meaning pitiable plight; but Trinculo, in his character of jester, puns upon the word, pretending to take it literally of the saline character of the filthy pond in which Ariel had ducked them. Line 284. I shall not fear, &c. ; that is, 'because I am salted.' 286. But a cramp. A ludicrous and witty exaggeration, meaning that he has been so filled with cramps that he has ceased to be himself, and is nothing but one mass of cramp. "Sometimes," says Barrow, "wit is couched. . . . in a lusty hyperbole." They had been cramped by Ariel in accordance with Prospero's orders. 289. A sore one. A pun on the word sore. 'A sore king' might mean either a cruel king, or, as Stephano insinuates in his case, one who was sore with cramps. 296. Grace here means pardon. 303. Waste here means spend. In its neuter signification it is often used by the common people in Essex to mean simply 'grow gradually smaller,' without any idea of misuse being attached to it; as when a man says 'That heap of mangold is wasting,' he does not imply that there has been any lavish use of the mangold, but only that it is being quickly used. 304. I not doubt. We should now say, except in poetry, 'I do not doubt;' but in Shakespeare's time I think this form was allowable in prose. 305. Go quick. Quick qualifies the verb go, and is therefore an adverb, though in the form of an adjective. The old adverbial form differed from the adjective form only by the addition of a final e, and this instance may be a relic of it. 319. Fare thou well. This is the correct form; fare thou being the second person singular of the imperative mood. The modern fare thee well' is altogether ungrammatical. EPILOGUE. It will be observed that the Epilogue is spoken by Prospero, who still partly maintains his character of a magician, which he applies to his relations as an actor to the audience; and this creates a pleasing and fantastical confusion. He tells them that he is detained on the stage by a spell until they break it by their applause; and asks them to dismiss him "by the help of their good hands," that is, by clapping; for charms were supposed to be dissolved by the least noise. Finally, he tells them that, like the necromancers in the stories of the time, his end will be despair, now that his charms are overthrown, unless they will plead for him by prayer; an allusion, I think, to the custom prevalent in Shakespeare's time, of concluding the play by a prayer, offered up kneeling, for the sovereign. The whole thing is, therefore, merely a fanciful and graceful mode of saying that the play is over, and of asking for the applause of the audience, after the fashion of the Roman dramatists, who always conclude their plays with the formula Plaudite. |