Puslapio vaizdai
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the old way of spelling it was thrid, and that the r and the i were frequently transposed by the inattention of the compositor of the press.

P. 95.-74.-118.

Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep, And flat meads thatch'd with stover, them to keep, Is now used in Suffolk for fodder for cattle.

P. 97.-76.-122.

Why hath thy queen

Summon'd me hither, to this short-grass'd green ?

I see no reason for changing short-graz'd to short-grass'd.

P. 98.-76.—123.

Highest queen of state,

Great Juno comes; I know her by her gait.
Modern editions have High queen.

P. 99.-77.-124.

This is a most majestic vision, and
Harmonious charmingly.

Some editions have Harmonious charming lays. It is so cited by Hurd in his Dissertation on the Marks of Imitation, where he highly commends this mask.

P. 100.-78.-125.

You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the wand'ring brooks.

Why is not winding as probable a reading as wand'ring?

P. 103.-79.-128.

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind.

I am inclined to think that rack is a mis-spelling for wrack, i. e. wreck.

P. 104.-81.-130.

Ferd. Mira. We wish your peace.

Pro. Come with a thought:-I thank you :—Ariel, come.

I think Mr. Steevens has done rightly in changing thee to you. Theobald made the same alteration.

P. 82.-132.

Pro. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost.

I think it very probable that Mr. Malone is

right.

P. 114.-88.-141.

and you, whose pastime

Is to make midnight mushrooms; that rejoice

To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid

(Weak masters though ye be,) I have be-dimm'd
The noon-tide sun, &c.

Blackstone has mistaken the meaning of this, which is rightly explained by Steevens

P. 115.-89.-142.

A solemn air, and the best comforter

To an unsettled fancy's cure! Thy brains,
Now useless, boil within thy scull.

(Malone's reading).

I think the reading of Mr. Pope and the subsequent editors much preferable to Mr. Malone's, whose meaning I confess I do not understand. The passage in the modern editions, preceding Mr. Malone's, stood thus:

A solemn air, and the best comforter
To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains,
Now useless, boil'd within thy skull !

This I understand, or at least fancy I do. Of the passage, as regulated by Mr. Malone, I can make nothing.

P. 116.-90.-143.

Thou'rt pinch'd for't now, Sebastian.--Flesh and blood.
I think Theobald's pointing is right:

Thour't pinch'd for't now, Sebastian, flesh and blood.
P. 117.-91.-144.

On the bat's back I do fly,
After summer, merrily.

I think this is rightly explained by Mr. Steevens.

P. 121.-95.-151.

Mira. Yes, for a score of kingdoms, you should wrangle,
And I would call it fair play.

I think the punctuation recommended by Mr. Steevens is right.

P. 128.-100.-160.

Cap. Ay, that I will; and I'll be wise hereafter,
And seek for grace: What a thrice-double ass
Was I, to take this drunkard for a god,
And worship this dull fool?

Dr. Warton in his elegant' critique on this play, (Adventurer, Nos. 93, 97,) thinks Shakespeare injudicious in putting into the mouth of Caliban this speech, which implies repentance and understanding; whereas he thinks he ought to have preserved the fierce and implacable spirit of Caliban to the end. I doubt whether this censure is just, and suspect it would not have been passed, had not Dr. W. thought it necessary to point out some defect in the piece on which he was commenting, in order to escape the charge of an indiscriminating admiration of his author, too frequently imputable to commentators. Caliban was struck with the splendid

appearance of Prospero and the other princes, whose magnificent habits far exceeded any thing he had ever seen before (for their "Garments, being, as they were, drenched in the sea, held, notwithstanding, their freshness and glosses, being rather new-dyed than stained with salt water"): and he considered them as beings of a superior order to the drunkards with whom he had lately conversed:

O, Setebos! these be brave spirits indeed!
How fine my master is!

It is natural to a savage to be immediately delighted with novelty, and to over-rate that with which he is captivated; and, accordingly, Caliban, in his first encounter with Stephano and Trinculo, is represented (with great propriety, I think,) as treating his new friends with a superstitious respect:

That's a brave god, and bears celestial liquor!

I'll kneel to him.

He had, besides, just had painful experience of Prospero's power, the farther effects of which he still dreaded ("I fear he will chastise me,' and "I shall be pinch'd to death,"); and his extravagant admiration co-operating with his fears, it seems natural for him to promise amendment, and to engage obedience to those, whom his astonished imagination conceived to be of transcendent dignity and power.

ADDITIONAL REMARKS.

Pro.

P. 23.

Now I arise:

Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow.

I confess I cannot acquiesce in either of the explanations given of these words, though I do not know that I am able to give any very satisfactory account of them. With the regulation proposed by Sir William Blackstone (to which I can hardly believe that many readers will yield assent) Mr. Steevens seems dissatisfied, from his not adopting it, and proposing an explanation of the words as they now stand. But I cannot think that Mr. S. has given the true meaning; for I do not perceive that Prospero now rises in his narration, which had from the beginning been extremely interesting, as Miranda confesses ("Your story would cure deafness."). I am strongly inclined to think, the words mean no more than that Prospero rises from his seat, which he does because he was just now concluding his narration, all that remains for him to relate being that they arrived in the island, in which he had been tutor to his daughter, which account he dispatches in the compass of four lines. What farther he says to Miranda is in answer to a question put by her, and is no part of his narrative. I do not contend that the words understood in this sense are absolutely necessary, but neither are they so in the sense attributed to them by Mr. Steevens or Sir William Blackstone. I confess I think those gentlemen have gone too

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