His sire in all things most unlike,
Of courage tried, yet slow to strike,
Not turning love to hate.

"Alfonso was the princes name.

It chancd posthaste a message came
Just then to Aragonn,

From Sicilie to son and sire,

Which did their presence soone desire,

To see Sicilia's son

"Fast tyed in the nuptiall band

To Naples daughter's lovelie hand,

And they to goe consent:

Soe, in a galley on a day

To Sicilie they tooke their way,
Thither to saile intent.

"Geraldo by his magicke arte

Knew even the houre of their depart

For distant Sicilie:

He knew alsoe that they must passe
Neare to the isle whereon he was,
And that revenge was nie.

"He callde his spirites of the aire
Commanding them a storme prepare,
To cast them on that shore.
The gallant bark came sailing on
With silken sailes from Arragon,
And manie a guilded ore.

"But gilded ore and silken saile
Might not against the storme prevaile;

The windes blew hie and loude:
The sailes were rent, the ores were broke,
The ship was split by lightning stroke,
That burst from angrie cloude.

"But such Geraldoes powre that day,
That though the ship was cast away,
Of all the crue not one,

Not even the shipboy then was drown'd,
And olde Benormo on drie ground
Imbracde his dearest son.

"About the isle they wander'd long,
For still some spirit led them wrong,
Till they were wearie growne;
Then came to olde Geraldoes cell,
Where he and lovelie Ida dwell:

Though seene, they were not knowne.

"Much marvell'd they in such a place

To see an Eremit's wringled face,
More at the maide they start";

• This line is interlined, in the original MS., above another line, which has been erased so as to be illegible.

As soone as did Alfonso see
Ida soe beautifull, but hee

Felt love within his hart.

"Benormo heard, with grief and shame,
Geraldo call him by his name,

His brothers voyce well knowne:
Upon his aged knees he fell,
And wept that he did ere rebell
Against his brother's throne.

"Brother, he cried, forgive my crime.
I sweare, since that u[n]happie time
I have not tasted peace:

Returne and take againe your crowne,
Which at your feete I will lay downe,
And soe our jarres surcease.

"Never, Geraldo said, will I
Ascend that seate of soverainty;
But I all wrongs forgett.
I have a daughter, you a son,
And they shall raigne in Aragon,
And on my throne be sett.

'My head is all to [o] olde to beare

The weight of crownes, and kingdomes care:
Peace in my bookes I finde.

Gold crownes become not silver lockes;
Like sunbeames upon whitend rockes,
They mocke the tranquill minde.

"Benormo, worne with cares of state,
Which worldlie sorrowes aye create,
Sawe the advice was good.
The tide of love betwixt the paire,
Alfonso young and Ida faire,

Had suddaine reach'd the flood.

"A galley, too, that was sent out From Sicilie, in feare and doubt

As having heard the wracke, Arrivde at the Inchanted Isle, And tooke them all in little while Unto Messina backe.

"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
Never to deale in magicke more,

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

Above its savage rockie shores,

Nor ere is knowne to sleepe.

"In Sicilie the paire was wed;
To Arragon there after sped

With fathers who them blesst1.
Alfonso rulde for many a yeare:

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'. 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

'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 to 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, "my suit" ought to be my soul: p. 111, "sweeting" ought to be suiting, and "luckless lust" ought to be lawless last: 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.

DRAMATIS PERSONE'.

ALONSO, King of Naples.

SEBASTIAN, his Brother.

PROSPERO, the right Duke of Milan.

ANTONIO, his Brother, the usurping Duke of Milan.
FERDINAND, Son to the King of Naples.

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.

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'.

Master. Boatswain!

Boats. Here, master: what cheer'?

Mast. Good. Speak to the mariners: fall to't yarely', 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 others'.

Alon. Good boatswain, have a care. Where's the master ? Play the men.

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.

• Good boatswain, have a care.] The article is from the margin of the corr. fo.