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I have done nothing but in care of thee,

(Of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!) who
Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing
Of whence I am; nor that I am more better s
Than Profpero, mafter of a full poor cell,
And thy no greater father.

Mira. More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.
Pro. "Tis time,

I fhould inform thee further. Lend thy hand,
And pluck my magick garment from me.-So;
[Lays down his mantle.
Lye there my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes; have com-

fort.

The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd The very virtue of compaffion in thee,

3

Miranda, when the fpeaks the words, O, woe the day! fuppofes, not that the crew had efcaped, but that her father thought differently from her, and counted their deftruction no harm.

JOHNSON. --more better.- ] This ungrammatical expreffion is very frequent among our oldest writers. So in the Hiftory of Helvas Knight of the Swan. bl. L. no date: imprinted by William Copland. And alfo the more fooner to come, without prolixity, to the true Chronicles, &c." Again in the True Tragedies of Marius and Scilla. 1594.

"To wait a meffage of more better worth." Again, ibid

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That hale more greater than Caffandra now." STEEVENS. -full peor cell, i e. a cell in a great degree of poverty. So in Antony and Cleopatra, act I. fc. i.—I am full forry. STEEVENS.

1

"Did never meddle with my thoughts.] To meddle, in this inance, feems to fignity to mingle. Hence the substantive medley. To meddle for to mix is used at least twenty times in the ancient Book of Hawking, &c. commonly called the Book of St. Alban's, and yet more often by Chaucer. STEEVENS.

Lye there my art.] Sir W. Cecil, lord Burleigh, lord high treafurer, &c. in the reign of queen Elizabeth, when he put off his gown at night, ufed to fay, Lic there, lord treafurer. See Peck's Defiderata Curiofa. STEEVENS.

3

virtue of compaffion] Virtue; the most efficacious part, the energetic quality; in a like fenfe we fay, The virtue of plant is in the extract. JOHNSON.

I have with fuch provifion in mine art
So fafely order'd, that there is no foul-
No, not fo much perdition as an hair,

Betid to any creature in the vessel

Which thou heard'ft cry, which thou faw'ft fink, Sit down;

For thou must now know further.

Mira. You have often

Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd,
And left me to a bootlefs inquifition;
Concluding, Stay, not yet.—

Pro. The hour's now come;

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;
Obey, and be attentive. Canft thou remember
A time before we came unto this cell?

I do not think, thou canft; for then thou wast not 5 Out three years old.

Mira. Certainly, fir, I can.

Pro. By what? by any other house, or perfon?

that there is no foul-] Thus the old editions read, but this is apparently defective. Mr. Rowe, and after him Dr. Warburton, read that there is no foul loft, without any notice of the variation. Mr. Theobald fubftitutes no foil, and Mr. Pope follows him. To come fo near the right, and yet to miss it, is unlucky: the author probably wrote no foil, no ftain, no spot: for fo Ariel tells,

Not a hair perif'd;

On their fuftaining garments not a blemish,

But frelher than before.

And Gonzalo, The rarity of it is, that our garments being drench'd in the fea, keep notwithstanding their freshness and gloffes. Of this emendation I find that the author of notes on The Tempeft had a glimpfe, but could not keep it. JOHNSON.

➖➖no foul — ] Such interruptions are not uncommon to Shakespeare. He fometimes begins a fentence, and before he concludes it, entirely changes the conftruction, because another, more forciblė, occurs. As this change frequently happens in converfation, it may be fuffered to pafs uncenfured in the language of the stage. STEEVENS.

5 Out three years old.] i. e. Quite three years old, three years old full-out, complete. Mr. Pope, without occafion, reads,

FULL three years old.

STEEVENS.

Of

Of any thing the image tell me, that
Hath kept with thy remembrance,
Mira. "Tis far off;

And rather like a dream, than an affurance
That my remembrance warrants: Had I not
Four or five women once, that tended me?

Pro. Thou hadft, and more, Miranda: But how is it,

That this lives in thy mind? What feeft thou elfe
In the dark back-ward and abyfm of time?
If thou remember'ft aught, ere thou cam'ft here;
How thou cam'ft here, thou may'ft.

Mina. But that I do not.

Pro. Twelve years fince, Miranda, twelve years fince, Thy father was the duke of Milan, and

A prince of power.

Mira. Sir, are not you my father?

Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She faid-thou waft my daughter; and thy father Was duke of Milan; thou his only heir

And princefs, no worfe iffu'd,

Mira. O the heavens!

What foul play had we, that we came from thence? Or bleffed was't, we did?

:

Pro. Both, both, my girl:

Ey foul play, as thou fay'ft, were we heav'd thence ; But bleffedly holp hither.

6abyfm of time.]

This method of spelling the word, is common to other ancient writers. They took it from the French abyfme, now written abime.

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So in Heywood's Brazen Age, 1613.

"And chafe him from the deep abyfms below. STEEVENS.

7 Perhaps and thou his only heir. JOHNSON.

The old copy reads. and his only heir

and princefs

Perhaps we fhould read,-and his only heir

A princess: ――no worse iffued.

Iffued is defcended. So in Greene's Card of Fancy, 1608. For I am by birth a gentleman, and ifjued of fuch parents,"

&c. STEEVENS,

Mira. O, my heart bleeds.

To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance! Please you, further.
Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, called Anthonio,-
I pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should
Be fo perfidious!—he whom, next thyself,
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my ftate; as, at that time,
Through all the figniories it was the firft,
And Profpero the prime duke; being fo reputed
In dignity, and, for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel; thofe being all my study,
The government I caft upon my brother,

And to my state grew ftranger, being transported,
And wrapp'd in fecret ftudies. Thy falfe uncle i
Doft thou attend me?

Mira. Sir, moft heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant fuits, How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom To trafh for over-topping; new created

The creatures that were mine; I fay, or chang'd 'em, Or elfe new form'd 'em having both the key

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Of -teen.-] Is forrow, grief, trouble. So in Romeo and Juliet: to my teen be it fpoken." STEEVENS.

66

To trash for over-topping;] To trash, as Dr. Warburton obferves, is to cut away the fuperfluities. This word I have met with in books containing directions for gardeners, publifhed in the time of queen Elizabeth.

The prefent explanation may be countenanced by the following paffage in Warner's Albions England, 1602. b. x. ch. 57.

"Who fuffreth none by might, by wealth or blood to overtopp, "Himfelf gives all preferment, and whom lifteth him, doth lop." Again in our author's K. Richard II:

Go thou, and like an executioner,

Cut off the heads of too-faft-growing sprays.

That look too lofty in our commonwealth.

Mr. Warton's note, however, on "trah for his quick hunting," in the fecond act of Othello, leaves my interpretation of this paffage exceedingly difputable. STEEVENS.

both the key Key in this place feems to fignify the key of a mufical inftrument, by which he fet Hearts to tune. JOHNSON.

Of officer and office, fet all hearts i' the state

To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,
And fuck'd my verdure out on't.-Thou attend'ft not.
Mira: O good Sir, I do.

Pro. I pray thee, mark me.

I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To clofenefs, and the bettering of my mind
With that, which, but by being fo retir'd,
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my falfe brother
Awak'd an evil nature: and my trust,
Like a good parent, did beget of him
A falfhood, in its contrary as great

As my truft was; which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence fans bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded,
But what my power might elfe exact,

like one, Who

This doubtless is meant of a key for tuning the harpsichord, fpinnet, or virginal; we call it now a tuning hammer, as it is ufed as well to strike down the iron pins whereon the ftrings are wound, as to turn them. As a key it acts like that of a watch. Sir J. HAWKINS.

2 Like a good, &c.] Alluding to the obfervation, that a father above the common rate of men has commonly a fon below it. Heroum filii noxa. JOHNSON.

3

-like one,

Who having, INTO truth, by telling of it,

Made fuch a finner of his memory,

To credit his own lie,] The corrupted reading of the fecond line has rendered this beautiful fimilitude quite unintelligible. For what is [having into truth?] or what doth [it] refer to? not to [truth,] because if he told truth he could never credit a lie. And yet there is no other correlative to which [it] can belong.

I read and point it thus:

-like one

Who having, UNTO truth, by telling OFT,

Made fuch a finner of his memory,

To credit his own lie,

i.e. by often repeating the fame ftory, made his memory fuch a finner unto truth, as to give credit to his own lie. A miferable delufion, to which story-tellers are frequently fubject. The

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