From what a torment I did free thee? ARI. PRO. Thou doft; and think'ft No. It much, to tread the ooze of the falt deep; ARI. I do not, fir. PRO. Thou lieft, malignant thing! Haft thou forgot 2 The foul witch Sycorax, who, with age, and envy, Was grown into a hoop? haft thou forgot her? ARI. No, fir. PRO. Thou haft: Where was fhe born? fpeak; tell me. ARI. Sir, in Argier.' and was no more than the spirits voluntarily allowed them for the feduction of man. The art was held by all, though not equally criminal, yet unlawful, and therefore Cafaubon, fpeaking of one who had commerce with fpirits, blames him, though he imagines him one of the best kind, who dealt with them by way of command. Thus Profpero repents of his art in the laft fcene. The spirits were always confidered as in fome measure enflaved to the enchanter, at leaft for a time, and as ferving with unwillingness; therefore Ariel fo often begs for liberty; and Caliban obferves, that the fpirits ferve Profpero with no good will, but hate him rootedly.-Of thefe trifles enough. JOHNSON. The foul witch Sycorax,] This idea might have been caught from Dionyfe Settle's Reporte of the Laft Voyage of Capteine Frobisher, 12mo. bl. 1. 1577. He is fpeaking of a woman found on one of the islands defcribed. "The old wretch, whome diuers of our Saylers fuppofed to be a Diuell, or a Witche, plucked off her bufkins, to fee if he were clouen-footed, and for her ougly hewe and deformitie, we let her goe." STEEVENS, 3in Argier.] Argier is the ancient English name for Algiers. See a pamphlet entitled, "A true Relation of the Travailes, &c. of William Davies, barber-furgeon," &c. 1614. In this is a chapter" on the defcription, &c. of Argier." STEEVENS. PRO. O, was the fo? I must, Once in a month, recount what thou hast been, Which thou forget'ft. This damn'd witch, Sycorax, For mischiefs manifold, and forceries terrible To enter human hearing, from Argier, Thou know'ft, was banish'd; for one thing she did, They would not take her life: Is not this true? ARI. Ay, fir. PRO. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought with child, And here was left by the failors: Thou, my flave, Into a cloven pine; within which rift A dozen years; within which space fhe died, A freckled whelp, hag-born) not honour'd with ARI. Yes; Caliban her fon. PRO. Dull thing, I fay fo; he, that Caliban, Whom now I keep in fervice. Thou beft know’st, What torment I did find thee in: thy groans Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breafts Of ever-angry bears; it was a torment To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax Could not again undo; it was mine art, When I arriv'd, and heard thee, that made gape The pine, and let thee out. ARI. I thank thee, master. PRO. Ifthou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak, And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till Thou haft howl'd away twelve winters. Pardon, master: I will be correfpondent to command, PRO. I will discharge thee. . Do fo; and after two days ARI. That's my noble master! What shall I do? fay what? what shall I do? PRO. Go make thyfelf like to a nymph o' the fea;◊ Be fubject to no fight but mine; invisible To every eye-ball clfe. Go, take this fhape, And hither come in't: hence, with diligence." Exit ARIEL. to a nympho the fea ;] There does not appear to be fufficient caufe why Ariel fhould affume this new shape, as he was to be invifible to all eyes but thofe of Profpero. STEEVENS. ↳ Be fubject to no fight but mine; invisible "Be fubject to no fight but thine and mine; invifible," &c. But redundancy in the first line, and the ridiculous precaution that Ariel fhould not be invifible to himself, plainly prove that the words and thine-were the interpolations of ignorance. STEEVENS. Go make thyself like a nymph o' the fea: be fubject To no fight but thine and mine; invifible, &c.] The words— "be fubject"-having been transferred in the first copy of this play to the latter of thefe lines, by the careleffness of the tranfcriber or printer, the editor of the fecond folio, to fupply the metre of the former, introduced the word to;-reading," like to a nymph o' the fea." The regulation that I have made, fhews that the addition, like many others made by that editor, was unneceffary. MALONE. My arrangement of this paffage, admits the word to, which, I think, was judiciously restored by the editor of the second folio. STEEVENS. And hither come in't: hence with diligence.] The old copy reads"And hither come in't: go, hence with diligence." The tranfcriber or compofitor had caught the word go from the preceding line. RITSON. VOL. III. D Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well; Awake! MIRA. The ftrangeness of your story put Heavinefs in me. PRO. Shake it off: Come on; We'll vifit Caliban, my flave, who never MIRA. I do not love to look on. PRO. 8 'Tis a villain, fir, But, as 'tis, We cannot mifs him: he does make our fire, That profit us. What, ho! flave! Caliban! CAL. [Within] There's wood enough within. PRO. Come forth, I fay; there's other business for thee: Come forth, thou tortoife! when?? The Strangeness] Why fhould a wonderful ftory produce fleep? I believe experience will prove, that any violent agitation of the mind eafily fubfides in flumber, efpecially when, as in Profpero's relation, the last images are pleafing. JOHNSON. The poet feems to have been apprehenfive that the audience, as well as Miranda, would fleep over this long but neceffary tale, and therefore strives to break it. Firft, by making Profpero diveft himself of his magic robe and wand; then by waking her attention no less than fix times by verbal interruption: then by varying the action when he rifes and bids her continue fitting: and laftly, by carrying on the bufinefs of the fable while Miranda fleeps, by which the is continued on the stage till the poet has occafion for her again. WARNER. 8 We cannot miss him :] That is, we cannot do without him. 9 Come forth, thou tortoife! when?] This interrogation, indicative of impatience in the highest degree, occurs alfo in K. Richard II. Act I. fc. i:" When, Harry? See note on this paffage. Re-enter ARIEL, like a water-nymph. Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel, ARI. My lord, it shall be done. [Exit. PRO. Thou poisonous flave, got by the devil himfelf Upon thy wicked dam, come forth! Enter CALIBAN. CAL. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholfome fen, Drop on you both!' a fouth-weft blow on ye, And blifter you all o'er! In Profpero's fummons to Caliban, however, as it stands in the old copy, the word forth (which I have repeated for the fake of metre) is wanting. STEEVENS. Cal. As wicked dew, as e'er my mother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholesome fen, Drop on you both!] It was a tradition, it feems, that lord Falkland, lord C. J. Vaughan, and Mr. Selden, concurred in obferving, that Shakspeare had not only found out a new character in his Caliban, but had alfo devifed and adapted a new manner of language for that character. What they meant by it, without doubt, was, that Shakspeare gave his language a certain grotefque air of the favage and antique; which it certainly has. But Dr. Bentley took this, of a new language, literally; for fpeaking of a phrafe in Milton, which he fuppofed altogether abfurd and unmeaning, he says, Satan had not the privilege as Caliban in ShakSpeare, to use new phrafe and diction unknown to all othersagain to practife diftances is ftill a Caliban ftile. Note on Milton's Paradife Loft, 1. iv. v. 945. But I know of no fuch Caliban file in Shakspeare, that hath new phrase and diction unknown to all others. WARBURTON. -and Whence these critics derived the notion of a new language appropriated to Caliban, I cannot find: they certainly mistook brutality of fentiment for uncouthness of words. Caliban had learned to fpeak of Profpero, and his daughter; he had no names for the fun and moon before their arrival, and could not have invented a language of his own, without more understanding than Shakspeare has thought it proper to bestow upon him. His diction is indeed |