Was ever conduct of: fome oracle Muft rectify our knowledge. PRO. 8 Sir, my liege, Do not infeft your mind with beating on The strangeness of this business; at pick'd leisure, Which fhall be fhortly, fingle I'll refolve you (Which to you shall seem probable,) of every 9 7-conduct of:] Conduct for conductor. So, in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour: 66 Come, gentlemen, I will be your condu&t." STEEVENS. Again, in The Houfholders' Philofophie, 4to. 1588, p. 1:-" I goe before, not to arrogat anie fuperioritie, but as your guide, becaufe, perhaps you are not well acquainted with the waie. Fortune (quoth I) doth favour mee with too noble a conduct." REED. Conduct is yet ufed in the fame fenfe: the perfon at Cambridge who reads prayers in King's and in Trinity College Chapels, is ftill fo ftyled. HENLEY. The ftrangeness, &c.] A fimilar expreffion occurs in the fecond part of K. Henry VI: thine and thoughts eyes "Beat on a crown." Beating may mean hammering, working in the mind, dwelling long upon. So, in the preface to Stanyhurft's Tranflation of Virgil, 1582: "For my part, I purpose not to beat on everye childish tittle that concerneth profodie." Again, Miranda, in the fecond fcene of this play, tells her father that the ftorm is ftill beating in her mind. STEEVENS. A kindred expreffion occurs in Hamlet: Cudgel thy brains no more about it." MALONE. 9 (Which to you fhall feem probable,)] These words feem, at the first view, to have no ufe; fome lines are perhaps loft with which they were connected. Or we may explain them thus: I will refolve you, by yourself, which method, when you hear the ftory Fof Antonio's and Sebaftian's plot], fhall feem probable; that is, Jball deferve your approbation. JOHNSON. Surely Profpero's meaning is: "I will relate to you the means by which I have been enabled to accomplish thefe ends; which means, though they now appear ftrange and improbable, will then appear otherwife." ANONYMUS, These happen'd accidents: till when, be cheerful, And think of each thing well. Come hither, spirit; Set Caliban and his companions free: [Afide. Untie the spell. [Exit ARIEL.] How fares my gracious fir? There are yet miffing of your company Re-enter ARIEL, driving in CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, in their stolen apparel. STE. Every man fhift for all the reft, and let no man take care for himfelf; for all is but fortune:Coragio, bully-monfter, Coragio! * 2 TRIN. If these be true fpies which I wear in my head, here's a goodly fight. CAL. O Setebos, these be brave spirits, indeed! How fine my mafter is! I am afraid He will chaftise me. What things are thefe, my lord Antonio! ANT. Very like; one of them Is a plain fish,' and, no doubt, marketable. I will inform you how all these wonderful accidents have happened; which, though they now appear to you ftrange, will then feem probable. An anonymous writer pointed out the true conftruction of this paffage, but his explanation is, I think, incorrect. MALONE. 2 Coragio!] This exclamation of encouragement I find in J. Florio's Tranflation of Montaigne, 1603: You often cried Coragio, and called ça, ça.” Again, in the Blind Beggar of Alexandria, 1598. STEEVENS. 3 Is a plain fifh,] That is, plainly, evidently a fifh. So, in Fletcher's Scornful Lady," that vifible beaft, the butler," means the butler who is visibly a beast. M. MASON. PRO. Mark but the badges of these men, my lords, Then fay, if they be true:- This mis-shapen knave, His mother was a witch; and one so strong That could control the moon,' make flows and ebbs, And deal in her command, without her power:" It is not eafy to determine the fhape which our author defigned to bestow on his monster. That he has hands, legs, &c. we gather from the remarks of Trinculo, and other circumstances in the play. How then is he plainly a fish? Perhaps Shakspeare himself had no fettled ideas concerning the form of Caliban. STEEVENS. true:] That is, honeft. A true man is, in the language of that time, oppofed to a thief. The fenfe is, Mark what thefe men wear, and fay if they are honeft. JOHNSON. 5 His mother was a witch; and one fo ftrong That could control the moon, &c.] This was the phrafeology of the times. After the ftatute againft witches, revenge or ignorance frequently induced people to charge thofe againft whom they harboured refentment, or entertained prejudices, with the crime of witchcraft, which had just then been declared a capital offence. In our ancient reporters are feveral cafes where perfons charged in this manner fought redrefs in the courts of law. And it is remarkable in all of them, to the fcandalous imputation of being witches, the term-a ftrong one, is conftantly added. In Michaelmas Term, 9 Car. I. the point was fettled that no action could be fupported on fo general a charge, and that the epithet ftrong did not inforce the other words. In this inftance, I believe, the opinion of the people at large was not in unifon with the fages in Westminster-Hall. Several of thefe cafes are collected together in I. Viner, 422. REED. That could control the moon,] From Medea's fpeech in Ovid (as tranflated by Golding) our author might have learned that this was one of the pretended powers of witchcraft: and thee, O lightfome moon, “I darken oft, though beaten brass abate thy peril foon.” MALONE. • And deal in her command, without her power:] I fuppofe Profpero means, that Sycorax, with lefs general power than the moon, could produce the fame effects on the fea. STEEVENS. These three have robb'd me; and this demi-devil CAL. I fhall be pinch'd to death. ALON. Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler? SEB. He is drunk now: Where had he wine? ALON. And Trinculo is reeling ripe: Where fhould they Find this grand liquor that hath gilded them?"— How cam'ft thou in this pickle? ↑ And Trinculo is reeling ripe: abere fhould they Find this grand LIQUOR that hath gilded them?] Shakspeare, to be fure, wrote-grand 'LIXIR, alluding to the grand Elixir of the alchymifts, which they pretend would reftore youth and confer immortality. This, as they faid, being a preparation of gold, they called Aurum potabile; which Shakspeare alluded to in the word gilded; as he does again in Antony and Cleopatra : "How much art thou unlike Mark Antony? "Yet coming from him, that great medicine hath, But the joke here is to infinuate that, notwithstanding all the boats of the chemifts, fack was the only restorer of youth and beftower of immortality. So Ben Jonfon, in his Every Man out of his Humour ; Canarie, the very Elixir and fpirit of wine." This feems to have been the cant name for fack, of which the English were, at that time, immoderately fond. Randolph, in his Jealous Lovers, fpeaking of it, fays, A pottle of Elixir at the Pegafus, bravely caroufed." So, again in Fletcher's Monfieur Thomas, Act III: "Old reverend fack, which, for aught that I can read yet, The phrafe too of being gilded, was a trite one on this occafion. As the alchymift's Elixir was fuppofed to be a liquor, the old reading may ftand, and the allufion holds good without any alte ration. STEEVENS. TRIN. I have been in fuch a pickle, fince I faw you laft, that, I fear me, will never out of my bones I fhall not fear fly-blowing. SEB. Why, how now, Stephano? 8 STE. O, touch me not; I am not Stephano, but a cramp.9 PRO. You'd be king of the ifle, firrah? STE. I fhould have been a fore one then." ALON. This is as strange a thing as e'er I look'd on.3 [Pointing to CALIBAN. PRO. He is as difproportion'd in his manners, As in his shape:-Go, firrah, to my cell; Take with you your companions; as you look To have my pardon, trim it handsomely. CAL. Ay, that I will; and I'll be wife hereafter, And feek for grace: What a thrice-double afs Was I, to take this drunkard for a god, And worship this dull fool? PRO. Go to; away! 8 fly-blowing.] This pickle alludes to their plunge into the ftinking pool; and pickling preferves meat from fly-blowing. STEEVENS. 9 but a cramp.] i. e. I am all over a cramp. Profpero had ordered Ariel to shorten up their finews with aged cramps. Touch me not alludes to the foreness occafioned by them. In his next speech Stephano confirms this meaning by a quibble on the word fore. STEEVENS. 2 I should have been a fore one then.] The fame quibble occurs afterwards in the Second Part of K. Henry VI: " Mafs, 'twill be fore law then, for he was thruft in the mouth with a fpear, and 'tis not whole yet." Stephano alfo alludes to the fores about him. STEEVENS. 3 This is as frange a thing as e'er I look'd on.] The old copy, difregarding metre, reads "This is a ftrange thing as e'er I look'd on." For the repetition of the conjunction-as, &c. I am answerable. STEEVENS. |