THE TEMPEST. LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE. THE supernatural agency which forms so leading a feature in this fancıful play, is built according to Mr. Warton) on the peculiar tenets of the Rosicrucian philosophy, the game of Ariel being derived from the Talmudistic mysteries with which the more learned Jews counected that science. It was one of Shakspeare's latest productions, and probably founded on some Italian novel. Warburton considers it " Jue of the noblest eitorts of his sublime and amazing imagination:" a negative species of praise, since the pleasure which it creates arises from a boundless diversity of invention, from a continued succession of supernatural occurrences, devoid of application and destitute of moral, because the end is ootained by means beyond the ordinary compass of belief, la representation it is greatly dependent on the scenery and mechanism. The language, however, is throughout most forcible, and much of the sentiment chaste and magnificent. Caliban is an original creatiou ; whimsical, monstrous, and impressive : but that meu, saved as it were by miracle from death, should immediately plot the destruction of their companions, to obtain dominions which there was no probability of their ever re-visiting, is a suggestion at varianco with nature, and inconsistent with the spirit of the piece. Johnson says of The Tempest - "In a single drama are here exhibited princes, courtiers, and sailors, all speaking in their real characters. There is the agency of airy spirits, and of an earthly goblin. The operations of magie, the tumults of a storm, the adventures of a desert island, the native effusion of untaught affection, the punishment of guilt, and the final happiness of the pair for whom our passions and reason are equally interested." DRAMATIS PERSONE. ALONSO, King of Naples. Master of a Ship, Boatswain, and Mariners. SEBASTIAN, his Brother. MIRANDA, Daughter to Prospero. IRIS, CERES, JONO, Spirits. NYMPHS, REAPERS, Other Spirits attending on PROSPERO. yarely, ACT I. Boats. I pray now, keep below. Ant. Where is the master, boatswain 1 Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our A Storm, idith Thunder and Lightning. labour! keep your cabin ; you do assist the storin. Enter a SHIP-MASTER and a BOATSWAIN. Gon. Nay, good, be patient. Mast. Boatswain, Boats. When the sea is. Hence! What care Boats. Here, master : what cheer? these roarers for the name of king? To cabin : Must. Good : Speak to the mariners : fall to't silence : trouble 11s not. or we run ourselves aground : bestir, Gon. Good ; yet remember whom thou bact bestir. (Exit. aboard. Enter MARINERS. Bouts. None that I more love than mysell. You are a counsellor; if you can command Boats. Heigh, my hearts; cheerly, cheerly, these elements to silence, and work the peace of my hearts; yare, yare : Take in the top-sail; the present, we will vot band a rope more: use Tend to the master's whistle.-- Blow, till tbou your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you burst thy wind, if room enough! have lived so long, and make yourself ready in Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, Ferdi. your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it 80 bap,-Cheerly, good hearts.--Out of our way, NAND, GONZALO, and others. (Exil. Alon. Good boatswain, have care. Where's Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow : the master ? Play the men. + metbipks, he hath no drowning mark upou bim ; • Readiiy. + Act like men his complexion is perfect gallows. Siand fast I say or our good fate, to his hanging ! make the rope of bis No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, Pro. No harm. (of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!) Re-enter BOATS WAIN. who Boats. Down with the top-mast ; yare ; lower, Art ignorant of what thou art, nought know. lower ; bring her to try with main course. [A ing cry within.] A plague upon this bowling! Of whence I am; nor that I am more better they are louder than the weather, Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell, othce. And the no greater father. Mira. More to know Pro. 'Tis time (Lays down his manile. phenious, uncharitable dog! Lie there my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes; have Boats. Work you, then. comfort. Ant. Hang, cur, bang! you whoreson, inso. The direful spectacle of the wreck, which lent noise-maker, we are less afraid to be touch'd drowned than thou art. The very virtue of compassion in thee Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning ; though I have with such provision in mine art the ship were no stronger than a nut-shell, and So safely order'd, that there is no soulas leaky as an unstanched * wench. N), not so much perdition as an hair, Boats. Lay her a-bold, a-hold ; set her two Betid to any creature in the vessel, courses; off to sea again, lay her off. Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down ; Enter MARINERS, wet. For thou must now know further. Mar. All lost! to prayers, to prayers ! all Miru. You have often lost ! [Ereunt. Begun to tell me what I am ; but stopp'd Boats. What, must our mouths be cold ? And left me to a bootless inquisition ; Gon. The king and prince at prayers ! let us Concluding, Stay, not yet.assist thein, Pro. The hour's now come ; For our case is as their's. The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; Seb. I am out of patience. Obey, and be attentive. Can'st thou remem. Ant. We are merely + cheated of our lives by ber drunkards. A time before we came unto this cell ? This wide-chapped rascal ; -'Would, thou I do not think thou can'st ; for then thou wast might'st lie drowning, not The washing of ten tides ! Out • three years old. Gon. He'll be hanged yet ; Mira. Certainly, Sir, I can. Though every drop of water swear against it, Pro. By what? by any other house, or per. And gape at wid'st to glut him. son ? (A confused noise within.] of any thing the image tell me, that Mercy on us. We split, we split ! Farewell, Hath kept with thy remembrance. my wife and children - Farewell, brother ! Mira. 'Tis far off : We split, we split, we split. And rather like a dream than an assurance Ant. Let's all sink with the king. (Erit. That my remembrance warrauts : Had I not Seb. Let's take leave of him. Erit. Four or five women once, that tended me ? Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs Pro. Thuu bad'st, and more, Miranda : But of sea, for an acre ot barren ground ; long heath, how is it, brown furze, any thing : The wills zbove bé That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou done! but I would fain die a dry death. else [Erit. In the dark backward and abysm + of time? If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st SCENE II.-The Island : before the Cell of here PROSPERO. How thoil cam'st here thou may'st. Miru. Bat that I do not. Pro. Twelve years since, Miranda, twelve Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you years since, have Thy father was the duke of Milan, and Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them : A prince of power. The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking Mira. Sir, are not you my father? pitch, Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's She said-thou wast my daughter; and tby cheek, father Dashes the fire out. Oh! I have suffer'd Was duke of Milan; and his only heir With those that I saw suffer ! a brave vessel, A princess; no worse issued. Who had no doubt some noble creatures in Mira. O the heavens ! ber, What foul play bad we, that we came from Dash'd all to pieces, Oh! the cry did knock thence? Against my very heart ! Poor sculs ! they Or blessed was't we did ? perish’d. Pro. Both, both, my girl : Had I been any god of power, I would By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er i tbelice; It should the good ship so have swallowed, But blessedly bolp bither. and Mira. O my heart bleeds The freighting souls within her. To think o' the teen that I bave turn'd you Pro. Be collected ; to, • laceutinent. + Absolucoly. • Quite. Before t Abyss. 1 Sorror, ness Which is from my remembrance! Please you of homage, and I know not how much tri. further. bute, Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd An. Should presently extirpate me and nine tonio, Out of the dukedom ; and confer fair Milan, I pray thee mark me,-that a brother should With all the honours, on my brother : Whereon, Be so perfidious-be whom, next thyself, A treacherous army levied, one midnight Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open The manage of my state; as, at that time, The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of darkThrough all the signiories it was the first, ness, And Prospero the prime duke ; being su re- The ministers for the purpose burried thence puted Me and thy crying seit. In dignity, and, for the liberal arts, Mira, Alack, for pity! Without a parallel ; those being all iny study, 1, not remeinb'ring how I cried out then, The government I cast upon my brother, Will cry it o'er again ; il is a hint, * And to my state grew stranger, being trans. That wrings mine eyes. ported, Pro. Hear a little further, And wrapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle- Aud then I'll bring thee to the present busiDost thou attend me ? Mira. Sir, most heedfully. Which now's upon us ; without the which, this Pro. Being once perfected how to grant story suits, Were most iinpertinent. How to deny them; whom to advance, and Mira. Wherefore did they not whoin That hour destroy us? To trash for over-topping : new created Pro. Weil demanded, wench ; The creatures that were mine ; I say, or chang'a My tale provokes that question. Dear, they them, durst not ; Or else new-form'd thein : having both the (So dear the love my people bore me) nor set key A mark so bloody on the business; but of officer and office, set all hearts With colours fairer painted their foul ends. To what tune pleased his ear ; that now he was In few, they burried us aboard a bark ; The ivy, which had bid my princely trunk, Bore us some leagues to sea ; where they preAnd suck'd my verdure out on't.-Thou at pared tend'st not: A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd, I pray thee, mark me. Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats Mira. O good Sir, I do. Instinctively bad quit it: there they hoist us, Pro. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedi. To cry to the sea that roar'd to us ; to sigh cate To the winds, whose pity sighing back again, To closeness, and the bettering of my mind Did us but loving wrong. With that, which, but by being so retir'd, Mira. Alack what trouble O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false bro. Was I then to you ! ther Pro. Ohl a cherubim Awak'd an evil nature : and my trust, Thou wast, that did preserve me! Thou didst Like a good parent, did beget of him smile, A falsehood, in its contrary as great Infused with a fortitude from heaven, As my trust was which had, indeed, no limit, When I have deck'd † the sea with drops full A confidence sans t bound. He being thus salt ; lorded, Under my burden groan'd; which raised in Not only with what my revenue yielded, me But what my power migbt else exact,-like An undergoing stomach, 1 to bear up one, Against what should ensue. Who, baving, unto truth, by telling of it, Mira. How came we ashore ? Madé such a sinner of his memory, Pru. By Providence divine. To credit his own lie,-he did believe Some food we had, and some fresh water, that He was the duke ; out of the substitution, A noble Neapolitan Gonzalo, And executing the outward face of royalty, Out of his charity, (who being then appointed With all prerogative ;-Hence his ambition Master of tbis desigu,) did give us ; with Growing,-Dost hear? Rich garments, linens, stuff's, and necessaries, Mira. Your tale, Sir, would cure deafness. Which since bave steaded much ; so of bis genPro. To have no screen between this part be tleness, play'd Knowing I lov'd my books, be furnish'd me, And him he play'd it for, needs he will be From my own library, with volumes that Absolute Milan : Me, poor man l-my library I prize above my dukedom. Was dukedom large enough; of temporal Mira. 'Would I might royalties But ever see that man ! He thinks me now incapable : confederates Pro. Now I arise :(8o dry I he was for sway) with the king of sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow. Naples, Here in this island we arriv'd; and here To give him annual tribute, do bim homage ; Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more Siihject bis coronet to his crown, and bend profit Tbe dukedom, yet unbow'd, (alas, poor Milan !) Than other princes can, that have more time To most ignoble stooping. For vaiver bours, and tutors not so careful. Mira. O the heavens ! Mia. Heavens thank you for't! Aud now, Pro. Mark bis coudition, and the event ; then pray you, Sir, (For still 'tis beating in my mind,) your reason If this might be a brother. For raising this sea-storm ? Mira. I should sin Pro. Know thus far forth.To think but nobly of my grandmother; By accident most strange, bountiful fortune, Good wombs have borne bad sons. (Now my dear lady) bath mine enemies Pro. Now the condition. Brought to this shore : and by my prescience This king of Naples, being an enemy I find my zenith doth depend upon telline, . Cut away. + Without. Thirsty Suggestion. 1 Stubboru resolution. † Sprinkled. Wių ever after droop.--Here cease more ques. Pro. Ariel, thy charge tions : Exactly is perform'd ; but there's more work : Thoi art inclin'd to sleep ; 'tis a good dul-What is the time o' the day 1 ness, Ari. Past the mid season. And give it way ;-I know thou canst not Pro. At least two glasses : the time 'twixt six choose. (Miranda sleeps. and uow, Come away, servant, cume : I am ready now; Must by us both be spent most preciously. Approach, my Ariel ; come. Ari. is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains, Enter ARIEL. Let me remember thee what thou bast proAri. All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I mis'd, come Which is not yet perform'd me. To answer thy best pleasure ; be't to fly, Pro. How now? inoody? To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride What is't thou canst demand ? On the curl'd clouds; to thy strong bidding Ari. My liberty. task Pro. Before the time be out? no more. Ariel, and all bis quality. Ari. I pray thee Pro. Hast tholl, spirit, Remember, I have done thee worthy service; Perform’d to point. ibe tempest that I bade Told thee no lies, made no inistakings, servid thee? Without or grudge or grumblings : thou did'st Ari. To every article. promise I boarded the king's ship ; now on the beak, To bate me a full year, Now in the waist, the deck in every cabin, Pro. Dost thou forge. Aam'd amazeinent : Sometimes I'd divide, From what a torment I did free thee? And burn in many places; on the top-masi, Ari. No. The yards, and bowsprit, wouid l dame dis Pro. Thou dost! and think'st tinctly, It much, to tread the moze of the salt deep ; Then meet, and join : Jove's lightnings, the To run upon the sharp wind of the north; precursors To do me business in the veins o'the earth, O' the dreadful thunder-claps,' more momen. When it is bah'd with frost. tary Ari. I do not, Sir. And sight-out-running were not : The fire and Pro. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou cracks forgot of sulpburous roaring, the most mighty Nep. The foul witch Sycorax, who, with age, and tune envy, Seem'd to besiege, and make bis bold waves Was grown into a boop ? hast thou forgot her ? tremble, Ari. No, Sir. Yea, his dread tridert shake. Pro. Thou hast: where was she born ? speak; Pro. My brave spirit ! tell me. Who was so tirm, so constant, that this coil + Ari. Sir, in Argier. Would not infect his reason ? Pro. Ob I was she so? I must, Ari. Not a soul Once in a month, recount what thou hast But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd been, Some tricks of desperation : All, but mariners, Which thou forget'st. This damu'd witch, Sy. Plung'd in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel. corax, Then all a fire with me : the king's son, Fer For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible dinand, To enter buman hearing, from Argier, With hair up-staring (then like reeds, not hair,) | Thou-know'st, was banish'd ; for one thing she Was the first man that leap'd : cried, Hell is did, empty, They would not take ber life: Is not this true And all the devils are here. Ari. Ay, Sir. Pro. Why, that's my spirit ? Pro. This blue-ey'd hag was hither breaght But was not this nigh shore ? with child, Ari. Close by, my master. And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my Pro. But are they, Ariel, safe? slare, Ari. Not a hair perish'd; As thou report'st thyself, wast then her ser. On their sustaining garments not a blemish, vant, But fresher than before; and, as thou bad'st And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate me, To act her eartby and abhorr'd commands, In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle : Refusing her grand bests, t, she did confine The king's son have I landed by himself; thee, Whom left cooling of the air with sighs, By help of ber more potent ministers, In an odd angle of the isle, aud sitting, And in her most unmitigable rage, His arms in this sad knot. Into a cloven pine ; within which rift Pro. Of the king's sbip, Imprison'd, thou didst painfully remain The mariners, say, how thou hast dispos'd, A dozen years; within which space she died, And all the rest o'the fleet? And left thee there ; where thou did'st vent thy Ari. Sately in harbour groans, Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where as fast as mill-wheels strike : then was this once island, Thou call’dst me up at midnight, to fetch dew (Save for the son that she did litter here, From the still vex'd Bermoothes I there she's A freckled whelp, bag-boru) not honour'd with hid : A human shape. Whom with a charm join'd to their suffer'd Ari. Yes ; Caliban her son. labour, Pro. Dull thing, I say so; he, that Calibani, Whom Thou I have left asleep : and for the rest o' the fleet, now I keep in service. est Which I dispers'd, they all have niet again; know'st And are upon the Mediterranean fote ♡ What torment I did find thee in : thy groans Bound sadly home for Naples ; Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the Supposing that they saw the king's ship breasts wreck's, of ever-angry bears; it was a torment And bis great person perish. To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax Could not again undo ; it was mine art, • The minutest article + Bustle, tumult. 1 Bermudas. 6 Wave. + Commands vile race, When I arriv'd, and heard thee, that made gape Pro. Thou most lying slave, Whom stripes may move, not kindnese : I bave Ari. I thank thee, master. us'd thee, Pro. If thou more murmur st, I will rend an Filth as thou art, with human care ; and lodg'd oak, thee And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till In mine owu cell, till thou didst seek to violate Thou hast bowl'd away twelve winters. The honour of my child. Ari. Pardon, master : Cal. O ho, o ho !-'would it had been done I will be correspondent to command, Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled clse And do my spiriting gently. This iste with Calibans. Pro. Do so ; and after two days Pro. Abhorred slave; I will discharge thee, Which any print of goodness will not take, Ari. That's my noble master ! Being capable of all ill l I pitied thee, What shall I do? say what? what shall I do. Took pains to make thee speak, taught tbec Pro. Go make thyself like to a nymph o' the each hour sca ; One thing or olber: when thou didst not, saBe subject to no sight but mine ; invisible vage, To every eye-ball else, Go, take this shape, Know thine own meaning, but would'st gabble And bither come in't : hence, with diligence. like (Exit ARIEL. A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes Awake, dear heart, awake ! thou hast slept well ; With words that made them known : But thy Awake! Mira. The strangeness of your story put Though thou didst learn, had that in't which Heaviness in me. good natures .Pro. Shake it off : come on; Could not abide to be with ; therefore wast thou We'll visit Caliban, my slave, who nev er Deservedly confin'd into this rock, Yields us kind answer. Who had'st deserv'd more than a prison. Mira. 'Tis a villain, Sir, Cal. You taught me language ; and my profit I do not love to look on. on't Pro. But, as 'tis, Is, I know how to curse : the red plague rid We cannot miss him : he does light our fire, you, Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou wert best, Cal. (Within.) There's wood enough within. To answer other business. Shrug'sc thou, maPro. Come forth, I say; there's other busi lice? ness for thee : If thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly Come forth, thou tortoise! when ? What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps; Re-enter ARIEL, like a Water. Vymph. Fill all thy bones with aches ; make thee roar, Fine apparition ! My quaint Ariel, That beasts shall tremble at thy din. Hark in thing ear. Cal. No, 'pray thee ! Ari. My lord, it shall be done. (Exit. I must obey : his art is of such power, [Aside. Pro. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil It would control my dam's god, Setebos, + himself And make a vassal of bim. Upon thy wicked dam, come forth! Pro. So, slave; hence ! [Erit Caliban. Enter CALIBAN. Re-enter ARIEL invisible, playing and sing Cal. As wicked dew as e'er my mother ing ; FERDINAND following him. brush'd With raven's feather from unwholesome fen, ARIEL's Song. Drop on you both! a south-west blow on ye, Come unto these yellow sards, And blister you all o'er ! And then take hands : Pro. For this, be sure, lo-night thou shalt have Court'sied when you have, and kiss'd, cramps, Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up ; ur ( The wild waves whist, Foot it featly here and there; chins + Shall, for that vast of night that they may And, sueet sprites, the burden bear. Hark, hark ! work, Bur. Bowgh, wowgh. (dispersodlin All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pincb'd The watch.dogs bark : As thick as honey-combs, each pinch more Bur. Bowgh, wowgb. (dispersedly. stinging Hark, hark! I hear Than bees that made them. The strain of strutting chanticleer, Cul. I must eat my dinner. This island's mine, by Sycorax my inother, Cry, Cock-u-doodle doo. Which tbou tak'st from me. When thou camest Fer. Wbere should this music be? i' the air, first, or the earth ? Thou strokd'st me, and mad'st much of me; It sounds no more :-and sure, it waits upon would'st give me Some god of the island. Sitting on a bank, Water with berries in't and teach me how Weeping again the king my father's wreck, To name the bigger light, and how the less That burn by day and night : and then I loved This music crept by me upon the waters ; Allaying botb their fury, and my passion, thee, And show'd ihee all the qualities o' the isle, With its sweet air: thence I have follow'd it, The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place,' and or it hath drawn me rather :—But 'tis gone. fertile; No, it begins again. ARIEL sings. Full fathom five thy father lies ; Which prst was mine own king: and here you Of his bones are coral made; sty me Those are pearls, that were his eyes : In this bard rock, whiles you do keep from me Nothing of him that doth fade, The rest of the island. • Destroy. + Setebos was supreme god Do without, + Fairies. of the Patagouings see Magellan's voyage. |