MIR.

'Tis far off,

That my remembrance warrants.

Had I not

And rather like a dream than an assurance

Four or five women once that tended me?

PROS. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is it

That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm' of time?
If thou remember'st aught ere thou cam'st here,
How thou cam'st here thou mayst.

MIR.

50

But that I do not.

PROS. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year

since,

Thy father was the Duke of Milan2 and

A prince of power.

MIR.

Sir, are not you my father?

PROS. Thy mother was a piece3 of virtue, and

She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father

Was Duke of Milan; and his only heir

And Princess, no worse issued.1

MIR.

O the heavens !

What foul play had we, that we came from thence? [60

Or blessed was 't we did?

PROS.

Both, both, my girl:

By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence,

But blessedly holp hither.

MIR.

O, my heart bleeds

To think o' the teen' that I have turn'd you to,

Which is from my remembrance! Please you, farther.

PROS. My brother and thy uncle, call'd Antonio-
I pray thee, mark me-that a brother should
Be so perfidious!—he whom next thyself
Of all the world I lov'd and to him put
The manage of my state; as at that time
Through all the signiories3 it was the first,
And Prospero the prime1 duke, being so reputed
In dignity, and for the liberal arts

Without a parallel; those being all my study,
The government I cast upon my brother

And to my state' grew stranger, being transported
And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle—
Dost thou attend me?

70

6 Rapt, absorbed, engrossed; put for rapped, from rap, to hurry, carry away, a word of Scandinavian origin, but confused in popular etymology with raptus, p.p. of Latin rapio, I seize carry off. So Timon of Athens, i, 1, 19.

"You are rapt, sir, in some work,.
some dedication
To the great lord."

PROS. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them, who to advance and who1

To trash for over-topping,2 new created

The creatures that were mine, I say, or chang'd 'em,
Or else new form'd 'em; having both the key3
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state

To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was
The ivy which had hid my princely trunk,

80

And suck'd my verdure out on 't. Thou attend'st not. MIR. O, good sir, I do.

PROS.

I pray thee, mark me.
I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness and the bettering of my mind
With that which, but by being so retir'd,
O'er-priz'd all popular rate," in my false brother
Awak'd an evil nature; and my trust,
Like a good parent, did beget of him
A falsehood in its contrary as great

As my trust was; which had indeed no limit,

1 Who

who. The inflection of who is frequently neglected. Gr. § 274.

2 To trash, for over-topping, a hunting phrase; to trash a dog was to hamper or clog him in order to prevent his getting ahead of the rest of the pack; over-topping will then be = outrunning; but, unfortunately, there is no other instance known of "overtop" in this sense, whereas we do find it used of trees which grow higher than those near them :-Ant. and Cleop., iv, 12, 24. This pine is bark'd

"

That over-topp'd them all." Hence to trash has been explained

၄၀

asto lop, cut the tops off; but here,
again, we have no other example to
prove it.
Can there be a confusion
of metaphors?

3 Key, i.e., tuning-key.
4 Closeness, seclusion.

5 Except that it entailed such retirement, it surpassed in value all vulgar estimate.

6 Alluding to the common observation, that a father above the common rate of men has commonly a son below it. Heroum filii noxæ.JOHNSON.

7 In its contrary, i.e., in its opposite nature.

A confidence sans' bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revénue yielded,

But what my power might else exact, like one
Who having into truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory

To credit his own lie,2 he did believe

He was indeed the duke; out o' th' substitution,
And executing th' outward face of royalty,

100

With all prerogative: hence his ambition growing— Dost thou hear?

MIR.

Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.

PROS. To have no screen between this part he

play'd

And him he play'd it for,3 he needs will be
Absolute Milan. Me poor man, my library
Was dukedom large enough: of temporal

royalties

He thinks me now incapable; confederates—
So dry he was for sway-wi' the King of Naples
To give him annual tribute, do him homage,
Subject his coronet to his crown and bend

1 Sans, without.

2 Like a man who, by constantly repeating a lie, has made his memory such a sinner against truth as to believe the lie at last. The construction is, of course, ungrammatical, there being no verb for the subject who. For into unto cp. All's Well, i, 3, 260, "And pray God's blessing into thy attempt."

3 Prospero was the screen between

the character Antonio was playing, viz., that of deputy, and him he was playing it for, i.e., himself-his own ambitious ends: hence he wanted to get Prospero out of the way and appear as "absolute Milan.'

4 Absolute Milan. We often find the name of the country standing for the ruler of it, as France for King of France; here Milan=Duke of Milan.

5 Dry, thirsty.

The dukedom yet unbow'd-alas, poor Milan !—
To most ignoble stooping.

MIR.

O the heavens !

PROS. Mark his condition and th' event; then tell

me

If this might be a brother.

MIR.

I should sin

To think but nobly of my grandmother :
Good wombs have borne bad sons.

PROS.

condition.

Now the

[120

This King of Naples, being an enemy

To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit;
Which was, that he, in lieu o' th' premises?
Of homage and I know not how much tribute
Should presently3 extírpate me and mine
Out of the dukedom, and confer fair Milan
With all the honours on my brother: whereon,
A treacherous army levied, one midnight
Fated to th' purpose did Antonio open

The gates of Milan; and, i' th' dead of darkness, [130
The ministers for th' purpose hurried thence

Me and thy crying self.

MIR.

Alack, for pity!

I, not rememb'ring how I cri'd out then,

Will cry it o'er again: it is a hint

1 Might be, could be: may originally meant, to be able. Gr. § 307 and 312.

2 In lieu of the premises, in

consideration of the conditions-a legal phrase.

3 Presently, immediately.