Some tricks of defperation: All, but mariners, Pro. Why, that's my fpirit! If it be at all neceffary to explain the meaning, it is this: Not a foul but felt such a fever as madmen feel, when the frantic fit is upon them. STEEVENS. -fuftaining-] i. e. Their garments that bore them up and fupported them. So K. Lear, act IV. fc. iv. "In our fuftaining corn." Mr. Edwards was of opinion that we should read fea-stained garments; for (fays he) it was not the floating of their cloaths, but the magic of Profpero which preferved, as it it had wrecked them. Nor was the miracle, that their garments had not been at first discoloured by the fea-water, which even that Juftaining would not have prevented, unless it had been on the air, not on the water; but, as Gonzalo fays, that their garments "being (as they were) drenched in the fea, held notwithstanding "their freshness and glofs, being rather new-dyed than stained "with falt-water." For this, and all fuch notes as are taken from the MSS. of the late Mr. Edwards, I am indebted to the friendship of Benjamin Way, Efq; who very obligingly procured them from the executors of that gentleman, with leave for their publication. Such of them as are omitted in this edition had been fometimes fareftalled by the remarks of others, and fometimes by my own. The reader, however, might have been justly offended, had any other reafons prevented me from communicating the unpublished sentiments of that fprightly critick and most amiable man, as entire as I received them. STEEVENS. This note of Mr. Edwards, with which I fuppofe no reader is fatisfied, fhews with how much greater ease critical emendations are destroyed than made, and how willingly every man would be changing the text, if his imagination would furnish alterations. JOHNSON, But But fresher than before: and, as thou bad'ft me, Pro. Of the king's fhip, The mariners, fay how thou haft difpos'd, Ari. Safely in harbour Is the king's fhip; in the deep nook, where once Thou call'dft me up at midnight to fetch dew 2 From the ftill-vex'd Bermoothes, there fhe's hid: The From the fill-vex'd Bermoothes.-] Theobald fays Bermoothes is printed by mistake for Bermudas. No. That was the name by which the islands then went, as we may fee by the voyages of that time; and by our author's contemporary poets. Fletcher, in his Women Pleafed, fays, The devil fhould think of purchafing that egg-fhell to victual out a witch for the Bermoothes. Smith, in his account of these islands, p. 172. fays, that the Bermudas were fo fearful to the world, that many called them The Ifle of Devils.-P. 174.—to all feamen no lefs terrible than an inchanted den of furies. And no wonder, for the clime was extremely fubject to ftorms and hurricanes; and the iflands were furrounded with scattered rocks lying fhallowly hid under the furface of the water. WARBURTON. Again in Decker's If this be not a good Play, the Devil is in it, 1612. 66 "Sir, if you have made me tell a lye, they'll fend me on a voyage to the island of Hogs and Devils, the Bermudas," STEEVENS, The opinion that Bermudas was haunted with evil fpirits continued fo late as the civil wars. In a little piece of fir John Berkinhead's, intitled, Two Centuries of Paul's Church-yard, una cum indice expurgatorio, &c. 12°, in page 62, under the title of Cafes of Confcience, is this. 34. "Whether Bermudas and the parliament-house lie under "one planet, feeing both are haunted with devils." PERCY. Bermudas was on this account the cant name for fome privileged place, in which the cheats and riotous bullies of Shakespeare's time affembled. So in The Devil is an Afs, by Ben. Jonfon, keeps he ftill your quarter "In the Bermudas ?" The mariners all under hatches ftow'd; Whom, with a charm join'd to their fuffer'd labour, Suppofing that they faw the king's fhip wreck'd, Pro. Ariel, thy charge Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work : Ari. Paft the mid feafon. Pro. At least two glaffes: The time 'twixt fix and now, Muft by us both be fpent most preciously. Ari. Is there more toil? Since thou doft give me pains, Let me remember thee what thou haft promis'd, Pro. How now? moody? What is't thou can't demand? Ari. My liberty. Pro. Before the time be out? no more. Ari. I pray thee: Remember, I have done thee worthy fervice; Again in one of his Epiftles, "Have their Bermudas, and their straights i'th' Strand." Again in The Devil is an Afs, 3 66 I gave my word "For one that's run away to the Bermudas." STEEVENS. -the Mediterranean flote.] Flote is wave. Flot. Fr. STEEVENS, 4 What is the time o' the day?] This paffage needs not be disturbed, it being common to afk a queftion, which the next moment enables us to answer; he that thinks it faulty may easily adjust it thus: Pro. What is the time o' the day? Paft the mid feafon? Ari. At least two glaffes. Pro. The time 'twixt fix and now. JOHNSON. Without Without or grudge, or grumblings: thou didst pro mife To bate me a full year. Pro. 5 Doft thou forget From what a torment I did free thee? Ari. No. Pro. Thou doft; and think'ft it much, to tread the ooze 5 Doft thou forget] That the character and conduct of Profpero may be understood, fomething must be known of the system of enchantment, which fupplied all the marvellous found in the romances of the middle ages. This system seems to be founded on the opinion that the fallen fpirits, having different degrees of guilt, had different habitations allotted them at their expulfion, fome being confined in hell, fome (as Hooker, who delivers the opinion of our poet's age, expreffes it) difperfed in air, fome on earth, fome in water, others in caves, dens, or minerals under the earth. Of these, fome were more malignant and mischievous than others. The earthy fpirits feem to have been thought the moft depraved, and the aerial the leaft vitiated. Thus Profpero obferves of Ariel: Thou waft a fpirit too delicate To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands. Over thefe fpirits a power might be obtained by certain rites performed or charms learned. This power was called The Black Art, or Knowledge of Enchantment. The enchanter being (as king James obferves in his Demonology) one who commands the devil, whereas the witch ferves him. Those who thought beft of this art, the existence of which was, I am afraid, believed very ferioufly, held, that certain founds and characters had a phyfical power over fpirits, and compelled their agency; others, who condemned the practice, which in reality was furely never practifed, were of opinion, with more reason, that the power of charms arofe only from compact, and was no more than the spirits voluntary allowed them for the feduction of man. The art was held by all, though not equally criminal, yet unlawful, and therefore Cafaubon, fpeaking of one who had commerce with fpirits, blames him, though he imagines him one of the beft kind who dealt with them by way of command. Thus Profpero repents of his art in the loft fcene. The fpirits were always confidered as in fome measure enflaved to the enchanter, at least for a time, and as ferving with unwillingness, therefore Ariel fo often begs for liberty; and Caliban obferves, that the fpirits ferve Profpero with no good will, but hate him rootedly. Of thefe trifles enough. JOHNSON. Of the falt deep; To run upon the fharp wind of the north; To do me bufinefs in the veins o' the earth, When it is bak'd with frost. Ari. I do not, fir. Pro. Thou ly'ft, malignant thing! Haft thou forgot The foul witch Sycorax, who, with age, and envy, Was grown into a hoop? haft thou forgot her? Ari. No, fir. Pro. Thou haft: Where was she born? fpeak; tell me. Ari. Sir, in Argier 7. Pro. Oh, was she so? I muft, Once in a month, recount what thou hast been, Thou know'ft, was banifh'd; for one thing fhe did, Pro. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought with child, And here was left by the failors: Thou, my flave, To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands, Into a cloven pine; within which rift To run upon the Sharp wind of the north;] Sir W. Davenant and Dryden, in their alteration of this play, have made a very wanton change in the line, and read, 7 To run against, &c. STEEVENS. -in Argier.] Argier is the ancient English name for Algiers. See a pamphlet entitled, "A true Relation of the Travailes, &c. of William Davies, barber-furgeon, &c. 1614. In this is a chapter" on the defcription, &c. of Argier." STEEVENS, A dozen |