If the ill spirit have fo fair an house, - 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 fhalt thou drink, thy food fhall be The fresh-brook mufcles, wither'd roots, and husks Wherein the acorn cradled: Follow. FER. I will refift fuch entertainment, till No; [He draws. MIRA. 4 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 ufage 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 paffage is obvious. STEEVENS. "Do not rafhly determine to treat him with feverity, he is mild and harmless, and not in the leaft terrible or dangerous. RITSON. A late novellift has the following remark on this paffage :"How have your commentators been puzzled by the following expreffion in The Tempeft-He's gentle, and not fearful; as if it was a paralogiím to say that being gentle, he must of course be courageous but the truth is, one of the original meanings, if not the fole meaning, of that word was, noble, high minded: and to this day a Scotch woman in the fituation of the young lady in The Tempest, would exprefs herself nearly in the fame terms. -Don't provoke him; for being gentle, that is, high spirited, he won't tamely bear an infult. Spenfer, in the very first stanza of his Fairy Queen, fays: "A gentle knight was pricking on the plain," which knight, far from being tame and fearful, was so ftout that Nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad." Smollett's Humphrey Clinker, Vol. II. p. 182. REED. PRO. What, I fay, My foot my tutor! 5-Put thy fword up, traitor; Who mak'it a fhew, but dar'il not strike, thy con fcience Is fo poffefs'd with guilt: come from thy ward;" For I can here difarin thee with this stick, And make thy weapon drop. MIRA. PRO. Hence; hang not on my garments. MIRA. I'll be his furety. PRO. Sir, have pity; Silence: one word more Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What! An advocate for an impoftor? hush! Thou think'st, there are no more fuch fhapes as he, Having feen but him and Caliban: Foolish wench! To the moft of men this is a Caliban, And they to him are angels. MIRA. My affections Are then most humble; I have no ambition PRO. Come on; obey: [To FERD. 5 My foot my tutor !] So, in The Mirrour for Magiftrates, 1587, p. 163 : "What honeft heart would not conceive disdayne, HENDERSON. Again, in K. Lear, Act IV. fc. ii. one of the quartos readsMy foot ufurps my head." 66 Thus alfo Pope, Effay on Man, I. 260: 6 "What, if the foot, ordain'd the duft to tread, "Or hand to toil, afpir'd to be the head?" STEEVENS. come from thy ward;] Defift from any hope of awing me by that posture of defence. JOHNSON. So, in K. Henry IV. P. I. Falstaff says :-" Thou know'st my old ward ;—here Ï lay, and thus I bore my point." STEEVENS. Thy nerves are in their infancy again,” FER. So they are: My fpirits, as in a dream, are all bound up,8 My father's lofs, the weakness which I feel, The wreck of all my friends, or this man's threats, To whom I am fubdued, are but light to me,9 Might I but through my prifon once a day Behold this maid: all corners elfe o' the earth Let liberty make ufe of; fpace enough Have I in fuch a prison.. PRO. Thou haft done well, fine Ariel!-Follow me. It works:-Come on. [To FERD. and MIR. Hark, what thou elfe fhalt do me. [TO ARIEL. 7 Thy nerves are in their infancy again,] Perhaps Milton had this paffage in his mind, when he wrote the following line in his Mafque at Ludlow Cafile: Thy nerves are all bound up in alabafter." STEEVENS. My fpirits, as in a dream, are all bound up.] Alluding to a common fenfation in dreams; when we ftruggle, but with a total impuiffance in our endeavours, to run, ftrike, &c. 9 WARBURTON, are but light to me,] This paffage, as it ftands at prefent, with all allowance for poetical licence, cannot be reconciled to grammar. I fufpect that our author wrote-" were but light to me," in the fenfe of-would be.-In the preceding line the old reads—nor this man's threats. The emendation was made by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. copy I Might I but through my prifon once a day Behold this maid:] This thought feems borrowed from The Knight's Tale of Chaucer; v. 1230: "For elles had I dwelt with Thefeus "Yfetered in his prison evermo. "Than had I ben in bliffe, and not in wo. "Only the fight of hire, whom that I ferve, "Though that I never hire grace may deserve, "Wold have fufficed right ynough for me." STEEVENS. MIRA. My father's of a better nature, fir, Be of comfort; Than he appears by speech; this is unwonted, PRO. Thou fhalt be as free As mountain winds: but then exactly do ARI. To the fyllable. PRO. Come, follow: fpeak not for him. [Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I. Another part of the Island Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and others. GON. 'Befeech you, fir, be merry: you have cause (So have we all) of joy; for our escape Is much beyond our lofs: Our hint of woe2 Is common; every day, fome failor's wife, The mafters of fome merchant,3 and the merchant, 2 Our hint of woe-] Hint is that which recalls to the memory. The cause that fills our minds with grief is common. Dr. Warburton reads-ftint of woe. JOHNSON. Hint feems to mean circumstance. "A danger from which they had escaped (fays Mr. M. Mafon) might properly be called a hint of woe." STEEVENS. 3 The mafters of fome merchant, &c.] Thus the old copy. If the paffage be not corrupt (as I fufpect it is) we must suppose that by mafters our author means the owners of a merchant's fhip, or the officers to whom the navigation of it had been trufted. Have juft our theme of woe: but for the miracle,+ Can speak like us: then wifely, good fir, weigh ALON. Pr'ythee, peace. SEB. He receives comfort like cold porridge. ANT. The vifitor 5 will not give him o'er fo. SEB. Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike, GON. Sir, SEB. One:Tell. GON. When every grief is entertain'd, that's of fer'd, Comes to the entertainer—. SEB. A dollar, GON. Dolour comes to him, indeed; you have spoken truer than you purposed. I fuppofe, however, that our author wrote→ "The miftrefs of some merchant," &c. Mistress was anciently fpelt-maistresse or maiftres. Hence, perhaps, arofe the prefent typographical error. See Merchant of Venice, A& IV. fc. i. STEEVENS, + Have juft our theme of woe: but for the miracle,] The words of woe, appear to me as an idle interpolation. Three lines before we have our hint of woe-," STEEVENS. The vifitor-] Why Dr. Warburton should change vifitor to 'vifer, for advifer, I cannot discover. Gonzalo gives not only advice but comfort, and is therefore properly called The Vifitor, like others who vifit the fick or diftreffed to give them confolation. In fome of the Proteftant churches there is a kind of officers termed confolators for the fick. JOHNSON. • Gon. Dolour comes to him, indeed;] The fame quibble occurs in The Tragedy of Hoffman, 1637: "And his reward be thirteen hundred dollars, "For he hath driven dolour from our heart." STEEVENS, |