Seb. The next advantage

Will we take throughly.

Ant. Let it be to night;

For, now they are opprefs'd with travel, they
Will not, nor cannot, ufe fuch vigilance,
As when they're fresh.

Seb. I fay, to night: no more.

Solemn and ftrange mufick; and Profpero on the top, invifible. Enter feveral ftrange shapes, bringing in a banquet; and dance about it with gentle actions of falutation; and, inviting the King, &c. to eat, they depart.

Alon. What harmony is this? my good friends, hark! Gon. Marvellous fweet mufick!

Alon. Give us kind keepers, heaven; what were these? Seb. A living drollery. Now I will believe, That there are unicorns; that, in Arabia

There is one tree, the phoenix' throne; one phoenix At this hour reigning there.

Ant. I'll believe both:

And what does elfe want credit, come to me,
And I'll be sworn 'tis true. Travellers ne'er did lie,
Though fools at home condemn 'em.

Gon. If in Naples

I fhould report this now, would they believe me?
If I fhould fay, I faw fuch islanders:

(For, certes, these are people of the island)

Who tho' they are of monftrous fhape, yet, note,
Their manners are more gentle-kind, than of
Our human generation you fhall find

Many; nay, almost any.

Pro. Honeft lord,

Thou haft faid well, for fome of you there prefent
Are worse than devils.

Alon. I cannot too much mufe,

Such fhapes, fuch gefture, and fuck found, expreffing (Although they want the use of tongue) a kind

Of excellent dumb difcourfe.

Pro. Praise, in departing.

Fran. They vanish'd ftrangely.
VOL. I.

E

Seb.

Seb. No matter, fince

They've left their viands behind; for we have ftomachs. Will't please you taste of what is here?

Alon. Not I.

Gon. Faith, Sir, you need not fear. When we were boys, Who would believe, that there were mountaineers, Dew-lapt like bulls, whofe throats had hanging at 'em Wallets of flesh, or that there were fuch men,

Whofe heads ftood in their breasts? which now we find, Each putter out on five for one will bring us (22) Good warrant of.

Alon.

(22) Each Putter out of Five for One] By the Variation of a fingle Letter, I think, I have fet the Text right; and will therefore now proceed to explain it. I freely confefs, that I once understood this Paffage thus; that every five Travellers (or Putters out) did bring authentick Confirmation of thefe Stories, for one that pretended to difpute the Truth of them: But communicating my Senfe of the Place to Two ingenious Friends, I found, I was not at the Bottom of the Meaning. Mr. Warburton obferv'd to me, that this was a fine Piece of conceal'd Satire on the Voyagers of that Time, who had just discover'd a new World; and, as was very natural, grew moft extravagant in difplaying the Wonders of it. That, particularly, by Each Putter out of Five for One, was meant the Adventurers in the Discovery of the Weft Indies, who had for the Money they advanc'd and contributed, 20 per Cent.- Dr. Thirlby did not a little affift this Explanation by his Concurrence, and by inftructing me, that it was usual in thofe Times for Travellers to put out Money, to receive a greater Sum if they liv'd to return; and, for Proof, he referr'd me to Morifon's Itinerary, Part I. p. 198, &c. I cannot return my Friends better Thanks for the Light they have given me upon this Pailage, than by fubjoining a Teftimony from a contemporary Poet, that will put both their Explanation, and my Correction of the Text, paft difpute.

B. Jonfon's Every Man out of his Humour, in the Character of Puntarrvolo.

I do intend, this Year of Jubilee coming on, to travel: And (because I will not altogether go upon Expence,) I am determind to put forth fome five thousand pound, to be paid me five for one, upon the Return of my felf, my Wife, and my Dog, from the Turk's Court in Conftantinople. If All, or Either of Us mifcarry in the Journey, 'tis gone; if We be fuccessful, wby, there will be five and twenty thousand Pounds to entertain Time withal.

If this was to be the Return of the Knight's Venture; 'tis obvious, he put out his Money on five for one. Ben. to heighten the Ridicule of thefe projecting Voyagers, makes Puntarvolo's Wife averfe to accompany him; and fo he is forc'd to put out his Venture on the Return of himself, his Dog, and his Cat.- Let me conclude with obferving on the different Conduct of the Two Poets. Shakespeare (perhaps, out of a particular Deference for Sir W. Raleigh) only fneers thefe adventurous Voyagers obliquely,

and

Alon. I will stand to, and feed,

Although my laft; no matter, fince I feel

The best is past. Brother, my lord the Duke,
Stand to, and do as we.

Thunder and lightning.

Enter Ariel like a harpy, claps his wings upon the table, and with a queint device the banquet vanishes.

Ari. You are three men of fin, whom destiny (That hath to inftrument this lower world, And what is in't) the never-furfeited fea

Hath caused to belch up; and on this Ifland (23)
Where man doth not inhabit, you 'mongst men
Being moft unfit to live. I have made you mad;
And ev❜n with fuch like valour men hang and drown
Their proper felves. You fools! I and my fellows
Are minifters of fate; the elements,

Of whom your fwords are temper'd, may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with bemockt-at ftabs
Kill the ftill-clofing waters, as diminish

One down that's in my plume: my fellow-minifters
Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt,
Your fwords are now too maffie for your ftrengths,
And will not be up-lifted. But remember,
(For that's my business to you) that you three
From Milan did fupplant good Profpero:
Expos'd unto the fea (which hath requit it)
Him, and his innocent child: for which foul deed
The powers delaying, not forgetting, have
Incens'd the feas and fhores, yea, all the creatures,
Against your peace: thee of thy fon, Alonso,
They have bereft; and do pronounce by me,
Ling'ring perdition, worse than any death

and, as it were, en passant: The furly Ben, who would be tyed up by no fuch fcrupulous Regards, dreffes up the Fashion in the moft glaring Colours of Comic Humour; or, rather, brings down his Satire to the Level of Farcical Ridicule.

(23) Hath caus'd to belch you up ;] Thus, the whole Set of Editions; but 'ris obvious to every Reader, that the Grammar's faulty; and therefore I have cur'd it by throwing out you.

Can be at once, fhall step by step attend

You and your ways; whofe wrath to guard you from, (Which here in this moft defolate Ifle elfe falls

Upon your heads,) is nothing but heart's forrow,
And a clear life enfuing.

He vanishes in thunder: then, to foft mufick, Enter the Shapes again, and dance with mopps and mowes, and carrying out the table.

Pro. Bravely the figure of this harpy haft thou
Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had devouring:
Of my inftruction haft thou nothing bated,
In what thou hadft to fay: fo with good life,
And obfervation ftrange, my meaner minifters
Their several kinds have done; my high charms work,
And these, mine enemies, are all knit up

In their distractions: they are in my power;
And in these fits I leave them, whilft I vifit,
Young Ferdinand, (whom they fuppofe is drown'd,)
And his and my lov'd darling. [Exit Profpero from above.
Gon. I' th' name of fomething holy, Sir, why ftand you
In this ftrange ftare?

Alon. O, it is monftrous! monftrous!
Methoughts, the billows fpoke, and told me of it;
The winds did fing it to me; and the thunder,
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd
The Name of Profper: it did bafe my trefpafs.
Therefore, my fon i' th' ooze is bedded; and
I'll feek him deeper than e'er plummet founded,
And with him there lye mudded.

Seb. But one fiend at a time,

I'll fight their legions o'er.

Ant. I'll be thy fecond.

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

Gon. All three of them are defperate; their great

guilt,

Like poifon giv'n to work a great time after,

Now 'gins to bite the fpirits. I do beseech you,
That are of fuppler joints, follow them fwiftly;
And hinder them from what this ecftafie

May now provoke them too.

Adri. Follow, I pray you.

[Exeunt.

ACT

I

ACTIV.

SCENE, Profpero's Cell.

Enter Profpero, Ferdinand, and Miranda.

PROSPERO.

FI have too aufterely punish'd you,

Your compenfation makes amends, for I

Have giv'n you here a thread of mine own life; (24)

Or that, for which I live; whom once again
I tender to thy hand: all thy vexations
Were but my tryals of thy love, and thou
Haft ftrangely flood the teft. Here, afore heaven,
I ratify this my rich gift: O Ferdinand,

Do not smile at me, that I boaft her off;
For thou shalt find, fhe will outstrip all praise,
And make it halt behind her.

Fer. I believe it,

Against an oracle.

(24)

for I

Have giv'n you here a third of my own life,] Thus all the Impreffions in general; but why is She only a Third of his own Life? He had no Wife living, nor any other Child, to rob her of a Share in his Affection: So that We may reckon her at least half of himself. Nor could he intend, that he lov'd himself twice as much as he did her; for he imme diately fubjoins, that it was She for whom he liv'd. In Othello, when Iago alarms the Senator with the lofs of his Daughter, he tells him,

Soul.

Your Heart is burst, you have loft half your And Dimidium anima mea is the current Language on fuch Occafions. There is no Room for doubt, but I have reftor'd to the Poet his true Reading; and the Thread of Life is a Phrafe moft frequent with him. So in K. Henry V.

1.

And let not Bardolfe's vital Thread be cut
With Edge of Penny Cord.

Henr. VI.

bad not Churchmen pray'd, His Thread of Life had not fo foon decay'd. 2. Henr. VI. Argo, their Thread of Life is fpun. Othello. Fm glad, thy Father's dead; Thy Match was mortal to him, and pure Grief Shore his old Thread in twain.

Pro.