NOTES TO THE TEMPEST.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Line 2. Dr. Johnson says that cheer is derived from the Spanish cara, countenance, whether gay or sad; and hence it means that which makes the countenance either gay or sad; fortune, good or bad.

3. Good; an adjective, agreeing with 'man,' or 'friend,' understood.

4. Yarely, nimbly, readily. Bestir; a verb active in the imperative mood, governing yourselves,' understood.

6. Yare; an adjective, 'ready' it requires a verb in the imperative mood, 'be,' understood.

7. Blow, till thou burst thy wind, &c. In old pictures the winds are represented by men with puffed cheeks blowing with all their might, an idea derived perhaps from Virgil. The boatswain, then, addresses himself to one of these imaginary persons, and tells him he might blow till he burst his wind, if only there were sea-room enough; for while timid sailors hug the shore, bold ones put out to sea, where there is really less danger.

10. Play the men; act courageously, like men.' So in the authorised version of the Bible, 2 Sam. x. 12, Joab says to his soldiers, "Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people."

13. Mar our labour. Gonzalo, an old courtier, is represented throughout the play as being garrulous and meddlesome. He interferes with the sailors, and inflicts a tedious and pedantic homily upon the King when the latter is in no humour for conversation. The boatswain tells him truly that by coming on deck and asking questions he renders the labour of the sailors useless, and adds to the dangers of the storm.

Line 15. Good; an adjective, as before, agreeing with a substantive, understood, such as 'friend.'

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16. When the sea is; 'patient,' understood to follow ́is.' Cares these roarers. Roarers are the roaring waves, Breakers are those which break upon the shore. Here a plural noun, roarers, is the nominative case to a singular verb, cares. On this passage the editors of the Cambridge edition have the following note:-"This grammatical inaccuracy, which escaped correction in the later folios, probably came from Shakespeare's pen. Similar cases occur frequently, especially when the verb precedes its nominative. For example, Tempest, IV. 1. 262, Lies at my mercy all mine enemies; and Measure for Measure, II. 1. 22, 'What knows the laws,' &c. We correct it in those passages where the occurrence of a vulgarism would be likely to annoy the reader. In the mouth of a boatswain it can offend no one. We therefore leave it." It appears to me that this is not a vulgarism, but a remnant of the old form of the verb, which is declined thus in Anglo-Saxon:-Ic lufige, I love; thu lufast, thou lovest; se lufath, he loves. Plural, we lufiath, we love; ge lufiath, ye love; hi lufiath, they love. Loves, in the plural, is probably the first change from lufiath, as loves, in the third person singular, is from lufath; and I should feel loth to change it to suit the modern usage. This form is continually used by writers of the sixteenth century. For instance, Tusser, a scholar and a thoroughly grammatical writer, born in 1523, in his "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry," says:—

By willows that groweth thy hop-yard about,

And again :

Some rolleth their barley straight after a rain.

19. Good: 'friend' or 'man' is understood to agree with good.

22. Work the peace of the present; cause peace, a calm, to prevail now; an allusion to Gonzalo's occupation as a diplomatist, whose business it is to prevent war by negociation. The boatswain means, 'You, who are so clever in composing differences and concluding peace, use your art now.'

23. Hand; verb, 'handle.' More; adverb, comparative of much in this connection it means again.'

26. Hap; verb in the subjunctive mood, governed by 'if.' It is the old form of happen.' 28. I have great comfort, &c. Gonzalo says that the boatswain is so villanous-looking and uncivil that he is

destined to be hanged, not drowned; and this gives Gonzalo reason to hope that the passengers may also escape.

Line 30. His complexion, &c. It was supposed that men's destinies were denoted by their complexions or features, and these, in this boatswain, were so bad that they denoted that he would die by the gallows. Gallows is here used as an adjective, as when we say 'gold watch,' meaning 'golden watch.' Stand fast, &c.; that is, O good Fate! let not anything induce you to change the decree that he shall be hanged.'

31. Make the rope of his destiny, &c. 'Cause the rope by which he is doomed to be hanged to be the cable which shall draw us safe to shore, for our literal cable does us little good. The only chance we have of escaping drowning is that this man is born to be hanged; for his escape involves ours.'

46. I'll warrant him for drowning; I'll warrant that he shall not be drowned.' Gonzalo, who is the bore of the play, still harps upon this worn-out topic.

49. Lay her a-hold, &c. All these are sea-phrases which it is needless to explain.

52. What, must our mouths, &c.; that is, 'Must we not have something to drink which shall warm our mouths?' and then it is supposed that the sailors, as is their custom when all hope gone, break into the wine and spirit room.

55. Merely, absolutely.

56. This wide-chapped rascal. Antonio, in his passion, begins a sentence which he does not finish, but changes from the third person to the second.

59. Glut, swallow, from the Latin glutio: hence the noun 'glutton.'

65. The wills above, &c. ; a sort of euphemism for the will of God,' used apparently out of reverence, though indeed in the sixteenth century the sacred name was used much more frequently than now.

66. Fain, adv. gladly.' The adjective fain was also in use in Shakespeare's time; as in Psalm lxxi. 21, "My lips will be fain when I sing unto Thee."

ACT I. SCENE II.

I. In the first scene, the dialogue, being carried on chiefly by inferior personages whose sentiments and language were devoid of dignity, was in prose; but Prospero and Miranda speak on subjects of high importance, and their language therefore is in blank verse. But the verse is far looser than

would be deemed correct in a more critical age. A line of English blank verse ought to consist regularly of ten syllables, or five feet of two syllables each, of which the second should be the more strongly accented. These feet correspond, so far as the accent of English can correspond with the prosodiacal length of Greek and Latin, with the iambus. But the lines have often a redundant unaccented syllable at the end, or are what Greek and Latin grammarians call hypercatalectic. The second line is an example of this, for them is redundant; in the first line the folio reads 'you have,' but I have changed it to 'you 've;' the third line is regular ; the fourth is irregular, for in the first foot the first syllable is the accented one, and on account of the strong accentuation of the syllable mount, it admits the very slight ones ing and to without any offence to the ear, for which, and not the eye, Shakespeare wrote: mounting to must be read as one foot. As a general rule, it will be found that Shakespeare's verse, like Chaucer's, is tolerant of many redundant unaccented syllables, provided the proper number of accented ones is maintained. It would be endless to notice each case of irregularity as it occurs, but if any very striking example present itself I will endeavour to explain it.

Line 4. Welkin, the sky, from the Anglo-Saxon welcn, wealcen, or wolcen. See Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. There seems to be in the expression welkin's cheek a confusion of metaphors: how should the sea dash out the fire of the stinking pitch which the welkin is pouring down, by mounting to the welkin's cheek?

7. Who. Dr. Johnson says in his English Grammar: "Who is now used in relation to persons, and which in relation to things; but they were anciently confounded. At least it was common to see the man which,' though I remember no example of the thing who.'" This is an example; but perhaps ship being a feminine noun ('some noble creatures in her'), was considered capable of being represented by the pronoun appropriated generally to persons. This sentence has no verb, and is therefore to be regarded as an exclamation; I have therefore placed a note of admiration after it, instead of the full stop of the Cambridge edition.

10. God of power, powerful God; as God of righteousness, just or righteous God.

II. Or ere; or ever,' as in Acts xxiii. 15: " And we, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him." It means 'before ever,' contracted 'fore ever,' and then again or ever.'

6

13. Fraughting souls; persons with whom the vessel is

freighted or laden. 'Fraught' is properly the past participle of the verb to freight,' but it is changed, by corruption as Johnson says, into a verb of itself.

Line 19. More better, a double comparative, now considered a solecism, but in the sixteenth century used as more emphatic; as in the authorised version of the Bible, Most Highest.'

20. Full is here an adverb, qualifying the adjective poor; it means 'very.'

22. Meddle with my thoughts, means 'have to do with, or trouble my thoughts.'

27. The very virtue, means the energetic quality.

28. Provision here means forecast.

29. There is no soul, &c. Prospero begins this sentence in one form of construction, and ends in another form. This is a solecism called in rhetoric anacoluthon; but here its effect is good, showing the confusion of thought consequent upon excitement. Had he gone on as he began, he should have said 'There is no soul lost;' but in the vehemence of his assertion he proceeds, 'No, not so much loss as that of even a hair betid' (happened,' the past participle of 'betide')' to any creature whom you heard cry, in the vessel which you saw sink.'

35. Bootless inquisition means unavailing inquiry. Bootless is derived from the Anglo-Saxon bót, advantage; 'boot' is common in old English-as when Robin Hood says to his bow, which had broken in his hand,

My bane thou art

My boot when thou sholdest be.

37. Ope, an old form of 'open.' It is strange that this verb should now have the final n of the Saxon infinitive, which had been lost in the sixteenth century, whereas the general tendency of modern English is to drop the final n.

41. Out, all out, fully.

43. Of any thing, &c. The direct order is, 'Tell me the image of anything that hath kept-continued to be associated with your remembrance.'

46. Warrants, guarantees, avouches.

50. Backward, is here a substantive, meaning the past; as 'vaward' or 'vanward,' the front. Abysm, abyss, from the French abîme (originally written abisme), not the Greek άβυσσος. This is an example of the manner in which the English language acquired proximately through the French, words derived ultimately from Greek and Latin.