Here on this grass-plot, in this very place, peacocks fly amain: Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain. Sweet now, silence! [JUNO and CERES whisper, and send IRIS on employment. Juno and Ceres whisper seriously; There's something else to do. Hush, and be mute, Or else our spell is marr'd. Iris. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the wand'ring brooks, With your sedg'd crowns, and ever-harmless looks, Leave your crisp channels, and on this green land Answer your summons: Juno does command. Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate A contract of true love: be not too late. Enter certain Nymphs. You sun-burn'd sicklemen, of August weary, And these fresh nymphs encounter every one Enter certain Reapers, properly habited: they join with the Nymphs in a graceful dance; towards the end whereof PROSPERO starts suddenly, and speaks; after which, to a strange, hollow, and confused noise, they heavily vanish. Pro. [Aside.] I had forgot that foul conspiracy Of the beast Caliban, and his confederates, Against my life; the minute of their plot Is almost come. - [To the Spirits.] Well done. Avoid; no more. Fer. This is strange: your father's in some passion That works him strongly. Mira. Never till this day, And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, Be not disturb'd with my infirmity. And there repose: a turn or two I'll walk, We wish your peace. [Exeunt. Pro. Come with a thought I thank thee, Ariel: come! Pro. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains, Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost; And as with age his body uglier grows, So his mind cankers. I will plague them all, Enter ARIEL, loaden with glistering apparel, &c. Even to roaring. - Come, hang them on this line. Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, all wet. Cai. Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole may Not hear a foot fall: we now are near his cell. Ste. Monster, your fairy, which, you say, is a harmless fairy, has done little better than play'd the Jack with us. Trin. Monster, my nose is in great indignation. Ste. So is mine. Do you hear, monster? If I should take a displeasure against you; look you,Trin. Thou wert but a lost monster. Cal. Good my lord, give me thy favour still. Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to Shall hood-wink this mischance: therefore, speak Ste. Give me thy hand. I do begin to have Trin. O King Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano! look, what a wardrobe here is for thee! Cal. Let it alone, thou fool: it is but trash. Trin. O, ho, monster! we know what belongs to a frippery:-O King Stephano! Ste. Put off that gown, Trinculo: by this hand, I'll have that gown. [mean, Trin. Thy grace shall have it. Cal. The dropsy drown this fool! what do you To doat thus on such luggage? Let's alone, And do the murther first: if he awake, From toe to crown he'll fill our skins with pinches; Make us strange stuff. Ste. Be you quiet, monster.-Mistress line, is not this my jerkin? Now is the jerkin under the line now, jerkin, you are like to lose your hair, and prove a bald jerkin. [and 't like your grace. Trin. Do, do: we steal by line and level, Ste. I thank thee for that jest; here's a garment for't: wit shall not go unrewarded, while I am King of this country. "Steal by line and level," is an excellent pass of pate; there's another garment for't. Trin. Monster, come, put some lime upon your fingers, and away with the rest. [time, Cal. I will have none on't: we shall lose our And all be turn'd to barnacles, or to apes With foreheads villainous low. Ste. Monster, lay-to your fingers: help to bear this away, where my hogshead of wine is, or I'll turn you out of my kingdom. Go to; carry this. Trin. And this. Ste. Ay, and this. A noise of hunters heard. Enter divers Spirits, in shape of hounds, and hunt them about; PROSPERO and ARIEL setting them on. Pro. Hey, Mountain, hey! 「hark: Ari. Silver! there it goes, Silver! Pro. Fury, Fury! there, Tyrant, there! hark, [CAL., STE., and TRIN. are driven out. Go, charge my goblins that they grind their joints With dry convulsions; shorten up their sinews With aged cramps, and more pinch-spotted make Than pard, or cat o' mountain. [them, Ari. Hark! thev roar. Pro. Let them be hunted soundly. At this hour Lie at my mercy all mine enemies: Shortly shall all my labours end, and thou Shalt have the air at freedom. For a little, Follow, and do me service. Act Fifth. [Exeunt. I did say so, When first I raised the tempest. Say, my spirit, How fares the King and 's followers? Confin'd together Ari. In the same fashion as you gave in charge; His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops works them, That if you now beheld them, your affections Would become tender. Pro. Dost thou think so, spirit? Ari. Mine would, sir, were I human. Pro. And mine shall. Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling th' quick, Yet, with my nobler reason, 'gainst my fury Ari. I'll fetch them, sir. [Exit. Pro. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves; And ye, that on the sands with printless foot Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak [Solemn music. A solemn air, and the best comforter Holy Gonzalo, honourable man, There Mine eyes ev'n sociable to the shew of thine, Fall fellowly drops.--The charm dissolves apace; And as the morning steals upon the night, Melting the darkness, so their rising senses Begin to ehase the ignorant fumes that mantle Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo! My true preserver, and a loyal sir To him thou follow'st, I will pay thy graces Home, both in word and deed.-Most cruelly Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter: Thy brother was a furtherer in the act;Thou'rt pinch'd for't now, Sebastian.-Flesh and blood, You brother mine, that entertain'd ambition, Expell'd remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian, [strong,) (Whose inward pinches therefore are most Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee, [ing Unnatural though thou art. Their understandBegins to swell, and the approaching tide Will shortly fill the reasonable shores, That now lie foul and muddy. Not one of them, That yet looks on me, or would know ine.-Ariel, Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell; [Exit ARIEL. I will dis-case me, and myself present, ARIEL enters, singing, and helps to attire him. In a cowslip's bell I lie; Merrily, merrily, shall I live now, Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. Pro. Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee; But yet thou shalt have freedom:-so, so, so.- Ari. I drink the air before me, and return ment Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me, Pro. First, noble friend, Be measur'd, or confin'd. Or be not, I'll not swear. Whether this be, all. But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded, [Aside to SEB. and ANT. I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you, Seb. [Aside.] The devil speaks in him. No.- If thou beest Prospero, Give us particulars of thy preservation: [since How thou hast met us here, whom three hours Were wrack'd upon this shore, where I have lost (How sharp the point of this remembrance is!) My dear son Ferdinand. Pro. I am woe for't, sir. Alon. Irreparable is the loss; and Patience Says it is past her cure. Pro. I rather think, [grace, You have not sought her help; of whose soft Alon. You the like loss? O heavens! that they were living both in Naples, The King and Queen there! that they were, I wish Myself were mudded in that oozy bed [daughter? Where my son lies. When did you lose your Pro. In this last tempest. I perceive, these lords At this encounter do so much admire, That they devour their reason, and scarce think strangely Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir; I say, Amen, Gonzalo. [issue With gold on lasting pillars: -In one voyage [hands: Alon. [TO FER. and MIRA.] Give me your Be it so: Amen. Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains, Was't well done? [Aside. And there is in this business more than Nature Pro. Sir, my liege, Do not infest your mind with beating on [sure, spirit: [Aside. Enter ARIEL, driving in CALIBAN, STEPHANO, Ste. Every man shift for all the rest, and let no man take care for himself, for all is but fortune. Coragio, bully-monster, coragio! Trin. If these be true spies that I wear in my head, here's a goodly sight. Cal. O Setebos! these be brave spirits, indeed. Seb. Ha, ha! What things are these, my lord Antonio? Very like: one of them Enter ARIEL, with the Master and Boatswain (For he's a bastard one) had plotted with them amazedly following. To take my life. Two of these fellows you Cal. I shall be pinch'd to death. Alon. Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler? Seb. He is drunk now: where had he wine? Alon. And Trinculo is reeling ripe: where should they C Find this grand liquor that hath gilded 'em?-- Trin. I have been in such a pickle, since I saw you last, that, I fear me, will never out of my bones: shall not fear fly-blowing. Seb. Why, how now, Stephano! Pro. He is as disproportion'd in his manners, Cal. Ay, that I will; and I'll be wise hereafter, Go to; away! [you found it. [Exewnt CAL., STE., and TRIN. INTRODUCTION TO THE TWO AMONG the many unaccountable and incomprehensible blunders of the critics of the last century, with regard to Shakespeare and his works, was the denial by two of them,-Hanmer and Upton-and the doubt by more, that he wrote The Two Gentlemen of Verona. An important and often-quoted passage in the Palladis Tamia, of Francis Meres, published in 1598, mentions this play first among the twelve which the author cites in support of his opinion, that "Shakespeare among the English is the most excellent in both kinds [comedy and tragedy] for the stage." But this uncontradicted testimony, and that of Shakespeare's friends and fellow-actors, who superintended the publication of the folio of 1623, is hardly needed; for so unmistakably does Shakespeare's hand appear in the play, from Valentine's first speech to his last, that were a copy of it found without a name upon its title-page, or a claimant in the literature or the memorandum-books of its day, it would be at tributed to Shakespeare by general acclamation. Who but he could then have written the first ten lines of it, where Valentine says to Proteus, "affection chains thy tender days To the sweet glances of thy honour'd love," and gently reproves him for living "sluggardiz'd at home," wearing out his youth "in shapeless idleness"? There has been but one man in the world whose daring fancies were so fraught with meaning. Who but he could have created Launce or Launce's dog? Indeed, it is safe to say that, however inferior it may be to the productions of his maturer years, even The Tempest and King Lear are not more unmistakably Shakespearian in character than The Two Gentlemen of Verona. [Now my charms are all o'erthrown, GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. The play was first printed in the folio of 1623, and with very few corruptions. The most remarkable error in the original text is that which occurs in Act II., Sc. 5, where Speed, being in Milan, bids Launce "welcome to Padua,"-a place with which the plot has no relations whatever. Mr. Halliwell suggests that the name is perhaps a relic of some old Italian story, upon which the play may have been founded. This is not impossible; but mistakes as great occur sometimes even in the present day; and this one can hardly be received even as cumulative evidence that the play is constructed upon an undiscoverable, forgotten story. Some similarity has been noticed between a scene and some of the incidents in this play, and certain passages of the story of the Shepherdess Felismena in the Diana of George de Montemajor. Such arethe refusal of the mistress to receive a letter brought by her maid, with the final success o the latter in obtaining a hearing for the lover, the departure of the lover to a foreign court, where he loves another lady, -the determination of his old mistress to follow him in boy's clothes, and her reception into his service as page, after having, in company with her host, heard him serenade his new love, and his choice of her as his confidant and messenger in his suit. These incidents, however, are not uncommon in the many romances with which Shakespeare must have been familiar; and their similarity to some passages in Twelfth Night will at once occur to the reader. In that play, the likeness to this story of Felismena is yet greater; for in the latter the scornful lady falls in love with the forlorn damsel, who, in a page's dress, woos her for another. But the companionship that of her |