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Boats. Work you, then.

Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson insolent noisemaker, we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.

Gon. I'll.warrant him for drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell, and as leaky as an unstanched wench.

Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! to sea again; lay her off.

Set her two courses: off

Enter Mariners, wet.

Mar. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost! [Exeunt.
Boats. What! must our mouths be cold?

Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let us assist them,
For our case is as their's.

Seb. I am out of patience.

Ant. We are merely' cheated of our lives by drunkards.— This wide-chapp'd rascal,—would, thou mightst lie drown

ing,

The washing of ten tides !

Gon.

He'll be hanged yet,

Though every drop of water swear against it,

And gape at wid'st to glut him. [A confused noise within.]
Mercy on us!-

We split, we split!-Farewell, my wife and children!—
Farewell, brother!-We split, we split, we split!-

Ant. Let's all sink with the king.

Seb. Let's take leave of him.

[Exit.

[Exit.

Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground; long heath, brown furze, any thing. The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

The Island: before the Cell of PROSPERO.

Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.

Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you have

Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.

7 MERELY] i. e. Absolutely: a common mode of using the word of old.

The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek",
Dashes the fire out. Oh! I have suffer'd

With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel,
Who had no doubt some noble creatures in her ',
Dash'd all to pieces. Oh! the cry did knock
Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perish'd.
Had I been any god of power, I would

Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er

It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and
The fraughting souls within her.

Pro.

Be collected:

No more amazement. Tell your piteous heart,
There's no harm done.

Mira.
Pro.

Oh, woe the day!

No harm.

I have done nothing but in care of thee,

(Of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!) who Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing

Of whence I am; nor that I am more better

Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell,
And thy no greater father.

Mira.

More to know

'Tis time

Did never meddle with my thoughts'.

Pro.

I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand,
And pluck my magic garment from me.-So:

[Laying down his mantle. Lie there my art.—Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort. The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd

The very virtue of compassion in thee,

I have with such prevision in mine art'

8 mounting to the welkin's CHEEK,] The corr. fo. 1632 has "cheek" erased in favour of heat; and it is very possible that heat may have been substituted by a performer in the time of the old annotator: we adhere however to the old text, recollecting the expressions "heaven's face," and "welkin's face," in "Love's Labour's Lost," and "cheeks of heaven" in "Richard II."

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9 some noble CREATURES in her,] Creature of the old copies is altered to 99 creatures in the corr. fo. 1632, which accords with the emendation made by Theobald. Miranda just afterwards calls them " poor souls," making it almost certain that "creatures" ought to be in the plural.

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1 Did never MEDDLE with my thoughts.] i. e. Mingle or mix with my thoughts. When "meddle was to be used as a monosyllable, it was sometimes spelt mell, as in Vol. ii. p. 605.

2 I have with such PREVISION in mine art] There is no doubt that "pre

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So safely order'd, that there is no soul-
No, not so much perdition as an hair,
Betid to any creature in the vessel

Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down;
For thou must now know farther.

Mira.

You have often

Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd,

And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding, "Stay, not yet.'

Pro.

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The very minute bids thee ope

The hour's now come,

thine ear;

Obey, and be attentive. Canst thou remember
A time before we came unto this cell?

[Sitting down.

I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not
Out three years old 3.

Mira.

Certainly, sir, I can.

Pro. By what? by any other house, or person?
Of any thing the image tell me, that
Hath kept with thy remembrance.

Mira.

"Tis far off;

And rather like a dream, than an assurance

That my remembrance warrants. Had I not

Four or five women once, that tended me?

Pro. 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.

Mira.

But that I do not.

Pro. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since,
Thy father was the duke of Milan, and
A prince of power.

vision" (misprinted provision in all the folios) was the poet's word, and we meet
with it in the margin of the corr. fo. 1632. It is due to the Rev. Mr. Hunter to
add, that he also proposed "prevision " ("Discourse on The Tempest," 8vo, 1839,
p. 125) at a time when he could not know that there was any such emendation of
much earlier standing. As long since also as 1818, A. W. Schlegel translated the
passage thus, and Prof. Mommsen, in his recent reprint (Berlin, 1854), has, very
properly, seen no reason for altering the version :

"hab' ich mit solcher Vorsicht

Durch meine Kunst so sicher angeordnet."

3 OUT three years old.] i. e. Three years complete. It is altered to "Quite three years old" in the corr. fo. 1632, but unnecessarily, and probably only the word of a player. The previous stage-direction, "Sitting down," is from the same authority, but it is not said that Miranda sits, and probably she does not.

VOL. I.

C

Mira.

Sir, are not you my father?

Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father
Was duke of Milan, thou his only heir

And princess, no worse issued'.

Mira.

Oh, the heavens!

What foul play had we, that we came from thence?
Or blessed was't, we did?

Pro.

Both, both, my girl:

By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence ;
But blessedly holp hither.

Mira.

Oh! my heart bleeds
To think o' the teen' that I have turn'd you to,

Which is from my remembrance. Please you, farther.
Pro. 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 signiories it was the first,
(And Prospero the prime 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?

Mira.

Sir, most heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them, whom t' advance, and whom To trash for over-topping, new created

THOU his only heir

And princess, no worse issued.] The text in the folios is "Was duke of Milan, and his only heir," &c. The corr. fo. 1632 has "thou" for and, most fitly; and, as Mr. Singer suggests (while printing "thou," which he says he substituted in 1851), the old printer caught and from the preceding line. Giving Mr. Singer full credit for his assertion, as to his anticipation of the emendation in the corr. fo. 1632 (promulgated in 1853), we are glad to have this involuntary confirmation of what must be the genuine language of Shakespeare.

5 - TEEN] i. e. Grief, trouble. The word occurs also in Vol. iv. p. 308; Vol. v. p. 112, &c., always in the same sense.

6. TO TRASH for over-topping,] The meaning of this passage is evident, but a dispute has arisen respecting the word "trash." Warburton contended that it was used to express the cutting away of superfluities, as of trees that grew too fast, and were therefore" over-topping :" on the other hand, there is no doubt that it was

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The creatures that were mine, I say, or chang'd them,
Or else new form'd them: having both the key
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,

And suck'd my verdure out on't.—Thou attend'st not.
Mira. Oh good sir! I do.

Pro.

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

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

To credit his own lie, he did believe

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

With all prerogative: hence his ambition

a term of the chase, and Shakespeare employs it in "Othello," Vol. vi. p. 46, in this sense, where it is said that dogs are "trashed" for their "quick hunting." Either will answer the purpose here; but Shakespeare having himself warranted the latter meaning of "trash," we seem bound to adopt that in preference, and to take the sense to be, that Antonio knew "whom to advance" and whom to beat back, check, or "trash for over-topping," or outrunning the rest.

7 He being thus LORDED,] "Lorded" is loaded in the corr. fo. 1632, but "lorded " may perhaps stand without material objection. In "Richard III.," Vol. iv. p. 230, the proper text "load" is lord in every 4to, until it was corrected to "load" in the folio, 1623.

8 Who having TO UNTRUTH, by telling of it,] The old text is,
"Who having into truth, by telling of it,"

which Warburton thus amended:

"Who having unto truth, by telling of it."

But how could any man make a "sinner of his memory" by telling truth? Antonio had, as it were, made a "sinner of his memory" by telling "untruth:" he had told it until he believed his own falsehood, and the old annotator on the folio, 1632, instructs us therefore to read,

"Who having to untruth, by telling of it,

Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie,"

which seems to us clearly right, requiring no sophisticated explanation.

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