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Alon.

Give me your hands: [To FER. and MIR.

Let grief and sorrow still embrace his heart,
That doth not wish you joy!

Gon.

Be't so! Amen!

Re-enter ARIEL, with the Master and Boatswain amazedly following.

O look, sir, look, sir; here are more of us!
I prophesied, if a gallows were on land,

This fellow could not drown: Now, blasphemy, That swear'st grace o'erboard, not an oath on shore?

Hast thou no mouth by land? What is the news? Boats. The best news is, that we have safely found

Our king, and company: the next our ship,—
Which, but three glasses since, we gave out split,-
Is tight, and yare, and bravely rigg'd, as when
We first put out to sea.

Ari.

Have I done since I went.

Pro.

Sir, all this service

Aside.

My tricksy spirit!'

Alon. These are not natural events; they

strengthen,

From strange to stranger:-Say, how came you

hither?

Boats. If I did think, sir, I were well awake, I'd strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep," And (how, we know not,) all clapp'd under hatches,

3 My tricksy spirit !] Is, my clever, adroit spirit. Shakspeare uses the same word in The Merchant of Venice.

4_dead of sleep,] Thus the old copy. Modern editors -asleep.

Mr. Malone says, " On sleep" was the ancient English phraseology.

Where, but even now, with strange and several

noises

Of roaring, shrieking, howling, gingling chains,
And more diversity of sounds, all horrible,
We were awak'd; straitway, at liberty:
Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld
Our royal, good, and gallant ship; our master
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? Pro. Bravely, my diligence. Thou shalt Aside. be free.

Alon. This is as strange a maze as e'er men trod: And there is in this business more than nature Was ever conduct of:5 some oracle

Must rectify our knowledge.

Pro.

Sir, my liege, Do not infest your mind with beating on

The strangeness of this business: at pick'd leisure, Which shall be shortly, single I'll resolve you (Which to you shall seem probable,)' of every These happen'd accidents: till when, be cheerful, And think of each thing well.-Come hither, [Aside.

spirit;

Set Caliban and his companions free:

Untie the spell. [Exit ARIEL.] How fares my gracious sir?

conduct of:] Conduct for conductor.

Conduct is yet used in the same sense: the person at Cambridge who reads prayers in King's and in Trinity College Chapels, is still so styled. HENLEY.

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with beating on

The strangeness, &c.] Beating may mean hammering, working in the mind, dwelling long upon.

(Which to you shall seem probable,)] I will inform you how all these wonderful accidents have happened; which, though they now appear to you strange, will then seem probable. MALONE.

There are yet missing of your company
Some few odd lads, that you remember not.

Re-enter ARIEL, driving in CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, in their stolen Apparel.

Ste. Every man shift for all the rest, and let no man take care for himself; for all is but fortune :Coragio, bully-monster, Coragio !s

Trin. If these be true spies which I wear in my head, here's a goodly sight.

Cal. O Setebos, these be brave spirits, indeed! How fine my master is! I am afraid

He will chastise me.

Seb.

Ha, ha;

What things are these, my lord Antonio!
Will money buy them?

Ant. Very like; one of them

Is a plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable.

Pro. Mark but the badges of these men, my lords, Then say, if they be true:'-This mis-shapen knave,

His mother was a witch; and one so strong
That could control the moon,2 make flows and ebbs,

7- Coragio!] An exclamation of encouragement.

Is a plain fish,] That is, plainly, evidently a fish. So, in Fletcher's Scornful Lady," that visible beast, the butler," means the butler who is visibly a beast. M. MASON.

It is not easy to determine the shape which our author designed to bestow on his monster. That he has hands, legs, &c. we gather from the remarks of Trinculo, and other circumstances in the play. How then is he plainly a fish? Perhaps Shakspeare himself had no settled ideas concerning the form of Caliban. STEEVENS.

true:] That is, honest. A true man is, in the language of that time, opposed to a thief.

2 His mother was a witch; and one so strong

That could control the moon, &c.] This was the phraseology of the times. After the statute against witches, revenge or ignoranee

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And deal in her command, without her power: 3
These three have robb'd me: and this demi-devil
(For he's a bastard one,) had plotted with them
To take my life: two of these fellows you
Must know, and own; this thing of darkness I
Acknowledge mine.

Cal.

I shall be pinch'd to death. Alon. Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler? Seb. He is drunk now: where had he wine? Alon. And Trinculo is reeling ripe: Where should they

Find this grand liquor that hath gilded them?— How cam'st thou in this pickle?

Trin. I have been in such a pickle, since I saw

frequently induced people to charge those against whom they harboured resentment, or entertained prejudices, with the crime of witchcraft, which had just then been declared a capital offence. In our ancient reporters are several cases where persons charged in this manner sought redress in the courts of law. And it is remarkable in all of them, to the scandalous imputation of being witches, the term-a strong one, is constantly added. In Michaelmas Term, 9 Car. I. the point was settled that no action could be supported on so general a charge, and that the epithet strong did not inforce the other words. In this instance, I believe, the opinion of the people at large was not in unison with the sages in Westminster Hall. Several of these cases are collected together in I. Viner. 422. REED.

And deal in her command, without her power :] I suppose Prospero means, that Sycorax, with less general power than the moon, could produce the same effects on the sea. STEEVENS.

* And Trinculo is reeling ripe: where should they

Find this grand LIQUOR that hath gilded them?] Shakspeare, to be sure, wrote-grand 'LIXIR, alluding to the grand Elixir of the alchymists, which they pretend would restore youth and confer immortality. This, as they said, being a preparation of gold, they called Aurum potabile; which Shakspeare alluded to in the word gilded. But the joke here is to insinuate that, notwithstanding all the boasts of the chemists, sack was the only restorer of youth and bestower of immortality. WARBURTON.

As the alchymist's Elixir was supposed to be a liquor, the old reading may stand, and the allusion holds good without any alteration. STEEVENS.

you last, that, I fear me, will never out of my bones: I shall not fear fly-blowing.

Seb. Why, how now, Stephano?

Ste. O, touch me not; I am not Stephano, but a cramp."

Pro. You'd be king of the isle, sirrah?

Ste. I should have been a sore one then."

Alon. This is as strange a thing as e'er I look'd

on.

[Pointing to CALliban. Pro. He is as disproportion'd in his manners, As in his shape:-Go, sirrah, to my cell; Take with you your companions; as you look To have my pardon, trim it handsomely.

Cal. Ay, that I will; and I'll be wise hereafter, And seek for grace: What a thrice-double ass Was I, to take this drunkard for a god,

And worship this dull fool?

Pro.

Go to; away!

Alon. Hence, and bestow your luggage where you found it.

Seb. Or stole it, rather.

[Exeunt CAL. STE. and TRIN. Pro. Sir, I invite your highness, and your train, To my poor cell where you shall take your rest For this one night; which (part of it,) I'll waste With such discourse, as, I not doubt, shall make it Go quick away: the story of my life,

And the particular accidents, gone by,

sfly-blowing.] This pickle alludes to their plunge into the stinking pool: and pickling preserves meat from fly-blowing. 6 but a cramp,] i. e. I am all over a cramp. Prospero had ordered Ariel to shorten up their sinews with aged cramps. Touch me not alludes to the soreness occasioned by them.

↑ I should have been a sore one then.] The same quibble occurs afterwards in the Second Part of King Henry VI: "Mass, 'twill be sore law then, for he was thrust in the mouth with a spear, and 'tis not whole yet." Stephano also alludes to the sores about him. STEEVENS.

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