To whom I am subdued, are but light to me,2 Pro. It works:-Come on. Thou hast done well, fine Ariel!-Follow me. [To FERD. and MIR. Be of comfort; Hark, what thou else shalt do me. Mira. My father's of a better nature, sir, [To ARIEL. Than he appears by speech; this is unwonted, Pro. Thou shalt be as free As mountain winds; but then exactly do All points of my command. Ari. To the syllable. Pro. Come, follow: speak not for him. [Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I. Another part of the Island. Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and others. Gon. 'Beseech you, sir, be have cause merry; you (So have we all) of joy; for our escape Is much beyond our loss: Our hint of woe 2 are but light to me,] This passage, as it stands at present, with all allowance for poetical licence, cannot be reconciled to grammar. I suspect that our author wrote-" were but light to me," in the sense of would be.In the preceding line the old copy reads-nor this man's threats. The emendation was made by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. Our hint of woe-] Hint is that which recalls to the memory; or here it may mean circumstance. Is common; every day, some sailor's wife, Can speak like us: then wisely, good sir, weigh Alon. Pr'ythee, peace. Seb. He receives comfort like cold porridge. Ant. The visitor will not give him o'er so. Seb. Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit; By and by it will strike. Gon. Sir, Seb. One:-Tell. Gon. When every grief is entertain'd, that's offer'd, Comes to the entertainer Seb. A dollar. Gon. Dolour comes to him, indeed; you have spoken truer than you proposed. Seb. You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should. Gon. Therefore, my lord, The masters of some merchant, &c.] Thus the old copy. If the passage be not corrupt (as I suspect it is) we must suppose that by masters our author means the owners of a merchant ship, or the officers to whom the navigation of it had been trusted. I suppose, however, that our author wrote "The mistress of some merchant," &c. Mistress was antiently spelt-maistresse or maistres. Hence, perhaps, arose the present typographical error. See Merchant of Ve nice, Act IV. sc. i. STEEVENS. 5 Have just our theme of woe: but for the miracle,] The words -of woe, appear to me as an idle interpolation. Three lines before we have " our hint of woe-." STEEVENS. The visitor-] Why Dr, Warburton should change bisitor to 'viser, for adviser, I cannot discover. Gonzalo gives not only advice but comfort, and is therefore properly called The visitor, like others who visit the sick or distressed to give them consolation. In some of the Protestant churches there is a kind of officers termed consolators for the sick. JOHNSON. Ant. Fye, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue! Alon. I pr'ythee spare. Gon. Well, I have done: But yet Seb. He will be talking. Ant. Which of them, he, or Adrian, for a good wager, first begins to crow? Seb. The old cock. Ant. The cockrel. Seb. Done: the wager? Ant. A laughter. Seb. A match. Adr. Though this island seem to be desert,— Ant. So, you've pay'd.' Adr. Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible,Seb. Yet, Adr. Yet Ant. He could not miss it. Adr. It must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate temperance. Ant. Temperance was a delicate wench." Seb. Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly delivered. Adr. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly. Seb. As if it had lungs, and rotten ones. Ant. Or, as 'twere perfumed by a fen. Gon. Here is every thing advantageous to life. 7- you've pay'd.] This passage scarcely deserves explanation; but the meaning is this: Antonio lays a wager with Sebastian, that Adrian would crow before Gonzalo, and the wager was a laughter, Adrian speaks first, so Antonio is the winner. Sebastian laughs at what Adrian had said, and Antonio immediately acknowledges that by his laughing he has paid the bet. 8 and delicate temperance.] or temperature. 9 Temperance was a delicate wench.] In the puritanical times it was usual to christen children from the titles of religious and moral virtues. Seb. Of that there's none, or little. Gon. How lush' and lusty the grass looks? how green? Ant. The ground, indeed, is tawny. Seb. With an eye of green in't. Ant. He misses not much. Seb. No; he doth but mistake the truth totally. Gon. But the rarity of it is (which is indeed almost beyond credit) Seb. As many vouch'd rarities are. Gon. That our garments, being, as they were, drenched in the sea, hold, notwithstanding, their freshness, and glosses; being rather new dy'd, than stain'd with salt water. Ant. If but one of his pockets could speak, would it not say, he lies? Seb. Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report. Gon. Methinks, our garments are now as fresh as when we put them on first in Africk, at the marriage of the king's fair daughter Claribel,3 to the king of Tunis. Seb. 'Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our return. Adr. Tunis was never graced before with such a paragon to their queen." Gon. Not since widow Dido's time. Ant. Widow? a pox o'that! How came that wi dow in? Widow Dido !* 1 How lush, &c.] Lush here signifies rank; but it appears to have sometimes signified juicy, succulent. Spenser in his Shepheard's Calender, (Feb.) applies the epithet lusty to green. 3 2 With an eye of green in't.] An eye is a small shade of colour. Claribel This name is probably taken from the bl. 1. History of George Lord Faukonbridge. CLARIBEL is there the concubine of King Richard I. and the mother of Lord Falconbridge. Widow Dido!] The name of a widow brings to their minds their own shipwreck, which they consider as having made many widows in Naples. JOHNSON. Seb. What if he had said, widower Æneas too? good lord, how you take it! Adr. Widow Dido, said you? you make me study of that: She was of Carthage, not of Tunis, Gon. This Tunis, sir, was Carthage. Adr. Carthage? Gon. I assure you, Carthage.. Ant. His word is more than the miraculous harp, Seb. He hath rais'd the wall, and houses too. Ant. What impossible matter will he make easy next? Seb. I think he will carry this island home in his pocket, and give it his son for an apple. Ant. And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring forth more islands. Gon. Ay? Ant. Why, in good time. Gon. Sir, we were talking, that our garments seem now as fresh, as when we were at Tunis at the marriage of your daughter, who is now queen. Ant. And the rarest that e'er came there. Gon. Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I wore it? I mean, in a sort. Ant. That sort was well fish'd for. Gon. When I wore it at your daughter's mar riage? Alon. You cram these words into mine ears, against 6 The stomach of my sense: 'Would I had never 5 the miraculous harp.] Alluding to the wonders of Amphion's music. STEEVENS. sense • The stomach of my sense:] By sense, is meant both reason and natural affection. Mr. M. Mason, however, supposes in this place, means feeling." STEEVENS. |