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TEMPEST.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

"THE Tempest and the Midsummer Night's Dream (says Warburton) are the noblest efforts of that sublime and amazing imagination, peculiar to Shakspeare, which soars above the bounds of nature, without forsaking sense, or, more properly, carries nature along with him beyond her established finits."

No one has hitherto discovered the novel on which this play is founded; yet Collins the poet told Thomas Warto that the plot was taken from the romance of Aurelio and Isabella,' which was frequently printed during the sixteenth century, sometimes in three or four languages in the same volume. In the calamitous mental indisposition which visited poor Collins his memory failed him; and he most probably substituted the name of one novel for another; the fable of Aurelio and Isabella has no relation to the Tempest. Mr. Malone thought that no such tale or romance ever existed; yet a friend of the late Mr. James Boswell told him that he had some years ago actually perused an Italian novel which answered Collins' description; but his memory, unfortunately, did not enable him to recover it.

complied, and fortunately the ship was driven and jummed between two rocks, fast lodged and locked for further budging." One hundred and fifty persons got on shore; and by means of their boat and skiff (for this was half a mile from land) they saved such part of their goods and provisions as the water had not spoiled, all the tackling and much of the iron of their ship, which was of great service to thein in fitting out another vessel to carry them to Virginia.

finde there the ayre so temperate and the country so aboundantly fruitfull of all fit necessaries for the susten

manner of all our provision of bread, beere, and victuall being quite spoiled in lying long drowned in salt water, notwithstanding we were there for the space of nine months, we were not only well refreshed, comforted, and with good satiety contented, but out of the aboundance thereof provided us some reasonable quantity and proportion of provision to carry us for Virginia, and to maintain ourselves and that company we found there :wherefore my opinion sincerely of this island is, that whereas it hath beene, and is still, accounted the most dangerous, unfortunate, and forlorne place of the world, it is in truth the richest, healthfullest, and [most] pleas ing land (the quantity and bignesse thereof considered,) and merely naturall, as ever man set foote upon."

"But our delivery," says Jourdan, "was not more strange in falling so opportunely and happily upon the land, as [than] our feeding and provision was, beyond our hopes, and all men's expectations, inost admirable; for the Islands of the Bermudas, as every man knoweth that hath heard or read of them, were never inhabited by any Christian or Heathen people, but ever esteemed and reputed a most prodigious and inchanted place, affording nothing but gusts, storms, and foul weather; which made every navigator and mariner to avoid them as Scylla and Charybdis, or as they would shunne the Divell himself: and no man was ever heard to make for My friend, Mr. Douce, in his valuable 'Illustrations this place; but as, against their wils, they have, by of Shakspeare,' published in 1907, had suggested that storms and dangerounesse of the rocks lying seven the outline of a considerable part of this play was bor-leagues into the sea, suffered shipwracke. Yet did we rowed from the account of Sir George Somers' voyage and shipwreck on the Bermudas in 1609; and had ponit ed out some passages which confirmed his suggestion.tation and preservation of man's life, that, most in a At the same time it appears that Mr. Malone was enga ged in investigating the relations of this voyage: and he subsequently printed the results of his researches in a pamphlet, which he distributed among his friends; wherein he shows, that not only the title but many passages in the play were suggested to Shakspeare by the account of the tremendous Tempest which, in July, 1609, dispersed the fleet carrying supplies from England to the infant colouy of Virginia, and wrecked the vessel in which Sir George Somers and the other principal commanders had sailed, on one of the Bermuda Islands. Sir George Somers, Sir Thomas Gates, and Captain Newport, with nine ships and five hundred people, sailed from England in May, 1609, on board the Sea Venture, which was called the Admiral's Ship; and on the 25th of July she was parted from the rest by a terrible tompest, which lasted forty-eight hours and scattered the whole flect, wherein some of them lost their masts and others were much distressed. Seven of the vessels, however, reached Virginia; and, after landing about three hundred and fifty persons, again set sail for England. Two of them were wrecked, in their way home, on the point of Ushant; the others returned safely to England, ship after ship, in 1610, bringing the news of the supposed loss of the Admiral's ship and her crew. During a great part of the year 1610 the fate of Somers and Gates was not known in England; but the latter, having been sent home by Lord Delaware, arrived in August or September. The Council of Virginia publiched a narrative of the disasters which had befallen the fleet, and of their miraculous escape. Previously however to its appearance, one Jourdan, who probably returned from Virginia in the same ship with Sir Thomas Gates, published a pamphlet entitled "A Discovery of the Bermudas, otherwise called The Isle of Divels; by Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and Captain Newport, with divers others :" in which he relates the circumstances of the storm. They were bound for Virginia, and at that time in 30 N. latitude. The whole frew, amounting to one hundred and fifty persons, wearyville, formed on the fourth novel of the fourth day of the with pumping, had given all for lost, and began to drink their strong waters, and to take leave of each other, intending to commit themselves to the mercy of the sea. Sir George Somers, who had sat three days and nights on the poop, with no food and little rest, at length descried land, and encouraged thein (many from carincos * Tragical Tales, translated by Turberville in time of having fallen asleep) to continue at the pumps. They his troubles, out of sundric Italians, &c. 9vo. 1587.

The publication set forth by the Council of Virginia, entitled, "A true Declaration of the Estate of the Colony of Virginia, &c. 1610," relates the same facts and events in better language, and Shakspeare probably derived his first thought of working these adventures up into a dramatic form from an allusion to the drama in this piece.

These islands of the Bermudas," says this narrative, "have ever been accounted as an inchaunted pile of rocks, and a desert inhabitation for divells; but all the fairies of the rocks were but flocks of birdes, and all the Civels that haunted the woods were but herds of swine." -What is there in all this Tragicall Comadie that should discourage us?

The covert allusions to several circumstances in the various narrations of this Voyage have been illustrated with great ingenuity by Mr. Malone; and many of them will no doubt have already struck the reader, but we must content ourselves with a reference to his more detailed account.

The plot of this play is very simple, independent of the magic; and Mr. Malone has pointed out two sources from whence he thinks Shakspeare derived suggestions for it. The one is a play by Robert Green, entitled The Comical History of Alphonsus King of Arragon ;” the other is the Sixth Metrical Tale of George Turber

Decamerone of Boccaccio, to which he is probably indebited for the hint of the marriage of Claribel. The magic of the piece is unquestionably the creation of the great bard himself, suggested no doubt by the popular

34

his eyes.

notions respecting the Bermudas. Mr. Malone confesses |
that the hints furnished by Green are so slight as not to
detract from the merit of Shakspeare, and I have there-
fore not thought it necessary to follow him in his ana-
lysis. The late Dr. Vincent, the highly respected Dean
of Westminster, pointed out a passage in Magellan's
Voyage to the South Pole, which is to be found in
"Eden's History of Travaile," printed in 1577, that
may have furnished the first idea of Caliban, and as it
is curious in itself, I shall venture to transcribe it. "De-
partyng from hence," says Eden, they sayled to the
49 degre and a halfe under the pole antartike; where
being wyntered, they were inforced to remayne there
for the space of two monethes, all which tyme they saw
no man: except that one day by chance they espyed a
man of the stature of a gyant, who came to the haven
duuncing and singing, and shortly after seemed to
cast dust over his head. The captayne sent one of his
men to the shore with the shippe boate, who made the
lyke signe of peace. The which thyng the giant seeing,
was out of feare, and came with the captayne's servant,
to his presence, into a little islande. When he sawe the
captayne with certayne of his company about him, he
was greatly amazed; and made signes, holding up his
hande to heaven, signifying thereby that our men came
from thence. This giant was so byg that the head of
one of our men of a meane stature came but to his
waste. He was of good corporation and well made in
all partes of his bodie, with a large visage painted with
divers colours, but for the most parte yelow. Uppon his
cheekes were paynted two hartes, and red circles about
The heare of his head was coloured whyte,
and bis apparell was the skynne of a beast sowed to
"Caliban has become a bye-word, as the strange
gether. This beast (as seemed unto us) had a large
head, and great eares lyke unto a mule, with the body
of a cammell and tayle of a horse. The feet of the creation of a poetical imagination. A mixture of the
gnome and the savage, half demon, half brute; in his
gyant were folded in the sayde skynne, after the manner
of shooes. He had in his hande a bygge and shorte behaviour we perceive at once the traces of his native
bowe; the sleyng whereof was made of a sinewe of that disposition, and the influence of Prosprero's education.
beaste. He had also a bundle of long arrowes made of The latter could only unfold his understanding, without,
reedes, feathered after the manner of ours, typte with in the slightest degree, taming his rooted malignity: it
sharp stones, in the stead of iron heades. The captayne is as if the use of reason and human speech should be
caused him to eate and drinke, and gave him many communicated to a stupid ape. Caliban is malicious,
is essentially different from the vulgar knaves of a civi-
thinges, and among other a great looking glasse, in the cowardly, false, and base in his inclinations; and yet he
which as soon as he sawe his owne likeness, was so-
daynly afrayde, and started backe with suche violence, lized world, as they are occasionally portrayed by
that he overthrewe two that stood nearest about him. Shakspeare. He is rude, but not vulgar; he never falls
When the captayne had thus gyven him certayne haukes into the prosaical and low familiarity of his drunken as-
belles, with also a lookyng glasse, a combe, and a sociates, for he is a poetical being in his way; he always
payre of beades of glasse, he sent him to lande with speaks too in verse.* He has picked up every thing
foure of his owne men well armed. Shortly after, they dissonant and thorny in language, out of which he has
nature, the hateful, repulsive, and pettily deformed have
sawe another gyant of somewhat greater stature with composed his vocabulary, and of the whole variety of
his bowe and arrowes in his hande. As he drew nearer
unto our men hee laide his hande on his head, and alone been impressed on his imagination. The magical
pointed up towards heaven, and our men did the lyke. world of spirits, which the staff of Prospero has assem-
The captayne sent his shippe boate to bring him to a little bled on the island, casts merely a faint reflection into
This giant was very his mind, as a ray of light which falls into a dark cave,
islande, beyng in the haven.
tractable and pleasant. He soong and daunsed, and incapable of communicating to it either heat or illumina-
in his daunsing left the print of his feete on the ground. tion, merely serves to put in motion the poisonous va-
After other xv. dayes were past, there came foure pours. The whole delineation of this monster is incon-
other giauntes without any weapons, but had hid theirceivably consistent and profound, and notwithstanding
bowes and arrowes in certaine bushes. The captayne
retayned two of these, which were youngest and best
made. He tooke them by a deceite, in this manner;
that giving them knyves, sheares, looking-glasses,
belles, beades of chrystall, and such other trifles, he so
fylled their handes, that they could holde no more; then
caused two paire of shackels of iron to be putt on their
legges, making signes that he would also give them
those chaynes, which they liked very well because they
were made of bright and shining metall. And whereas
they could not carry them bycause theyr hands were full,
the other giants would have carryed them, but the
captayne would not suffer them. When they felt the
shackels fast about theyr legges, they began to doubt;
but the captayne did put them in comfort and bade them
stand stille. In fine, when they sawe how they were
deceived, they roared lyke bulles, and cryed upon theyr
They say that
great devill Setebos, to help them.
when any of them dye, there appeare x or xi devils
leaping and daunsing about the bodie of the dead, and
seeme to have theyr bodies paynted with divers colours,
and that among other there is one scene bigger than the
residue, who maketh great mirth with rejoysing. This
great devyll they call Sttebos, and call the lesse Che-
leule. One of these giantes which they tooke, declared
by signes that he had seen devylles with two hornes
above theyr heades, with long heare downe to theyr
feete, and that they caste forth fyre at theyr throates
both before and behind. The captayne named these
people Patagoni. The moste parte of them weare the
skynnes of such beastes whereof I have spoken before.
They lyve of raw eshe, and a certaine sweele roote
winch they call capar.”

merely the netathesis of Cannibal. Of the Cannibals
a long account is given by Eden, ubi supra.

"The Tempest," says the judicious Schlegel, "has
little action and progressive movement; the union of
Ferdinand and Miranda is fixed at their first meeting,
and Prospero merely throws apparent obstacles in their
way; the shipwrecked band go leisurely about the
island; the attempts of Sebastian and Antonio on the
life of the King of Naples, and of Caliban and his
drunken companions against Prospero, are nothing but
a feint, as we foresee that they will be completely frus
trated by the magical skill of the latter; nothing remains
therefore but the punishment of the guilty, by dreadful
sights which harrow up their consciences, the discovery,
and final reconciliation. Yet this want is so admirably
concealed by the most varied display of the fascinations
of poetry and the exhilaration of mirth; the details of
the execution are so very attractive that it requires no
small degree of attention to perceive that the denouement
is, in some measure, already contained in the exposition
The history of the love of Ferdinand and Miranda, de-
an affecting union of chivalrous magnanimity on the
veloped in a few short scenes, is enchantingly beautiful:
one part, and, on the other, of the virgin openness of a
heart which, brought up far from the world on an unin-
habited island, has never learned to disguise its innocent
movements. The wisdom of the princely hermit Pros-
pero has a magical and mysterious air; the impression
of the black falsehood of the two usurpers is mitigated
by the honest gossiping of the old and faithful Gonzalo ;
Trinculo and Stephano, two good-for-nothing drunk-
ards, find a worthy associate in Caliban; and Ariel
hovers sweetly over the whole as the personified genius
of the wonderful fable.

Caulon, as was long since observed by Dr. Farmer, 1

its hatefulness, by no means hurtful to our feelings, as the honour of human nature is left untouched.

"In the zephyr-like Ariel the image of air is not to be other hand, Caliban signifies the heavy element of mistaken, his name even bears an allusion to it; on the earth. Yet they are neither of them allegorical personi fications, but beings individually determined. În general we find, in the Midsummer Night's Dream, in the Tempest, in the magical part of Macbeth, and wherever Shakspeare avails himself of the popular belief in the invisible presence of spirits, and the possibility of coming in contact with them, a profound view of the inward life of Nature and her mysterious springs; which, it is true, ought never to be altogether unknown to the genuine poet, as poetry is altogether incompatible with mechanical physics, but which few have possessed in an equal degree with Dante and himself."

It seems probable that this play was written in 1611: at all events between the years 1609 and 1614. It appears from the MSS. of Vertue that the Tempest was acted, by John Heminge and the rest of the King's Company, before Prince Charles, the Lady Elizabeth, and the Prince Palatine Elector, in the beginning of the year 1613.

* Schlegel is not quite correct in asserting that Caliban "always speaks in verse." Mr. Steevens, it is true, endeavoured to give a metrical form to some of his speeches, which were evidently intended for prose, and they are therefore in the present edition so printed. Shakspeare, throughout his plays, frequently introduces short prose speeches in the midst of blank verse.

+ Lectures on Dramatic Literature by Aug. Will. Schlegel, translated by John Black, 1915. Vol. ii. p

175.

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bour! keep your cabins: you do assist the storm. Gon. Nav, good, be patient.

Boats. When the sea is. Hence! 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

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 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. [Exeunt.

1 From the Folio Edition of 1623. 2 That is, readily, nimbly.

Thus

3 That is, act with spirit, behave like men. Baret in his Alvearie: To play the man, or to show mself a valiant man in any matter. Se virum præ

bere." P. 399.

"Viceroys and peers of Turkey play the men." Tamberlaine, 1590.

4 The present instant.

3 la Smith's Sea Grammar, 1627, 4to. under the artitle How to handle a Ship in a Storme :-"Let us lie as Trie with our main course; that is, to hale the tacke aboord, the sheet close aft, the boling set up, and the heim tied close aboord,"

JUNO,

IRIS, CERES,

Spirits.

Nymphs,

Reapers,

Other Spirits attending on Prospero.

SCENE, the Sea, with a Ship; afterwards an uninhabited Island.

Re-enter Boatswain.

Boats. Down with the top-mast; yare; lower, lower; bring her to try with main course. [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 hear? Shall we give o'er, and drown? Have you a mind to sink?

Seb. A pox o' your throat! you bawling, blasphemous, uncharitable dog!

Boats. Work you, then.

Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent noise-maker, we are less afraid to be drowned than

thou art.

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brown furze, any thing: The wills above be done! | That my remembrance warrants: Had I not
but I would fain die a dry death.
[Exit. Four or five women once, that tended me?
Pro. Thou had'st, and more, Miranda: But
how is it,

SCENE II. The Island: before the Cell of Pros-
. pero. Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.
Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them:
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd
With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel,
Who had no doubt some noble creature in her,
Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls! they porish'd.
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er1
It should the good ship so have swallowed, and
The freighting souls within her.

Pro.

Be collected:

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"Tis time

Did never meddle4 with my thoughts.
Pro.

I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand,
And pluck my magick garment from me.-So:
[Lays down his mantle.

Lie there, my art."-Wipe thou thine eyes; have
comfort.

The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd
The very virtue of compassion in thee,
I have with such provision in mine art
So safely order'd, that there is no soul-
No, not so much perdition as an hair,
Betid to any creature in the vessel

That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?
If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here,
How cam'st thou here, thou may'st.
But that I do not.
Pro. Twelve years since, Miranda, twelve
years since,

Mira.

Thy father was the duke of Milan, and
A prince of power.
Mira.
Sir, are not you my father?
Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father
Was duke of Milan; and his only heir

A princess ;-no worse issued.
Mira.
O, the heavens !
What foul play had we, that we came from thence?
Or blessed was't we did?

Pro.

Both, both, my girl:
By foul play, as thou say'st, where we heav'd thence;
But blessedly holp hither."
Mira.
O, my heart bleeds
To think o' the teen" that I have turned you to,
Which is from my remembrance! Please you,
further.

Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio-
I pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should
Be so perfidious!-he whom, next thyself,
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my state; as, at that time,
Through all the signiories it was the first,
And Prospero the prime duke; being so reputed
In dignity, and, for the liberal arts,
Without a parallel; those being all my study,
The government I cast upon my brother,

And to my state grew stranger, being transported,
And wrapped in secret studies. Thy false uncle-
Dost thou attend me?

Mira.

Sir, most heedfully. Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits, Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom

Sit down;

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Obey, and be attentive. Can'st thou remember

A time before we came unto this cell?

To trash for overtopping; new created
The creatures that were mine; I say, or chang'd

them,

Or else new form'd them: having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' th' state
To what tune pleas'd his car; that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,
And suck'd
my
verdure out on't.--Thou attend'st not.
Mira. O good sir, I do.

Pro.

I pray thee mark me.

I do not think thou can'st; for then thou wast not I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate
Out three years old.

Mira.

Certainly, sir, I can.

Pro. By what? by any other house, or person? Of any thing the image tell me, that

Hath kept with thy remembrance.

Mira.

'Tis far off;

And rather like a dream than an assurance

To closeness, and the bettering of my mind
With that, which, but by being so retir'd,

| O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother
Awak'd an evil nature: and my trust,
Like a good parent,1° did beget of him
A falsehood, in its contrary as great

cumber and trash"-" to trash or overslow "-and

1 i. e. or ever, ere ever; signifying, in modern Eng-foreslowed and trashed.” lish, sooner than at any time.

2 Instead of freighting the first folio reads fraughting. 3 The double superlative is in frequent use among our elder writers.

4 To meddle, is to mix, or to interfere with.

5 Lord Burleigh, when he put off his gown at night, used to say "Lie there, Lord Treasurer."-Fuller's Holy State, p. 257.

6 Out is used for entirely, quite. Thus in Act iv: "And be a boy right out."

7 Abysm was the old mode of spelling abyss; from its French original abisme.

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There was another word of the same kind used in

Falconry (from whence Shakspeare very frequently draws his similies ;) "Trassing is when a hawk raises aloft any fowl, and soaring with it, at length descends therewith to the ground."-Dictionarium Rusticum, 1704.

Probably this term is used by Chapman in his address to the reader prefixed to his translation of Homer "That whosesoever muse dares use her wing, When his muse flies she will be trass't by his, And show as if a Bernacle should spring Beneath an Eagle."

There is also a passage in the Bonduca of Beaumon* and Fletcher, wherein Caratach says:

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As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded,
But what my power might else exact,-like one,
Who having, unto truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,
To credit his own lie,1-he did believe

He was indeed the duke; out of the substitution,
And executing the outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative:-Hence his ambition
Growing,-Dost hear?

Mira.

Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. Pro. To have no screen between this part he play'd

And him he play'd it for, he needs will be
Absolute Milan: Me, poor man!—my library
Was dukedom large enough; of temporal royalties
He thinks me now incapable: confederates
(So dry he was for sway) with the king of Naples,
To give him annual tribute, do him homage;
Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend
The dukedom, yet unbow'd, (alas, poor Milan!)
To most ignoble stooping.
Mira.
O the heavens!

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Pro.
Thou wast, that did preserve me! Thou didst smile,
Infused with a fortitude from heaven,
When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt;
Under my burden groan'd; which rais'd in me
An undergoing stomach, to bear
up
Against what should ensue.
Mira.

How came we ashore?

Pro. By Providence divine.
Some food we had, and some fresh water, that
A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,

Out of his charity, (who being then appointed
Master of this design,) did give us; with
Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries,
Which since have steaded much; so, of his gen-
tleness,

Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me,
Pro. Mark his condition, and the event; then From my own library, with volumes that

tell me,

If this might be a brother.

Mira.
I should sin
To think but2 nobly of my grandmother:
Good wombs have borne bad sons.
Pro.
Now the condition.
This king of Naples, being an enemy
To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit;
Which was, that he in lieu o' the premises,-
Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,-
Should presently extirpate me and mine
Out of the dukedom; and confer fair Milan,
With all the honours, on my brother: Whereon,
A treacherous army levied, one midnight
Fated to the
did Antonio open
The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of darkness,
The ministers for the purpose hurried thence
Me, and thy crying self.

Mira.

purpose,

Alack, for pity!

I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then,
Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint,4
That wrings mine eyes to't.

Pro.

Hear a little further,
And then I'll bring thee to the present business
Which now's upon us; without the which, this story
Were most impertinent,
Mira.

That hour destroy us?
Pro.

Wherefore did they not

Well demanded, wench;

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst

not;

(So dear the love my people bore me) nor set
A mark so bloody on the business; but
With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark;

Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepar'd
A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd,

common rate of men has generally a son below it. HeToun Alii nora.

1 Who having made his memory such a sinner o truth as to credit bis own lie by telling of it."

Tooke, in his Diversions of Purley, has clearly shown that we use one word, But, in modern English, for two words Bot and But, originally (in the Anglo Saxon) very different in signification, though (by repated abbreviation and corruption) approaching in wound. Bot is the imperative of the A. S. Botan, to boot. But is the imperative of the A. S. Be-utan, to be out. By this means all the seemingly anomalous uses of But may be explained; I must however content myself with rerring the reader to the Diversions of Purley, vol. i. p. 190. Merely remarking that but (as distinguished 3rm Bor) and be-out have exactly the same meaning, viz. in modern English, writhmnt.

3 In lieu of the premises; that is, "in consideration of the premises,-&c." This seems to us a strange use of this French word, yet it was not then unusual. But takes their oaths in lieu of her assistance." Beaumont and Fletcher's Prophetess.

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Now I arise :

Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow.
Here in this island we arriv'd; and here
Have I, thy school-master, made thee more profit
Than other princes can, that have more time
For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.
Mira. Heavens thank you for't! And now, I
pray you, sir,

(For still 'tis beating in my mind,) your reason
For raising this sea-storm?
Pro.
Know thus far forth.-
By accident most strange, bountiful fortune,
Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies
Brought to this shore: and by my prescience
I find my zenith doth depend upon

A most auspicious star; whose influence
If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes,
Will ever after droop.-Here cease more questions;
Thou art inclin'd to sleep; 'tis a good dulness,
And give it way;-I know thou can'st not choose.-
[MIRANDA sleeps.
Come away, servant, come: I am ready now;
Approach, my Ariel; come.

Enter ARIEL.

Ari. All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I

come

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Hast thou, spirit, Perform'd to point1" the tempest that I bade thee?

4 Hint is here for cause or subject. Thus in a future passage we have:-" Our hint of woe."

5 Quit was commonly used for quitted.

6 To deck, or deg, is still used in the northern coun ties for to sprinkle.

7 An undergoing stomach is a stubborn resolution, a temper or frame of mind to bear.

8 This is imitated in Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess;
-tell me, sweetest,

What new service now is meetest
For the satyre; shall I stray

In the middle air, and stay

The sailing racke, or nimbly take
Hold by the moon, and gently make
Suit to the pale queen of night,
For a beame to give thee light?
Shall I dive into the sea,

And bring thee coral, making way
Through the rising waves, &c."

9 Ariel's quality is not his confederates, but the powers of his nature as a spirit, his qualification in sprighting 10 i. e. to the minutest article, literally from the French a point, so in the Chances,

"are you all fit?
To point, Sir"

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