Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

From Milan, did supplant good Prospero;
Expos'd unto the sea, which hath requit it,

Him, and his innocent child: for which foul deed
The Powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
Incens'd the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,
Against your peace; Thee, of thy son, Alonso,
They have bereft; and do pronounce by me,
Ling'ring perdition (worse than any death
Can be at once,) shall step by step attend

You, and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from
(Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls
Upon your heads,) is nothing, but heart's sorrow,
And a clear life ensuing."

He vanishes in thunder: then, to soft musick, enter the Shapes again, and dance with mops and mowes,3 and carry out the table.

Pro. [Aside.] Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring: Of my instruction hast thou nothing 'bated, In what thou hadst to say: so, with good life,9

6

clear life-] Pure, blameless, innocent. Johnson. So, in Timon: " -roots you clear heavens."

7 is nothing, but heart's sorrow,

Steevens.

And a clear life ensuing.] The meaning, which is somewhat obscured by the expression, is-a miserable fate, which nothing but contrition and amendment of life can avert. Malone.

8

66

with mops and mowes -] So, in K. Lear:

and Flibbertigibbet of mopping and mowing."

Steevens.

The old copy, by a manifest error of the press, reads-with mocks. So afterwards: "will be here with mop and mowe." Malone.

To mock and to mowe, seem to have had a meaning somewhat similar; i. e. to insult, by making mouths, or wry faces. Steevens.

9 with good life,] With good life may mean, with exact presentation of their several characters, with observation strange of their particular and distinct parts. So we say, he acted to the life. Johnson.

Thus in the 6th Canto of the Barons' Wars, by Drayton: "Done for the last with such exceeding life,

"As art therein with nature seem'd'at strife."

Again, in our author's King Henry VIII. Act I. sc. i: the tract of every thing

[ocr errors]

"Would by a good discourser lose some life,
"Which action's self was tongue to."

And observation strange, my meaner ministers
Their several kinds have done;1 my high charms work,
And these, mine enemies, are all knit up

In their distractions: they now are in my power;
And in these fits I leave them, whilst I visit

Young Ferdinand, (whom they suppose is drown'd,)
And his and my loved darling.

[Exit PRO. from above. Gon. I' the name of something holy, sir, why stand you In this strange stare?

Alon. O, it is monstrous! monstrous! Methought, the billows spoke, and told me of it; The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder, That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd The name of Prosper; it did bass my trespass.2

Good life, however, in Twelfth Night, seems to be used for innocent jollity, as we now say a bon vivant: "Would you (says the Clown) have a love song, or a song of good life?" Sir Toby answers, "A love song, a love song;"-" Ay, ay, (replies Sir Andrew,) I care not for good life." It is plain, from the character of the last speaker, that he was meant to mistake the sense in which good life is used by the Clown. It may, therefore, in the present instance, mean, honest alacrity, or cheerfulness.

Life seems to be used in the chorus to the fifth act of K. Henry V. with some meaning like that wanted to explain the approbation of Prospero:

"Which cannot in their huge and proper life

"Be here presented."

The same phrase occurs yet more appositely in Chapman's translation of Homer's Hymn to Apollo:

"And these are acted with such exquisite life,

"That one would say, Now the Ionian strains
"Are turn'd immortals." Steevens.

To do any thing with good life, is still a provincial expression in the west of England, and signifies, to do it with the full bent and energy of mind:-" And observation strange," is with such minute attention to the orders given, as to excite admiration. Henley.

1 Their several kinds have done:] i. e. have discharged the several functions, allotted to their different natures. Thus, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act V. sc. ii. the Clown says-" You must think this, look you, that the worm will do his kind." Steevens.

2

·bass my trespass.] The deep pipe told it me in a rough bass sound. Johnson.

So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. II. c. 12:

66

the rolling sea resounding soft,

"In his big base them fitly answered." Steevens.

Therefore my son i' the ooze is bedded; and
I'll seek him deeper, than e'er plummet sounded,
And with him there lie mudded.3

Seb.

I'll fight their legions o'er.

Ant.

[Exit.

But one fiend at a time,

I'll be thy second.

[Exeunt SEB. and ANT.

Gon. All three of them are desperate; their great guilt, Like poison given to work a great time after, Now 'gins to bite the spirits :-I do beseech you That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly, And hinder them from what this ecstacy5 May now provoke them to.

Adr.

Follow, I pray you.

Again, in Davis's Microcosmos, 1605, p. 32:
"The singing bullets made his soul rejoice
"As musicke, that the hearing most alures;
"And if the canons bas'd it with their voice,

[Exeunt.

"He seemed as ravisht with an heavenly noise." Reed.

3 And with him there lie mudded.

But one fiend -] As these hemistichs, taken together, exceed the proportion of a verse, I cannot help regarding the words with him, and but, as playhouse interpolations.

The Tempest was evidently one of the last works of Shakspeare; and it is therefore natural to suppose, the metre of it must have been exact and regular. Dr. Farmer concurs with me in this supposition. Steevens.

4 Like poison given, &c.] The natives of Africa have been supposed to be possessed of the secret, how to temper poisons with such art as not to operate till several years after they were administered. Their drugs were then as certain in their effect, as subtle in their preparation. So, in the celebrated libel called Leicester's Commonwealth: "I heard him once myselfe in publique act at Oxford, and that in presence of my lord of Leicester, maintain that poyson might be so tempered and given, as it should not appear presently, and yet should kill the party afterwards at what time should be appointed." Steevens.

5

this ecstacy-] Ecstacy meant not anciently, as at present, rapturous pleasure, but alienation of mind. So, in Hamlet, Act III. sc. iv:

"Nor sense to ecstacy was e'er so thrall'd-." Mr. Locke has not inelegantly styled it dreaming with our eyes open.

Steevens.

ACT IV.....SCENE I.

Before Prospero's Cell.

Enter PROSPERO, FERDINAND, and MIRANDA.

Pro. If I have too austerely punish'd you,
Your compensation makes amends; for I
Have given you here a thread of mine own life,
Or that for which I live; whom once again

I tender to thy hand: all thy vexations
Were but my trials of thy love, and thou

Hast strangely stood the test:7 here, afore Heaven,

6a thread of mine own life,] The old copy reads-third. The word thread was formerly so spelt, as appears from the following passage:

"Long maist thou live, and when the sisters shall decree "To cut in twaine the twisted third of life,

"Then let him die," &c.

See comedy of Mucedorus, 1619, signat. C 3. Hawkins. "A third of mine own life" is a fibre or a part of my own life. Prospero considers himself as the stock or parent-tree, and his daughter as a fibre or portion of himself, and for whose benefit he himself lives. In this sense, the word is used in Markham's English Husbandman, edit. 1635, p. 146: "Cut off all the maine rootes, within half a foot of the tree, only the small thriddes or twist rootes you shall not cut at all." Again, ibid: "Every branch and thrid of the root." This is evidently the same word as thread, which is likewise spelt thrid by Lord Bacon. Tollet. So, in Lingua, &c. 1607; and I could furnish many more in

stances:

"For as a subtle spider closely sitting

"In center of her web that spreadeth round,
"If the least fly but touch the smallest third,

"She feels it instantly."

The following quotation, however, should seem to place the meaning beyond all dispute. In Acolastus, a comedy, 1540, is this passage:

66 - one of worldly shame's children, of his countenance, and THREDE of his body." Steevens.

Again, in Tancred and Gismund, a tragedy, 1592, Tancred, speaking of his intention to kill his daughter, says:

[ocr errors]

"Against all law of kinde, to shred in twaine

"The golden threede that doth us both maintain." Malone.

- strangely stood the test:] Strangely is used by way of commendation, merveilleusement, to a wonder; the same is the sense in the foregoing scene. Johnson.

I ratify this my rich gift. O Ferdinand,
Do not smile at me, that I boast her off,

For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise,
And make it halt behind her.

Fer.

Against an oracle.

I do believe it,

Pro. Then, as my gift, and thine own acquisition Worthily purchas'd, take my daughter: But

If thou dost break her virgin knot,9 before
All sanctimonious ceremonies may
With full and holy rite be minister'd,
No sweet aspersion1 shall the heavens let fall
To make this contract grow; but barren hate,
Sour-ey'd disdain, and discord, shall bestrew
The union of your bed, with weeds so loathly,
That you shall hate it both: therefore, take heed,
As Hymen's lamps shall light you.
As I hope

Fer.

For quiet days, fair issue, and long life,

With such love as 'tis now; the murkiest den,

The most opportune place, the strong'st suggestion
Our worser Genius can, shall never melt

Mine honour into lust; to take away

The edge of that day's celebration,

When I shall think, or Phœbus' steeds are founder'd, Or night kept chain'd below.2

i. e. in the last scene of the preceding act:

66

with good life,

"And observation strange -" Steevens.

8 Then, as my gift, and thine own acquisition -] My guest, first folio. Rowe first read-gift. Johnson.

A similar thought occurs in Antony and Cleopatra:

9

[ocr errors]

I send him

"The greatness he has got." Steevens.

her virgin knot-] The same expression occurs in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609:

"Untide I still my virgin knot will keepe." Steevens.

1 No sweet aspersion] Aspersion is here used in its primitive sense of sprinkling. At present, it is expressive only of calumny and detraction. Steevens.

2 When I shall think, or Phœbus' steeds are founder'd,

Or night kept chain'd below.] A similar train of ideas occur in the 23d Book of Homer's Odyssey, thus translated by Chapman :

« VorigeDoorgaan »