Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

No better than the earth he lies upon,

If he were that which now he's like, that's dead;
Whom I with this obedient fteel, three inches of it,
Can lay to bed for ever: while you, doing thus,
To the perpetual wink for ay might put

8 This ancient morfel, this Sir Prudence, who
Should not upbraid our courfe. For all the reft,
They'll take fuggeftion, as a cat laps milk
They'll tell the clock to any business that
We fay befits the hour.

Seb. Thy cafe, dear friend,

Shall be my precedent: as thou got'ft Milan,
I'll come by Naples. Draw thy fword: one stroke
Shall free thee from the tribute which thou pay'st;
And I the king fhall love thee.

Ant. Draw together:

And when I rear my hand, do you the like
To fall it on Gonzalo.

Seb. O, but one word

Enter Ariel, with mufick and fong.

Ari. My mafter through his art forefees the danger, That you, his friend, are in; and fends me forth (For elfe his project dies) to keep them living, [Sings in Gonzalo's ear.

[ocr errors]

In the later editions, thefe lines are thus arranged:
Ay, Sir, where lyes that?

If 'twere a kybe, 'would put me to my flipper:
But I feel not this deity in my bofom.

Ten confciences, that ftand 'twixt me and Milan,
Candy'd be they, and melt, e'er they moleft!

Here lies your brother

This modern reading was quite arbitrary, as appears by the neceffity of changing twenty to ten. STEEVENS.

& This ancient morfel, For morfel Dr. Warburton reads ancient moral, very elegantly and judicioufly, yet I know not whether the author might not write morfel, as we fay a piece of a man. JOHNSON.

9-take fuggeftion,-] i. e. Receive any hint of villainy. JOHNSON.

to keep them living.] i. e. Alonzo and Antonio; for it was on their lives that his project depended. Yet the Oxford

While you bere do fnoring lie,
Open-ey'd confpiracy

His time doth take:

If of life you keep a care,
Shake off fumber and beware:
Awake! awake!

Ant. Then let us both be fudden.

Gon. Now, good angels, preferve the king!

[They wake. Alon. Why, how now, ho! awake? Why are you 2 drawn?

Wherefore this ghaftly looking?

Gon. What's the matter?

Seb. While we stood here fecuring your repofe, Even now, we heard a hollow burft of bellowing Like bulls, or rather lions; did it not wake you? It ftrook mine ear moft terribly.

Alon. I heard nothing.

Ant. O, 'twas a din to fright a monfter's ear; To make an earthquake! fure, it was the roar Of a whole herd of lions.

Alon. Heard you this, Gonzalo?

Gon. Upon my honour, Sir, I heard a humming,

Editor alters them to you, because in the verfe before, it is faid -you his friend; as if, because Ariel was fent forth to fave his, friend, he could not have another purpose in sending him, viz. to fave his project too. WARBURTON.

I think Dr. Warburton and the Oxford Editor both mistaken. The fenfe of the paffage, as it now ftands, is this: He fees your danger, and will therefore fave them. Dr. Warburton has miftaken Antonio for Gonzalo. Ariel would certainly not tell Gonzalo, that his mafter faved him only for his project. He fpeaks to himself as he approaches,

My mafter through his art forefees the danger

That these his friends are in.

Thefe written with a y, according to the old practice, did not much differ from you. JOHNSON.

2

-drawn ?] Having your fwords drawn. So in Rome.

and Juliet:

"What art thou drawn among these heartless hinds ?"

JOHNSON.

And

And that a strange one too, which did awake me.
I shak'd you, Sir, and cried; as mine eyes open'd,
I saw their weapons drawn :-there was a noise,
That's verity. 'Tis beft we ftand upon our guard;
Or that we quit this place: let's draw our weapons.
Alon. Lead off this ground; and let's make further
search

For my poor fon.

Gon. Heavens keep him from these beasts! For he is, fure, i' the island.

Alon. Lead away.

Ari. Profperc, my lord fhall know what I have done. So, king, go fafely on to feek thy fon.

[blocks in formation]

[Exeunt.

Enter Caliban with a burden of wood: a noife of thunder heard.

Cal. All the infections that the fun fucks up
From bogs, fens, flats, on Profper fall, and make him
By inch-meal a difeafe! His fpirits hear me,

And yet I needs muft curfe. But they'll not pinch,
Fright me with urchin fhows, pitch me i' the mire,
Nor lead me, like a fire-brand, in the dark
Out of my way, unlefs he bid 'em; but
For every trifle they are fet upon me.

*

Sometime like apes, that moe and chatter at me,
And after, bite me; then like hedge-hogs, which
Lie tumbling in my bare-foot way, and mount
Their pricks at my foot-fall; fometime am I
All 3 wound with adders, who, with cloven tongues,
Do hifs me into madness. Lo! now! lo!

that moe, &c.] i. e. Make mouths. So in the old verfion of the Pfalms:

66

Again, in K. Lear:

-making moes at me.”

of mopping and moeing." STEEVENS. 3-wound] Enwrapped by adders wound or twisted about

me.

JOHNSON.

Enter

Enter Trinculo.

Here comes a spirit of his; and to torment me
For bringing wood in flowly. I'll fall flat;
Perchance, he will not mind me.

Trin. Here's neither bufh nor fhrub to bear off any weather at all, and another storm brewing; I hear it fing i' the wind. Yond' fame black cloud, yond huge one, 4 looks like a foul bumbard that would fhed his liquor. If it fhould thunder, as it did before, I know not where to hide my head: yond' fame cloud cannot choose but fall by pailfuls.What have we here? a man or a fifh? dead or alive? A fish: he fmells like a fish; a very ancient and fish-like smell. A kind of, not of the newest, Poor John. A strange fish! Were I in England now (as once I was) and had but this fish painted, not a holiday-fool there but would give a piece of filver. There would this monster 5 make a man: any ftrange beaft there makes a man when they will not give a doit to relieve a

4

looks like a foul bumbard-] This term again occurs in The First Part of Henry IV." that fwoln parcel of dropfies, "that huge bumbard of fack"— and again in Henry VIII. "And here you lie baiting of bumbards, when ye fhould do "fervice." By thefe feveral paffages, 'tis plain, the word meant a large veffel for holding drink, as well as the piece of ordnance fo called. THEOBALD.

they

Ben Jonfon, in his Mafque of Augurs, confirms the conjecture of Theobald." The poor cattle yonder are paffing away the "time with a cheat loaf, and a bumbard of broken beer." So in Middleton's Inner Temple Masque, 1619,"would have beat out his brains with bombards." So again in The Martyr'd Soldier, by Shirley, 1638. His boots as wide as the black-jacks,

"Or bumbards tofs'd by the king's guards." And it appears from a paffage in Ben Jonfon's Mafque of Love Reftor'd, that a bombard-man was one who carried about provilions. "I am to deliver into the buttery fo many firkins of aurum potabile, as it delivers out bombards of bouge," &c. STEEVENS.

3 —make a man:] That is, make a man's fortune. So in Midfummer Night's Dream" we are all made men." JOHNSON. VOL. I.

D

lame

lame beggar, they will lay out ten to fee* a dead Indian. Legg'd like a man! and his fins like arms! Warm, o' my troth! I do now let loofe my opinion, hold it no longer; this is no fish, but an islander, that hath lately fuffer'd by a thunder-bolt. Alas! the

ftorm is come again: my beft way is to creep under 6 his gaberdine; there is no other shelter hereabout: mifery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows : I will here fhrowd, till the dregs of the storm be past.

Enter Stephano finging, a bottle in his hand.

Ste. I fhall no more to fea, to fea,

Here fhall I die a-fhore

This is a very fcurvy tune to fing at a man's funeral:

Well, here's my comfort.

[Drinks.

The mafter, the fwabber, the boatswain and I,
The gunner and his mate,

Lov'd Mall, Meg, and Marian and Margery,
But none of us car'd for Kate:

For fhe had a tongue with a tang,
Would cry to a failor, Go bang:

She lov'd not the favour of tar nor of pitch,
Yet a taylor might fcratch her where-e'er fhe did itch:
Then to fea, boys, and let her go bang.

This is a scurvy tune too: but here's my comfort.
[Drinks.

Cal. Do not torment me: oh! Ste. What's the matter? Have we devils here? Do you put tricks upon us with favages, and men of Inde? Ha! I have not 'fcap'd drowning, to be afraid now of your four legs; for it hath been faid, As

-a dead Indian.] And afterwards-Men of Inde.. Probably fome allufion to a particular occurrence, now obfcured by time. In Henry VIII. the porter asks the mob, if they think -fome frange Indian, &c. is come to court. STEEVENS. -bis gaberdine ;-] A gaberdine is properly the coarse frock or outward garment of a peafant. Ital. gaverdina.

6

STEEVENS.

proper

« AnteriorContinuar »