Enter JUNO.

Jun. How does my bounteous fifter? Go with me, To blefs this twain, that they may profperous be, And honour'd in their iffue.

SONG.

JUNO. Honour, riches, marriage-bleffing,
Long continuance and increafing,
Hourly joys be fill upon you.

!

Juno fings her bleffings on you.

CER. Earth's increase, and foifon plenty;"
Barns and garners never empty;
Vines with cluft'ring bunches growing;
Plants, with goodly burden bowing;
Spring come to you, at the fartheft,
In the very end of harvest!
Scarcity, and want, shall shun you ;
Ceres bleffing fo is on you.

Fer. This is a moft majestic vision, and
Harmonious charmingly: May I be bold

To think thefe fpirits?

Pro.

I have from their confinés call'd to enact

My prefent fancies.

Fer.

Spirits, which by mine art

Let me live here ever;

So rare a wonder'd father, and a wife,

Make this place paradife.

[Funo and Ceres whisper and fend IRIS on employment.]

Pro.

Sweet now,

filence :

Juno and Ceres whifper ferioufly;

There's fomething elfe to do: hufh and be mute,

Or else our fpell is marr'd.

Iris. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the wandring brooks, With your fedg'd crowns, and ever-harmless looks,

8

Leave your crifp channels, and on this green land

Anfwer

7 i. e. plenty to the utmost abundance; foifon fignifying plenty.

STEEVENS.

8 Crifp, i. e. curling, winding. Lat. eriftus. Crifp, however, may allude to the little wave or curl (as it is commonly called) that the gentleft wind occafions on the furface of waters. STEEVENS.

Answer your fummons; Juno does command:
Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate
A contract of true love; be not too late.

Enter certain Nymphs.

You fun-burn'd ficklemen, of Auguft weary,
Come hither from the furrow, and be merry;
Make holy-day: your rye-ftraw hats put on,
And these fresh nymphs encounter every one
In country footing.

Enter certain Reapers, properly habited: they join with the
Nymphs in a graceful dance; towards the end whereof
PROSPERO farts fuddenly, and speaks; after which, to a
frange, hollow, and confused noise, they heavily vanish,
Pro. [afide.] I had forgot that foul confpiracy

Of the beaft Caliban, and his confederates,
Against my life; the minute of their plot

Is almost come.-[To the Spirits.] Well done;— avoid,

no more.

Fer. This is moft ftrange: your father's in fome paffion That works him ftrongly,

Mira.
Never till this day,
Saw I him touch'd with anger fo distemper'd.
Pro. You do look, my fon, in a mov'd fort,
As if you were difmay'd: be chearful, fir:
Our revels now are ended: these our actors,
As I foretold you, were all fpirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabrick of this vision,
The cloud capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The folemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, fhall diffolve;
And, like this infubftantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind: We are fuch stuff

9 i. e. all who poffefs, who dwell upon it.

2 Faded means here-having vanished MALONE.

As

3 Leave not a rack behind:] "The winds (fays Lord Bacon) which move the clouds above, which we call the rack, and are not perceived below, pafs without noife." I should explain the word rack fomewhat differently, by calling it the last fleeting veftige of the highest clouds, fcarce perceptible on account of their distance and tenuity. What was anciently called the rack is now termed by failors-the feud. STEEVENS.

As dreams are made of, and our little life

Is rounded with a fleep.-Sir, I am vex'd;
Bear with my weaknefs; my old brain is troubled.
Be not disturb'd with my infirmity:

If you be pleas'd, retire into my cell,

And there repofe; a turn or two I'll walk,
To ftill my beating mind.

Fer. Mira.

We wish your peace.

[Exeunt.

Pro. Come with a thought :-I thank you :-Ariel, come.

Enter ARIEL..

Ari. Thy thoughts I cleave to :3 What's thy pleasure?

Pro.

We must prepare to meet with Caliban.4

Ari. Ay, my commander : when I prefented Ceres,
I thought to have told thee of it; but I fear'd,
Left I might anger thee.

Spirit,

Pro. Say again, where didft thou leave thefe varlets ?
Ari. I told you, fir, they were red-hot with drinking ;
So full of valour, that they smote the air

For breathing in their faces; beat the ground
For kiffing of their feet: yet always bending
Towards their project: Then I beat my tabor,
At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their ears,
Advanc'd their eye-lids, lifted up their nofes,
As they fmelt mufick; fo I charm'd their ears,
That, calf-like, they my lowing follow'd, through
Tooth'd briers, fharp furzes, pricking gofs, and thorns,
Which enter'd their frail fhins: at laft I left them
I' the filthy mantled pool beyond your cell,

3 To cleave to, is to unite with closely.

There

4 To meet with is to counteract; to play ftratagem against Aratagem.— The parfon knows the temper of every one in his boufe, and accordingly either meets with their vices, or advances their virtues. HERBERT'S Country Parfon. JOHNSON.

5 I know not how Shakespeare diftinguish'd gofs from furze; for what he calls furze is called gefs or gorfe in the midland counties. STEEVENS. By the latter, Shakespeare means the low fort of gorfe that only grows upon wet ground, and which is well defcribed by the name of wbins in Markham's Farewell to Husbandry. It has prickles like thofe on a rofetree or a goofeberry. Farze and rubins occur together in Dr. Farmer's quotation from Holinfhed. ToLLET.

There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake
O'er-stunk their feet.

Pro.

This was well done, my bird :

Thy fhape invifible retain thou ftill:

The trumpery in my houfe, go, bring it hither,
For ftale to catch these thieves."

Ari.

I go, I go.

[Exit,

Pro. A devil, a born devil, on whofe nature
Nurture can never ftick ;7 on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all loft, quite loft;
And as, with age, his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers : I will plague them all.

Re-enter ARIEL loaden with glistering apparel, &c. Even to roaring:-Come, hang them on this line. PROSPERO and ARIEL remain invifible. Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, all wet.

Cal. Pray you, tread foftly, that the blind mole may not Hear a foot fall :9 we now are near his cell.

Ste. Monster, your fairy, which, you fay, is a harmless fairy, has done little better than play'd the Jack with us." Trin. Monster, I do fmell all horfe-pifs; at which my nofe is in great indignation.

Ste. So is mine. Do you hear, monster? If I should take a displeasure against you; look you,

Trin.

6 Stale is a word in fowling, and is used to mean a bait or decoy to catch birds.

7 Nurture is education.

8 Shakespeare when he wrote this defcription, perhaps recollected what his patron's most intimate friend, the great lord Effex, in an hour of difcontent, faid of queen Elizabeth ;- -" that he grew old and canker'd, and that her mind was become as crooked as ber carcafe :" a speech, which, according to Sir Walter Raleigh, coft him his head, and which, we may therefore fuppofe, was at that time much talked of. This play being written in the time of king James, these obnoxious words might be fafely repeated. MALONE.

9 This quality of hearing which the mole is fuppofed to poffefs in fo high a degree, is mentioned in Euphues, 4to. 1581, p. 64, " Doth not the lion for ftrength, the turtle for love, the ant for labour, excel man? Doth not the eagle fee clearer, the vulture smell better, the moale beare lightlyer ?" REED.

2 i. e. He has played Jack with a lantern; has led us about like an ignis fatums, by which travellers are decoyed into the mire. JOHNSON.

Trin. Thou wert but a loft monster.

Cal. Good my lord, give me thy favour ftill: Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to

Shall hood-wink this mifchance: therefore, speak foftly; All's hufh'd as midnight yet.

Trin. Ay, but to lofe our bottles in the pool,

Ste. There is not only difgrace and dishonour in that, monster, but an infinite lofs.

Trin. That's more to me than my wetting yet this is your harmless fairy, monster.

Ste. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er ears for my labour.

Cal. Pry'thee, my king, be quiet: Seeft thou here, This is the mouth o' the cell: no noife, and enter: Do that good mischief, which may make this island Thine own for ever, and I, thy Caliban,

For aye thy foot-licker.

Ste. Give me thy hand: I do begin to have bloody thoughts.

Trin. O king Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano! look, what a wardrobe here is for thee !3

Cal. Let it alone, thou fool; it is but trash.

Trin. O, ho, monfter; we know what belongs to a frippery 4 O king Stephano!

Ste. Put off that gown, Trinculo; by this hand, I'll have that gown.

Trin. Thy grace shall have it.

Cal. The dropfy drown this fool! what do you mean, To doat thus on fuch luggage? Let's along,

And

3 The humour of thefe lines confifts in their being an allufion to an old celebrated ballad, which begins thus: King Stephen was a avortky peerand celebrates that king's parfimony with a regard to his wardrobe There are two ftanzas of this ballad in Othello. WARBURTON.

The old ballad is printed at large in The Reliques of Ancient Poetry, Vol. I.

PERCY.

4 A frippery was a fhop where old clothes were fold. The perfon who kept one of thefe fhops, was called a fripper. Strype, in the life of Stowe, fays, that these frippers lived in Birchin-lane and Cornhill. STEEVENS. S Let's along,] First edit. Let's alone.

I believe the poet wrote:

Let it alone,

And do the murder firft."

JOHNSON.

Caliban