FER. Admir'd Miranda! Indeed, the top of admiration; worth Of every creature's best. ' MIRA. I do not know One of my fex; no woman's face remember, Save, from my glass, mine own; nor have I seen More that I may call men, than you, good friend, And my dear father: how features are abroad, I am skill-less of; but, by my modesty, (The jewel in my dower,) I would not wish Any companion in the world but you; 7 Of every creature's best.) Alluding to the picture of Venus by Apelles. JOHNSON. 66 because Had Shakspeare availed himself of this elegant circumstance, he would scarcely have said, of every creature's best, such a phrafe includes the component parts of the brute creation. Had he been thinking on the judicious sele&ion made by the Grecian Artist, he would rather have expressed his meaning by ، every woman's," or every beauty's best." Perhaps he had only in his thoughts a fable related by Sir Philip Sidney in the third book of his Arcadia. The beasts obtained permiffion from Jupiter to make themselves a King; and accordingly created one of every creature's beft: 66 Full glad they were, and tooke the naked sprite, STEEVENS. Nor can imagination form a shape, Therein forget." FER. I am, in my condition, A prince, Miranda; I do think, a king, This wooden flavery, than I would fuffer 9 8 The flesh-fly blow my mouth. - Hear my foul The very instant that I saw you, did My heart fly to your service; there resides, To make me flave to it; and, for your fake, Am I this patient log-man. MIRA. Do you love me? FER. O heaven, O earth, bear witness to this found, And crown what I profess with kind event, What best is boded me, to mischief! I, 7 Therein forget.) The old copy, in contempt of metre, reads 8 " I therein do forget." STEEVENS. -Than to than I would suffer, &.) The old copy reads suffer. The emendation is Mr. Pope's. STEEVENS. 66 The reading of the old copy is right, however ungrammatical. So, in All's well that ends well: No more of this, Helena, go to, no more; left it be rather thought you affect a forrow, than to have. MALONE. The defe&ive metre shows that some corruption had happened in the present inftance. I receive no deviations from established grammar, on the single authority of the folio. STEEVENS. 9 The flesh-fly blow my mouth, ) Mr. Malone observes, that to blow, in this instance, fignifies to " fwell and inflame." But I believe he is mistaken. To blow, as it stands in the text, means the act of a fly by which she lodges eggs in flesh. So, in Chapman's version of the Iliad: -I much fear, lest with the blows of flies "His brass-inflicted wounds are fill'd, STEEVENS. 1 Beyond all limit of what else i' the world, 2 Of two most rare affections! Heavens rain grace On that which breeds between them! FER. Wherefore weep you? MIRA. Atmine unworthiness, that dare not offer What I defire to give; and much less take, What I shall die to want: But this is trifling; And all the more it seeks to hide itself, The bigger bulkitshews. Hence, bashful cunning ! And prompt me, plain and holy innocence ! I am your wife.' if you will marry me; 2 - of what else i' the world,) i. e. of aught else; of whatsoever elfe there is in the world. I once thought that we should read - aught else. But the old copy is right. So, in King Henry VI. P. III: With promise of his fifter, and what else, " To strengthen and fupport King Edward's place." 3 I am a fool, MALONE. To weep at what I am glad of.) This is one of those touches of nature that diftinguish Shakspeare from all other writers. It was necessary, in fupport of the character of Miranda, to make her appear unconscious that excess of forrow and excess of joy find alike their relief from tears; and as this is the first time that coufummate pleasure had made any near approaches to her heart, she calls fuch a seeming contradi&ory expression of it, folly. The fame thought occurs in Romeo and Juliet : 4 " Back, foolish tears, back, to your native spring! it feeks)i. e. my affection feeks. I am your wife, &.) MALONER Si tibi non cordi fuerant connubia nostra, Catul. 64. MALONE, If not, I'll die your maid: to be your fellow 6 Whether you will or no. FER. My mistress, dearest, And I thus humble ever, My husband then ? FER. Ay, with a heart as willing As bondage e'er of freedom: here's my hand. MIRA. And mine, with my heart in't:" And now farewell, Till half an hour hence. A thousand! thousand! (Exeunt FER. and MIR. PRO. So glad of this as they, I cannot be, Who are furpriz'd with all ; but my rejoicing 6 -your fellow-) i. e. companion. STEEVENS. 7 --here's my hand. (Exit. ) Miran. And mine, with my heart in't:) It is still customary in the west of England, when the conditions of a bargain are agreed upon, for the parties to ratify it by joining their hands, and at the fame time for the purchaser to give an earnest. To this practice the poet alludes. So, in The Winter's Tale: Ere I could make thee open thy white hand, And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter your's for ever." And again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona : " Pro. Why then we'll make exchange; here, take you this, "Jul. And feal the bargain with a holy kifs, Pro. Here is my hand for my true constancy." HENLEY, $ So glad of this as they, I cannot be, Who are furpriz'd with all ;) The sense might be clearer, were we to make a flight transposition: ، So glad of this as they, who are furpriz'd 66 With all, I cannot be Perhaps, however, more confonantly with ancient language, we should join two of the words together, and read " Who are surpriz'd withal., STEEVENS. 1 SCENE II. Another part of the island. Enter STEPHANO and TRINCULO: CALIBAN following with a bottle. STE. Tell not me; -when the butt is out, we will drink water; not a drop before: therefore bear up, and board'em: & Servant-monster, drink to me. TRIN. Servant-monster? the folly of this island! They say, there's but five upon this ifle: we are three of them; if the other two be brain'd like us, the state totters. 9 STE. Drink, servant-monster, when I bid thee; thy eyes are almost set in thy head. TRIN. Where should they be fet else? he were a brave monster indeed, if they were fet in his tail.2 STE. My-man-monster hath drown'd his tongue in fack: for my part, the sea cannot drown me: I fwam,3 ere I could recover the shore, five-and 8-bear up, and board'em: ) A metaphor alluding to a chace at fea. SIR J. HAWKINS. if the other two be brain'd like us, the ftate totters. ) We meet with a fimilar idea in Antony and Cleopatra: "He bears the third part of the world. " -،، The third part then is drunk.." SIEEVENS. 2 - he were a brave monfler indeed, if they were fet in his tail. ) I believe this to be an allusion to a story that is met with in Stowe, and other writers of the time. It seems in the year 1574, a whale was thrown ashore near Ramsgate: "A monstrous fish says the chronicler) but not so monstrous as fome reported for his eyes were in his head, and not in his back. Summary, 1575, p. 562. FARMER 3 I swam, &.) This play was not published till 1623. Albumazar made its appearance in 1614, and has a passage relative to |