ACT IV.

TEMPEST.

SCENE I-Before Prospero's Cell. Enter PROS-
PERO, FERDINAND, and MIRANDA.
Pro. If I have too austerely punish'd you,
Your compensation makes amends; for I
Have given you here a thread of mine own life,
Or that for which I live; whom once again
I tender to thy hand: all thy vexations
Were but my trials of thy love, and thou
Hast strangely stood the test: here, afore Heaven,
I ratify this my rich gift. O Ferdinand,
Do not smile at me, that I boast her off,
For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise,
And make it halt behind her.
Fer.

Against an oracle.

I do believe it,

Pro. Then, as my gift, and thine own acquisition
Worthily purchas'd, take my daughter: But
If thou dost break her virgin knot' before
All sanctimonious ceremonies may
With full and holy rite be minister'd,

No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall
To make this contract grow; but barren hate,
Sour-ey'd disdain, and discord, shall bestrew
The union of your bed with weeds so loathly,
That you shall hate it both; therefore, take heed,
As Hymen's lamps shall light you.
Fer.
As I hope

For quiet days, fair issue, and long life,
With such love as 'tis now; the murkiest den,
The most opportune place, the strong'st suggestion3
Our worser Genius can, shall never melt
Mine honour into lust; to take
The edge of that day's celebration,
away
When I shall think, or Phoebus' steeds are founder'd,
Or night kept chain'd below.
Pro.
Sit then, and talk with her, she is thine own.-
Fairly spoke ;
What, Ariel; my industrious servant Ariel!
Enter ARIEL.

Ari. What would my potent master? here I am.
Pro. Thou and thy meaner fellows your last

service

Did worthily perform; and I must use you
In such another trick: go, bring the rabble,
O'er whom I give thee power, here, to this place :
Incite them to quick motion; for I must
Bestow upon the eyes of these young couple
Some vanity of mine art; it is my promise,
And they expect it from me.
An.
Presently?

Pro. Ay, with a twink.
Ari. Before you can say, Come, and
And breathe twice; and cry, so, so;

go,

1 The same expression occurs in Pericles. Mr. Henley says that it is a manifest allusion to the zones of the ancients, which were worn as guardians of chastity before marriage.

2 Aspersion is here used in its primitive sense of prinkling, at present it is used in its figurative sense of throwing out hints of calumny and detraction.

3 Suggestion here means temptation or wicked prompting.

4 "Some ranity of mine art " is some illusion. Thus ta a passage, quoted by Warton, in his Dissertation the Gesta Romanorum, from Emare, a metrical

Romance.

"The emperor said on high
Sertes thys is a fayry
Or ellys a ranite

5 That is, bring more than are sufficient. "Corollary, the addition or vantage above measure, an overplus, surplusage."-Blount.

6 Stover is fodder for cattle, as hay, straw, and the ke: estorers is the old law term, it is from estouvier, old French.

7 The old editions read Pioned and Twilled brims. La Ovid's Banquet of Sense, by Geo. Chapman, 1595, we meet with

-Caplike twill-pants strew'd in Bacchus bowers." Iftill be the name of any flower, the old reading may stand, Mr. Henley strongly contends for the old reading, and explains pioned to mean faced up with mire in the manner that ditchers trim the banks of ditches: twilled

7

Ari.
Pro. Look, thou be true; do not give dalliance
Too much the rein; the strongest oaths are straw
Or else, good night, your vow!
To the fire i' the blood: be more abstemious,
Fer.
The white-cold virgin snow upon my heart
I warrant you, sir;
Abates the ardour of my liver.

Well I conceive. [Exit.

Pro.

Well.-
Now come, my Ariel; bring a corollary,"
Rather than want a spirit; appear, and pertly.-
No tongue; all eyes; be silent.
[Soft music.

A Masque. Enter IRIS.
Iris. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas
Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, and peas;
Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep,
And flat meads thatch'd with stover," them to keep;
Thy banks with peonied and lilied brims,"
Which spongy April at thy hest betrims,
To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy
broom groves,

Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,
Being lass-lorn; thy pole-clipt vineyard;
And thy sea-marge, steril, and rocky-hard,
Whose watery arch, and messenger, am I,
Where thou thyself dost air: The queen o' the sky,
Bids thee leave these; and with her sovereign

grace,

To come and sport: her peacocks fly amain ;
Here on this grass-plot, in this very place,
Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain.
Enter CERES.

Cer. Hail, many-colour'd messenger, that ne'er
Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter;
Who, with thy saffron wings, upon my flowers
And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown
Diffusest honey-drops, refreshing showers:"
My bosky10 acres, and my unshrubb'd down.
Rich scarf to my proud earth: Why hast thy queen
Summon'd me hither, to this short-grass'd green?
Iris. A contract of true love to celebrate
And some donation freely to estate
e;
On the bless'd lovers.

Cer.

If Venus, or her son, as thou dost know,
Tell me, heavenly bow,
Do now attend the queen? since they did plot
The means, that dusky Dis my daughter got,
Her and her blind boy's scandal'd company
I have forsworn.

he derives from the French verb touiller, which Cot-
grave interprets, "filthily to mix, to mingle, confound,
or shuffle together." He objects to peonied and lillied
Boaden has pointed out a passage in Lord Bacon's Es-
because these flowers never blow in April. But Mr.
say on Gardens which supports the reading in the text.
er, the stock-gilly-flower, the cowslip, flower-de-luces,
"In April follow the double white violet, the wall-flow-
tulippe, the double piony, &c." Lyte, in his Herbal,
and lillies of all natures; rose-mary flowers, the
says one kind of peonie is called by some, maiden or
virgin peonie. And Pliny mentions the water-lilly as
a preserver of chastity, B. xxvi. C. 10. Edward Fenton,
in his "Secret Wonders of Nature," 1569, 4to. B. vi.
asserts that "the water-lilly mortifieth altogether the
thoughts and dreams of venery."
appetite of sensuality and defends from unchaste
tainly gains by the reading of Mr. Steevens, which I
The passage cer
have, for these reasons, retained.

8 That is, forsaken by his lass.

9 Mr. Douce remarks that this is an elegant expan-
Lib. iv.
sion of the following lines in Phaer's Virgil Eneid,

"Dame rainbow down therefore with safron wings of
Whose face a thousand sundry hues against the sun
drooping showres,
From heaven descending came."
devoures,

luxuriant hedge-rows and copses.
10 Bosky acres are woody acres, fields intersected by

1

1

Jun. Honour, riches, marriage-blessing,
Long continuance, and increasing,
Hourly joys be still upon you!
Juno sings her blessings on you.
Cer. Earth's increase, and foison' plenty;
Barns and garners never empty;
Vines, with clust'ring bunches growing;
Plants, with goodly burden bowing;
Spring come to you, at the farthest,
In the very end of harvest!

Scarcity and want shall shun you;
Ceres' blessing so is on you.

Fer. This is a most majestic vision, and
Harmonious charmingly :2 May I be bold
To think these spirits?

Pro.

Spirits, which by mine art

Let me live here ever;

So rare a wonder'd' father, and a wife,
Make this place Paradise.

[JUNO and CERES whisper, and send IRIS on
employment.

Pro.
Sweet now, silence:
Juno and Ceres whisper seriously;
There's something else to do: hush, and be mute,
Or else our spell is marr'd.

Iris. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the wand'ring
brooks,

With your sedg'd crowns, and ever harmless looks,
Leave your crisp+ channels, and on this green
land

Answer your summons ; Juno does command:
Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate
A contract of true love; be not too late.

Enter certain Nymphs.

You sun-burn'd sicklemen, of August weary,

Come hither from the furrow, and be merry;
Make holy-day: your rye-straw hats put on,
And these fresh nymphs encounter every one
In country footing.

1 Foison is abundance, particularly of harvest

corn.

2 For charmingly harmonious.

3" So rare a wonder'd father," is a father able to produce such wonders.

4 Crisp channels; i. e. curled, from the curl raised by a breeze on the surface of the water. So in 1 K. Hen. IV. Act i. Sc. 3.

"Hid his crisp head in the hollow bank." 6 In the tragedy of Darius, by Lord Sterline,

ed in 1603, is the following passage:

"Let greatness of her glassy sceptres vaunt

Enter certain Reapers, properly habited: they join
with the Nymphs in a graceful dance; towards the
end of which PROSPERO starts suddenly, and
speaks; after which, to a strange, hollow, and con-
fused noise, they heavily vanish.

Pro. [Aside.] I had forgot that foul conspiracy
Of the beast Caliban, and his confederates,
Against my life; the minute of their plot
Is almost come.-[To the Spirits.] Well done ;-
avoid;-no more.

Fer. This is strange: your father's in some
passion

That works him strongly.

Mira.

Never till this day,

Saw I him touch'd with anger so distemper'd.
Pro. You do look, my son, in a mov'd sort,
As if you were dismay'd: be cheerful, sir:
Our revels now are ended: these our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind: We are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.-Sir, I am vex'd;

Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled.
Be not disturb'd with my infirmity:

If

you be pleas'd, retire into my cell,
And there repose; a turn or two I'll walk,
To still my beating mind.
Fer. Mira.

We wish your peace.
[Exeunt.

Pro. Come with a thought:-I thank you:

Ariel, come.

Enter ARIEL.

Ari. Thy thoughts I cleave to: What's thy plessure?

Pro.

Spirit,

We must prepare to meet with Caliban.

Ari. Ay, my commander: when I presented
Ceres,

I thought to have told thee of it; but I fear'd,
Lest I might anger thee.

Pro. Say again, where didst thou leave these
varlets?

Ari. I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking;

So full of valour, that they smote the air

For breathing in their faces; beat the ground
For kissing of their feet: yet always bending
Towards their project: then I beat my tabor,
At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their
ears,

It is evident that one poet imitated the other, and it
seems probable that Shakspeare was the imitator. The
exact period at which the Tempest was produced is not
known, but it is thought not earlier than 1611. It was
first printed in the folio of 1623. Lord Sterline also wrote
a tragedy entitled Julius Cæsar, in which there are par-
allel passages to some in Shakspeare's play on the same
subject, and Malone thinks the coincidence more than
print-accidental.
6 Faded, i. e. vanished, from the Latin rado. The
ancient English pageants were shows, on the reception

Not sceptres, no, but reeds, soon bruised soon of princes or other festive occasions; they were exhibt

broken;

And let this worldly pomp our wits enchant,

All fades, and scarcely leaves behind a token.
Those golden palaces, those gorgeous halls,
With furniture superfluously fair,

Those stately courts, those sky-encountering walls,
Evanish all like vapours in the air."

The preceding stanza also contains evidence of the same
train of thought with Shakspeare.

"And when the eclipse comes of our glory's light,

Then what avails the adoring of a name?

A meer illusion made to mock the sight,

Whose best was but the shadow of a dream."

Trin. Do, do: We steal by line and level, and't like your grace.

Ste. I thank thee for that jest; here's a garment for't: wit shall not go unrewarded, while I am king of this country: Steal by line and level, is an excellent pass of pate; there's another garment for't.

Trin. Monster, come, put some lime upon your fingers, and away with the rest.

Cal. I will have none on't: we shall lose our time,
And all be turn'd to barnacles, or to apes
With foreheads villanous low.

Trin. O king Stephano! O peer! O worthy
Stephano! look, what a wardrobe here is for thee!
Cal. Let it alone, thou fool: it is but trash.
Trin. O, ho, monster; we know what belongs to
a frippery :-O king Stephano!

Ste. Put off that gown, Trinculo; by this hand,
I'll have that gown.

Trin. Thy grace shall have it.

Cal. The dropsy drown this fool! what do you

To doat thus on such luggage? Let it alone,
And do the murder first: if he awake,
From toe to crown he'll fill our skins with pinches;
Make us strange stuff.

Ste. Monster, lay-to your fingers; help to bear this away, where my hogshead of wine is, or I'll turn you out of my kingdom: go to, carry this. Trin. And this.

Ste. Be you quiet, monster.-Mistress line, is not this my jerkin? Now is the jerkin under the line: now, jerkin, you are like to lose your hair, and prove a bald jerkin.

1 Stale, in the art of fowling, signified a bait or lure to decoy birds.

2 Nurture is Education, in our old language. 3 To play the Jack, was to play the Knave.

4 This is a humorous allusion to the old ballad "King Stephen was a worthy peer," of which Iago sings a verse in Othello.

5 A shop for the sale of old clothes.-Fripperie, Fr.
6 The old copy reads-" Let's alone."
7 Bird-lime.

The barnacle is a kind of shell-fish, lepas anati

Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the | Will shortly fill the reasonable shores,

You do yet taste
Some subtilties" o' the isle, that will not let you
Believe things certain :-Welcome, my friends all:
But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded,
[Aside to SEB. and AxT.
I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you,
And justify you traitors: at this time
I'll tell no tales.

The devil speaks in him. [Aside.
No:--
For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother
Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive
Thy rankest fault; all of them; and require
My dukedom of thee, which, perforce, I know,
Thou must restore.
Alon.
If thou beest Prospero,
Give us particulars of thy preservation:
How thou hast met us here, who three hours since

"The goblins, fairies, fiends, and furies mad,
Ranged in flowrie dales, and mountaines hore,
And under every trembling leaf they sit."

7 Subtilties are quaint deceptive inventions; the word is common to ancient cookery, in which a disguised or ornamented dish is so termed.

9 The unity of time is most rigidly observed in this piece. The fable scarcely takes up a greater number of hours than are employed in the representation. Mr. Steevens thinks that Shakspeare purposely designed to show the cavillers of the time, that he too could write a play within all the strictest laws of regularity.