without reason or the moral sense, and in him, as in some brute animals, this advance to the intellectual faculties, without the moral sense, is marked by the appearance of vice; for it is in the primacy of the moral being only that man is truly human.'

In Paradise Lost the issue of the contest between the blessed and the fallen angels is foreseen from the beginning-the evil, we know, will be vanquished. Something of the same kind is felt in The Tempest. The magical skill and virtues of Prospero, we are sure, will frustrate the plots of Sebastian and Antonio, and the lower designs of Caliban and the sailors. The end is obvious; but then the poet had to portray character and construct dialogue -to bring forth his stores of magical knowledge, imagery, and illustration-to render virtue fascinating and vice hideous-and the result of the whole is to impress the reader more strongly, perhaps, than any other of his dramas with the great, the boundless imagination and intellectual resources of Shakespeare. He was, indeed, the magician, the true Prospero of the island.

"

It seems certain that Ben Jonson looked with envious leer malign' on this drama of The Tempest. In his Bartholomew Fair, acted in 1614, the following passage occurs: If there be never a servant-monster i̇' the Fair, who can help it, he says: nor a nest of Antiques. He is loth to make Nature afraid in his Plays like those that beget Tales, Tempests, and such-like Drolleries.' The italics are Jonson's own, given in his printed version of the play, as if designed to make the allusions more pointed and obvious. The words servant-monster, antiques, tales, tempests, and drolleries, undoubtedly apply to Shakespeare's Tempest and The Winter's Tale. Ben Jonson, as Drummond of Hawthornden said of him after their few days' intercourse, was a great lover and praiser of himself, al contemner and scorner of others, given rather to lose a friend than a jest, and jealous of every word and action of those about him, especially after drink. But Ben had also a better nature. When free from drink and stage-rivalry, he could do justice to his friend, and he consecrated to the memory of Shakespeare some of the best and noblest lines he ever wrote.

'It is observed of The Tempest, that its plan is regular; this the author of The Revisal thinks, what I think too, an accidental effect of the story, not intended or regarded by our author. But, whatever might be Shakespeare's intention in forming or adopting the plot, he has made it instrumental to the production of many characters, diversified with boundless invention, and preserved with profound skill in nature, extensive knowledge of opinions, and accurate observation of life. In a single drama are here exhibited princes, courtiers, and sailors, all speaking in their real characters. There is the agency of airy spirits, and of an earthly goblin. The operations of magic, the tumults of a storm, the adventures of a desert island, the native effusion of untaught affection, the punishment of guilt, and the final happiness of the pair for whom our passions and reason are equally interested.'JOHNSON.

曲

I

'The Tempest is a specimen of the purely romantic drama, in which the interest is not historical, or dependent upon fidelity of portraiture, or the natural connection of events; but is a birth of the imagination, and rests only on the coaptation and union of the elements granted to, or assumed by, the poet. It is a species of drama which owes no allegiance to time or space, and in which, therefore, errors of chronology and geography-no mortal sins in any species-áre venial faults, and count for nothing. It addresses itself entirely to the imaginative faculty; and although the illusion may be assisted by the effect on the senses of the complicated scenery and decorations of modern times, yet this sort of assistance is dangerous. For the principal and only genuine excitement ought to come from within-from the moved and sympathetic imagination; whereas, where is much addressed to the mere external senses of seeing and hearing, the spiritual vision is apt to languish, and the attraction from without will withdraw the mind from the proper and only legitimate interest which is intended to spring from within'-COLERIDGE. at 1 191,

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

ALONSO, king of Naples.
SEBASTIAN, his brother.

PROSPERO, the rightful Duke of Milan.

ANTONIO, his brother, the usurping Duke of Milan.

FERDINAND, son to the king of Naples.

GONZALO, an honest old counsellor of Naples.

SCENE THE SEA, WITH A SHIP; AFTERWARDS AN UNINHABITED

ISLAND.

SCENE I.-On board a Ship at Sea. A Storm, with Thunder and Lightning.

Enter a Shipmaster and a Boatswain.

MASTER. Boatswain—

Boats. Here, master: What cheer?

Mast. Good, speak to the mariners: fall to 't yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir.1

Enter Mariners.

[Exit.

Boats. Heigh, my hearts; cheerly, cheerly, my hearts; yare, yare: take in the topsail; tend to the master's whistle.-Blow till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!

Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO,

and others.

Alon. Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master? Play the men

Boats. I pray now, keep below.

Anti Where is the master, boatswain?

ין

Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour; keep your cabins: you do assist the storm. Gon. Nay, good, be patient/

Boats. When the sea is. Hence!

ין

What care these roarers for

the name of king? To cabin silence! trouble us not.

Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard.

Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap. Cheerly, good hearts.-Out of our way, I say. [Exit. Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good fate, to his hanging! make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage! If he be not born to be hanged our case is miserable.

1 f

T

Re-enter Boatswain.

[Exeunt.

Boats Down with the top-mast; yare; lower, lower; bring her to try with main-courses [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather, or our office.*

Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO.

Yet again? what do you here? Shall we give o'er, and drown? Have you a mind to sink ?

Seb. A plague' o'your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dogte