1 FER. Most sure, the goddess On whom these airs attend! -Vouchsafe, my prayer If you be made, or no? MIRA. But, certainly a maid.2 No wonder, fir; 9 Most fure, &c.) It seems, that Shakspeare, in The Tempest, hath been suspected of translating some expreffions of Virgil; witness the O Dea certe. I prefume we are here directed to the passage, where Ferdinand says of Miranda, after hearing the songs of Ariel: Moft fure, the goddess And fo very small Latin is sufficient 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 translator, and examine whether the idea might not be fully comprehended by an English reader, suppofing it neceffarily borrowed from Virgil. Hexameters in our language are almost forgotten; we will quote therefore this time from Stanyhurst: "O to thee, fayre virgin, what terme may rightly be fitted? " Thy tongue, thy visage no mortal frayltie resembleth. -No doubt, a goddesse!" Edit. 1583. FARMER. 2-certainly a maid.) Nothing could be more prettily imagined, to illustrate the fingularity of her character, than this pleafant mistake. She had been bred up in the rough and plain-dealing documents of moral philosophy, which teaches us the knowledge of ourselves; and was an utter stranger to the flattery invented by vicious and designing men to corrupt the other sex. So that it could not enter into her imagination, that complaifance, and a defire of appearing amiable, qualities of humanity which she had been instructed, in her moral lessons, to cultivate, could ever degenerate into such excess, as that any one should be wishing 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 asks her not whether she was a created being, a question, which if he meant it, he has ill expressed, but whether she was unmarried; for after the dialogue which FER. My language! heavens! I am the best of them that speak this speech, Were I but where 'tis spoken. Profpero's interruption produces, he goes on pursuing his former queftion: " 0, if a virgin, " I'll make you queen of Naples." JOHNSON. A passage in Lylly's Galathea seems to countenance the present text: " The question among men is common, are you a maide ?" -yet I cannot but think, that Dr. Warburton reads very rightly: " If you be made, or no." When we meet with a harsh expreffion in Shakspeare, we are usually to look for a play upon words. Fletcher closely imitates The Tempest in his Sea Voyage: and he introduces Albert in the fame manner to the ladies of his Defert Island: ،، Be not offended, goddesses, that I fall Thus proftrate," &c. Shakespeare himself had certainly read, and had probably now in his mind, a paffage in the third book of The Fairy Queen, between Timias and Belphabe: " Angel or goddess! do I call thee right? " There-at the blushing, faid, ah! gentle squire, " Nor goddess I, nor angel, but the maid « And daughter of a woody nymph," &c. FARMER. Milton's imitation explains Shakspeare. Maid is certainly a created being, a Woman in oppofition to Goddess. Miranda immedi. ately destroys this first sense by a quibble. In the mean time, I have no objection to read made, i. e. created. The force of the sentiment is the fame. Comus is univerfally allowed to have taken some of its tints from The Tempest. T. Warton. The first copy reads if you be maid, or no. Made was not suggested by Dr. Warburton, being an emendation introduced by the editor of the fourth folio. It was, I am perfuaded, the author's word: There being no article prefixed adds strength to this supposition. Nothing is more common in his plays than a word being used in reply, in a sense different from that in which it was employed by the first speaker. Ferdinand had the moment before called Miranda a goddess; and the words immediately fubjoined, - Vouchsafe, my prayer"-show, that he looked up to her as a person of a fuperior order, and fought her prote&ion, and PRO. How! the best? What wert thou, if the king of Naples heard thee? FER. A fingle thing, as I am now, that wonders To hear thee speak of Naples: He does hear me; And, that he does, I weep: myself am Naples; Who with mine eyes, ne'er since at ebb, beheld The king my father wreck'd. MIRA. Alack, for mercy! FER. Yes, faith, and all his lords; the duke of And his brave son, being twain. 3 The duke of Milan, inftru&ion for his conduct, not her love. At this period, therefore he must have felt too much awe to have flattered himself with the hope of poffeffing a being that appeared to him celestial; though afterwards, emboldened by what Miranda says, he exclaims, « 0, if a virgin," &c. words that appear inconsisten with the supposition that he had already asked her whether she was one or not. She had indeed told him, she was; but in his astonishment at hearing her speak his own language, he may well be supposed to have forgotten what she said; which, if he had himself made the inquiry, would not be very reasonable to suppose. It appears from the alteration of this play by Dryden and Sir W. D'Avenant, that they confidered the present passage in this light: -Fair excellence, " If, as your form declares, you are divine, « Be pleas'd to instruct me, how you will be worship'd; So bright a beauty cannot fure belong "To human kind." In a subsequent scene we have again the fame inquiry : Alon. Fer. Is the the goddess that hath sever'd us, « And brought us thus together?" Our author might have remembered Lodge's description of Faw. nia, the Perdita of his Winter's Tale: " Yet he scarce knew her, for she had attired herself in rich apparel, which so increased her beauty, that the resembled rather an angel than a creature.» Doraftus and Fawnia, 1592. MALONE. 3 And his brave fon, being twain.) This is a flight forgetfulness. Nobody was lost in the wreck, yet we find no such chara&er as the fon of the duke of Milan. THEOBALD. And his more braver daughter, could control thee,. If now 'twere fit to do't:-At the first fight (Afide. They have chang'd eyes; - Delicate Ariel, MIRA. Why speaks my father so ungently? This Is the third man that e'ver I saw; the first That e'er I figh'd for; pity move my father To be inclin'd my way! FER. O, if a virgin, And your affection not gone forth, I'll make you The queen of Naples.. PRO. Soft, fir; one word more. They are both in either's powers: but this swift business I must uneafy make, lest too light winning (Afide. Make the prize light. - One word more; I charge thee, That thou attend me: thou doft here ufurp The name thou ow'st not: and haft put thyself Upon this ifland, as a spy, to win it From me, the lord on't. FER. No, as I am a man. MIRA. There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple: If the ill fpirit have fo fair an house, 4-control thee,) Confute thee, unanswerably contradi& thee, JOHNSON. fear you 5 have done yourself some wrong:) i. e. I fear that, in afferting yourself to be king of Naples, you have uttered a falfhood, which is below your character, and confequently injurious to your honour. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor ->> This is not well, mafter Ford, this wrongs you." STEEVENS. PRO. Follow me. (To FERD. Speak not you for him; he's a traitor. - Come. I'll manacle thy neck and feet together: Sea-water shalt thou drink, thy food shall be The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots, and husks Wherein the acorn cradled: Follow. FER. I will refift fuch entertainment, till Mine enemy has more power. MIRA. No; (He draws. O dear father, Make not too rash a trial of him, for He's gentle, and not fearful. ' PRO. What, I say, My foot my tutor!" - Put thy sword up, traitor; Who mak'st a shew, but dar'st not strike, thy confcience Is so possess'd with guilt: come from thy ward; s 6 He's gentle, and not fearful.) Fearful fignifies both terrible and timorous. In this place it may mean timorous. She tells her father, that as he is gentle, rough usage is unneceffary; and as he is brave, it may be dangerous. Fearful, however, may fignify formidable, as in K. Henry, IV: " A mighty and a fearful head they are." and then the meaning of the passage is obvious. STEEVENS. Do not rafhly determine to treat him with severity, he is mild and harmless, and not in the least terrible or dangerous." RITSON. 7 My foot my tutor!) So, in The Mirrour for Magistrates, 1587. p. 163: ،، What honest heart would not conceive disdayne, " To fee the foote furmount above the head." HENDERSON. Again, in K. Lear, A& IV.fc. ii. one of the quartos reads 8 " My foot ufurps my head." STEEVENS. -come from thy ward;) Defift from any hope of awing me by that posture of defence. JOHNSON. VOL. IV. E |