As soone as did Alfonso see Felt love within his hart. "Benormo heard, with grief and shame, His brothers voyce well knowne: "Brother, he cried, forgive my crime. Returne and take againe your crowne, "Never, Geraldo said, will I 66 'My head is all to [o] olde to beare The weight of crownes, and kingdomes care: Gold crownes become not silver lockes; "Benormo, worne with cares of state, Had suddaine reach'd the flood. "A galley, too, that was sent out As having heard the wracke, "But ere his leave Geraldo tooke Of the strange isle, he burnt his booke, And broke his magicke wand: His arte forbid he aye forswore The while the earth should stand. "From that day forth the Isle has beene By wandering sailors never seene: Some say tis buried deepe Beneath the sea, which breakes and rores Nor ere is knowne to sleepe. "In Sicilie the paire was wed; With fathers who them blesst1. His people lovde him farre and neare, But Ida lovde him best. FINIS R. G." It is perhaps vain to speculate as to the person to whom the initials R. G. belong, but Robert Gomersall was a distinguished poet in the reign of Charles I., and he may have written what is not much in his style, but what would do no discredit to him or to any other versifier of that day 2. Shakespeare and his "Tempest are to be traced throughout, but the author of the preceding ballad seems studiously to have avoided the association of his production with the drama: he says nothing individually of those wonderfully contrasted creations, Ariel and Caliban, but we must suppose them included in the general terms "the spirits of the earth and air;" and the character of his production forbad R. G. to make any allusion to the comic scenes in which Stephano and Trinculo are engaged. It is just possible that R. G. and Shakespeare resorted to the same original, but that the former was acquainted with the play of the latter appears indisputable. The reader is referred to Coleridge's Ninth Lecture (8vo, 1856, p. 108) for some masterly, original, and tasteful criticisms upon "The Tempest," which render it needless that we should advert to what may have been said upon the structure of the drama, its characters, and its poetry by any other authority. 1 With fathers who them BLESST.] error as the rhyme shows. "Blesst" is blesse in the MS., a clerical 2 There is, of course, no pretext for assigning the initials R. G., appended to the ballad, to Robert Greene, because, to our ears, the style of it is considerably more modern, and in every respect unlike the productions of Greene: still it is tò be observed, that Ida is the name of the heroine in his play called "The Scottish Historie of James the fourth, slaine at Flodden," 4to, 1598. This drama, as republished by the Rev. Mr. Dyce (Greene's Works, 8vo, 1831, Vol. ii. p. 69), has various misprints retained from the original; as p. 75, "more wise than the servants," ought to be "more wise than the serpents :" p. 77, "lovely" ought to be loving: p. 95,"tomb" ought to be home: p. 104, "importunes" ought to be our fortunes: p. 109, ought to be my soul: p. 111, "sweeting ought to be suiting, and "luckless lust" ought to be lawless lust: p. 115, "Plulantia" ought to be philautia: p. 123, fair" ought to be far: p. 128, "lakus skins" ought to be jackass skins, and "rapier and dagger "ought to be reaper and digger: p. 146, "lords" ought to be lads, &c. We point out these provoking blemishes with all respect, in order 'that, in the next edition, the learned editor may correct them. We have no doubt that his now more practised eye would detect most of them. my suit 66 DRAMATIS PERSONE'. ALONSO, King of Naples. SEBASTIAN, his Brother. PROSPERO, the right Duke of Milan. ANTONIO, his Brother, the usurping Duke of Milan. GONZALO, an honest old Counsellor. Other Spirits attending on Prospero. SCENE, the Sea, with a Ship; afterwards an uninhabited Island. 1 This complete list of characters is contained in the folio, 1623. 2 Ariel, an airy Spirit.] One of the sketches by Inigo Jones, published, from the original in the possession of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, by the Shakespeare Society in 1848, is that of “an Aery Spiritt:" he is furnished with wings on his head and at his shoulders, and is dressed in a short tunic and scarf. Very possibly, such was the appearance of Ariel on the stage in "The Tempest." THE TEMPEST. ACT I. SCENE I. On a Ship at Sea. A tempestuous noise of Thunder and Lightning. Enter a Ship-master and a Boatswain 1. Master. Boatswain! Boats. Here, master: what cheer?? 3 Mast. Good. Speak to the mariners: fall to't yarely 3, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir. Enter Mariners. [Exit. Boats. Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare, yare. Take in the top-sail; tend to the master's whistle.-Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough! Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO, and others1. Alon. Good boatswain, have a care. Where's the master? Play the men. 1 Enter a Ship-master and a Boatswain.] The corr. fo. 1632 adds here the following explanatory words, "as on ship-board, shaking off wet:" they were probably intended as an instruction to the old performers how they were to conduct themselves at the opening of the play, in order to give the audience a proper notion of the scene on ship-board during a storm. 2 what cheer?] So in John Drout's unique poem, "The Pityfull Historie of two loving Italians," 8vo, 1570: 3 "Then mate to mate eache other calde, And sayd, ho mate! what cheere?” fall to't YARELY,] i. e. Readily, nimbly: see also Vol. ii. p. 699, and Vol. vi. pp. 194. 208. 248. In the next speech we have the adjective. 4 Gonzalo, and others.] "From the cabin," says the old annotator on the folio, 1632: the characters most likely ascended through a trap-door. 5 Good boatswain, have a care.] The article is from the margin of the corr. fo. Boats. I pray now, keep below. Ant. Where is the master, boatswain ? Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour. Keep your cabins; you do assist the storm. Gon. Nay, good, be patient. Hence! What care these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence! trouble us not. Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard. Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap.-Cheerly, good hearts! -Out of our way, I say. [Exit. Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks, he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good fate, to his hanging! make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage! If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable. [Exeunt. Re-enter Boatswain. Boats. Down with the top-mast: yare; lower, lower. Bring her to try with main-course. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather, or our office. Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO. Yet again! what do you here? Shall we give o'er, and drown? Have you a mind to sink? Seb. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog! 1632, and there is no doubt that the familiar expression was "have a care," as we find it, among other places, in Fletcher's "Honest Man's Fortune,” A. v. sc. 3, "Montague, have a care" (Edit. Dyce, Vol. iii. p. 442). 6 Bring her to try with main-course.] We make no change in the text here, nor is any suggested by the corr. fo. 1632; but it may be doubted whether this is the correct nautical phrase. Steevens quoted from Smith's "Sea Grammar," 1627, 1653, and 1692: "Let us lie as Trie with our maine course," &c., and in the folio, 1623, "Try" is printed with a capital letter; but so is “ Maine-course.' Steevens misquoted Smith, who has "Let us lie at Trie," and not "Let us lie as Trie." Mr. Singer, who goes no farther than Steevens, repeats Steevens's error. |