THESE HESE two plays, The Tempest and The Midfummer-Night's Dream, are the nobleft efforts of that fublime and amazing imagination peculiar to Shakespeare, which foars above the bounds of nature without forfaking fenfe: or, more properly, carries nature along with him beyond her established limits.. Fletcher feems particularly to have admired these two plays, and hath wrote two in imitation of them, The Sea-Voyage and The Faithful Shepherdess. But when he presumes to break a lance with Shakespeare, and write in emulation of him, as he does in The Falfe One, which is the rival of Antony and Cleopatra, he is not fo fuccefsful. After him, Sir John Suckling and Milton catched the brighteft fire of their imagination from these two plays; which fhines fantaftically in deed in The Goblins, but much more nobly and ferenely in The Mask at Ludlow-Castle. WARBURton. It is obferved of The Tempest, that its plan is regu lar; 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, and preferved with profound skill in nature, extenfive knowledge of opinions, and accurate obfervation of life. In a fingle drama are here exhibited princes, courtiers, and failors, all speaking in their real characters. There is the agency of airy fpirits, and of an earthly goblin. The operations of magick, the tumults of a ftorm, the adventures of a defart island, the native effufion of untaught affection, the punishment of guilt, and the final happiness of the pair for whom our paffions and reafon are equally interested. JOHNSON. PERSONS REPRESENTED ALONSO, king of Naples.. SEBASTIAN, his brother. PROSPERO, the rightful duke of Milan. ANTHONLO, his brother, the ufurping duke of Milan. FERDINAND, fon to the king of Naples. GONZALO, an honest old counsellor of Naples. ADRIAN, Lords.. FRANCISCO, CALIBAN, a favage and deformed slave. STEPHANO, a drunken butler. Master of a ship, Boatswain, and Mariners.. TEMPEST. ACT I. SCENE I. On a Ship at Sea. A tempestuous Noife of Thunder_and Lightning beard. jwain. Enter a Shipmafter and a Boat Mafler. BOATSWAIN Boats. Here, mafter: what cheer? Maft. Good: fpeak to the mariners: fall to't yarely, or we run ourselves a-ground; bestir, bestir. Enter Mariners. (Exit. Boatf. Heigh, my hearts; cheerly, cheerly, my hearts; yare, yare: Take in the topfail; tend to th' mafter's whistle.-Blow till thou burst thy wind, if room enough! Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTHONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO, and others. Alon. Good boatswain, have care. mafter? Play the men. Boats. I pray now, keep below. Ant. Where is the mafter, boatswain ? Where's the Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour; keep your cabins: You do affift the ftorm. Gonz. Nay, good, be patient. Boats. When the fea is. Hence !-What care thefe roarers for the name of king? To cabin; filence: trouble us not. Gonz. Good; yet remember whom thou haft aboard. Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a counfellor; if you can command these elements to filence, and work the peace o' the present, we will not handle a rope more ufe your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have liv'd fo long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mifchance of the VOL. I. B |