Pro. This was well done, my bird: The trumpery in my houfe, go, bring it hither, Ari. I go, I go. [Exity Pro. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature Nurture can never flick; on whom my pains, Humanely taken, all, all loft, quite loit; And as, with age, his body uglier grows, So his mind cankers: I will plague them all, Re-enter ARIEL, loaden with glistering apparel, &c. Even to roaring-Come, hang them on this line 2. PROSPERO and ARIEL remain invifible. Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, all wet. Cal. Pray you, tread foftly, that the blind mole may not Hear a foot fall 3: we now are near his cell. Ste. Monster, your fairy, which, you fay, is a harm By the latter, Shakspeare means the low fort of gorfe that only grows upon wet ground, and which is well defcribed by the name of wbins in Markham's Farewell to Hufbandry. It has prickles like thofe on a rofe-tree or a gooseberry. TOLLET. For ftale to catch thefe thieves.] Stale is a word in fowling, and is ufed to mean a bait or decoy to catch birds. STEEVENS. 8 Nurture can never flick;] Nurture is education. STEEVENS. 9-all, all loft,] The firft of these words was probably introduced by the carelefinefs of the tranfcriber or compofitor. We might fafely read, are all loft. MALONE. And as, with age, his body uglier grows, So bis mind cankers:] Shakspeare, when he wrote this defcription, perhaps recollected what his patron's most intimate friend, the great lord Effex, in an hour of difcontent, faid of queen Elizabeth; "that She grew old and canker'd, and that her mind was become as crocked as ber carcafe:"-a fpeech, which, according to Sir Walter Raleigh, coft him his head, and which, we may therefore fuppofe, was at that time much talked of. This play being written in the time of King James, thefe obnoxious words might be fafely repeated. MALONE. 2 hang them on this line.] The old copy reads-hang on them. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 3 that the blind mole may not Hear a foot fall:] This quality of hearing, which the mole is fuppofed to poffefs in fo high a degree, is mentioned in Euphues, quarto, 1581, p. 64. REED. lefs lefs fairy, has done little better than play'd the Jack with us +. Trin. Monfter, I do fmell all horfe-pifs; at which my nofe is in great indignation. Ste. So is mine. Do you hear, monfter? If I should take a displeasure against you; look you, Trin. Thou wert but a loft monster. Cal. Good, my lord, give me thy favour still: Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to Shall hood-wink this mifchance: therefore, fpeak foftly; All's hufh'd as midnight yet. Trin. Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool, Ste. There is not only difgrace and difhonour in that, monfter, but an infinite lofs. Trin. That's more to me than my wetting: yet this is your harmlefs fairy, monfter. Ste. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er ears for my labour. Cal. Pr'ythee, my king, be quiet: See'st thou here, This is the mouth o' the cell: no noife, and enter: Do that good mifchief, which may make this ifland Thine own for ever, and I, thy Caliban, For aye thy foot-licker. Ste. Give me thy hand: I do begin to have bloody thoughts. Trin. O king Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano! look, what a wardrobe here is for thee 5! Cal. Let it alone, thou fool; it is but trash. Trin. Oh, ho, monfter; we know what belongs to a 4bas done little better than play'd the Jack with us.] i. e. He has played Jack with a lantern; has led us about like an ignis fatuus, by which travellers are decoyed into the mire. JOHNSON. 50 king Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano! look, what a wardrobe here is for thee! The humour of thefe lines confifts in their being an allufion to an old celebrated ballad, which begins thus: King Stephen was a worthy peer and celebrates that king's parfimony with regard to his wardrobe. There are two ftanzas of this ballad in Othello. WARBURTON. The old ballad is printed at large in The Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. i. PERCY. 6 frippery :-O king Stephano! Ste. Put off that gown, Trinculo; by this hand, I'll have that gown. Trin. Thy grace fhall have it. Cal. The dropfy drown this fool! what do you mean, From toe to crown he'll fill our skins with pinches ; Ste. Be you quiet, monfter.-Mistress line, is not this my jerkin? Now is the jerkin under the line: now, jerkin, you are like to lose your hair 9, and prove a bald jerkin. Trin. Do, do: We fteal by line and level, and't like your grace. Ste. I thank thee for that jeft; here's a garment for't: wit fhall not go unrewarded, while I am king of this Country: Steal by line and level is an excellent pafs of pate; there's another garment for't. Trin. Monfter, come, put fome lime' upon your fingers, and away with the reft. Cal. I will have none on't: we shall lofe our time, 6 ➡we know what belongs to a frippery :] A frippery was a fhop where old cloaths were fold. Fripperie, Fr. The perfon who kept one of thefe fhops was called a fripper. Strype, in the life of Stowe, fays, that these frippers lived in Birchin-lane and Cornhill. STEEVENS. ? Let it alone,] The old copy reads Let's alone. For the emendation the prefent editor is anfwerable. Caliban had used the fame expreffion before. Mr. Theobald reads-Let's along. MALONE. 8 under the line, &c.] An allufion to what often happens to people who pafs the line. The violent fevers, which they contract in that hot climate, make them lofe their hair. EDWARDS' MSS. Perhaps the allufion is to a more indelicate difeafe than any peculiar to the equinoxial. Shakspeare feems to defign an equivoque between the equinoxial and the girdle of a woman. STEEVENS. 9 Now, jerkin, you are like to lose your hair] Jerkins made of goat fkins feem to have been part of the wardrobe of the theatres in our author's time. [See a note on the Winter's Tale, Act IV. fc. iii.] However, as the apparel brought in by Ariel is defcribed as fplendid and gliftering, the garments here spoken of were probably ornamented with tinfel, or gilt leather, and hung upon a bair-line. MALONR. -put fume lime, &c.] That is, birdlime. JOHNSON. And And all be turn'd to barnacles, or to apes 3 Ste. Monster, lay to your fingers; help to bear this away, where my hogfhead of wine is, or I'll turn you out of my kingdom: go to, carry this. Trin. And this. Ste. Ay, and this. A noife of hunters heard. Enter divers Spirits, in fhape of bounds, and bunt them about; Profpero and Ariel fetting them on. Pro. Hey, Mountain, hey! Ari. Silver! there it goes, Silver! Pro. Fury, Fury! there, Tyrant, there! hark, hark! [CAL. STE. and TRIN. are driven out. Go, charge my goblins that they grind their joints With dry convulfions; fhorten up their finews With aged cramps; and more pinch-spotted make them, Than pard, or cat o' mountain. Ari. Hark, they roar. Pro. Let them be hunted foundly: At this hour Shortly fhall all my labours end, and thou [Exeunt. 2 to barnacles, or to apes] Skinner fays barnacle is Anfer Scoticus: The barnacle is a kind of hell-fish growing on the bottoms of fhips, and which was anciently fuppofed, when broken off, to become one of these geefe. COLLINS. 3 With forebeads villainous low.] Low forebeads were anciently reckoned among deformities. STEEVENS. This opinion was perhaps peculiar to the age of Queen Elizabeth, and to England, whofe customs and fashions Shakspeare gave to every country, and to all times. In his Antony and Cleopatra he makes a meflenger affure the Egyptian Queen, that the forehead of her rival Octavia was as low as he could with it." MALONE. 4 A noise of bunters beard.] Shakspeare might have had in view "Arthur's Chace, which many believe to be in France, faying that it is a kennel of black dogs, followed by unknown huntsmen, with an exceeding great found of horns, as if it were a very hunting of fome wild beaft." See a Treatife of Spectres tranflated from the French of Peter de Loier, and published in quarto, 1605; p.11. GREY. "HECATE, (fays the fame writer, ibid.) as the Greeks affirmed, did ufe to fend dogges unto men, to feare and terrifie them." MALONE. G 3 ACT Enter PROSPERO in his magick robes, and ARIEL. Pro. Now does my project gather to a head: Pro. I did fay fo, When firft I rais'd the tempeft. Say, my fpirit, Ari. Confin'd together In the fame fashion as you gave in charge; In the lime-grove which weather-fends your cell; Brim-full of forrow and difmay; but chiefly him, Pro. Dost thou think fo, fpirit? Ari. Mine would, fir, were I human. Pro. And mine fhall. Haft thou, which art but air, a touch 7, a feeling Goes upright with his carriage.] Alluding to one carrying a bur then. This critical period of my life proceeds as I could with. Time brings forward all the expected events, without faultering under his burthen. STEEVENS. Still your releafe.] i. e. till you release them. MALONE. 7-a touch,] A touch is a fenfation. So, in Cymbeline: 66 a touch more rare "Subdues all pangs, all fears." STEEVENS. Of |