Enter JUNO.

Jun. How does my bounteous fifter? Go with me, To bless this twain, that they may profperous be, And honour'd in their iffue.

SONG.

Jun. Honour, riches, marriage-bleffing,
Long continuance, and increafing,
Hourly joys be fill upon you!
Juno fings her bleffings on you.

Cer. Earth's increafe, and foifon plenty*;
Barns, and garners never empty;
Vines, with cluft'ring bunches growing;
Plants, with goodly burden bowing;
Spring come to you, at the fartheft,
In the very end of harveft!

Scarcity, and want, fhall fhun you;
Ceres' bleffing fo is on you.

Fer. This is a moft majeftick vifion, and
Harmonious charmingly 5: May I be bold
To think thefe fpirits?

Pro. Spirits, which by mine art

I have from their confines call'd to enact
My prefent fancies.

Fer. Let me live here ever;

So rare a wonder'd father, and a wife,

Make this place paradise.

Juno and Ceres whisper, and fend Iris on employment. Pro. Sweet now, filence:

Juno and Ceres whifper feriously;

There's fomething elfe to do: hufh, and be mute,

4 Earth's increafe, and foifon plenty ; &c.] Thefe, as well as the foregoing lines, are in the old copy given to Juno. Mr. Theobald made the alteration. And is not in that copy. It was added by the editor of the fecond folio. Earth's increase, is the produce of the earth. The expreffion is fcriptural: "Then fhall the earth bring forth her increafe, and God, even our God, shall give us his bleffing." PSALM 67. MALONE.

Foifon plenty is plenty to the utmost abundance. See p. 40. n. 6. STE. 5 Harmonious charmingly:] i. e. charmingly harmonious. A fimilar inverfion occurs in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"But miferable moft to live unlov'd." MALONE.

Or

Or elfe our spell is marr'd.

Iris. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the wand'ring brooks,

With your fedg'd crowns, and ever-harmless looks,
Leave your crifp channels, and on this green land
Answer your fummons; Juno does command:
Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate
A contract of true love; be not too late.

Enter certain Nymphs.

You fun-burn'd ficklemen, of Auguft weary,
Come hither from the furrow, and be merry;
Make holy-day: your rye-straw hats put on,
And these fresh nymphs encounter every one
In country footing.

Enter certain Reapers, properly babited: they join with the nymphs in a graceful dance; towards the end whereof Profpero ftarts fuddenly, and speaks; after which, to a frange, bollow, and confused noife, they heavily vanish. Pro. I had forgot that foul confpiracy

Of the beast Caliban, and his confederates,
Against my life; the minute of their plot

[Afide.

Is almoft come. [to the spirits.] Well done; avoid; no

more.

Fer. This is ftrange: your father's in fome paffion, That works him ftrongly.

Mira. Never till this day,

Saw I him toach'd with anger fo distemper'd.

Pro. You do look, my fon, in a mov'd fort, As if you were difmay'd: be chearful, fir: Our revels now are ended: these our actors,

6-wand'ring brooks,] The old copy reads windring. Corrected by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.

? Leave your crifp channels,] Crifp, i. e. curling, winding. Lat. crispus. So in Hen. IV. Part I. act 1. fc. iv. Hotspur, fpeaking of the river Severn:

"And hid his crifped head in the hollow bank." Crifp, however, may allude to the little wave or curl (as it is commonly called) that the gentleft wind occafions on the furface of waters.

STEEVENS.

As

As I foretold you, were all fpirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:

And, like the baseless fabrick of this vifion,
The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The folemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, fhall diffolve;
And, like this infubftantial pageant faded,

Leave

8 And, like the bafelefs fabrick of this vifion, &c.] The exact period at which this play was produced is unknown: It was not, however, published before 1623. In the year 1603, the Tragedy of Darius, by Lord Sterline, made its appearance, and there I find the following pallage:

Let greatnefs of her glaffy fcepters vaunt,

"Not fcepters, no, but reeds, foon bruis'd, foon broken; "And let this worldly pomp our wits enchant,

"All fades, and fcarcely leaves behind a token.

"Thofe golden palaces, thofe gorgeous halls,
"With furniture fuperfluously fair,

"Those stately courts, thofe fky-encount'ring walls,
"Evanish all like vapours in the air."

Lord Sterline's play muft have been written before the death of queem Elizabeth, (which happen'd on the 24th of March 1603) as it is dedicated to James VI. King of Scots.

Whoever thould feck for this paffage (as here quoted from the 4to, 1603) in the folio edition, 1637, will be difappointed, as Lord Sterline made confiderable changes in all his plays, after their first publication. STEEVENS.

9- all which it inherit,] i. e. all who poffefs, who dwell upon it. So, in the Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"This, or elfe nothing, will inberit her." MALONE. And, like this infubftantial pageant faded,] Faded means here-having vanished; from the Latin, vado. So, in Hamlet:

"It faded on the crowing of the cock."

To feel the justice of this comparison, and the propriety of the epithet, the nature of thefe exhibitions fhould be remembered. The ancient English pageants were fhows exhibited on the reception of a prince, or any other folemnity of a fimilar kind. They were prefented on occafional stages erected in the streets. Originally they appear to have been nothing more than dumb fhows; but before the time of our author, they had been enlivened by the introduction of fpeaking perfonages, who were characteristically habited. The fpeeches were fometimes in verfe; and as the proceffion moved forward, the speakers, who constantly bore fome allufion to the ceremony, either converfed together in the form of a dialogue, or addrefied the noble perfon whofe prefence occafioned the celebrity. On thefe allegorical fpectacles very coftly ornaments were be Rowed. See Fabian, II. 382. Warton's Hift. of Poet. II. 199. 202.

The

Leave not a rack behind 2: We are fuch ftuff
As dreams are made on ', and our little life
Is rounded with a fleep.-Sir, I am vex'd;
Bear with my weaknefs; my old brain is troubled.
Be not disturb'd with my infirmity:

If thou be pleas'd, retire into my cell,
And there repofe; a turn or two I'll walk,
To ftill my beating mind.

Fer.

The well-known lines before us may receive fume illuftration from Stowe's account of the pageants exhibited in the year 1604, (not very long before this play was written,) on King James, his Queen &c. paffing triumphantly from the Tower to Westminster; on which occafion feven Gates or Arches were erected in different places through which the proceffion pafled.-Over the first gate was reprefented the "true likeness of all the notable houfes, ToWERS and fteeples, within "the citie of London."-"The fixt arche or gate of triumph was << erected above the Conduit in Fleete-Streete, whereon the GLOBE of the world was feen to move, &c. At Temple-bar a feaventh arche orgate was erected, the forefront whereof was proportioned in every refpect like a TEMPLE, being dedicated to Janus, &c.-The citie "of Westminster, and dutchy of Lancafter, at the Strand had erected << the invention of a Rainbow, the moone, funne, and ftarres, advanced between two Pyramides, &c." ANNALS, p. 1429, edit. 1605. MALONE.

2 Leave not a rack behind :] Rack is generally ufed by our ancient writers for a body of clouds failing along; or rather for the course of the clouds when in motion. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"That which is now a horfe, even with a thought

"The rack diflimns."

But no inftance has yet been produced, where it is ufed to fignify a fingle fmall fleeting cloud, in which fenfe only it can be figuratively applied here. I incline, therefore, to Sir Thomas Hanmer's emendation, though I have not disturbed the text. MALONE.

Sir T. H. instead of rack, reads track, which may be fupported by the following paffage in the first scene of Timon of Athens: But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on,

Leaving no trakt behind." STEEVENS.

3-We are fuch fluff

As dreams are made on,] I would willingly perfuade myself, that this vulgarifm was introduced by the tranfcriber, and that Shakspeare wrote-made of. But I fear other inftances are to be found in these plays of this unjustifiable phrafeology, and therefore have not disturbed

the text.

The ftanza which immediatly precedes the lines quoted by Mr. Steevens from Lord Sterline's Darius, may ferve ftill further to confirm the

сол

Fer. Mira. We wish your peace.

[Exeunt.

Pro. Come with a thought I thank thee-Ariel,

come.

:

Enter ARIEL.

Ari. Thy thoughts I cleave to: What's thy pleasure? Pro. Spirit,

We must prepare to meet with Caliban 5.

Ari. Ay, my commander: when I prefented Ceres, I thought to have told thee of it; but I fear'd Left I might anger thee.

Pro. Say again, where didst thou leave thefe varlets? Ari. I told you, fir, they were red-hot with drinking; So full of valour, that they fmote the air

For breathing in their faces; beat the ground
For kiffing of their feet: yet always bending
Towards their project: Then I beat my tabor,
At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their ears,
Advanc'd their eye-lids, lifted up their nofes

As they fmelt mufick; fo I charm'd their ears,
That, calf-like, they my lowing follow'd, through
Tooth'd briers, fharp furzes, pricking gofs, and thorns,
Which enter'd their frail fhins: at laft I left them
I' the filthy mantled pool beyond your cell,

There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake
O'er ftunk their feet.

Pro.

conjecture that one of these poets imitated the other. Our author was, I believe, the imitator :

"And when the eclipfe comes of our glory's light,

"Then what avails the adoring of a name?

"A meer illufion made to mock the fight,

"Whofe beft was but the shadow of a dream." MALONE.

4 Thy thoughts I cleave to:] To cleave to is to unite with clofely. So, in Macbeth:

"Like our ftrange garments, cleave not to their mould." Again: "If you fall cleave to my confent." STEEVENS.

5to meet with Caliban.] To meet with is to counteract; to play ftratagem against ftratagem. JoHNSON.

6-pricking gofs,] I know not how Shakspeare diftinguished gefs from furze; for what he calls furze, is called gefs or gorfe in the midland counties. STEEVENS.

VOL. I.

G

By