6 Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; 7 fet her two courfes; off to fea again, lay her off. Enter Mariners wet. Mar. All loft! to prayers, to prayers! all loft! [Exeunt. Boats. What, muft our mouths be cold? Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let us affift them, For our cafe is as theirs. Seb. I am out of patience. 8 Ant. We're merely cheated of our lives by drunkards. This wide-chopp'd rafcal :-'would, thou might'ft lie drowning, The washing of ten tides! Gon. He'll be hang'd yet; Though every drop of water fwear against it, [A con • Lay her a-bold, a-bold;—] To lay a fhip a-bold, is to bring her to lie as near the wind as he can, in order to keep clear of the land, and get her out to fea. STEEVENS. 7 -fet her two courses off to fea again,-] The courses are the main-fail and fore-fail. This term is ufed by Raleigh, in his Difcourfe on Shipping. JOHNSON. The pallage, as Mr. Holt has obferved, fhould be pointed, Set her two courses; off, &c. STEEVENS. 8 merel In this place fignifies abfolutely. In which fenfe it is ufed in Hamlet, A&t 1. Sc. 3. 66 -Things rank and grofs in nature "Poffefs it merely." So in Ben Jonson's Peetafter: 66 -at requeft "Of fome mere friends, fome honourable Romans." STEEVENS. to glut bim.] Shakefpeare probably wrote, t'englut him, 40 fwallow him; for which I know not that glut is ever ufed by him. In this fignification englut, from engloutir, French, occurs frequently, as in Henry VI. -Thou art fo near the gulf "Thou needs must be englutted." And [A confused noife within.] Mercy on us! We fplit, we split! Farewell, my wife and children! 'Farewell, brother! We fplit, we fplit, we split! Ant. Let's all fink with the king. Seb. Let's take leave of him. 2 [Exit. [Exit. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of fea, for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any thing. The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death! [Exit. The inchanted island before the cell of Profpero. Enter Profpero 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 ftinking pitch, With thofe that I faw fuffer! a brave veffel, And again in Timon and Othello. Yet Milton writes glutted offal for fwallowed, and therefore perhaps the prefent text may ftand. JOHNSON. Brother, farewell!] All thefe lines have been hitherto given to Gonzalo, who has no brother in the fhip. It is probable that the lines fucceeding the confufed nofe within should be confidered as spoken by no determinate characters, but should be printed thus. 1 Sailor. Mercy on us! We fplit, we fplit! 2 Sailor. Farewell, my, &c. Sailor. Brother, farewell, &c. JOHNSON. 2 long heath,-] This is the common name for the erica baccifera. WARBURTON. A 4 It It fhould the good fhip fo have fwallow'd, and Pro. Be collected; No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, Mira. 3 O, woe the day! Pro. No harm. I have done nothing but in care of thee, Mira. More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts. I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand, fort. The direful fpectacle of the wreck, which touch'd No, 3 Pro. No harm.] I know not whether Shakespeare did not make Miranda speak thus: O, woe the day! no harm? To which Profpero properly anfwers: I have done nothing but in care of thee. Miranda, when the fpeaks the words, O, woe the day! fuppofes, not that the crew had efcaped, but that her father thought differently from her, and counted their deftruction no harm. JOHNSON. virtue of compaffion] Virtue: the most efficacious part, the energetic quality; in a like fenfe we fay, The virtue of a plant is in the extract. JOHNSON. that there is no foul-] Thus the old editions read, but this is apparently defective. Mr. Rowe, and after him Dr. Warburton, read that there is no foul loft, without any notice of the No, not fo much perdition as an hair, Betid to any creature in the veffel Which thou heard'ft cry, which thou faw'ft fink. Sit down; For thou muft now know further. Mira. You have often Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd, Pro. The hour's now come; The very minute bids thee ope thine ear: I do not think thou canft; for then thou waft not Mira. Certainly, Sir, I can. Pro. By what? by any other houfe or perfon? Of any thing the image tell me, that Hath kept with thy remembrance. Mira. 'Tis far off; And rather like a dream, than an affurance the variation. Mr. Theobald fubftitutes no foil, and Mr. Pope follows him. To come fo near the right, and yet to mifs it, is unlucky the author probably wrote no feil, no ftain, no fpot: for fo Ariel tells, Not a hair perish'd; On their fuftaining garments not a blemish, But fresher than before. And Gonzalo, The rarity of it is, that our garments being drench'd in the fea, keep notwithstanding their freshness and gloffes. Of this emendation I find that the author of notes on The Tempest had a glimpfe, but could not keep it. JOHNSON. -no foul-] Such interrupted fentences are not uncommon to Shakespeare: he fometimes begins a fentence, and before he concludes it, entirely changes the conftruction, because another, more forcible, occurs. As this change frequently happens in converfation, it may be fuffered to pass uncenfured in the language of the stage. STEEVENS. 6 Out three years old.] i. e. Quite three years old, three years old full-out, complete. Mr. Pope, without any reafon, reads, FULL three years old. STEEVENS. That Had I not That my remembrance warrants. Four or five women once that tended me? Pro. Thou hadft, and more, Miranda: but how That this lives in thy mind? What feeft thou else If thou remember'ft aught, ere thou cam'ft here; Mira. But that I do not. Pro. Twelve years fince, Miranda-twelve years fince, 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 faid, thou waft my daughter; and thy father Was duke of Milan, 7 thou his only heir And princefs, no worse iffu'd. Mira. O the heavens! What foul play had we, that we came from thence? Or bleffed was't, we did? Pro. Both, both, my girl: By foul play, as thou fay'ft, were we heav'd thence; But bleffedly holp hither. Mira. O my heart bleeds To think o' the 8 teen that I have turn'd you to, 7 Perhaps and thou his only heir. JOHNSON. A princess: :—no worse iffu'd. STEEVENS. 8 -teen-] Is forrow, grief, trouble. So in Romeo and Juliet: |