ALON. You cram these words into mine ears, The ftomach of my fense: 'Would I had never I ne'er again fhall fee her. O thou mine heir FRAN. Sir, he may live; I saw him beat the furges under him, And ride upon their backs; he trod the water, The furge moft fwoln that met him: his bold head 'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar'd Himself with his good arms in lufty stroke To the shore, that o'er his wave-worn bafis bow'd, As ftooping to relieve him: I not doubt, He came alive to land. ALON. No, no, he's gone. SEB. Sir, you may thank yourself for this great lofs; That would not blefs our Europe with your daughter, But rather lofe her to an African; Where the, at leaft, is banifh'd from your eye, ALON. Pr'ythee, peace. SEB. You were kneel'd to, and impórtun❜d other 66 wife The ftomach of my fenfe:] By fenfe, I believe, is meant both reafon and natural affection. So, in Meafure for Measure: Against all sense do you impórtune her." Mr. M. Mafon, however, fuppofes "fenfe, in this place, means feeling." STEEVENS. By all of us; and the fair foul herself Weigh'd, between lothness and obedience, at Which end o' the beam fhe'd bow." We have loft your fon, I fear, for ever: Milan and Naples have ALON. So is the deareft of the lofs. GON. My lord Sebaftian, The truth you speak doth lack fome gentleness, And time to speak it in: you rub the fore, When you fhould bring the plaster. SEB. ANT. And moft chirurgeonly. Very well. GON. It is foul weather in us all, good fir, When you are cloudy. 7 Weigh'd, between lothness and obedience, at Which end o' the beam the'd bow.] Weigh'd means deliberated. It is used in nearly the fame fenfe in Love's Labour's Loft, and in Hamlet. The old copy reads-fhould bow. Should was probably an abbreviation of he would, the mark of elifion being inadvertently omitted [fh'ould]. Thus he has is frequently exhi bited in the firft folio-h'as. Mr. Pope corrected the paffage thus: "at which end the beam should bow." But omillion of any word in the old copy, without fubftituting another in it's place, is feldom fafe, except in those inftances where the repeated word appears to have been caught by the compofitor's eye glancing on the line above, or below, or where a word is printed twice in the fame line. MALONE. 8 Than we bring men to comfort them:] It does not clearly appear whether the king and these lords thought the ship loft. This paffage feems to imply, that they were themselves confident of returning, but imagined part of the fleet deftroyed. Why, indeed, fhould Sebaftian plot against his brother in the following fcene, unless he knew how to find the kingdom which he was to inherit? JOHNSON. SEB. ANT. Foul weather? Very foul. GON. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord,— SEB. Or docks, or mallows. GON. And were the king of it, What would I do? traries Execute all things: for no kind of traffick -for no kind of traffick Would I admit; no name of magiftrate; &c.] Our author has here closely followed a paffage in Montaigne's ESSAIES, tranflated by John Florio, folio, 1603: "It is a nation (would I anfwer Plato) that hath no kind of trafficke, no knowledge of letters, no intelligence of numbers, no name of magiftrate, nor of politic fuperioritie; no ufe of fervice, of riches, or of povertie, no contracts, no fucceffions, no partitions, no occupation, but idle; no refpect of kindred but common; no apparel but natural; no ufe of wine, corne, or metal. The very words that import lying, falfhood, treafon, diflimulations, covetoufnefs, envie, detraction and pardon, were never heard amongst them."-This paffage was pointed out by Mr. Capell, who knew fo little of his author as to suppose that Shakspeare had the original French before him, though he has almoft literally followed Florio's tranflation. Montaigne is here speaking of a newly discovered country, which he calls "Antartick France." In the page preceding that already quoted, are these words: "The other teftimonie of antiquitie to which fome will refer the difcoverie is in Aristotle (if at least that little book of unheard-of wonders be his) where he reporteth that certain Carthaginians having failed athwart the Atlanticke fea, without the strait of Gibraltar, discovered a great fertil ISLAND, all replenished with goodly woods, and deepe rivers, farre diftant from any land." Whoever fhall take the trouble to turn to the old translation here quoted, will, I think, be of opinion, that in whatsoever Letters fhould not be known; no use of service, Succeffions; bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none:* novel our author might have found the fable of The Tempest, he was led by the perufal of this book to make the Scene of it an unfrequented island. The title of the chapter, which is "Of the Canniballes,"-evidently furnished him with the name of one of his characters. In his time almost every proper name was twisted into an anagram. Thus, “ I moyl in law," was the anagram of the laborious William Noy, Attorney General to Charles I. By inverting this process, and tranfpofing the letters of the word Canibal, Shakspeare (as Dr. Farmer long fince obferved) formed the name of Caliban. MALONE. 1 Letters fhould not be known; no ufe of fervice, Of riches or of poverty; no contracts, Succeffions; bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none:] The words already quoted from Florio's Tranflation (as Dr. Farmer obferves to me) inftruct us to regulate our author's metre as it is now exhibited in the text. Probably Shakspeare firft wrote (in the room of partition, which did not fuit the structure of his verfe) bourn; but recollecting that one of its fignifications was a rivulet, and that his ifland would have fared ill without fresh water, he changed bourn to bound of land, a phrafe that could not be misunderstood. At the fame time he might have forgot to ftrike out bourn, his original word, which is now rejected; for if not used for a brook, it would have exactly the fame meaning as bound of land. There is therefore no need of the diffyllabical affiftance recommended in the following note. STEEVENS. And ufe of fervice, none; contract, fucceffion, Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none.] The defective metre of the second of these lines affords a ground for believing that fome word was omitted at the prefs. Many of the defects however in our author's metre have arifen from the words of one line being transferred to another. In the prefent inftance the preceding line is redundant. Perhaps the words here, as in many other paffages, have been fhuffled out of their places. We might read And use of service, none; fucceffion, Contract, bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none. -fucceffion being often used by Shakspeare as a quadrifyllable. It muft however be owned, that in the paffage in Montaigne's VOL. IV. F No ufe of metal, corn, or wine, or oil: And women too; but innocent and pure: SEB. And yet he would be king on't. ANT. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning.2 GON. All things in common nature should produce Without fweat or endeavour: treafon, felony, Effays the words contract and fucceffion are arranged in the fame manner as in the firft folio. If the error did not happen in this way, bourn might have been used as a diffyllable, and the word omitted at the prefs might have been none : contract, fucceffion, None; bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none. MALONE. 2 The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning.] All this dialogue is a fine fatire on the Utopian treatises of government, and the impracticable inconfiftent schemes therein recommended. WARBURTON. 3 any engine,] An engine is the rack. So, in K. Lear: like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature "From the fix'd place." It may, however, be used here in its common fignification of inftrument of war, or military machine. STEEVENS. 4all foizon,] Foifon, or foizon, fignifies plenty, ubertas; not moisture, or juice of grafs, as Mr. Pope fays. EDWARDS. So, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, B. XIII. ch. 78: "Union, in breefe, is foufonous, and difcorde works decay." Mr. Pope, however, is not entirely mistaken, as foifon, or fixon, fometimes bears the meaning which he has affixed to it. See Ray's Collection of South and Eaft Country words. STEEVENS. |