Nor can imagination form a shape, FER. I am, in my condition, A prince, Miranda; I do think, a king; 8 (I would, not fo!) and would no more endure This wooden flavery, than I would fuffer The flesh-fly blow my mouth.'-Hear my foul fpeak ; The very inftant that I faw you, did My heart fly to your service; there refides, MIRA. Do you love me? FER. O heaven, O earth, bear witness to this found, And crown what I profefs with kind event, If I fpeak true; if hollowly, invert What beft is boded me, to mischief! I, Therein forget.] The old copy, in contempt of metre, reads"I therein de forget." STEEVENS. — than I would fuffer, &c.] The old copy reads fuffer. The emendation is Mr. Pope's. STEEVENS. -Than to The reading of the old copy is right, however ungrammatical. So, in All's well that ends well: "No more of this, Helena, go to, no more; left it be rather thought you affect a forrow, than to bave." MALONE. The defective metre shows that fome corruption had happened in the present instance. I receive no deviations from established grammar, on the fingle authority of the folio. STEEVENS. 9 The flesh-fly blow my mouth.] Mr. Malone obferves, that to blow, in this inftance, fignifies to "fwell and inflame." But I believe he is miftaken. To blow, as it ftands in the text, means the act of a fly by which she lodges eggs in flesh. So, in Chapman's verfion of the Iliad: -I much fear, left with the blows of flies "His brafs-inflicted wounds are fill'd-" STEEVENS. Beyond all limit of what else i' the world," MIRA. To weep at what I am glad of.3 PRO. I am a fool, Fair encounter Of two most rare affections! Heavens rain grace On that which breeds between them! FER. Wherefore weep you? MIRA. At mine unworthinefs, that dare not offer What I defire to give; and much less take, What I shall die to want: But this is trifling; And all the more it seeks to hide itself, The bigger bulk it fhews. Hence, bafhful cunning! And prompt me, plain and holy innocence! I am your wife,' if you will marry me; 2 -of what elfe i' the world,] i. e. of aught elfe; of whatsoever elfe there is in the world. I once thought that we fhould read-aught elfe. But the old copy is right. So, in King Henry VI. P. III; "With promife of his fifter, and what else, "To ftrengthen and support king Edward's place." MALONE. 3 I am a fool, To weep at what I am glad of.] This is one of thofe touches of nature that diftinguifh Shakspeare from all other writers. It was neceffary, in fupport of the character of Miranda, to make her appear unconfcious that excefs of forrow and excefs of joy find alike their relief from tears; and as this is the first time that confummate pleasure had made any near approaches to her heart, fhe calls fuch a feeming contradictory expreffion of it, folly. The fame thought occurs in Romeo and Juliet: "Back, foolish tears, back, to your native spring! "Which you, miftaking, offer up to joy." STEEVENS, 4 — it feeks —] i. e. my affection feeks. MALONE, 5 I am your wife, &c.] Si tibi non cordi fuerant connubia noftra, Catul. 62. MALONE. If not, I'll die your maid: to be your fellow " FER. And I thus humble ever." MIRA. My mistress, dearest, My husband then? FER. Ay, with a heart as willing As bondage e'er of freedom: here's my hand. MIRA. And mine, with my heart in't: And now farewell, Till half an hour hence. FER. A thoufand! thoufand! [Exeunt FER. and MIR. 8 PRO. So glad of this as they, I cannot be, 7 -your fellow-] i. e. companion. STEEVENS. here's my [Exit. Miran. And mine, with my heart in't:] It is ftill cuftomary in the weft of England, when the conditions of a bargain are agreed upon, for the parties to ratify it by joining their hands, and at the fame time for the purchafer to give an earneft. To this practice the poet alludes. So, in The Winter's Tale: Ere I could make thee open thy white hand, "And clap thyfelf my love; then didft thou utter "I am your's for ever." And again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "Pro. Why then we'll make exchange; here, take you this. Jul. And feal the bargain with a holy kifs. 66 "Pro. Here is my hand for my true conftancy." HENLEY. So glad of this as they, I cannot be, Who are furpriz'd with all;] The fenfe might be clearer, were we to make a flight tranfpofition: "So glad of this as they, who are furpriz'd "With all, I cannot be " Perhaps, however, more confonantly with ancient language, we fhould join two of the words together, and read "Who are furpriz'd withal." STEEVENS. SCENE II. Another part of the island. Enter STEPHANO and TRINCULO; CALIBAN following with a bottle. STE. Tell not me;-when the butt is out, we will drink water; not a drop before: therefore bear up, and board 'em: Servant-monster, drink to me. 8 TRIN. Servant-monster? the folly of this island! They fay, there's but five upon this ifle: we are three of them; if the other two be brain'd like us, the state totters." STE. Drink, fervant-monfter, when I bid thee; thy eyes are almoft fet in thy head. TRIN. Where fhould they be fet elfe? he were a brave monster indeed, if they were fet in his tail.2 STE. My man-monster hath drown'd his tongue in fack for my part, the fea cannot drown me: I fwam,' ere I could recover the fhore, five-and fea. 8 bear up, and board 'em :] A metaphor alluding to a chace SIR J. HAWKINS. 9-if the other two be brain'd like us, the flate totters.] We meet with a fimilar idea in Antony and Cleopatra: "He bears the third part of the world."—" The third part then is drunk." 2 STEEVENS. - he were a brave monfter indeed, if they were fet in his tail.] I believe this to be an allufion to a story that is met with in Stowe, and other writers of the time. It feems in the year 1574, a whale was thrown afhore near Ramfgate: "A monstrous fish (says the chronicler) but not fo monstrous as fome reported-for his eyes were in his head, and not in his back." Summary, 1575, p. 562. FARMER. 3-Ifwam, &c.] This play was not published till 1623. Albu mazar made its appearance in 1614, and has a paffage relative to thirty leagues, off and on, by this light.-Thou fhalt be my lieutenant, monster, or my standard. TRIN. Your lieutenant, if you lift; he's no ftandard. STE. We'll not run, monfieur monster. TRIN. Nor go neither: but you'll lie, like dogs; and yet fay nothing neither. STE. Moon-calf, fpeak once in thy life, if thou beeft a good moon-calf. CAL. How does thy honour? Let me lick thy fhoe: I'll not ferve him, he is not valiant. TRIN. Thou lieft, moft ignorant monfter; I am in cafe to juftle a conftable: Why, thou debofh'd fish thou,' was there ever man a coward, the escape of a failor yet more incredible. Perhaps, in both inftances, a fneer was meant at the Voyages of Ferdinando Mendez Pinto, or the exaggerated accounts of other lying travellers: 66 five days I was under water; and at length "Rowing with arms, and fteering with my feet; or my standard. STEEVENS. Trin. Your lieutenant, if you lift; he's no ftandard.] Meaning, he is so much intoxicated, as not to be able to ftand. The quib ble between ftandard, an enfign, and ftandard, a fruit-tree that grows without fupport, is evident. STEEVENS. -thou debofh'd fish thou,] I meet with this word, which I fuppofe to be the fame as debauch'd, in Randolph's Jealous Lovers, 1634: See, your house be ftor'd "With the deboifheft roarers in this city." Again, in Monfieur Thomas, 1639: 66 faucy fellows, Debafb'd and daily drunkards." The fubftantive occurs in the Partheneia Sacra, 1633: "A hater of men, rather than the deboifhments of their manners." |
