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FER. MIRA.

We wish your peace.

(Exeunt.

PRO. Come with a thought: I thank you:

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ARI. Thy thoughts I cleave to :3 What's thy pleasure ?

PRO.

Spirit,

We must prepare to meet with Caliban. ^

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 didft thou leave these varlets?

ARI. I told you, fir, they were red-hot with drinking;

--

Fer. Mir. We wish your peace. Pro. Come with a thought: . I thank you :— Ariel, come.) The old copy reads " -I thank thee." But thefe thanks being in reply to the joint wifh of Ferdinand and Miranda, I have fubftituted you for thee, by the advice of Mr. Ritfon.

STEEVENS.

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

Again:

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Like our ftrange garments, cleave not to their mould. »

If you fhall cleave to my confent." STEEVENS.

to meet with Caliban.) To meet with is to counteract; to play ftratagem against ftratagem. -The parfon knows the temper of every one in his houfe, and accordingly either meets with their vices, or advances their virtues. HERBERT'S Country Parfon. JOHNSON. So, in Cynthia's Revenge, 1613:

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You may meet

"With her abufive malice, and exempt

Yourself from the fufpicion of revenge." STEEVENS.

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 noses,
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

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Advanc'd their eye-lids, &.) Thus Drayton, in his Nymphidia,

or Court of fairie :

But once the circle got within,

"The charms to work do ftraight begin,
"And he was caught as in a gin:
For as he thus was bufy,

"A pain he in his head-piece feels,
Against a stubbed tree he reels,

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Among the briers and brambles. JOHNSON.

- pricking gofs, ) I know not how Shakspeare diftinguished gofs from furze; for what he calls furze is called gofs or gorfe in the

midland counties.

This word is used in the first chorus to Kyd's Cornelia, 1594: "With worthlefs gorfe that, yearly, fruidefs dies.

STELVENS.

By the latter, Shakspeare means the low fort of gorfe that only grows upon wet ground, and which is well defcribed by the name of whins in Markham's Farewell to Huflandry. It has prickles like thofe on a rofe-tree or a goofeberry. Furze and whins occur together in Dr. Farmer's quotation from Holinfhed. TOLLET.

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I' the filthy mantled pool beyond your cell,

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

PRO. This was well done, my bird:

Thy fhape invifible retain thou ftill: in my

The trumpery

house, go, bring it hither,

For ftale to catch thefe thieves. 8

ARI.

I go, I go. (Exit. PRO. A devil, a born devil, on whofe nature 9 Nurture can never ftick; on whom my pains, Humanely taken, all, all loft, quite loft;2 And as, with age, his body uglier grows, So his mind cankers: 3 I will plague them all, Re-enter ARIEL loaden with glistering apparel, &c. Eyen to roaring: Come, hang them on this line.

7 I the filthy mantled pool - Perhaps we fhould read-filthymantled.A fimilar idea occurs in K. Lear:

"Drinks the green mantle of the ftanding pool." STEEVENS. 8 For ftale to catch thefe thieves.) Stale is a word in fowling, and is ufed to mean a bait or decoy to catch birds.

So, in A Looking glafs for London and England, 1617:

Hence tools of wrath, ftales of temptation!

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Again, in Green's Mamillia, 1595: “ that the might not strike at the ftale, left the were canvaffed in the nets.

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STEEVENS.

Nurture can never flick; } Nurture is education. STEEVENS. - all, all loft,) The firft of these words was probably introduced by the careleffnefs of the tranfcriber or compositor. mright fafely read-are all loft. MALONE.

3 And as, with age, his body uglier grows,

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So his mind cankers: Shakspeare, when he wrote this defcription, perhaps recollected what his patron's most intimate friend, the great lord Effex, in an hour of discontent, faid of queen Elizabeth ; that she grew old and canker'd, and that her mind was become as crooked as her carcafe: a fpeech, which, according to Sir Walter Raleigh, coft him his head, and which, may therefore fuppofe, was at that time much talked of. play being written in the time of king James, these obnoxious words might be fafely repeated. MALONE.

we

This

PROSPERO and ARIEL remain invifible. Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, all wet.

CAL. Pray you, tread foftly, that the blind mole may not

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Hear a foot fall: we now are near his cell.

STE. monfter, your fairy, which, you fay, is a harmless fairy, has done little better than play'd the Jack with us.

TRIN. Monfter, I do fmell all horfe-pifs; at which my nofe is in great indignation.

STE. So is mine. Do you hear, monfter? If I fhould take a difplcafure against you;

you,

TRIN. Thou wert but a loft monfter.

look

CAL. Good my lord, give me thy favour ftill:

Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to

Shall hood-wink this mifchance: therefore, speak foftly;

All's hufh'd as midnight yet.

TRIN. Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool. STE. There is not only difgrace and difhonour in that, monster, but an infinite lofs.

TRIN. That's more to me than my wetting: yet this is your harmless fairy, monfter.

the blind mole may not

Hear a foot fall: This quality of hearing which the mole is fuppofed to poffefs in fo high a degree, is mentioned in Euphues, 4to. 1581, p. 64, Doth not the lion for ftrength, the turtle for love, the ant for labour, excel man? Doth not the eagle fee clearer, the vulture fmell better, the moale heare lightlyer ?" REED.

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has done little better than play'd the jack with us. ) i. e. He has played Jack with a lantern; has led us about like an ignis faruus, by which travellers are decoyed into the mire,

JOHNSON,

STE. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er ears for my

labour.

CAL. Pr'ythee, my king, be quiet: Secft thou here,

This is the mouth o' the cell: no noife, and enter: Do that good mifchief, which may make this ifland Thine own for ever, and I, thy Caliban,

For aye thy foot-licker.

STE. Give me thy hand: I do begin to have bloody thoughts.

TRIN. O king Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano! look, what a wardrobe here is for thee! 6

CAL. Let it alone, thou fool; it is but trafh. TRIN. O, ho, monfter; we know what belongs to a frippery: 7 -O king Stephano!

STE. Put off that gown, Trinculo; by this hand, I'll have that gown.

TRIN. Thy grace fhall have it.

CAL. The dropfy drown this fool! what do you

mean,

6 Trin. O king Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano! look what a wardrobe here is for thee!) The humour of these lines confifts in their being an allufion to an old celebrated ballad, which begins thus King Stephen was a worthy peer-and celebrates that King's parimony with regard to his wardrobe. tanzas of this ballad in Othello. WARBURTON.

-There are two

The old ballad is printed at large in The Reliques of ancient Poetry, Vol. I. PERCY.

7 -we know what belongs to a frippery: ) A frippery was a hop where old clothes were fold. Fripperie, Fr.

Beaumont and Fletcher ufe the word in this fenfe, in Wit without Money, A&.II:

As if I were a running frippery.”

so, in Monfieur d'Olive, a comedy, by Chapman, 1606: "Paffing

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