TRIN. Wilt come? I'll follow, Stephano.3

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Another part of the Island.

Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and others.

GON. By'r lakin,4 I can go no further, fir; My old bones ache: here's a maze trod, indeed, Through forth-rights, and meanders! by your patience,

I needs muft reft me.

-

defert of Lop in Afia, fays-" Audiuntur ibi voces dæmonum, &c. voces fingentes eorum quos comitari fe putant. Audiuntur interdum in aere concentus muficorum inftrumentorum," &c. This paffage was rendered acceffible to Shakspeare by an English tranflation entitled The moft noble and famous Trauels of Marcus Paulus, one of the Nobilitie of the State of Venice, &c. bl. 1. 4to. 1579, by John Frampton. You fhall heare in the ayre the found of tabers and other inftruments, to put the trauellers in feare, &c. by euill spirites that make these foundes, and alfo do call diuerfe of the trauellers by their names," &c. ch. 36, p. 32. To fome of these circumstances Milton alfo alludes: calling fhapes, and beckoning fhadows dire, "And aery tongues that fyllable men's names, "On fands, and fhores, and defert wilderneffes."

STEEVENS.

3 Wilt come? I'll follow, Stephano.] The first words are addreffed to Caliban, who, vexed at the folly of his new companions idly running after the mufick, while they ought only to have attended to the main point, the difpatching Profpero, feems, for fome little time, to have staid behind. HEATH.

The words-Wilt come? fhould be added to Stephano's fpeech. I'll follow, is Trinculo's anfwer. RITSON.

4 By'r lakin,] i. e. The diminutive only of our lady, i. e. ladykin. STEEVENS.

ALON.

Old lord, I cannot blame thee, Who am myself attach'd with weariness, To the dulling of my fpirits: fit down, and rest. Even here I will put off my hope, and keep it No longer for my flatterer: he is drown'd, Whom thus we ftray to find; and the fea mocks Our frustrate search 5 on land: Well let him go. ANT. I am right glad that he's fo out of hope. [Afide to SEBASTIAN. Do not, for one repulfe, forego the purpose That you refolv'd to effect.

SEB.

Will we take thoroughly.

ANT.

The next advantage

Let it be to-night;

For, now they are opprefs'd with travel, they
Will not, nor cannot, ufe fuch vigilance,
As when they are fresh.

SEB.

I fay, to-night: no more.

Solemn and firange mufick; and PROSPERO above, invifible. Enter feveral ftrange Shapes, bringing in a banquet; they dance about it with gentle actions of falutation; and, inviting the King, &c. to eat, they depart.

ALON. What harmony is this? my good friends, hark!

GON. Marvellous fweet mufick!

5 Our fruftrate search-] Fruftrate for fruftrated. So, in Chapman's tranflation of Homer's Hymn to Apollo:

fome God hath fill'd,

"Our fruftrate fails, defeating what we will'd."

ALON. Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these?

SEB. A living drollery:6 Now I will believe, That there are unicorns; that, in Arabia

There is one tree, the phoenix' throne ;7 one phoenix At this hour reigning there.

ANT.

I'll believe both; 'And what does elfe want credit, come to me,

And I'll be fworn 'tis true: Travellers ne'er did

lie,8

"A living drollery :] Shows, called drolleries, were in Shakfpeare's time performed by puppets only. From these our mo dern drolls, exhibited at fairs, &c. took their name. Beaumont and Fletcher's Valentinian:

So, in

"I had rather make a drollery till thirty." STEEVENS. A living drollery, i. e. a drollery not represented by wooden machines, but by perfonages who are alive. MALONE.

7 one tree, the phoenix' throne;] For this idea, our author might have been indebted to Phil. Holland's Tranflation of Pliny, B. XIII. chap. 4: "I myself verily have heard ftraunge things of this kind of tree; and namely in regard of the bird Phoenix, which is fuppofed to have taken that name of this date tree; [called in Greek, Co]; for it was affured unto me, that the faid bird died with that tree, and revived of itselfe as the tree fprung again." STEEVENS.

Again, in one of our author's poems, p. 732, edit. 1778: "Let the bird of loudeft lay,

"On the fole Arabian tree," &c.

Our poet had probably Lyly's Euphues, and his England, particularly in his thoughts: fignat. Q 3.-" As there is but one phoenix in the world, fo is there but one tree in Arabia wherein the buildeth." See alfo, Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: "Rafin, a tree in Arabia, whereof there is but one found, and upon it the phoenix fits." MALONE.

8 And I'll be fworn 'tis true: Travellers ne'er did lie,] I fuppofe this redundant line originally stood thus:

"And I'll be fworn to't: Travellers ne'er did lic-." Hanmer reads, as plaufibly :

"And I'll be fworn 'tis true. Travellers ne'er lied."

STEEVENS.

Though fools at home condemn them.

GON.

If in Naples

I should report this now, would they believe me? If I fhould fay, I faw fuch iflanders,9

2

(For, certes, these are people of the island,)
Who, though they are of monftrous fhape, yet, note,
Their manners are more gentle-kind, than of
Our human generation you shall find
Many, nay, almost any.

PRO.

Honeft lord,

Thou haft faid well; for fome of you there prefent, Are worse than devils.

ALON.

[Afide.

I cannot too much muse,3 Such shapes, fuch gesture, and fuch found, expref

fing

(Although they want the ufe of tongue,) a kind Of excellent dumb discourse.

9

PRO.

Praise in departing.4

[Afide.

-fuch iflanders,] The old copy has islands. The emendation was made by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 1 For, certes, &c.] Certes is an obsolete word, fignifying certainly. So, in Othello:

2

66

certes, fays he,

"I have already chofe my officer." STEEVENS.

Their manners are more gentle-kind,] The old copy has→→→ "gentle, kind-." I read (in conformity to a practice of our author, who delights in fuch compound epithets, of which the firft adjective is to be confidered as an adverb,) gentle-kind. Thus, in K. Richard III. we have childish-foolish, fenfelefsobftinate, and mortal-ftaring. STEEVENS.

3

too much mufe,] To mufe, in ancient language, is to admire, to wonder.

So, in Macbeth:

"Do not mufe at me, my moft worthy friends."

STEEVENS.

4 Praife in departing.] i. e. Do not praise your entertainment

FRAN. They vanish'd strangely.

SEB.

No matter, fince

They have left their viands behind; for we have

ftomachs.

Will't please you taste of what is here?

ALON.

Not I.

GON. Faith, fir, you need not fear: When we were boys,

Who would believe that there were mountaineers,5 Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whofe throats had hanging at

them

Wallets of flefh? or that there were fuch men, Whofe heads ftood in their breafts ?6 which now we

find,

too soon, left you should have reason to retract your commendation. It is a proverbial faying.

So, in The Two angry Women of Abingdon, 1599:

"And fo the doth; but praife your luck at parting." Again, in Tom Tyler and his Wife, 1661:

"Now praife at thy parting."

Stephen Goffon, in his pamphlet entitled, Playes confuted in five Actions, &c. (no date) acknowledges himself to have been the author of a morality called, Praife at Parting. STEEVENS. that there were mountaineers, &c.] Whoever is curious to know the particulars relative to thefe mountaineers, may confult Maundeville's Travels, printed in 1503, by Wynken de Worde; but it is yet a known truth that the inhabitants of the Alps have been long accustomed to fuch excrefcences or tumours. Quis tumidum guttur miratur in Alpibus? STEEVENS.

Whofe heads flood in their breasts ?] Our author might have had this intelligence likewife from the tranflation of Pliny, B. V. chap. 8: "The Blemmyi, by report, have no heads, but mouth and eies both in their breafts." STEEVENS.

Or he might have had it from Hackluyt's Voyages, 1598: "On that branch which is called Caora are a nation of people, whose heads appear not above their fhoulders. They are reported to have their eyes in their fhoulders, and their mouths in the middle of their breafts. MALONE.