And, look, how well my garments fit upon me; Much feater than before: My brother's fervants Were then my fellows, now they are my men. SEB. But, for your confcience— ANT. Ay, Sir; where lies that? if it were a kybe, 'Twould put me to my flipper; But I feel not This deity in my bofom: twenty confciences, That ftand 'twixt me and Milan, candy'd be they, And melt, ere they moleft! Here lies 8 ther, No better than the earth he lies upon, your bro If he were that which now he's like; whom I, * And melt ere they moleft!] I had rather read— Would melt ere they moleft. i. e. Twenty confciences, fuch as ftand between me and my hopes, though they were congealed, would melt before they could moleft me, or prevent the execution of my purposes. JOHNSON. Let twenty confciences be first congealed, and then dissolved, ere they moleft me, or prevent me from executing my purposes. MALONE. If the interpretation of Johnfon and Malone is juft, and is certainly as intelligible as or; but I can fee no reasonable meaning in this interpretation. It amounts to nothing more as thus interpreted, than My confcience must melt and become fofter than it is before it mo lefts me; which is an infipidity unworthy of the Poet. I would read" Candy'd be they, or melt;" and the expreffion then has spirit and propriety. Had I twenty confciences, fays Antonio, they might be hot or cold for me; they should not give me the smallest trouble.Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. STEEVENS. 9 No better than the earth he lies upon,] So, in Julius Cæfar; at Pompey's bafis lies along, 66 "No worthier than the duft." STEEVENS, If he were that which now he's like; whom I, Can lay to bed, &c.] The old copy reads "If he were that which now he's like, that's dead; To the perpetual wink for aye might put SEB. Thy cafe, dear friend, Shall be my precedent; as thou got'st Milan, ANT. Draw together: And when I rear my hand, do you the like To fall it on Gonzalo. SEB. O, but one word. [They converfe apart. Mufick. Re-enter ARIEL, invisible. ARI. My mafter through his art foresees the danger That these, his friends, are in; and fends me forth, The words- "that's dead" (as Dr. Farmer obferves to me) are evidently a glofs, or marginal note, which had found its way into the text. Such a fupplement is ufelefs to the fpeaker's meaning, and one of the verses becomes redundant by its infertion. STEEVENS. - for aye. 66 -] i. e. for ever. So, in K. Lear: I am come "To bid my king and mafter aye good night." STEEVENS. • This ancient morfel,] For morfel Dr. Warburton reads-ancient moral, very elegantly and judiciously; yet I know not whether the author might not write morfel, as we fay a piece of a man. JOHNSON. So, in Meafure for Measure: "How doth my dear morfel, thy mistress?" STEEVENS. 4 take fuggeftion,] i. e. Receive any hint of villainy. JOHNSON, (For else his project dies,) to keep them living." [Sings in GONZALO's ear, They'll take fuggeftion, as a cat laps milk;] That is, will adopt, and bear witness to, any tale you fhall invent; you may fuborn them as evidences to clear you from all fufpicion of having mur. thered the king. A fimilar fignification occurs in The Two Genileman of Verona: "Love bad me fwear, and love bids me forfwear: "Teach me, thy tempted fubject, to excufe it." HENLEY. —to keep them living.] By them, as the text now ftands, Gonzalo and Alonfo muft be understood. Dr. Johnson objects very justly to this paffage. "As it ftands, fays he, at prefent, the fenfe is this. He fees your danger, and will therefore fave them." He therefore would read—" That these his friends are in.” The confufion has, I think, arisen from the omiffion of a single letter. Our author, I believe, wrote and fends me forth, "For elfe his projects dies, to keep them living." i.e. he has fent me forth, to keep his projects alive, which elfe would be deftroyed by the murder of his friend Gonzalo.-The oppofition between the life and death of a project appears to me much in Shak fpeare's manner. So, in Much ado about nothing: "What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage?"-The plural noun joined to a verb in the fingular number, is to be met with in almost every page of the first folio. So, to confine myself to the play before us, edit. 1623: 66 My old bones akes.” Again, ibid: "What cares these roarers for the name of king." It was the common language of the time; and ought to be corrected, as indeed it generally has been in the modern editions of our author, by changing the number of the verb. Thus, in the present inftance we fhould read-For else his projects die, &c. MALONE. I have received Dr. Johnfon's amendment. Ariel, finding that Profpero was equally folicitous for the prefervation of Alonfo and Gonzalo, very naturally ftyles them both his friends, without adverting to the guilt of the former. Toward the fuccefs of Profpero's defign, their lives were alike necessary. While you here do fnoring lie, His time doth take: If of life you keep a care, ANT. Then let us both be fudden. GON. Now, good angels, preserve the king! [They wake. ALON. Why, how now, ho! awake! Why are you drawn? 6 Wherefore this ghaftly looking? GON. What's the matter? SEB. Whiles we stood here fecuring your repofe, Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing Like bulls, or rather lions; did it not wake you? It struck mine ear moft terribly. ALON. I heard nothing. ANT. O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear; To make an earthquake! fure, it was the roar Of a whole herd of lions. ALON. Heard you this, Gonzalo? GON. Upon mine honour, fir, I heard a humming, And that a strange one too, which did awake me: Mr. Henley fays that " By them are meant Sebaftian and Antonio. The project of Profpero, which depended upon Ariel's keeping them alive, may be feen, A&t III." The fong of Ariel, however, fufficiently points out which were the immediate objects of his protection. He cannot be supposed to have any reference to what happens in the last scene of the next Act. STEEVENS. 6 drawn?] Having your fwords drawn. So, in Romeo and Juliet: What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds ?” 66 JOHNSON, I fhak'd you, fir, and cry'd; as mine eyes open'd, I saw their weapons drawn:-there was a noife, That's verity: Beft ftand upon our guard;' Or that we quit this place: let's draw our weapons. ALON. Lead off this ground; and let's make further fearch For my poor fon. GON. Heavens keep him from these beasts! For he is, fure, i'the island. ALON. Lead away. ARI. Profpero my lord fhall know what I have done: So, king, go fafely on to feek thy fon. [Afide. [Exeunt. Enter CALIBAN, with a burden of wood. A noife of thunder heard. CAL. All the infections that the fun fucks up From bogs, fens, flats, on Profper fall, and make him By inch-meal a disease! His fpirits hear me, That's verity: Beft ftand upon our guard;] The old copy reads "That's verily: 'Tis beft we ftand upon our guard." Mr. Pope very properly changed verily to verity: and as the verse would be too long by a foot, if the words 'tis and we were retained, I have difcarded them in favour of an elliptical phrafe which occurs in our ancient comedies, as well as in our author's Cymbeline, A&t III. fc, iii: "Beft draw my fword;" i. e. it were beft to draw it. STEEVENS. |