6 I boarded the king's fhip; now on the beak,' curfors 8 O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary And fight-out-running were not: The fire, and cracks Of fulphurous roaring, the moft mighty Neptune Seem'd to befiege, and make his bold waves tremble, Yea, his dread trident shake." PRO. 9 My brave fpirit! 5 -now on the beak,] The beak was a ftrong pointed body at the head of the ancient gallies; it is ufed here for the forecastle, or the boltfprit. JOHNSON. 6 Now in the waift,] The part between the quarter-deck and the forecastle. JOHNSON. 7 Sometimes, I'd divide, And burn in many places;] Perhaps our author, when he wrote thefe lines, remembered the following paffage in Hackluyt's Voyages, 1598: "I do remember that in the great and boysterous "ftorme of this foule weather, in the night there came upon "the toppe of our maine yard and maine-maft a certaine little light, much like unto the light of a little candle, which the Spaniards call the Cuerpo Santo. This light continued aboord our ship about three houres, flying from mafte to mafte, and from top to top; and fometimes it would be in two or three places at once." MALONE. 66 Burton fays, that the Spirits of fire, in form of fire-drakes and blazing ftars," oftentimes fit on fhip-mafts," &c. Melanch. P. I. $2. p. 30. edit. 1632. T. WARTON. 8 -precurfors O' the dreadful thunder-claps,] So, in King Lear: "Vant couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts." STEEVENS. Yea, his dread trident shake.] Left the metre should appear defective, it is neceffary to apprize the reader, that in Warwickshire and other midland counties, shake is ftill pronounced by the common people as if it was written-fhaake, a diffyllable. FARMER. Who was fo firm, fo conftant, that this coil 2 Not a foul ARI. All, but mariners, brine, and quit the Then all a-fire with me: the king's fon, Ferdinand, With hair up-ftaring (then like reeds, not hair) Was the first man that leap'd; cried, Hell is empty, And all the devils are here. PRO. Why, that's my spirit! But was not this nigh shore? ARI. Close by, my master. PRO. But are they, Ariel, fafe? Not a hair perifh'd; But felt a fever of the mad,] If it be at all neceffary to explain the meaning, it is this: Not a foul but felt fuch a fever as madmen feel, when the frantick fit is upon them. STEEVENS. 3-and quit the vessel,] Quit is, I think, here used for quitted. So, in K. Lear: 66 "Twas he inform'd against him, "And quit the houfe on purpose, that their punishment Might have the freer courfe." So, in King Henry VI. P. I. lift, for lifted: "He ne'er lift up his hand, but conquered." MALONE. 4-fuftaining-] i. e. their garments that bore them up and fupported them. So, in K. Lear, A&t IV. fc. iv: "In our fuftaining corn." Again, in Hamlet: 66 Her clothes fpread wide, "And, mermaid-like, a while they bore her up." Mr. M. Mafon, however, obferves that the word fuftaining in this place does not mean fupporting, but enduring; and by their fuftaining garments, Ariel means their garments which bore, without being injured, the drenching of the fea." STEEVENS. The king's fon have I landed by himself; PRO. Of the king's fhip, The mariners, fay, how thou haft difpos'd, ARI. 5 From the fill-vex'd Bermoothes,] Fletcher, in his Women Pleafed, fays, "The devil fhould think of purchafing that egg-hell to victual out a witch for the Bermoothes." Smith, in his account of these iflands, p. 172, fays, "that the Bermudas were fo fearful to the world, that many called them The Ifle of Devils.-P. 174.—to all feamen no lefs terrible than an inchanted den of furies." And no wonder, for the clime was extremely fubject to ftorms and hurricanes; and the islands were furrounded with fcattered rocks lying shallowly hid under the furface of the water. WARBURTON. The epithet here applied to the Bermudas, will be best underftood by thofe who have feen the chafing of the fea over the rugged rocks by which they are furrounded, and which render access to them fo dangerous. It was in our poet's time the current opinion, that Bermudas was inhabited by monsters, and devils.-Setebos, the god of Caliban's dam, was an American devil, worshipped by the giants of Patagonia. HENLEY.. Again, in Decker's If this be not a good Play, the Devil is in it, 1612: " Sir, if you have made me tell a lye, they'll fend me on a voyage to the island of Hogs and Devils, the Bermudas." STEEVENS. The opinion that Bermudas was haunted with evil fpirits continued fo late as the civil wars. In a little piece of Sir John Berkinghead's, intitled, Two Centuries of Paul's Church-yard, una cum indice expurgatoris, &c. 12°, in page 62, under the title Cafes of Confcience, is this: 34. Whether Bermudas and the parliament-house lie under one planet, feeing both are haunted with devils." PERCY. Bermudas was on this account the cant name for fome privileged place, in which the cheats and riotous bullies of Shakspeare's time affembled. So, in The Devil is an Afs, by Ben Jonfon: The mariners all under hatches ftow'd; Whom, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour, Suppofing that they faw the king's fhip wreck'd, PRO. Ariel, thy charge Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work: What is the time o' the day?" ARI. Past the mid season. PRO. At least two glaffes: The time 'twixt fix and now, Muft by us both be fpent most preciously. ARI. Is there more toil? Since thou doft give me pains, Let me remember thee what thou haft promis'd, Which is not yet perform'd me. keeps he ftill your quarter "In the Bermudas ?" Again, in one of his Epistles: "Have their Bermudas, and their straights i' th' Strand." Again, in The Devil is an Afs: I gave my word "For one that's run away to the Bermudas." STEEVENS. the Mediterranean flote,] Flote is wave. Flot. Fr. STEEVENS. What is the time o' the day?] This paffage needs not be difturbed, it being common to ask a question, which the next moment enables us to anfwer: he that thinks it faulty, may easily adjust it thus: Pro. What is the time o' the day? Paft the mid feafon? Ari. At least two glaffes. Pro. The time 'twixt fix and now JOHNSON. Mr. Upton propofes to regulate this paffage differently: Ariel. Paft the mid feafon, at least two glaffes. Prof. The time, &c. MALONE, PRO. What is't thou can'ft demand? ARI. How now? moody? My liberty. PRO. Before the time be out? no more. 8 ARI. I pray thee Remember, I have done thee worthy fervice; Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, ferv'd Without or grudge, or grumblings: thou didst promise To bate me a full year. PRO. Doft thou forget9 8 Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, ferv'd-] The old copy has "Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, ferv'd—,” The repetition of a word will be found a frequent mistake in the ancient editions. RITSON. 9 Doft thou forget-] That the character and conduct of Profpero may be understood, fomething must be known of the fyftem of enchantment, which fupplied all the marvellous found in the romances of the middle ages. This fyftem feems to be founded on the opinion that the fallen fpirits, having different degrees of guilt, had different habitations allotted them at their expulfion, fome being confined in hell, fome (as Hooker, who delivers the opinion of our poet's age, expreffes it) difperfed in air, fome on earth, Jome in water, others in caves, dens, or minerals under the earth. Of thefe, fome were more malignant and mifchievous than others. The earthy fpirits feem to have been thought the moft depraved, and the aerial the leaft vitiated. Thus Profpero obferves of Ariel : Thou waft a fpirit too delicate To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands. Over thefe fpirits a power might be obtained by certain rites performed or charms learned. This power was called The black Art, or Knowledge of Enchantment. The enchanter being (as king James obferves in his Demonology) one who commands the devil, whereas the witch ferves him. Thofe who thought beft of this art, the exiftence of which was, I am afraid, believed very seriously, held, that certain founds and characters had a phyfical power over fpirits, and compelled their agency; others, who condemned the practice, which in reality was furely never practifed, were of opinion, with more reason, that the power of charms arofe only from compact, |