I have broke your heft to fay fo! Indeed, the top of admiration; worth What's dearest to the world! Full many a lady Mira. I do not know One of my fex; no woman's face remember, Save, from my glafs, mine own; nor have I feen Fer. I am, in my condition, A prince, Miranda; I do think, a king; (I would, not fo!) and would no more endure This wooden flavery, than I would fuffer 3 The flesh-fly blow my mouth :-Hear my foul fpeak ; The very inftant that I faw you, did My heart fly to your fervice; there refides, To make me flave to it; and, for your fake, Am I this patient log-man. 1-beft] For bebeft; i. c. command. STEEVENS. 2 Of every creature's beft.] Alluding to the picture of Venus by A pelles. JOHNSON. 3-than I would fuffer &c.] The old copy reads-Than to suffer, The emendation is Mr. Pope's. STEEVENS. Mira. Do you love me? Fer. O heaven, o earth, bear witness to this found, And crown what I profefs with kind event, If I fpeak true; if hollowly, invert What beft is boded me, to mischief! I, Mira. I am a fool 3, To weep at what I am glad of. Pro. Fair encounter Of two most rare affections! Heavens rain grace Fer. Wherefore weep you? Mira. At mine unworthiness, that dare not offer What I defire to give; and much less take, What I shall die to want: But this is trifling; Hence bashful cunning! And prompt me, plain and holy innocence ! I am your wife, if you will marry me 7; If 4-of what elfe i' the world,] i. e. of aught elfe; of whatsoever elfe there is in the world. I once thought that we should read-aught elfe. But the old copy is right. So, in King Henry VI. P. III : "With promife of his fifter, and what else, "To ftrengthen and fupport king Edward's place." 5 I am a fool, MALONE. To weep at what I am glad of.] This is one of those touches of nature that diftinguish Shakspeare from all other writers. It was neceflary, in fupport of the character of Miranda, to make her appear unconscious that excefs of forrow and excess of joy find alike their reJief from tears; and as this is the first time that confummate pleasure had made any near approaches to her heart, fhe calls fuch a feeming contradictory expreffion of it, folly. The fame thought occurs in Romeo and Juliet : "Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring! "Which you, miftaking, offer up to joy." STEEVENS. Si tibi non cordi fuerant connubia noftra, Candida If not, I'll die your maid: to be your fellow Fer. My mitreis, deareft, Fer. Ay, with a heart as willing As bondage e'er of freedom: here's my hand. Mira. And mine, with my heart in 't9: And now farewell, Till half an hour hence. Fer. A thoufand, thoufand! [Exeunt FER. and MIR. Pro. So glad of this as they, I cannot be, Who are furpriz'd with all; but my rejoicing At nothing can be more. I'll to my book; For yet, ere fupper-time, muft I perform Much bufinefs appertaining. [Exit. Enter STEPHANO and TRINCULO; CALIBAN Ste. Tell not me ;-when the butt is out, we will drink Candida permulcens liquidis veftigia lymphis, Catul. 62. MALONE. 8 3-your fellow,] i. e. companion. STEEVENS. 9 Ferd. bere's my band. Mira. And mine, with my heart in't.] It is ftill customary in the weft of England, when the conditions of a bargain are agreed upon, for the parties to ratify it by joining their hands, and at the fame time for the purchafer to give an earnest. To this practice the poet alludes. So, in the Winter's Tale: "Ere I could make thee open thy white hand, "And clap thy felf my love; then didst thou utter "I am your's for ever." Again, in the Two Gent. of Verona: "Pro. Why then we'll make exchange; here, take you this. "Ful. And feal the bargain with a holy kifs. "Pro. Here is my hand for my true conftancy." HENLEY. water water; not a drop before: therefore bear up, and board 'em': Servant-monfter, drink to me, Trin. Servant-monfter? the folly of this ifland! They fay, there's but five upon this ifle: we are three of them; if the other two be brain'd like us, the state totters. Ste. Drink, fervant-monfter, when I bid thee; thy eyes are almoft fet in thy head. Trin. Where should they be fet elfe; he were a brave monster indeed, if they were fet in his tail 2. Ste. My man-monster hath drown'd his tongue in fack: for my part, the fea cannot drown me: I fwam3, ere I could recover the fhore, five-and-thirty leagues, off and on, by this light.-Thou shalt be my lieutenant, monfter, or my standard. Trin. Your lieutenant, if you lift; he's no ftandard". Ste. We'll not run, monfieur monster. Trin. Nor go neither: but you'll lie, like dogs; and yet fay nothing neither. Ste. Moon-calf, fpeak once in thy life, if thou beeft a good moon-calf. Cal. How does thy honour? Let me lick thy fhoe: I'll not ferve him, he is not valiant. Bear up, and board 'em :] A metaphor alluding to a chace at fea. SIR J. HAWKINS. 2 He were a brave monfter indeed, if they were fet in his tail.] I believe this to be an allufion to a ftory that is met with in Stowe, and other writers of the time. It feems, in the year 1574, a whale was thrown a fhore near Ramfgate. "A monftrous fish (says the chroni"cler) but not fo monftrous as fome reported,-for his eyes were in his "bead, and not in his back." Summary, 1575, p. 562. FARMER. 3 I frwam, &c.] This play was not publifhed till 1623. Albumazar made its appearance in 1614, and has a paffage relative to the escape of a failor yet more incredible. Perhaps, in both inftances, a fneer was meant at the Voyages of Ferdinando Mendez Pinto, or the exaggerated accounts of other lying travellers: "five days I was under water; and at length "Rowing with arms, and steering with my feet, "And thus in five days more got land." Act III. fc. v. STEEVENS. 4 Your lieutenant, if you lift; be's no ftandard.] Meaning, he is fo much intoxicated, as not to be able to ftand. The quibble between ftandard, an enfign, and standard, a fruit tree, that grows without fupport, is evident. STEEVENS. 4 Trix. Trin. Thou lieft, moft ignorant monfter; I am in cafe to jufle a conftable: Why, thou debofh'd fish, thou, was there ever man a coward, that hath drunk fo much fack as I to day? Wilt thou tell a monftrous lie, being but half a fish, and half a monster? Cal. Lo, how he mocks me; wilt thou let him, my lord? Trin. Lord, quoth he!—that a monster fhould be fuch a natural! Cal. Lo, lo, again: bite him to death, I pr'ythee. Ste. Trinculo, keep a good tongue in your head; if you prove a mutineer, the next tree-The poor monfter's my fubject, and he fhall not fuffer indignity. Cal. I thank my noble lord. Wilt thou be pleas'd to hearken once again to the fuit I made to thee? Ste. Marry will I: kneel, and repeat it; I will ftand, and fo fhall Trinculo. Enter ARIEL, invifible. Cal. As I told thee before, I am fubject to a tyrant; forcerer, that by his cunning has cheated me of the island. Ari. Thou lieft. Cal. Thou lieft, thou jefting monkey, thou; I would, my valiant master would destroy thee: I do not lie. Ste. Trinculo, if you trouble him any more in his tale, by this hand, I will fupplant fome of your teeth. Trin. Why, I faid nothing. Ste. Mum then, and no more ;-Proceed. Ste. That's most certain. Cal. Thou shalt be lord of it, and I'll ferve thee. Ste. How now fhall this be compafs'd? Canft thou bring me to the party? Cal. Yea, yea, my lord; I'll yield him thee afleep, Where thou may't knock a nail into his head. 5 —thou deboíh`d-] i. e. debauched. See Cotgrave's DICT. in v. MALONE. |