(That hath to inftrument this lower world," And what is in't,) the never-furfeited fea Hath caufed to belch up; and on this island Where man doth not inhabit; you 'mongst men Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad; [Seeing ALON. SEB. &c. draw their fwords. And even with fuch like valour, men hang and drown Their proper felves. felves. You fools! I and my fellows Are minifters of fate; the elements Of whom your fwords are temper'd, may as well Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs Kill the ftill-clofing waters, as diminish One dowle that's in my plume ;3 my fellow-minifters whence it appears that a striking conceit in an entertainment given by the Vidame of Chartres, had been transferred to another feaft prepared in England as a compliment to Prince Alafco, 1583. STEEVENS. 2 That hath to inftrument this lower world, &c.] i. e. that makes use of this world, and every thing in it, as its inftruments to bring about its ends. STEEVENS. 3 One dowle that's in my plume;] The old copy exhibits the paffage thus: "One dowle that's in my plumbe." Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Bailey, in his Dictionary, fays, that dowle is a feather, or rather the fingle particles of the down. Since the first appearance of this edition, my very industrious and learned correfpondent, Mr. Tollet, of Betley, in StaffordShire, has enabled me to retract a too hafty cenfure on Bailey, to whom we were long indebted for our only English Dictionary. In a small book, entitled Humane Industry: or, A Hiftory of moft Manual Arts, printed in 1661, page 93, is the following paffage: "The wool-bearing trees in Ethiopia, which Virgil fpeaks of, and the Eriophori Arbores in Theophraftus, are not fuch trees as have a certain wool or DowL upon the outfide of them, as the fmall cotton; but short trees that bear a ball upon the top, pregnant with wool, which the Syrians call Cott, the Græcians Goffypium, the Italians Bombagio, and we Bombafe." "There is a certain fhell-fish in the fea, called Pinna, that Are like invulnerable:4 if you could hurt, (Which here, in this most defolate ifle, elfe falls bears a moffy DOWL, or wool, whereof cloth was spun and made."-Again p. 95: "Trichitis, or the hayrie ftone, by fome Greek authors, and Alumen plumaceum, or downy alum, by the Latinifts this hair or DowL is spun into thread, and weaved into cloth." I have fince difcovered the fame word in The Ploughman's Tale, erroneously attributed to Chaucer, v, 3202: "And fwore by cock 'is herte and blode, "He would tere him every doule," STEEVENS. Cole in his Latin Dictionary, 1679, interprets "young dowle," by lanugo. MALONE. -the elements Of whom your fwords are temper'd, may as well One dowle that's in my plume; my fellow minifiers "And on the filthy birds they beat "But fethers none do from them fal, nor wound for ftrok doth bleed, "Nor force of weapons hurt them can." RITSON, Upon your heads,) is nothing, but heart's forrow, He vanishes in thunder: then, to foft mufick, enter the Shapes again, and dance with mops and mowes" and carry out the table. PRO. [Afide.] Bravely the figure of this harpy Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring: -clear life—] Pure, blameless, innocent. JOHNSON. So, in Timon: "—roots you clear heavens." STEEVENS. 6is nothing, but heart's forrow, And a clear life enfuing.] The meaning, which is fomewhat obfcured by the expreflion, is,-a miferable fate, which nothing but contrition and amendment of life can avert. MALONE. 7 with mops and mowes-] So, in K. Lear: The old copy, by a manifeft error of the prefs, reads-with mocks. So afterwards: "Will be here with mop and mowe." MALONE. To mock and to mowe, feem to have had a meaning fomewhat fimilar; i. e. to infult, by making mouths, or wry faces. STEEVENS. 8 with good life,] With good life may mean, with exact prefentation of their feveral characters, with obfervation Strange of their particular and diftinct parts. So we fay, he acted to the life. JOHNSON. Thus in the 6th Canto of the Barons' Wars, by Drayton : "Done for the last with such exceeding life, "As art therein with nature seem'd at ftrife." Again, in our author's King Henry VIII. A&t I. sc. i: the tract of every thing "Would by a good difcourfer lofe some life, And obfervation strange, my meaner ministers Their several kinds have done :9 my high charms work, And these, mine enemies, are all knit up In their distractions: they now are in my power; [Exit PROSPERO from above. GON. I' the name of fomething holy, fir, why stand you In this strange stare? Good life, however, in Twelfth Night, feems to be used for innocent jollity, as we now fay a bon vivant: "Would you (fays the Clown) have a love fong, or a fong of good life?" Sir Toby anfwers, "A love fong, a love fong;' Ay, ay, (replies Sir Andrew,) I care not for good life." It is plain, from the character of the last speaker, that he was meant to mistake the sense in which good life is ufed by the Clown. It may, therefore, in the present instance, mean, honeft alacrity, or cheerfulness. Life feems to be used in the chorus to the fifth act of K. Henry V. with fome meaning like that wanted to explain the approbation of Profpero : Which cannot in their huge and proper life "Be here prefented." The fame phrafe occurs yet more appofitely in Chapman's tranflation of Homer's Hymn to Apollo: "And these are acted with fuch exquifite life, "That one would fay, Now the Ionian ftrains To do any thing with good life, is ftill a provincial expreffion in the Weft of England, and fignifies, to do it with the full bent and energy of mind:-" And obfervation ftrange," is with fuch minute attention to the orders given, as to excite admiration. HENLEY. • Their feveral kinds have done :] i. e. have discharged the feveral functions allotted to their different natures. Thus, in Antony and Cleopatra, A& V. fc. ii. the Clown fays-" You muft think this, look you, that the worm will do his kind." STEEVENS, ALON. O, it is monftrous! monftrous! Methought, the billows fpoke, and told me of it; The winds did fing it to me; and the thunder, That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd The name of Profper; it did bafs my trefpafs.' Therefore my fon i' the ooze is bedded; and I'll feek him deeper than e'er plummet founded, And with him there lie mudded.* SEB. I'll fight their legions o'er. ANT. [Exit. GON. All three of them are defperate; their great guilt, Like poifon given 3 to work a great time after, 1bafs my trefpafs.] The deep pipe told it me in a rough bafs found. JOHNSON. So, in Spenfer's Fairy Queen, B. II. c 12: the rolling fea refounding foft, "In his big bafe them fitly answered." STEEVENS. Again, in Davis's Microcofmos, 1605, p. 32: "The finging bullets made his foul rejoice "He seemed as ravisht with an heavenly noise." REED. 2 And with him there lie mudded. But one fiend-] As these hemiftichs, taken together, exceed the proportion of a verfe, I cannot help regarding the words with him, and but, as playhouse interpolations. The Tempeft was evidently one of the laft works of Shakspeare; and it is therefore natural to suppose the metre of it must have been exact and regular. Dr. Farmer concurs with me in this fuppofition. STEEVENS. 3 Like poifon given, &c.] The natives of Africa have been fuppofed to be poffeffed of the fecret how to temper poisons with fuch art as not to operate till feveral years after they were adminiftered. Their drugs were then as certain in their effect, as fubtle in their preparation. So, in the celebrated libel called |