Ari. Yes ; Caliban her son. bears: it was a torment I thank thee, master. Pardon, master: Do so; and after two days That's my noble master! Pro. Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea ; a Mira. The strangeness of your story put Shake it off: Come on; "Tis a villain, sir, But, as 't is. a The second folio reads “ to a nymph of the sea. b Steevens omits thine aand. That profit us. What ho! slave! Caliban! Thou earth, thou! speak. Cal. [Within.] There's wood enough within. Pro. Come forth, I say; there's other business for thee: Come, thou tortoise! when ! a Re-enter ARIEL, like a water-nymph. [Exit. Pro. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself Upon thy wicked dam, come forth! Enter CALIBAN. Cal. As wicked dew as c'er my mother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholesome fen, Drop on you both! a south-west blow on ye, And blister you all o'er. Pro. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps, , Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins Shall, for that vast of night that they may work, All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch’d As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging Than bees that made them. Cal. I must eat my dinner. This island 's mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou tak’st from me. When thou camest first, Thou strok’dst me, and mad'st much of me; wouldst give me Water with berries in 't; and teach me how To name the bigger light, and how the less, That burn by day and night: and then I lov'd thee, And show'd thee all the qualities o’the isle, The fresh springs, brinc-pits, barren place, and fertile ; Cursed be I that did so! All the charms Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you ! a When 2-an expression of great impatience. b Vast of night. In · Hamlet' we have “ In the dead waste and middle of the night.” The quarto edition of " Hamlet,' 1603, reads dead vast, For I am all the subjects that you have, Thou most lying slave, Cal. O ho, O ho!'would it had been done! Abhorred slave; Cal. You taught me language; and my profit on 't Hag-seed, hence ! No, pray thee! [Aside. It would control my dam's god, Setebos, And make a vassal of him. Pro. So, slave; hence! [Exit Cal. a Re-enter Ariel invisible, playing and singing ; FERDINAND following him. ARIEL's Song. And then take hands : The wild waves whist, And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear. Hark, hark! Bowgh, wowgh. lisperselly. Ari. Hark, hark! I hear Cry, Cock-a-doodle-doo.b ARIEL sings. Of his bones are coral made ; Nothing of him that doth fade, a We follow the punctuation of the original. In all modern editions the passage stands thus: “ Courtsied when you have, and kiss'd, Foot it featly here and there.” Steevens explains the line in parenthesis as the wild waves being silent. But the original punctuation may allow us to interpret the passage thus: When you have courtesied to the wild waves, and kissed them into silence, “ Foot it featly here and there." b We print the burden, also, as in the original. The modern editors, contrary to this, give the first “ Hark, hark !" to Ariel; and there make his song terminate : whereas the three last lines give us again the voice of the delicate spirit. But doth suffer a sea-change [Burthen, ding-dong. Pro. The fringed curtains of thine eye advance, What is ’t? a spirit ? Pro. No, wench; it eats, and sleeps, and hath such senses I might call him It I [Aside. Most sure, the goddess be maid b or no ? a We have here an absurd corruption of the text by the modern editors. When Ariel sings Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell,” the burden comes in “ding-dong;” and then Ariel again sings “ Hark! now I hear them,-ding-dong, bell.” The modern editors transpose the lines, and make the burden a mere chorus to Ariel's song. b Maid. The fourth folio substituted maile, which has since kept its place in many editions, amidst endless controversy. We follow the reading of the original. |