Growing,-Dost thou hear?

Mira.

Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.
Pro. To have no screen between this part he play'd,
And him he play'd it for, 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 2) with the king of Naples',
To give him annual tribute, do him homage,
Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend

The dukedom, yet unbow'd, (alas, poor Milan!)
To most ignoble stooping2.

Mira.

Oh the heavens !

Pro. Mark his condition, and th' event; then tell me, If this might be a brother.

Mira.

I should sin

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

Pro.

This king of Naples, being an enemy

Now the condition.

To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit;
Which was, that he, in lieu o' the premises,-
Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,-
Should presently extirpate 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 the practice, did Antonio open

The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of darkness,
The ministers for the purpose hurried thence
Me, and thy crying self.

I, not remembering how I cried out then,

9

(SO DRY he was for sway)] i. e. So thirsty for power and government.

1 with THE king of Naples,] "The" is not in the folios: in the MS. from

-

which the folio, 1623, was printed, it was probably written wi'th' for the sake of the measure, and hence the error.

66

2 TO MOST ignoble stooping.] So the folio, 1623, but the folio, 1632, altering

"" most to much, the old corrector of that edition restored "most," and erased much. Mr. Singer, without notice or reason, prints much.

3 Fated to the PRACTICE,] "Practice" is from the corr. fo. 1632: it is purpose in the folio, 1623; but "practice means contrivance or conspiracy, and we have purpose," ," in its proper sense, only two lines below. We may be pretty sure that Shakespeare would not have used the same word in both places.

Will cry it o'er again: it is a hint,
That wrings mine eyes to't.

Pro.

Hear a little farther,

And then I'll bring thee to the present business
Which now's upon's'; without the which this story
Were most impertinent.

Mira.

That hour destroy us?

Pro.

Wherefore did they not

Well demanded, wench:

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not,
So dear the love my people bore me, nor set

A mark so bloody on the business; but
With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark,

Bore us some leagues to sea, where they prepar'd
A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively had quit it: there they hoist us,
cry to the sea that roar'd to us; to sigh
To the winds, whose pity, sighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

To

Mira.

Was I then to you !

Pro.

Alack what trouble

Oh! a cherubim

Thou didst smile,

Infused with a fortitude from heaven,

Thou wast, that did preserve me.

When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt,

it is a HINT,

That wrings mine eyes to't.] i. e. It is a suggestion (properly, perhaps, hent) that forces tears from my eyes.

5 Which now's upon's ;] So it stands in all the old copies, for the sake of the metre. "The Tempest" is printed with much accuracy in this respect.

A rotten carcass of a BOAT,] It is butt in all the four folios, a reading we might be disposed to retain, if it were not altered to "boat" in the corr. fo. 1632. By butt Prospero might mean to indicate the sort of vessel in which he and his daughter were placed "without tackle, sail, or mast." In Robert Greene's "Pandosto, the Triumph of Time" ("Shakespeare's Library," Vol. i. p. 18), an account is given of the turning adrift of the heroine "in a boat, having neither saile, nor rudder to guide it."

7 Instinctively HAD quit it:] The old text is "have quit it,” but judiciously amended to "had quit it" in the corr. fo. 1632, which we therefore adopt.

• When I have DECK'D the sea with drops full salt,] It is questionable whether we ought not to read degg'd for" deck'd," as it stands in the folios. By Holloway's "General Dictionary of Provincialisms" it appears that to deg, in the north of England, means to sprinkle; a sense better suited to the line than "deck'd" or adorn'd. Deg seems to be derived from the Icelandic word daeg, a shower.

Under my burden groan'd, which rais'd in me
An undergoing stomach, to bear up

Against what should ensue.

Mira.

Pro. By Providence divine.

How came we ashore?

Some food we had, and some fresh water, that
A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,

Out of his charity (who being then appointed
Master of this design) did give us; with

Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries,
Which since have steaded much so, of his gentleness,
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me,
From my own library, with volumes that

I prize above my dukedom.

Mira.

But ever see that man!

Pro.

Would I might

Now I arise :

[Putting on his robe again".

Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow.
Here in this island we arriv'd; and here
Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit
Than other princess can, that have more time
For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.
Mira. Heavens thank you for't! And now, I
For still 'tis beating in my mind, your reason
For raising this sea-storm?
Pro.

pray you, sir,

Know thus far forth.

9 Putting on his robe again.] This important and entirely new stage-direction is from the corr. fo. 1632, and from thence Mr. Singer borrows it, without a single observation. Prospero had laid aside his robe earlier in the scene, when he was about to begin his narrative, but here he resumes it, in order to exercise his magic influence over Miranda, and send her to sleep. We are to presume that he left his seat with the words "Now I arise," and that Miranda took it, on some indication of her father's wish that she should do so. Commentators have not known how to account for the sudden somnolency of the heroine; for, just afterwards, we come to the direction, "Miranda sleeps." Nobody has seen that Prospero having put off his magic robe, it was necessary for him to put it on again, and that he was thus enabled to accomplish what he wished, viz. to produce drowsiness on the part of his daughter. All that Mr. Singer need have said would have been, that the stage-direction, Putting on his robe again," was contained in our corr. fo. 1632; but he preferred to leave the point altogether unexplained, rather than admit so poor an obligation. His policy was very short-sighted; for his silence could not conceal the fact, if he wished to do so. If the Rev. Mr. Dyce could bestow a whole page upon this stage-direction, "Lays down his mantle " ("Few Notes," p. 9), Mr. Singer might have spared one word upon the entire novelty and importance of "Putting on his robe again," by Prospero.

66

By accident most strange, bountiful fortune,
Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies
Brought to this shore; and by my prescience
I find my zenith doth depend upon

A most auspicious star, whose influence
If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes

Will ever after droop. Here cease more questions.
Thou art inclin'd to sleep; 'tis a good dulness,
And give it way :-I know thou canst not choose.—

Come away, servant, come! I am ready now.
Approach, my Ariel: come!

[MIRANDA sleeps.

Enter ARIEL.

Ari. All hail, great master; grave sir, hail! I come To answer thy best pleasure; be 't to fly,

To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride

On the curl'd clouds: to thy strong bidding task
Ariel, and all his quality.

Pro.

Hast thou, spirit,

Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee?
Ari. To every article.

I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,

I flam'd amazement: sometimes, I'd divide,

And burn in many places; on the topmast,
The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet, and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors
O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight-outrunning were not: the fire, and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune
Seem to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.

Pro.

My brave spirit!

Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil

Would not infect his reason?

But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd

Some tricks of desperation. All, but mariners,
Plung'd in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel,
Then all a-fire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand,
With hair up-staring (then like reeds, not hair)

Was the first man that leap'd; cried, "Hell is empty,

And all the devils are here."

On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before: and, as thou bad'st me,
In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle.
The king's son have I landed by himself,
Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs
In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting,
His arms in this sad knot.

Pro.

Of the king's ship

The mariners, say, how thou hast dispos'd,
And all the rest o' the fleet?

Ari.

Safely in harbour

Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew

10

From the still-vex'd Bermoothes 1o, there she's hid:
The mariners all under hatches stow'd;

Whom, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour,

I have left asleep and for the rest o' the fleet

Which I dispers'd, they all have met again,
And all upon the Mediterranean float',

Bound sadly home for Naples,

Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd,

And his great person perish.

Pro.

Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work.

What is the time o' the day?

Ari.

Ariel, thy charge

Past the mid season.

10 From the still-vex'd BERMOOTHES,] i. e. Bermudas, commonly known, in Shakespeare's time and afterwards, as "the Isle of Devils," from the evil spirits by which it was supposed to be inhabited. See the "Introduction," p. 6.

1 And ALL upon the Mediterranean FLOAT,] It is "And are upon the Mediterranean float" in the folios; but according to the old corrector of the folio, 1632, are is a misprint for "all." The same blunder is committed in The Comedy of Errors," A. v. sc. 1:

"And thereupon these errors are arose,"

instead of "all arose." The objection, that "float," or flote, was not used in English as a substantive, ought not to prevail, because it is so employed several times by T. Lodge in his "Glaucus and Silla," 1589. If we take flote as a substantive, we must derive it from the Fr. flot.