Line 52. Thou mayst; 'remember' is understood after mayst. That is the demonstrative pronoun, referring to, How thou camest here.

53. Year has here a plural signification, like 'sheep,' 'deer,' and other substantives.

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55. A prince of power, a powerful prince.' See before, god of power," line 10.

59. Issued; born, descended.

61. Both. The meaning is, 'It was both by foul play that we came here, and it has been blessed to us.'

63. Holp is the past participle of help,' but holpen' is more usual, as in the Magnificat, "He hath holpen his servant Israel." 'Holp' and 'holpen' are still used in Essex and East Anglia.

64. The teen that I, &c. Teen means sorrow, injury. Miranda says her heart bleeds for the sorrow she has caused her father by making him recall in words the history of their misfortunes by relating it to her.

66. Antonio. Here Prospero breaks off into an exclamation against his brother's ingratitude, and does not resume his narrative till line 77. Thy false uncle, in that line is in apposition with Antonio, and is the nominative case to created in line 81. So that from line 66 to the full stop in line 77 is one parenthesis; and from uncle in line 77 to new created in line 81 is another. Parentheses are generally to be avoided; but here they are very effective, because they show the vehemence of Prospero's feelings. The very mention of Antonio's name constrains him to break off into an exclamation against his brother's perfidy.

70. Manage is put for 'management;' or rather it is a metaphor from horse-breaking, and put for manège.

71. Signories. Italy was until the war of liberation under Victor Emmanuel divided into a number of partly independent dukedoms or signories, which formed a sort of confederacy under a suzerain, as is the case now with Germany. Prospero says that Milan was the first of these, and he himself, as duke, the first in dignity among his brother dukes.

76. To my state grew stranger; 'became a stranger to the affairs of state by never taking part in them.'

77. Rapt; transported, as in an ecstasy, from the obsolete verb, 'to rap,' to seize.

81. Trash; to trash' means to weight a hound which is too swift for the rest of the pack; for over-topping, in order to hinder him from getting before them.' It was one of the

rules of policy observed by Antonio, to put down such ambitious spirits as he observed to be getting too haughty.

Line 82. Creatures, &c.; that is, 'the persons whose fortunes I had created-those who had been advanced by me.' 'Em; this is not a vulgarism, but a remnant of hem, the old accusative of hi, they.

83. Key; the tuning-key of a lute or other stringed instrument, as is evident from line 85. This is a metaphor from the art of music.

87. On't, for 'of it.' This form is still used by the vulgar. Ivy is said to suck the sap of those trees to which it clings, as Antonio supplanted Prospero.

90. Closeness, here means solitude.

92. O'er-prized all popular rate. Prospero says that his learning, but for the life of retirement which it obliged him to adopt, would have been of more value than the estimation (rate) of the vulgar.

93. My trust, like a good parent, &c. Prospero's trustfulness produced in Antonio a treachery which was as unbounded, though of an opposite quality, as that trustfulness; just as good men are often the parents of wicked children.

97. Sans means 'without,' and is a relic of the Norman French, but is now disused. Lorded, &c., that is, 'made a lord of, not only by my wealth, but by the power by which I might have exacted obedience.'

100. Who having unto truth, &c. The meaning is rather obscure, but it seems to be this: Who, by often telling a lie, had made his memory such a sinner against truth (such a liar), that it came to believe the lie he told, and he at last actually thought himself to be the very Duke of Milan.'

104. Face; appearance, show.

109. Absolute Milan; actual sovereign of Milan. Feudal lords always took the title of the territory they governed. In King John, John and Philip call each other' England' and France,' just as the Prince of Wales is now called by his intimates Wales,' or the Earl of Derby, 'Derby.' Absolute does not refer to the manner of his government, as if opposed to 'limited,' but to the reality of his possession. For me, poor man, &c. The original folio reads Me without the For, which I have inserted as necessary to the construction. Lines 109 and 110 are utterly irregular; the rhythm appears to me to run thus:

Absolute | Milan.

For me, poor man, my library Was duke | dom large enough of temporal royalties. 1

But then there are two redundant syllables at the end of each line; the lines are too long by a foot.

Line 112. Dry; thirsty.

113. Homage; to pay homage, means properly to become the man or vassal of a suzerain, from the Norman-French homme, a man. Hence, in the language of manor-courts, 'the homage of the manor' means the copyhold tenants, or lord's men.

119. But nobly; means 'otherwise than nobly.' Miranda means that she should believe that her father and Antonio were not brothers, were it not that by so doing she should be casting a slur upon her grandmother's reputation.

130. Dead of darkness; 'dead of night' is now the usual expression.

134. Hint, suggestion.

135. Wrings mine eyes, that is 'makes the tears fall from my eyes, as water from a cloth that is wrung.'

138. Impertinent has here its original meaning, 'not pertaining to the time or business in hand.'

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144. In few; 'words' is understood after few. Aboard, for on board,' as 'a-bed' for 'in bed.'

147. Nor tackle, &c. ; ' was there,' is understood. The very rats, &c.; rats are said to desert a sinking ship; hence politicians who forsake a losing party are said to 'rat.'

151. Did us but loving wrong; that is; 'were merciful to us.' 152. Shakespeare is said by Ben Jonson to have had but 'small Latin and less Greek; he had no Hebrew, or he would have known that cherubin is the plural, being a corrupt form of 'cherubim;' 'cherub' is the singular.

155. Decked; a form of 'degged' or 'dagged,' bedewed, a word still in use in East Anglia, and, I believe, other country parts of England. Prospero says that Miranda was like a comforting angel to him when he bedewed the sea with his salt tears.

157. Undergoing stomach; sustaining resolution. Stomach means sometimes appetite, sometimes anger, and sometimes courage, besides its original and literal signification.

Steaded; stood us in good stead, helped.

169. Now I arise. [Resumes his mantle.] Prospero, having now informed Miranda of all that it was necessary for her to know, determines to make her sleep by an act of his magic power, and therefore puts on his magic robe again.

179. Now my dear lady; he now calls Fortune his 'dear lady' because she has been propitious to him in placing his enemies in his power.

Line 181. Zenith is the highest point of the visible heavens ; and when a man's star was in the zenith it was supposed to be most propitious to him.

186. I know thou canst not choose; 'but sleep' is understood after choose: 'because by my magic art, I have caused this sleep to come on you.'

192. Strong bidding; that is, 'powerful command.'

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193. All his quality; that is, all those who are of a like nature as his, his kindred spirits.' Or it may mean 'all the qualities or powers which he possesses;' and Pope appears to have so understood it, for he reads 'qualities.'

194. Performed to point the tempest that I bade thee? that is, produced in every point a tempest such as I commanded thee?' and Ariel replies, that he has performed it to every article, to every minute direction that Prospero had given him.

196. The beak is the prow of the ship; so called from its supposed resemblance to the beak of a bird: the waist is the middle.

198. I flamed amazement; a very beautiful and poetical expression, meaning 'by appearing in the shape of a flame I struck the beholders with amazement.' I'ld is a contraction for 'I would.' The present form is 'I'd.'

207. This coil would not infect his reason? Coil means 'trouble' or 'turmoil.' Infect his reason means, " cause his reason to become diseased,' that is, 'drive him mad.'

209. Felt a fever of the mad; this explains the former expression. Ariel says there was none who did not feel such a feeling of the mind as mad people are affected with, and who did not play such tricks as desperate people do.

211. Quit the vessel. Quit is the old contracted form of the preterite tense for 'quitted.' It is still used by the vulgar. 212. Then all afire; which vessel appeared to be then all on fire with me (Ariel), because I appeared all over it in the shape of fire.'

213. Then like reeds. Ferdinand was so terrified that his hair stood on end like reeds; an appearance produced by the contraction of the skin consequent on fear.

215. That's my spirit! It is not easy to analyze the con struction of this common expression of approval; but it seems to be this, that, viz. what you have described or shown yourself to be, is what I should expect to find my Ariel.'

218. Sustaining garments; that is, their garments which held them up or sustained them in the water.' ''There is ' must be supplied to complete the construction.

G

Line 219. But fresher than before. This is very elliptical; the sentence complete would be, but their garments are fresher than they were before.'

222. Cooling of the air, &c.; a hyperbolical phrase to express the number and vehemence of his sighs. An odd angle means an out-of-the-way corner.

224. In this sad knot. Ariel is here supposed to fold his arms in imitation of Ferdinand, an attitude supposed to denote melancholy, or at least pensiveness. Of the king's ship, &c.: The direct construction is, 'say how thou hast disposed of the mariners of the king's ship.'

228. To fetch dew from the still-vexed Bermoothes. Bermuda is called still-vexed, because ever agitated by tempests. This island was also supposed to be haunted by demons; hence dew gathered from it was believed to have especial virtue and power.

231. Who, with a charm, &c. Who ought to be whom, in the accusative case, governed by the verb left. Ariel says that the mariners have been lulled to sleep by a charm or incantation of his, and by the fatigue consequent on the labour they have suffered.

234. Flote, wave, from the French flot.

240. At least two glasses; that is, at least two turns of the hour-glass; that is to say, two o'clock.

242. Pains is taken in the sense of the French word peine, trouble, as we say 'take pains,' take trouble.

243. Remember thee. Remember is here an active verb, and signifies to remind,' as 'to learn, often means 'to teach.'

249. Without or grudge or grumblings. Or is repeated poetically in each member of the sentence: in prose the former or would be either.'

253. This is a defective line, consisting of only two feet or four syllables.

256. When it is baked. The action of extreme cold upon the earth is expressed by the kindred action of extreme heat. 259. Was grown into a hoop? Old age and the mean and malignant passion of envy had made her stoop till she was bent into a circle.

261. Sir, in Argier; the town of Algiers on the Mediterranean shore of Africa, now a colony of France.

263. This damned witch, &c. The direct construction of this sentence is, 'Thou know'st this damned witch Sycorax was banished from Argier for manifold mischiefs and sorceries terrible to enter human hearing,' that is, to be heard by man. 272. And, for. For means here 'because.' Spirits of air,