Through all the figniories it was the first; Without a parallel; thofe being all my ftudy, And to my state grew ftranger; being transported, Mira. Sir, moft heedfully. Pro. Being once perfected how to grant fuits, How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom 9 To trash for over-topping; new created I The creatures that were mine; I fay, or chang'd 'em, Pro. I pray thee, mark me. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated 2 Like a good parent, did beget of him To trash for over-topping ;] To trash, as Dr. Warburton. obferves, is to cut away the fuperfluities. This word I have met with in books containing directions for gardeners, published in the time of Q. Elizabeth. STEEVENS Key in this place feems to fignify the key of a mufical inftrument, by which he fet Hearts to tune. JOHNSON. This doubtless is meant of a key for tuning the harpsichord, fpinnet, or virginal; we call it now a tuning hammer, as it is ufed as well to frike down the iron pins whereon the ftrings are wound, as to turn them. As a key it acts like that of a watch. HAWKINS. 2 Alluding to the obfervation, that a father above the common rate of men has commonly a fon below it. Heroum filii Roxa. JOHNSON. A falfhood A falfhood in its contrary as great As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit, But what my power might elfe exact ;-3 like one, To credit his own lie, he did believe He was, indeed, the duke; 4 out of the fubftitution, And executing the outward face of royalty, With all prerogative:-hence his ambition growingDoft thou hear? 3 Mira. Your tale, Sir, would cure deafness. Pro. To have no fcreen between this part he play'd, -like one, Who having, INTO truth, by telling of it, Made fuch a finner of his memory, To credit his own lie,- -] The corrupted reading of the fecond line has rendered this beautiful fimilitude quite unintelligible. For what is [having into truth?] or what doth [it] refer to not to [truth,] becaufe if he told truth he could never credit a lie. And yet there is no other correlative to which [it] can belong. I read and point it thus: i. e. by often repeating the fame ftory, made his memory fuch a finner unto truth, as to give credit to his own lie. A miferable delufion, to which flory-tellers are frequently fubject. The Oxford Editor having, by this correction, been let into the fenfe of the paffage, gives us this fenfe in his own words: Who loving an untruth, and telling't oft, Makes- WARBURTON, I agree with Dr. Warburton, that perhaps there is no correlative to which the word it can with grammatical propriety belong, and that unto was the original reading. Lie, however, feems to have been the correlative to which the poet meant to refer, however ungrammatically. STEEVENS. 4 out of the fubftitution,] Is the old reading. The modern editors, for the fake of fmoother verfification, read-from fubftitution. STEEVENS. And And him he play'd it for, he needs will be 5 So dry he was for fway, with the king of Naples To give him annual tribute, do him homage; Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend The dukedom, yet unbow'd (alas, poor Milan!) Mira. O the heavens! Pro. Mark his condition, and the event; then tell me, If this might be a brother. Mira. I fhould fin To think but nobly of my grandmother: Pro. Now the condition. This king of Naples, being an enemy To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's fuit; Out of the dukedom; and confer fair Milan, Mira. Alack, for pity! I, not remembring how I cried out then, Will cry it o'er again, it is a hint, That wrings mine eyes to't. Pro. Hear a little further, And then I'll bring thee to the present business So dry he was for fway,-] i. e. So thirty. The expreffion, I am told, is not uncommon in the midland counties. STEEVENS. Which now's upon us; without the which this ftory Were most impertinent. Mira. Wherefore did they not That hour destroy us? Pro. Well demanded, wench: My tale provokes that queftion. Dear, they durft not (So dear the love my people bore me) set Mira. Alack! What trouble Was I then to you! Pro. O a cherubim Thou waft, that did preferve me! Thou didst smile, Infused with a fortitude from heaven, 6 When I have deck'd the fea with drops full falt; Under my burden groan'd; which rais'd in me An undergoing ftomach, to bear up Against what should enfue. Mira. How came we afhore? Pro. By Providence divine. Some food we had, and fome fresh water, that 6 deck'd the fea-] To deck the fea, if explained, to honour, adorn, or dignify, is indeed ridiculous, but the ori ginal import of the verb deck is, to cover; fo in fome parts they yet fay deck the table. This fenfe may be borne, but perhaps the poet wrote fleck'd, which I think is still used in ruftic language of drops falling upon water. Dr. Warburton reads mock'd, the Oxford edition brack'd. JOHNSON. Out Out of his charity, 7 who being then appointed Which fince have fteeded much. So, of his gentlenefs, Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me, Mira. Would I might But ever fee that man! Pro. Now, I arife: Sit ftill, and hear the laft of our fea-forrow. Have I, thy fchool mafter, made thee more profit Mira. Heavens thank you for't! And now, I pray you, Sir, (For ftill 'tis beating in my mind) your reafon For raising this fea-ftorm? Pro. Know thus far forth.- By accident moft ftrange, bountiful fortune, choose. 7 who being then appointed, &c.] Such is the old readingWe might better read, 8 -he being, &c. STEEVENS. tis a good dulness,] Dr. Warburton rightly obferves, that this fleepinefs, which Profpero by his art had brought upon Miranda, and of which he knew not how foon the effect would begin, makes him queftion her fo often whether the is attentive to his ftory. JOHNSON. Come |