PRO. [Aside to ARIEL, above.] Now I arise:Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow. Here in this island we arriv'd; and here Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit Than other princess' can, that have more time For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.

MIRA. Heavens thank you for't! And now, pray you, sir,

For still 'tis beating in my mind,—your reason For raising this sea-storm?

I

PRO. Know thus far forth. By accident most strange, bountiful FortuneNow my dear lady-hath mine enemies Brought to this shore; and by my prescience I find my zenith doth depend upon A most auspicious star, whose influence If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes

Will ever after droop.-Here cease more questions:

Thou art inclin'd to sleep; 't is a good dulness, And give it way;-I know thou canst not choose.[MIRANDA sleeps. Come away, servant, come! I am ready now: Approach, my Ariel; come!

a Now I arise:-] The purport of these words has never been satisfactorily explained, because they have been always understood as addressed to Miranda. If we suppose them directed not to her, but aside to Ariel, who has entered, invisible except to Prospero, after having

"Perform'd to point the tempest,"

and whose arrival occasions Prospero to operate his sleepy charm

PRO.

My brave spirit! Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil Would not infect his reason?

ARI. Not a soul But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd Some tricks of desperation. All, but mariners, Plung'd in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel, Then all a-fire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand, With hair up-staring, then like reeds, not hair,Was the first man that leap'd; cried, Hell is empty, And all the devils are here. PRO. Why, that's my spirit! But was not this nigh shore? ARI. Close by, my master. PRO. But are they, Ariel, safe? ARI. Not a hair perish'd; On their sustaining garments not a blemish, But fresher than before: and, as thou bad'st me, In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle. The king's son have I landed by himself; Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs,

a And are upon the Mediterranean flote,-] Mr. Collier's annotator suggests, "And all upon," &c.; but what is gained by the alteration we cannot discern. Flote is here used substantively for food or wave, as in the following from Middleton and Rowley's

PRO. Before the time be out? no more! ARI. I pr'ythee, Remember, I have done thee worthy service; Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, serv'd Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst promise

To bate me a full year.

PRO.

Dost thou forget From what a torment I did free thee?

ARI.

No.

To do me business in the veins o' the earth
When it is bak'd with frost.
ARI.
PRO. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou
forgot

I do not, sir.

The foul witch Sycorax, who, with age and envy, Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her?

ARI. No, sir.

PRO. Thou hast. Where was she born? speak; tell me.

ARI. Sir, in Argier.

PRO.
O, was she so? I must
Once in a month recount what thou hast been,
Which thou forgett'st. This damn'd witch
Sycorax,

For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier,

Thou know'st, was banish'd: for one thing she did
They would not take her life. Is not this true?
ARI. Ay, sir.

PRO. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought with child,d

And here was left by the sailors: Thou, my slave, As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant;

Yes, Caliban her son.

PRO. Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban, Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st What torment I did find thee in; thy groans Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts Of ever-angry bears: it was a torment To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax Could not again undo: it was mine art, When I arriv'd, and heard thee, that made gape The pine, and let thee out.

ARI. I thank thee, master. PRO. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak, And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.

ARI.

Pardon, master:

I will be correspondent to command, And do my spriting gently.

PRO.

Do so; and after two days

I will discharge thee.
ARI.
That's my noble master!
What shall I do? say what; what shall I do?
PRO. Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea;
Be subject to no sight but thine and mine; invisible
To every eyeball else. Go, take this shape,
And hither come in 't: go, hence with diligence!
[Exit ARIEL.
Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well;
Awake!

MIRA. [Waking.] The strangeness of your story put Heaviness in me.

PRO.
Shake it off. Come on;
We'll visit Caliban, my slave, who never

Yields us kind answer.

MIRA.

'Tis a villain, sir, I do not love to look on.

a MINA. (Waking.)] Mr. Collier claims for his annotator the merit of having first added this not very important stage direction.

b We cannot miss him:] We cannot do without him.

e When?] See note (f), p. 449, Vol. I.

d As wicked dew-] Wicked here implies baneful, pernicious; as in opposition we hear of the virtuous properties of "herbs, plants, stones," &c.

• Urchins-] Hedgehogs were formerly so called. it is doubtful, however, whether urchins in this place does not signify some fairy

ARI. My lord, it shall be done. [Exit. PRO. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself

Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!

Enter CALIBAN.(5)

CAL. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholesome fen, Drop on you both! a south-west blow on ye, And blister you all o'er! (6)

PRO. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt
have cramps,

Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath
up; urchins
Shall, for that vast of night that they may work,
All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch'd
As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging
Than bees that made 'em.

CAL.
I must eat my dinner.
This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou tak'st from me. When thou camest

first,

Thou strok'dst me, and mad'st much of me; wouldst give me

Water with berries in 't; and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night: and then I lov'd thee,
And show'd thee all the qualities o' the isle,
The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place and
fertile :-

Cursed be I that did so!-All the charms
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have,

a PRO.] This speech, in the folios, has the prefix "Mira," but it plainly belongs to Prospero, to whom Theobald assigned it, and who has retained it ever since.

b

Which any print of goodness will not take,
Being capable of all ill !]

Here, as in many other places, capable signifies impressible, susceptible.

e Race,-] That is, Nature, essence.

d The red plague rid you,-] See note (a), p. 447, Vol. II. Fill all thy bones with aches,-] Mr. Collier remarks that "this word, of old, was used either as a monosyllable or as a dissyllable, as the case might require." This may be questioned.

Ake," says Baret in his "Alvearie," "is the Verbe of the substantive Ach, ch being turned into k." As a substantive, then,

Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes With words that made them known. But thy vile race, c

Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good

natures

Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou Deservedly confin'd into this rock,

Who hadst deserv'd more than a prison.

CAL. You taught me language; and my profit

on't

Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you, For learning me your language!

PRO. Hag-seed, hence! Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou 'rt best, To answer other business. Shrugg'st thou, malice? If thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps, Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar, That beasts shall tremble at thy din.

the word was written aches; and pronounced as a dissyllable: when a verb, it was written akes, and its pronunciation was monosyllabic. This distinction is invariably marked in the old text; thus, in "Romeo and Juliet," Act II. Sc. 5, where it is a verb,"Lord, how my head akes, what a head have I."

In "Coriolanus," Act III. Sc. 1,

" and my soule akes To know," &c. And in "Othello," Act IV. Sc. 2,

"That the sense akes at thee." While in every instance where it occurs as a substantive, it is spelt as in the passage above, aches, and should be so pronounced.