But I will eat, and drink, and sleep as soft In the sequel, however, we find the poor wretch paying the extreme penalty of misery and starvation. He introduces himself to the Clown, whom he formerly had insulted, and now calls "Sir;" another instance of propriety in the poet's characters, into whatever position they may be thrown "Good Monsieur Lavatch, give my Lord Lafeu this letter. I have, ere now, sir, been better known to you, when I have held familiarity with fresher clothes; but I am now, sir, muddied in fortune's mood, and smell somewhat strong of her strong displeasure. "Clown. Truly, fortune's displeasure is but sluttish if it smell so strongly as thou speak'st of. I will henceforth eat no fish of fortune's buttering. Prithee, allow the wind. "Par. Nay, you need not stop your nose, sir. I spake but by a metaphor. "Clown. Indeed, sir; if your metaphor stink, I will stop my nose; or against any man's metaphor. Prithee, get thee farther." Old Lafeu comes in, inquires after his drum, and crowns his contempt of the reptile by telling him, that "though both fool and knave, he shall eat.” Two conclusions, among others, we must come to in reading this delightful play; one-that nobility of birth, without nobleness of character, is naught; and the other—that virtue' and self-respect bring their own reward of peace and satisfaction within, with esteem and benevolence from all who are worthy to bestow them. XI. TEMPEST. IN the play of the "Tempest" Shakespeare has combined all the resources of his wonderful imagination; and in it has with consummate skill displayed the vast variety of his powers. In this latter quality—that of his variety-the play may be pronounced the most original, as well as the most complete of his productions. It is at once instinct with grace and beauty, grandeur and sublimity, mirth, cheerfulness, and broad humour. It is not more natural in its human passion than it is in its spiritual emotion and affection; and such is the power of the poet's "so potent art," that his ideal beings, however wild and fantastic, possess as complete an individuality and identity, with show of verisimilitude, (or, in plainer words, they are as natural,) as his most ordinary and everyday characters. Such, too, is his skill in exciting our sympathies with them all, that we take no more interest in the crowning of Miranda's happiness with her lover, than we do in the emancipation and unchartered liberty of the delicate Ariel; nay, so consociated have we the "gentle spiritings" of that sweet little angel with his master's missions,—they have been so long together, ruler and ministrant, that I know not whether their final separation does not ensue with a feel ing of regret on our part. Well may Prospero say, at leavetaking, “I shall miss thee, my delicate Ariel!" To be sure he would, and why should they have parted? Who would not rather have remained lord of that enchanted island, with its "sounds and sweet airs, that delight, and hurt not," than have returned common-place Duke of Milan? Ferdinand and Miranda might have instituted a very pretty patriarchal government; and what an heirloom to the estate would they have possessed in the faithful Ariel as their prime ministerin perpetuo! But it was necessary to dissolve that lovely vision, and resign its aerial creatures to their primitive elements. It has just been said that the "Tempest" is the most varied," as well as the most "original, of Shakespeare's productions." In it, and it alone, he has brought together, in their several stages of progression, human beings, and beings possessing human impulses, affections, and aspirations; from the earthly Caliban-part clod, part witch-born, an impersonation of the grosser and lower propensities of the human animal, up to the most attenuated form, that has no more substance than the fleeting air or the tinted rainbow. The subject of Shakespeare and his power of invention are never, or rarely, alluded to, without an instancing of his creative power in producing such contrasted perfections of character as Lear and Falstaff, Hamlet and Aguecheek, Othello and Malvolio,-and so we may go on with the enumeration, heaping wonderment on wonderment, till we are exhausted; for his mind intellectual plumb hath never yet sounded. In the play now under consideration, what exquisite discrimination and consistency are evinced in the two creations alone, of Ariel and Caliban ! Caliban, the essence of primitive grossness,-redeemed, however, as Hazlitt has excellently observed, from every particle of "vulgarity" in his composition; adding, with his own fine talent |