Do not infeft your mind with beating on (Which to you shall feem probable) of every These happen'd accidents: till when, be cheerful, And think of each thing well. Come hither, spirit; Set Caliban and his companions free: [To Ariel. [Afide. Re-enter Ariel, driving in Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo, in their stolen apparel. Ste. Every man fhift for all the reft, and let no man take care for himself; for all is but fortune:Coragio, bully-monster, Coragio! Trin. If these be true fpies which I wear in my head, here's a goodly fight. Cal. O Setebos, these be brave fpirits, indeed! How fine my mafter is! I am afraid He will chaftife me. Seb. Ha, ha; What things are thefe, my lord Anthonio! with beating on The frangeness, &c.] A fimilar expreffion occurs in one of the parts of Hen. VI. your thoughts "Beat on a crown.' An allufion is, I believe, meant to falconry. STEEVENS. (Which to you shall feem probable)] These words feem, at the first view, to have no ufe; fome lines are perhaps loft with which they were connected. Or we may explain them thus: I will refolve you, by yourself, which method, when you hear the ftory [of Anthonio's and Sebaftian's plot] ball feem probable, that is, fball deferve your approbation. JOHNSON. Surely Profpero's meaning is: "I will relate to you the "means by which I have been enabled to accomplish these ends, "which means, though they now appear ftrange and improbable, will then appear otherwife.' ANONYMOUS, Ant. Ant. Very like; one of them Is a plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable. Pro. Mark but the badges of thefe men, my lords, Then fay, if they be true. This mif-fhapen knave His mother was a witch; and one fo ftrong That could controul the moon, make flows and ebbs, Cal. I fhall be pinch'd to death. Alon. Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler? Alon. 6 And Trinculo is reeling ripe; where should they Find this grand liquor that hath gilded them? Trin. —true.-] That is, honeft. A true man is, in the language of that time, oppofed to a thief. The fenfe is, Mark what thefe men wear, and fay if they are honeft. JOHNSON. And Trinculo is reeling ripe; where should they Find this grand LIQUOR that hath gilded them ?] Shakefpeare, to be fure, wrote-grand 'LIXIR, alluding to the grand Elixir of the alchymifts, which they pretend would restore youth, and confer immortality. This, as they faid, being a preparation of gold they called Aurum potabile; which Shakespeare alluded to in the word gilded; as he does again in Anthony and Cleopatra : "How much art thou unlike Mark Anthony? "Yet coming from him, that great med'cine hath, But the joke here is to infinuate that, notwithstanding all the boafts of the chymifts, fack was the only reftorer of youth, and beftower of immortality. So Ben Joafon, in his Every Man out of bis Humour-"Canarie the very Elixar and spirit of "wine."-This feems to have been the cant name for fack, of which the English were, at that time, immoderately fond. A Randolf, in his Jealous Lovers, fpeaking of it, fays, pottle VOL. I. I Trin. I have been in fuch a pickle, fince I faw you laft, that I fear me, will never out of my bones: 1 fhall not fear fly-blowing. Seb. Why, how now, Stephano? Ste. O, touch me not: I am not Stephano, but a cramp. Pro. You'd be king of the isle, firrah? Ste. I fhould have been a fore one then. Cal. Ay, that I will; and I'll be wife hereafter, Pro. Go to, away! Alon. Hence, and bestow your luggage where you found it. Seb. Or ftole it rather. Pro. Sir, I invite your highnefs, and your train, To my poor cell: where you fhall take your reft For this one night, which (part of it) I'll wafte With fuch difcourfe, as, I not doubt, fhall make it Go quick away: the ftory of my life, And the particular accidents gone by, Since I came to this ifle: and in the morn "pottle of Elixar at the Pegafus bravely caroufed." So again in Fletcher's Monfieur Thomas, Act 3. "Old reverend fack, which, for ought that I can read "yet, "Was that philofopher's ftone the wife king Ptolemeus "Did all his wonders by.". The phrafe too of being gilded was a trite one on this occafion. Fletcher, in his Chances-Duke. Is he not drunk too? Whore. A little gilded o'er, Sir; old fack, old fack, boys! WARB. As the Elixir was a liquor, the old reading may ftand, and the allufion holds good without any alteration. STEEVENS. I'll bring you to your fhip; and fo to Naples; Of these our dear beloved folemniz'd; To hear the ftory of your life, which must Pro. I'll deliver all; And promise you calm feas, aufpicious gales, Your royal fleet far off.-My Ariel-chick- Afide. Be free; and fare thou well!-Please you, draw near. EPILOGUE. SPOKEN BY PROSPERO.. NOW my charms are all o'erthrown, Or fent to Naples. Let me not, Unless I be reliev'd by prayer; Which 7 With the help, &c.] By your applaufe, by clapping hands. And my ending is defpair, JOHNSON. Unless I be reliev'd by prayer ;] This alludes to the old ftories told of the defpair of necromancers in their laft moments, and of the efficacy of the prayers of their friends for them. WARBURTON. It is obferved of The Tempeft, that its plan is regular; this the author of The Revifal thinks, what I think too, an accidental effect of the ftory, not intended or regarded by our author. But whatever might be Shakespeare's intention in forming or adopting the plot, he has made it inftrumental to the production of many characters, diverfified with boundless invention, |