A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes With words that made them known. But thy vile race (Tho' thou didst learn) had that in't, which good natures Could not abide to be with; therefore waft thou Who hadt deferv'd more than a prifon Cal. You taught me language, and my profit on't Is, I know how to curfe: the red plague rid you, For learning me your language! Pro. Hag-feed, hence! Fetch us in fewel and be quick (thou wer't best) What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps; Cal. No, 'pray thee. I must obey; his art is of fuch pow'r, Pro. So, flave, hence! tions of its own mind, which, it would feem, a Brute hath not, Tho' this, I fay, may be applied to a brute, and confequently to Caliban, and tho' to remedy this brutality be a nobler benefit than even the teaching language; yet fuch a fenfe would be impertinent and abfurd in this place, where only the benefit of language [afide. [Exit Caliban. is talked of by an exact and learned Speaker. Befides Profpero exprefly says, that Caliban had purposes; which, in other words, is that he did know his own meaning. WARBURTON. 8 Red plague ] I suppose from the Redness of the Body univerfally inflamed, SCENE C 4 SCENE V. Enter Ferdinand, at the remotest part of the stage; and Ariel invifible, playing and finging. ARIEL's SONG. Come unto thofe yellow fands, Court'fied when you have, and kist, The wild waves whift; Foot it featly here and there, And, fweet Sprites, the burden bear. [Burden difperfedly. Hark, bark, baugh-waugh: the watch dogs bark, Ari. Hark, bark, I hear The ftrain of frutting chanticlere Cry, Cock a-doodle-do. Fer. Where fhould this mufick be, i'th' air, or earth? It founds no more: and fure, it waits upon ARIEL's SONG. Full fathom five thy father lies, Thoje are pearls, that were his eyes: But But doth fuffer a fea-change, Hark, now I bear them, ding-dong, bell. 9 Let us 9 Full fathom five thy father. lies, &c.] Gildon, who has pre tended to criticife our Author, would give this up as an infufferable and fenfelefs piece of trif. ling. And I believe this is the general opinion concerning it. But a very unjust one. confider the business Ariel is here upon, and his manner of executing it. The Commiffion Prof. pero had intrufted to him, in a whifper, was plainly this; to conduct Ferdinand to the fight of Miranda, and to difpofe him to the quick fentiments of love, while he, on the other hand, prepared his daughter for the fame impreffions. Ariel fets about his bufinefs by acquainting Ferdinand, in an extraordinary manner, with the afflictive news of his father's death. A very odd Apparatus, one would think, for a love-fit. And yet as odd as it appears, the Poet has fhewn in it the finest conduct for carrying on his plot. Profpero had faid, I find my Zenith doth depend upon If now I court not, but omit, In confequence of this his prefcience, he takes advantage of every favourable circumftance [Burden, ding-dong. Fer. The that the occafion offers. principal affair is the Marriage of his daughter with young Ferdinand. But to fecure this point it was neceffary they should be contracted before the affair came to Alonzo the Father's knowledge. For Profpero was ignorant how this ftorm and fhipwreck, caused by him, would work upon Alonzo's temper. It might either. foften him, or increafe his averfion for Profpero as the Author. On the other hand, to engage Ferdinand, without the confent of his Father, was difficult. For not to fpeak of his Quality, where fuch engagements are not made without the confent of the Sovereign, Ferdinand is reprefented (to fhew it a match worth the feeking) of a moft pious temper and difpofition, which would prevent his contracting himself without his Father's knowledge. The Poet therefore, with the utmost Address, has made Ariel perfuade him of his Father's death to remove this Remora. WARBURTON. I know not whether Dr. War. burton has very fuccefsfully defended thefe Songs from Gilden's accufation. Ariel's lays, however feasonable and efficacious, must be allowed to be of no fupernatural dignity or elegance, they exprefs nothing great, nor Fer. The ditty does remember my drown'd father. This is no mortal business, nor no found That the earth owns: I hear it now above me. Mira. What is't, a fpirit? Lord, how it looks about! believe me, Sir, Pro. No, wench, it eats, and fleeps, and hath fuch fenfes As we have, fuch. This gallant, which thou seeft, A goodly perfon. He hath loft his fellows, Mira. I might call him A thing divine; for nothing natural Pro. It goes on, I fee, [Afide, As my foul prompts it. Spirit, fine fpirit, I'll free thee Within two days for this. Fer. Moft fure, the Goddess On whom these airs attend !-Vouchsafe, my pray'r Mira. No wonder, Sir, reveal any thing above mortal discovery. The reafon for which Ariel is introduced thus trifling is, that he and his companions are evidently of the fairy kind, an or der of beings to which tradition has always afcribed a fort of diminutive agency, powerful but ludicrous, a humorous and frolick controlment of nature, well expreffed by the Songs of Ariel. But But certainly a maid. ' Fer. My language! heav'ns! I am the best of them that fpeak this fpeech, Pro. How? the best? What wert thou, if the King of Naples heard thee? Fer. A fingle thing, as I am now, that wonders To hear thee speak of Naples. He does hear me ; And, that he does, I weep: myself am Naples, Who, with mine eyes (ne'er fince at ebb) beheld The King my father wreckt. Mira. Alack, for mercy! Fer. Yes, faith, and all his lords: the Duke of Milan, And his brave Son, being twain. * Pro. The Duke of Milan. - 2 And his more braver daughter, could control thee, [Afide to Ariel. They have chang'd eyes :-delicate Ariel, Dr. Warburton has here found a beauty which I think the Author never intended. Ferdinand asks her not whether she was a created being, a question which, if he meant it he has ill expreffed, but whether she was unmarried; for after the dialogue which Profpero's interruption produces, he goes on pursuing his former question. 1-certainly a maid.] Nothing could be more prettily imagined to illuftrate the fingularity of her character, than this pleasant miftake. She had been bred up in the rough and plain dealing documents of moral philofophy, which teaches us the knowledge of ourselves: And was an utter ftranger to the flattery invented by vicious and defigning Men to corrupt the other Sex. So that it could not enter into her imagination, that complaifance and a defire of appearing amiable, qualities of humanity which fhe had been inftructed, in her moral leffons, to cultivate, could ever degenerate into fuch excefs, as that any one fhould be willing to have his fellow-creature believe that he thought her a Goddess thee, or an immortal. WARBURTON. thee. O, if a virgin, I'll make you queen of Naples. 2 This is a flight forgetfulnefs. Nobody was left in the wreck, yet we find no fuch character as the fon of the Duke of Milan. THEOBALD. control thee.] Confute unanswerably contradict 3 I'll |