A dozen years; within which space she died, A freckled whelp, hag-born) not honour'd with Ari. Yes; Caliban her fon. Pro. Dull thing, I fay fo; he, that Caliban, When I arriv'd, and heard thee, that made gape Ari. I thank thee, mafter. Pro. If thou more murmur'ft, I will rend an oak, And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till Thou haft howl'd away twelve winters. Ari. Pardon, master: I will be correfpondent to command, Pro. Do fo; and after two days I will discharge thee. Ari. That's my noble mafter! What fhall I do? fay what? what fhall I do? Pro. Go make thyfelf like to a nymph o' the fea : Be fubject to no fight but thine and mine; invifible To every eye-ball elfe. Go, take this shape, And hither come in it: go, hence, with diligence. [Exit Ariel. Awake, dear heart, awake! thou haft flept well; Awake! -a nymph o' the fea.] There does not appear to be fufficient caufe why Ariel fhould affume this new shape, as he was to be invifibie to all eyes but thofe of Profpero. STEEVENS. Mira. The ftrangeness of your ftory put Heaviness in me. Pro. Shake it off: Come on; We'll vifit Caliban, my flave, who never Mira. 'Tis a villain, fir, I do not love to look on. We cannot mifs him he does make our fire, That profit us. What ho! flave! Caliban! Thou earth, thou! speak. Cal. [Within.] There's wood enough within. thee: Come, thou tortoife! when? Enter Ariel like a water-nymph. Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel, [Exit, Ari. My lord, it fhall be done. Upon thy wicked dam, come forth! 9 The frangeness] Why fhould a wonderful ftory produce fleep? I believe experience will prove, that any violent agitation of the mind easily fubfides in ilumber, efpecially when, as in Profpero's relation, the laft images are pleafing. JOHNSON. The poet feems to have been apprehenfive that the audience, as well as Miranda, would fleep over this long but neceffary tale, and therefore strives to break it. First, by making Profpero diveft himself of his magic robe and wand; then by waking her attention no less than fix times by verbal interruption; then by varying the action when he rifes and bids her continue fitting: and lastly, by carrying on the business of the fable while Miranda fleeps, by which he is continued on the stage till the poet has occafion for her again. WARNER. Enter Enter Caliban. Cal. As wicked dew, as e'er my mother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholfome fen, Cal. As wicked dew, as e'er may mother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholfome fen, Drop on you both!] Shakespeare hath very artificially given the air of the antique to the language of Caliban, in order to heighten the grotesque of his character. As here he ufes wicked for unholfome. So fir John Maundevil, in his travels, p. 334. edit. Lond. 1725. —at alle tymes brennethe a vesselle of criftalle fulle of bawme for to zeven gode fmelle and odour to the emperour, and to voyden avvey alle WYKKEDE eyres and corrupciouns. It was a tradition, it feems, that lord Falkland, lord C. J. Vaughan, and Mr. Selden concurred in obferving, that Shakefpeare had not only found out a new character in his Caliban, but had alfo devised and adapted a new manner of language for that character. What they meant by it, without doubt, was, that Shakespeare gave his langage a certain grotefque air of the favage and antique; which it certainly has. But Dr. Bentley took this, of a new language, literally; for speaking of a phrafe in Milton, which he fuppofed altogether abfurd and unmeaning, he says, Satan had not the privilege as Caliban in Shakespeare, to use new phrafe and diction unknown to all others and again-to practife diftances is fill a Caliban ftile. Note on Milton's Paradife Loft, 1. iv. v. 945. But I know of no fuch Caliban ftile in Shakespeare, that hath new phrase and diction unknown to all others. WARBURTON. Whence these critics derived the notion of a new language appropriated to Caliban, I cannot find: they certainly mistook brutality of fentiment for uncouthness of words. Caliban had learned to speak of Profpero and his daughter, he had no names for the fun and moon before their arrival, and could not have invented a language of his own without more understanding than Shakespeare has thought it proper to bestow upon him. His diction is indeed fomewhat clouded by the gloominess of his temper, and the malignity of his purposes; but let any other being entertain the fame thoughts, and he will find them easily issue in the fame expreflions. JOHNSON. As wicked dew,-] Wicked; having baneful qualities. So Spenfer fays, wicked weed; fo, in oppofition, we fay herbs or medicines have virtues. Bacon mentions virtuous bezoar, and Dryden virtuous herbs. JOHNSON. So in the Booke of Haukyng, &c. bl. 1. no date. "If a wycked "fellon be fwollen in fuch maner that a man may hele it, the "hauke shall not dye," STEEVENS, Drop Drop on you both! a fouth-weft blow on ye, Pro. For this, be fure, to-night thou shalt have Side-stitches that fhall pen thy breath up; urchins 2 urchins,] i. e. hedgehogs. Urchins are enumerated by Reginald Scott among other terrifie beings. "to fold thyfelf up like an urchin." Chapman's May Day, 1611, "What are the urchins crept out of their dens Urchins are perhaps here put for fairies. Milton in his Mafque fpeaks of urchin blasts," and we ftill call any little dwarfish child, an urchin. The word occurs again in the next act. The chinus, or fea hedge-bog, is ftill called the urchin. STEEVENS. 3 for that vaft of night that they may work,] The vaft of night means the night which is naturally empty and deferted, without action; or when all things lying in fleep and filence, makes the world appear one great uninhabited afte. So in Hamlet; "In the dead swaffe and middle of the night." It has a meaning like that of nox vafta. Perhaps, however, it may be ufed in a fignification fomewhat different, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609. "Thou God of this great vaft, rebuke the surges.” Vaftum is likewife the ancient law term for waste uncultivated land; and, with this meaning, vaft is used by Chapman in his Shadow of Night, 1594. When unlightfome, vaft and indigeft "The formeless matter of this world did lye." It should be remembered, that, in the pneumatology of former ages, thefe particulars were fettled with the most minute exactness, and the different kinds of visionary beings had different allotments of time fuitable to the variety or confequence of their employments. During these spaces, they were at liberty to act, but were always obliged to leave off at a certain hour, that they might not interfere in that portion of night which belong'd to others. Among these we may suppose urchins to have had a part fubjected to their dominion. To this limitation of time Shakefpeare alludes again in K. Lear. He begins at curfew, and walks till the fecond cock. STEEVENS, As As thick as honey.combs, each pinch more ftinging Than bees that made 'em. Cal. I must eat my dinner. This ifland's mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou tak'st from me. When thou camest first, Thou ftroak'dft me, and mad'st much of me; would'st give me Water with berries in't; and teach me how The fresh fprings, brine-pits, barren place, and fertile; Who first was mine own king: and here you fty me Pro. Thou moft lying flave, Whom stripes may move, not kindness: I have us'd thee, Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodg'd thee Cal. Oh ho, oh ho!-wou'd it had been done! 4 Abhorred flave;] This fpeech, which the old copy gives to Miranda, is very judicioufly bestowed by Mr. Theobald on Profpero. JOHNSON. The modern editions take this fpeech from Miranda, and give it to Profpero; though there is nothing in it but what the may fpeak with the greatest propriety; efpecially as it accounts for her being enough in the way and power of Caliban, to enable him to make the attempt complained of. The poet himself shews he intended Miranda fhould be his tutorefs, when he makes Caliban fay, "I've feen thee in her, my miftrefs fhewed me thee "and thy dog, and thy bufh;" to Stephano, who had just affured the moniter he was the man in the moon. HoLT. |