goes upright, &c. ; that is, 'time marches on without bending or falling under the burden with which he is charged,'-a very noble metaphor.

3. How's the day? that is, "How goes the day? What

hour is it?'