FER. Where should this musick be? i' the air, It founds no more:-and fure, it waits upon Setebos is alfo mentioned in Hackluyt's Voyages, 1598. MALONE. 5 Re-enter Ariel invifible,] In the wardrobe of the Lord Admiral's men (i. e. company of comedians) 1598, was" a robe for to goo invifebell." See the Mf. from Dulwich college, quoted by Mr. Malone. STEEVENS. Court fied when you have, and kifs'd,] As was anciently done at the beginning of fome dances. So, in K. Henry VIII. that prince fays to Anna Bullen "I were unmannerly to take you out, "And not to kiss you.” The wild waves whift ;] i. e. the wild waves being filent. So, in Spenfer's Fairy Queen, B. VII. c. 7. f. 59: "So was the Titanefs put down, and whift." And Milton feems to have had our author in his eye. See of his Hymn on the Nativity: ftanza 5. "The winds with wonder whift, "Smoothly the waters kifs'd." So again, both Lord Surrey and Phaer, in their tranflations of the fecond book of Virgil: 66 66 -Conticuere omnes. They whifted all." and Lylly, in his Maid's Metamorphofis, 1600: "But every thing is quiet, whift, and ftill." STEEVENS. -the burden bear.] Old copy-bear the burden. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. Weeping again the king my father's wreck,' Weeping again the king my father's wreck,] Thus the old copy; but in the books of Shakspeare's age again is fometimes printed inftead of against [i. e. oppofite to], which I am perfuaded was our author's word. The placing Ferdinand in fuch a fituation that he could ftill gaze upon the wrecked veffel, is one of Shakspeare's touches of nature. Again is inadmiffible; for this would import that Ferdinand's tears had ceased for a time; whereas he himself tells us, afterwards, that from the hour of his father's wreck they had never ceased to flow: Myfelf am Naples, "Who with mine eyes, ne'er fince at ebb, beheld However, as our author fometimes forgot to compare the different By the word-again, I fuppofe the Prince means only to defcribe the repetition of his forrows. Befides, it appears from Miranda's defcription of the ftorm, that the fhip had been swallowed by the waves, and confequently could no longer be an object of fight. STEEVENS. • This mufick crept by me upon the waters;] So, in Milton's Mafque : —a foft and folemn breathing found 66 "Rofe like a team of rich diftill'd perfumes, "And stole upon the air." STEEVENS. 2 Full fathom five thy father lies, &c.] Ariel's lays, [which have been condemned by Gildon as trifling, and defended not very fuccefsfully by Dr. Warburton] however feasonable and efficacious, must be allowed to be of no fupernatural dignity or elegance; they exprefs nothing great, nor reveal any thing above mortal difcovery. But doth fuffer a fea-change+ Hark! now I hear them,-ding-dong, bell.s FER. The ditty does remember my drown'd This is no mortal business, nor no found The reafon for which Ariel is introduced thus trifling is, that he and his companions are evidently of the fairy kind, an order 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 fongs of Ariel. JOHNSON. The fongs in this play, Dr. Wilfon, who refet and published two of them, tells us, in his Court Ayres, or Ballads, published at Oxford, 1660, that " Full fathom five," and "Where the bee fucks," had been firft fet by Robert Johnfon, a compofer contemporary with Shakspeare. BURNEY. 3 Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth fuffer a fea-change-] The meaning is-Every thing about him, that is liable to alteration, is changed. STEEVENS. 4 But doth fuffer a fea-change-] So, in Milton's Mafque: "And underwent a quick immortal change." 5 Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell : STEEVENS. Burden, ding-dong.] So, in The Golden Garland of Princely Delight, &c. 13th edition, 1690: "Corydon's doleful knell to the tune of Ding, dong." "Yet will I ring her knell, The fame burthen to a fong occurs in The Merchant of Venice, A&t III. fc. ii. STEEVENS. That the earth owes :] To owe, in this place, as well as many others, fignifies to own. So, in Othello: that fweet fleep PRO. The fringed curtains' of thine eye ad vance, And fay, what thou feeft yond'. MIRA. What is't? a fpirit? Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, fir, It carries a brave form:-But 'tis a fpirit. PRO. No, wench; it eats and fleeps, and hath fuch fenfes As we have, fuch: This gallant, which thou feeft, A goodly perfon: he hath loft his fellows, MIRA. A thing divine; for nothing natural PRO. I might call him [Afide. It goes on, As my foul prompts it:-Spirit, fine fpirit, I'll free thee -thou doft here ufurp "The name thou ow's not.” To ufe the word in this fenfe, is not peculiar to Shakspeare. I meet with it in Beaumont and Fletcher's Beggar's Bufb: "If now the beard be fuch, what is the prince "That owes the beard?" STEEVENS. 7 The fringed curtains, &c.] The fame expreffion occurs in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609: her eyelids Begin to part their fringes of bright gold." Again, in Sidney's Arcadia Lib. I: "Sometimes my eyes would lay themselves open-or caft my lids, as curtains, over the image of beauty her prefence had painted in them." STEEVENS. 8 It goes on,] The old copy reads "It goes on, I see," &c. But as the words I fee, are useless, and an incumbrance to the metre, I have omitted them. STEEVENS. FER. Moft fure, the goddess On whom these airs attend!-Vouchfafe, my prayer May know, if you remain upon this ifland; And that you will fome good inftruction give, How I may bear me here: My prime request, Which I do laft pronounce, is, O you wonder! If you be made, or no? MIRA. But, certainly a maid." No wonder, fir; 9 Moft fure, &c.] It feems, that Shakspeare, in The Tempest, hath been fufpected of tranflating fome expreffions of Virgil; witnefs the O Dea certe. I prefume we are here directed to the paffage, where Ferdinand fays of Miranda, after hearing the fongs of Ariel: Moft fure, the goddess On whom thefe airs attend! And fo very small Latin is fufficient for this formidable translation, that, if it be thought any honour to our poet, I am loth to deprive him of it; but his honour is not built on fuch a fandy foundation. Let us turn to a real tranflator, and examine whether the idea might not be fully comprehended by an English reader, fuppofing it neceffarily borrowed from Virgil. Hexameters in our language are almoft forgotten; we will quote therefore this time from Stany hurft: "O to thee, fayre virgin, what terme may rightly be fitted? Thy tongue, thy vifage no mortal frayltie refembleth. 2 No doubt, a goddeffe!" Edit. 1583. FARMER. -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 Durfelves; and was an utter ftranger to the flattery invented by vicious and designing men to corrupt the other fex. So that it could not enter into her imagination, that complaifance, and a defire of appearing amiable, qualities of humanity which she 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, or an immortal. WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton has here found a beauty, which I think the author never intended. Ferdinand afks her not whether fhe was a created being, a queftion, which if he meant it, he has ill expressed, but whether he was unmarried; for after the dialogue which |