Beyond all limit of what else i’ the world, I am a fool, Fair encounter Of two most rare affections! Heavens rain grace On that which breeds between them! Fer. Wherefore weep you? MIRA. At mine unworthiness, that dare not offer What I desire to give; and much less take, What I shall die to want : But this is trifling; And all the more it seeks + to hide itself, The bigger bulk it shews. Hence, bashful cunning! And prompt me, plain and holy innocence! I am your wife,' if you will marry me; 2 - of what else i' the world,] i. e. of aught elfe; of whatsoever else there is in the world. I once thought that we should read-aught else. But the old copy is right. So, in King Henry VI. P. III; “ With promise of his sister, and what else, MALONE. 3 I am a fool, To weep at what I am glad of.] This is one of those touches of nature that distinguish Shakspeare from all other writers. It was necessary, in support of the character of Miranda, to make her appear unconscious that excess of sorrow and excess of joy find alike their relief from tears; and as this is the first time that consummate pleasure had made any near approaches to her heart, she calls such a seeming contradictory exprellion of it, folly. The same thought occurs in Romeo and Juliet : Back, foolish tears, back, to your native spring! Your tributary drops belong to woe, “ Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy." STEEVENS, 4 -- it fecks -] i. e, my affection feeks. MALONE, 5 I am your wife, &c.] Si tibi non cordi fuerant connubia nostra, Catul. 62. MALONE, If not, I'll die your maid: to be your fellow 6 My mistress, dearest, My husband then? Fer. Ay, with a heart as willing As bondage e'er of freedom: here's my hand. Mira. And mine, with my heart in't:? And now farewell, Till half an hour hence. Fer. A thousand! thousand ! Exeunt FER. and Mir. Pro. So glad of this as they, I cannot be, Who are surpriz'd with all ;* but my rejoicing At nothing can be more. I'll to my book; For yet, ere supper time, must I perform Much business appertaining. [Exit. - your fellow-] i. e. companion. STEVENS. here's my hand. Miran. And mine, with my heart in't:] It is still customary in the west of England, when the conditions of a bargain are agreed upon, for the parties to ratify it by joining their hands, and at the same time for the purchaser to give an earnest. tice the poet alludes. So, in The Winter's Tale: “ Ere I could make thee open thy white hand, “ I am your's for ever, « Pro. Why then we'll make exchange; here, take you this. Jul. And seal the bargain with a holy kiss. “ Pro. Here is my hand for my true constancy.” Henley. 8 So glad of this as they, I cannot be, Who are surpriz”d with all;] The sense might be clearer, were we to make a light transposition: “ So glad of this as they, who are surpriz'd “ With all, I cannot be-" Perhaps, however, more consonantly with ancient language, we thould join two of the words together, and read “ Who are surpriz’d withal,” Steevens. 6 7 To this prac 66 SCENE II. Another part of the island. Enter Stephano and TRINCULO; CALIBAN follow ing with a bottle. Ste. Tell not me;—when the butt is out, we will drink water; not a drop before : therefore bear up, and board 'em :: Servant-monster, drink to me. Trin. Servant-monster? the folly of this island! They fay, there's but five upon this isle: we are three of them; if the other two be brain'd like us, the state totters.! Ste. Drink, servant-monster, when I bid thee; thy eyes are almoft set in thy head. Trin. Where should they be set elfe? he were a brave monster indeed, if they were set in his tail.a Ste. My man-monster hath drown'd his tongue in fack: for my part, the sea cannot drown me: I swam, ere I could recover the shore, five-and 9 8 - bear up, and board’em:] A metaphor alluding to a chace sea. Sir J. HAWKINS. - if. the other two be brain'd like us, the state totters.] We meet with a similar idea in Antony and Cleopatra : " He bears the third part of the world."-" The third part then is drunk." STEEVENS. he were a brave monster indeed, if they were set in his tail.] I believe this to be an allusion to a story that is met with in Stowe, and other writers of the time. It seems in the year 1574, a whale was thrown ashore near Ramsgate : “ A monstrous fish (says the chronicler) but not fo monstrous as some reported—for his eyes were in his head, and not in his back." Summary, 1575, p. 562. FARMER. 3 - I swam, &c.] This play was not published till 1623. Album mazar made its appearance in 1614, and has a passage relative to thirty leagues, off and on, by this light.—Thou shalt be my lieutenant, monster, or my standard. Trin. Your lieutenant, if you lift; he's no standard.4 Ste. We'll not run, monsieur monster. Trin. Nor go neither : but you'll lie, like dogs ; and yet say nothing neither. STE. Moon-calf, speak once in thy life, if thou beest a good moon-calf. Cal. How does thy honour? Let me lick thy shoe : I'll not serve him, he is not valiant. Trin. Thou liest, most ignorant monster; I am in case to justle a constable: Why, thou debosh'd fish thou,' was there ever man a coward, 60 of my the escape of a failor yet more incredible. Perhaps, in both inftances, a fneer was meant at the Voyages of Ferdinando Mendez Pinto, or the exaggerated accounts of other lying travellers : five days I was under water ; and at length “ Got up and spread myself upon a chest, Rowing with arms, and steering with my feet ; “ And thus in five days more got land." A& III. sc. v. STEEVENS. standard. Trin. Your lieutenant, if you lift; he's no standard.] Meaning, he is so much intoxicated, as not to be able to stand. The quibble between ftandard, an ensign, and standard, a fruit-tree that grows without support, is evident. Sreevens. s-thou debosh'd fif thou,] I meet with this word, which I fuppose to be the fame as debauch'd, in Randolph's Jealous Lovers, 1634 : See, your house be stor'd “ With the deboifheft roarers in this city.” Again, in Monfieur Thomas, 1639: faucy fellows, “ Debabad and daily drunkards.” The fubftantive occurs in the Partheneia Sacra, 1633 : “ – A hater of men, rather than the deboishments of their manners." that hath drunk so much fack as I to-day? Wilt thou tell a monstrous lie, being but half a fish, and half a monster? CAL. Lo, how he mocks me! wilt thou let him, my lord? Trin. Lord, quoth he!—that a monster should be such a natural! Cal. Lo, lo, again ! bite him to death, I pr’ythee. Ste. Trinculo, keep a good tongue in your pleas'd STE. Marry will I: kneel, and repeat it; I will stand, and so shall Trinculo. Enter Ariel, invisible. CAL. As I told thee When the word was first adopted from the French language, it appears to have been spelt according to the pronunciation, and therefore wrongly; but ever since it has been spelt right, it has been uttered with equal impropriety. Steevens. 6 I thank my noble lord. Wilt thou be pleas'd To hearken once again the suit I made thee?] The old copy, which erroneously prints this and other of Caliban's speeches as prose, reads to the suit I made thee;" – being an enemy STEEVENS. 7- a tyrant;] Tyrant is here employed as a trisyllable. STEEVENS, |
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