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FER.

My language! heavens!

I am the best of them that speak this fpeech,
Were I but where 'tis fpoken.

Profpero's interruption produces, he goes on purfuing his former question :

"O, if a virgin,

"I'll make you queen of Naples." JOHNSON.

A paffage in Lilly's Galathea feems to countenance the present text: "The question among men is common, are you a maide?" -yet I cannot but think, that Dr. Warburton reads very rightly: "If you be made, or no." When we meet with a harsh expreffion in Shakspeare, we are ufually to look for a play upon words. Fletcher clofely imitates The Tempest in his Sea Voyage: and he introduces Albert in the fame manner to the ladies of his Defert Ifland:

"Be not offended, goddeffes, that I fall
"Thus proftrate," &c.

Shakspeare himself had certainly read, and had probably now in his mind, a paffage in the third book of The Fairy Queen, between Timias and Belphebe:

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Angel or goddess! do I call thee right?

"There-at the blufhing, faid, ah! gentle fquire,
"Nor goddess I, nor angel, but the maid

"And daughter of a woody nymph," &c. FARMER. So Milton. Comus, 265:

"Hail foreign wonder!

"Whom certain these rough shades did never breed,

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Unless the Goddess," &c.

Milton's imitation explains Shakspeare. Maid is certainly a created being, a Woman in oppofition to Goddefs. Miranda immediately destroys this firft fenfe by a quibble. In the mean time, I have no objection to read made, i. e. created. The force of the fentiment is the fame. Comus is univerfally allowed to have taken fome of its tints from The Tempeft. T. WARTON.

Made was not

The first copy reads-if you be maid, or no. fuggested by Dr. Warburton, being an emendation introduced by the editor of the fourth folio. It was, I am perfuaded, the author's word: There being no article prefixed adds ftrength to this fuppofition. Nothing is more common in his plays than a word being ufed in reply, in a fenfe different from that in which it was employed by the firft fpeaker. Ferdinand had the moment before called Miranda a goddefs; and the words immediately fubjoined, "Vouchfafe, my prayer"-fhow, that he looked up to her as a perfon of a fuperior order, and fought her protection, and in

PRO. How! the best? What wert thou, if the king of Naples heard thee? FER. A fingle thing, as I am now, that wonders To hear thee fpeak of Naples: He does hear me; And, that he does, I weep: myself am Naples; Who with mine eyes, ne'er fince at ebb, beheld The king my father wreck'd.

MIRA.

Alack, for mercy! FER. Yes, faith, and all his lords; the duke of

Milan,

3

And his brave fon, being twain. 3
PRO.

The duke of Milan,

ftruction for his conduct, not her love. At this period, therefore he muft have felt too much awe to have flattered himself with the hope of poffeffing a being that appeared to him celestial; though afterwards, emboldened by what Miranda fays, he exclaims, “O, if a virgin," &c. words that appear inconfiftent with the fuppofition that he had already afked her whether fhe was one or not. She had indeed told him, the was; but in his aftonishment at hearing her speak his own language, he may well be fuppofed to have forgotten what the faid; which, if he had himself made the inquiry, would not be very reasonable to fuppofe.

It appears from the alteration of this play by Dryden and Sir W. D'Avenant, that they confidered the prefent paffage in this light: "Fair excellence,

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If, as your form declares, you are divine,

"Be pleas'd to inftruct me, how you will be worship'd;
"So bright a beauty cannot fure belong

"To human kind."

In a fubfequent fcene we have again the fame inquiry:
Alan. "Is fhe the goddess that hath fever'd us,

"And brought us thus together?"

Fer. "Sir, she's mortal.”

Our author might have remembered Lodge's defcription of Fawnia, the Perdita of his Winter's Tale: " Yet he fcarce knew her, for fhe had attired herself in rich apparel, which fo increased her beauty, that the resembled rather an angel than a creature.” Doraftus and Fawnia, 1592. MALONE.

3 And his brave fon, being twain.] This is a flight forgetfulness. Nobody was loft in the wreck, yet we find no fuch character as the fon of the duke of Milan, THEOBALD.

And his more braver daughter, could control thee,♦ If now 'twere fit to do't:-At the first fight

[Afide.

They have chang'd eyes :-Delicate Ariel,
I'll fet thee free for this!-A word, good fir;
I fear, you have done yourself some wrong:
word.

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MIRA. Why speaks my father fo ungently? This Is the third man that e'er I faw; the first That e'er I figh'd for: pity move my To be inclin'd my way!

FER.

move my father

O, if a virgin,

And your affection not gone forth, I'll make you

The queen

PRO.

of Naples.

Soft, fir; one word more.. They are both in either's powers: but this fwift bufinefs

I must uneafy make, left too light winning [Afide. Make the prize light.-One word more; I charge

thee,

That thou attend me: thou dost here ufurp
The name thou ow'ft not; and haft put thyself
Upon this ifland, as a spy, to win it

From me, the lord on't.

FER.

No, as I am a man.

MIRA. There's nothing ill can dwell in fuch a temple:

If the ill fpirit have fo fair an house,

Good things will ftrive to dwell with't.

4 control thee,] Confute thee, unanfwerably contradict thee. JOHNSON.

5 I fear you have done yourself fome wrong:] i. e. I fear that, in afferting yourself to be king of Naples, you have uttered a falfhood, which is below your character, and confequently injurious to your honour. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor-This is not well, mafter Ford, this wrongs you." STEEVENS.

PRO. Follow me.

[To FERD.

Speak not you for him; he's a traitor.-Come.

I'll manacle thy neck and feet together:

Sea-water fhalt thou drink, thy food fhall be
The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots, and husks
Wherein the acorn cradled: Follow.

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What, I fay,

Make not too rafh a trial of him, for
He's gentle, and not fearful."

PRO.
My foot my tutor !'-Put thy fword up, traitor;
Who mak'ft a fhew, but dar'ft not ftrike, thy
confcience

Is fo poffefs'd with guilt: come from thy ward;
For I can here difarm thee with this stick,
And make thy weapon drop.

He's gentle, and not fearful.] Fearful fignifies both terrible and timorous. In this place it may mean timorous. She tells her father, that as he is gentle, rough ufage is unneceffary; and as he is brave, it may be dangerous.

Fearful, however, may fignify formidable, as in K. Henry IV : "A mighty and a fearful head they are." and then the meaning of the paffage is obvious.

STEEVENS.

"Do not rafhly determine to treat him with feverity, he is mild and harmless, and not in the leaft terrible or dangerous."

RITSON.

7 My foot my tutor!] So, in The Mirror for Magiftrates, 1587. P. 163:

"What honeft heart would not conceive disdayne, "To see the foote furmount above the head." HENDERSON. Again, in K. Lear, A&t IV. fc. ii. one of the quartos reads "My foot ufurps my head." STEEVENS.

-come from thy ward;] Defift from any hope of awing me by that pofture of defence. JOHNSON.

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MIRA.

PRO. Hence; hang not on my garments.

MIRA.

I'll be his furety.

PRO.

Befeech you, father!

Sir, have pity;

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Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What! An advocate for an impoftor? hush!

Thou think'ft, there are no more fuch fhapes as he, Having feen but him and Caliban: Foolish wench! To the moft of men this is a Caliban,

And they to him are angels.

MIRA.

My affections

Are then most humble; I have no ambition

To fee a goodlier man.

PRO.
Thy nerves are in their infancy again,"

Come on; obey: [To FERD.

So they are:

And have no vigour in them.

FER. My fpirits, as in a dream, are all bound up." My father's lofs, the weakness which I feel, The wreck of all my friends, or this man's threats, To whom I am fubdu'd, are but light to me,' Might I but through my prison once a day

9 Thy nerves are in their infancy again,] Perhaps Milton had this paffage in his mind, when he wrote the following line in his Mafque at Ludlow Caftle:

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Thy nerves are all bound up in alabafter." STEEVENS.

2 My fpirits, as in a dream, are all bound up.] Alluding to a common fenfation in dreams; when we ftruggle, but with a total impuiffance in our endeavours, to run, ftrike, &c. WARBURTON.

3 are but light to me,] This paffage, as it ftands at prefent, with all allowance for poetical licence, cannot be reconciled to grammar. I fufpect that our author wrote-" were but light to me," in the fenfe of would be.-In the preceding line the old copy reads-nor this man's threats. The emendation was made by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.

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