Re-enter ARIEL, with the Master and Boatswain amazedly following. O look, fir, look, fir, here are more of us! I prophefy'd, if a gallows were on land, This fellow could not drown :-Now, blafphemy, Ari. Sir, all this fervice Afide. Pro. My trick fy fpirit! Alon. These are not natural events; they ftrengthen, From ftrange to ftranger:-Say, how came you hither? Boats. If I did think, fir, I were well awake, I'd frive to tell you. We were dead afleep, And (how, we know not,) all clapp'd under hatches, Where, but even now, with ftrange and feveral noifes Of roaring, fhrieking, howling, gingling chains, And more diverfity of founds, all horrible, We were awak'd; ftraitway, at liberty: Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld Our royal, good, and gallant fhip; our mafter Capering to eye her: On a trice, so please you, Even in a dream, were we divided from them, And were brought moping hither. Ari. Was't well done? be} Aide Pro. Bravely, my diligence. Thou shalt be Afide. free. 4 My trickfy fpirit!] is, I believe, my clever, adroit fpirit. Shakfpeare ufes the fame word elfewhere: 66 -that for a tricky word "Defy the matter." STEEVENS. 5-dead afleep,] The old copy reads of fleep. STEEVENS. 6 in all her trim,] The old copy has our trim. Corrected by Dr. Thirlby. MALONE. VOL. I. H Alon. Alen. This is as ftrange a maze as e'er men trod; Muft rectify our knowledge. Pro. Sir, my liege, Do not infeft your mind with beating on The ftrangeness of this bufinefs; at pick'd leifure, Thefe happen'd accidents: till when, be chearful, Untie the fpell. [Exit Ariel.] How fares my gracious fir! Some few odd lads, that you remember not. Re-enter ARIEL, driving in CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, in their ftolen apparel. Ste. Every man fhift for all the reft, and let no man take care for himself; for all is but fortune:-Coragio, bully-monster, Coragio! 7 - condu&t of:] Conduct for conductor. STEEVENS. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "Come bitter condu&, &c. MALONE. Conduct is yet ufed in the fame fenfe: the perfon at Cambridge who reads prayers in King's and Trinity College chapels is ftill fo ftyled. HENLEY. 8 with beating on The frangeness &c.] A fimilar expreffion occurs in one of the parts of King Henry VI: --your thoughts "Beat on a crown." Beating may mean hammering, working in the mind, dwelling long upon. Miranda, in the fecond fcene of this play, tells her father that the ftorm is still beating in her mind. STEEVENS. A kindred expreffion occurs in Hamlet: "Cudgel thy brains no more about it." MALONE. 9 I'll refolve you (Which to you fhall seem probable) of every Thefe happen'd accidents:] I will inform you how all these wonderful accidents have happened; which, though they now appear to you ftrange, will then feem probable. An anonymous writer pointed out the true conftruction of this paffage, but his explanation is, I think, incorrect. MALONE. Trin. If these be true fpies which I wear in my head, here's a goodly fight. Cal. O Setebos, these be brave fpirits, indeed! How fine my mafter is! I am afraid He will chaftife me. Seb. Ha, ha; What things are thefe, my lord Anthonio! Ant. Very like; one of them Is a plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable. Pro. Mark but the badges of thefe men, my lords, Then fay, if they be true:-This mif-fhapen knave,— His mother was a witch; and one fo ftrong That could control the moon 2, make flows and ebbs, Cal. Ifhall be pinch'd to death. Alon. Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler? Alon. And Trinculo is reeling ripe; Where should they Find this grand liquor that hath gilded them 3 ? — How 1 true:] That is, boneft. A true man is, in the language of that time, oppofed to a thief. The fenfe is, Mark what thefe men wear, and fay if they are boneft. JOHNSON. 2. and one fo ftrong That could control the moon,] From Medea's fpeech in Ovid (as tranflated by Golding) our author might have learned, that this was one of the pretended powers of witchcraft: "And thee, o lightfome moon, "I darken oft, though beaten brafs abate thy peril foun." MALONE. 3-this grand liquor that bath gilded them?] Shakspeare, to be fure, wrote-grand 'lixir, alluding to the grand Eixir of the alchymifts, which they pretend would restore youth, and confer immortality. This, as they faid, being a preparation of gold, they called Aurum potabile. The phrafe of being gilded was a trite one on this occafion. Thus Fletcher, in his Chances : Duke. Is he not drunk too? Whore. A. little gilded o'er, fir ; old fack, old fack, boys !" WARBURTON. How cam'ft thou in this pickle? Trin, I have been in fuch a pickle, fince I faw you last, that, I fear me, will never out of my bones: I fhall not fear fly-blowing 4. Seb. Why, how now, Stephano? Ste. O, touch me not; I am not Stephano, but a cramp 5. Pro. You'd be king of the ifle, firrah? Ste. I fhould have been a fore one then. Alon. This is a strange thing as e'er I look'd on. [Pointing to CALIBAN. Cal. Ay, that I will; and I'll be wife hereafter, And worship this dull fool? Pro. Go to; away! Alon. Hence, and beftow your luggage where you found it. Seb. Or ftote it, rather. [Exeunt CAL. STE. and TRIN. To my poor cell where you fhall take your reft And the particular accidents, gone by, Of these our dear-beloved folemniz'd; As the alchymist's Elixir was fuppofed to be a liquor, the old reading may ftand, and the allufion holds good without any alteration. STEEVENS 4-fly-blowing.] This pickle alludes to their plunge into the stinking pool; and pickling preferves meat from fly-blowing. STEEVENS. 5- but a cramp.fi. e. I am all over a cramp. Profpero had ordered Ariel to fhorten up their finews with aged cramps. Touch me not alludes to the forenefs occafioned by them. In the next line the speaker confirms this meaning by a quibble on the word fore. STEEVENS. And And thence retire me to my Milan, where To hear the ftory of your life, which muft Pro. I'll deliver all; And promise you calm feas, aufpicious gales, Your royal fleet far off.-My Ariel;-chick, } Afide. Be free, and fare thou well!-Pleafe you, draw near. [Exeunt. |