PRO. What, I fay, My foot my tutor ! 5-Put thy fword up, traitor; Who mak❜ft a fhew, but dar'it not ftrike, thy con science Is fo poffefs'd with guilt: come from thy ward;6 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? hufh! Thou think'ft, there are no more fuch fhapes as he, Having feen but him and Caliban: Foolish wench! To the most of men this is a Caliban, And they to him are angels. MIRA. My affections Are then moft humble; I have no ambition To fee a goodlier man. PRO. Come on; obey: [ToFERD. 5 My foot my tutor !] So, in The Mirrour for Magiftrates, 1587, p. 163: "What honeft heart would not conceive disdayre HENDERSON. Again, in K. Lear, A& IV. fc. ii. one of the quartos peads→→ "My foot ufurps my head." 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'ft my old ward ;-here I lay, and thus I bore my point." STEEVENS. Thy nerves are in their infancy again," FER. PRO. It works:-Come on. Thou haft done well, fine Ariel!-Follow me. [To FERD. and MIR, [To ARIEL. Hark, what thou elfe fhalt do me. 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 Caftle: "Thy nerves are all bound up in alabafter." STEEVENS, My fpirits, as in a dream, are all bound up.] Alluding to a common sensation in dreams; when we ftruggle, but with a total impuiffance in our endeavours, to run, ftrike, &c, WARBURTON. 9 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 sense of would be.-In the preceding line the old copy reads-nor this man's threats. The emendation was made by Mr. Steevens. MALONE, I 1 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 prifon evermo, "Than had I ben in bliffe, and not in wo. "Only the fight of hire, whom that I serve, "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 fpeech; this is unwonted, PRO. Thou shalt 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. 'Beseech 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-stint 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 trusted. Have juft our theme of woe: but for the miracle, Can fpeak like us: then wifely, good fir, weigh ALON. Pr'ythee, peace. SEB. He receives comfort like cold porridge. 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 fpoken truer than you purposed. I fuppofe, however, that our author wrote "The miftrefs of fome merchant," &c. Mistress was anciently fpelt-maiftreffe or maiftres. Hence, perhaps, arofe the prefent typographical error. See Merchant of Venice, A&t IV. fc. i. STEEVENS. Have juft our theme of wee: but for the miracle,] The words of woe, appear to me as an idle interpolation. Three lines before we have 66 our hint of woe. STEEVENS. 5 The vifitor-] Why Dr, Warburton fhould change vifitor to 'vifer, for advifer, I cannot difcover. 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 Protestant 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, SEB. You have taken it wifelier than I meant you should. GON. Therefore, my lord, ANT. Fye, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue! GON. Well, I have done: But yet SEB. He will be talking, ANT. Which of them, he, or Adrian, for a good wager, firft begins to crow? SEB. The old cock. ANT. The cockrel. SEB. Done: The wager? ANT. A laughter. SEB. A match. APR, Though this island seem to be defert,→ ANT. So, you've pay'd." ADR. Uninhabitable, and almoft inacceffible,-SEB. Yet, you've pay'd.] Old copy-you'r paid. Corrected by Mr. Steevens. To pay fometimes fignified-to beat, but I have never met with it in a metaphorical fenfe; otherwise I should have thought the reading of the folio right: you are beaten; you have loft. MALONE. This paffage fcarcely deferves explanation; but the meaning is this: Antonio lays a wager with Sebaftian, that Adrian would crow before Gonzalo, and the wager was a laughter. Adrian speaks firft, fo Antonio is the winner. Sebaftian laughs at what Adrian had faid, and Antonio immediately acknowledges that by his laughing he has paid the bet. The old copy reads-you'r paid, which will anfwer as well, if those words be given to Sebaftian instead of Antonio. |