Profeffes to perfuade) the king, his fon's alive; Seb. I have no hope That he's undrown'd. Ant. O, out of that no hope, What great hope have you! no hope, that way, is Another way fo high an hope, that even Ambition cannot pierce + a wink beyond, But doubts discovery there. Will you grant, with me, That Ferdinand is drown'd? Seb. He's gone. Ant. Then, tell me, Who's the next heir of Naples ? Seb. Claribel. 5 Ant. She that is queen of Tunis; fhe that dwells Ten leagues beyond man's life; ' fhe that from Naples Can have no note, unless the fun were poft, (The man i' the moon's too flow) till new-born chins Be rough and razorable; fhe, from whom The meaning may be-He is a mere rhetorician, one who profeffes the art of perfuafion, and nothing elfe; i. e. he profeffes to perfuade another to believe that of which he himself is not convinced he is content to be plaufible, and has no further aim. The construction from which I draw this fenfe, is undoubtedly harsh; but in a writer like Shakespeare, all that is perplexed and irregular is not to be regarded as a corruption of the text. : STEEVENS. a wink beyond,] That this is the utmost extent of the profpect of ambition, the point where the eye can pafs no farther, and where objects lose their distinctnefs, fo that what is there difcovered, is faint, obfcure, and doubtful. JOHNSON. S -fee that from Naples Can have no note, &c.] Shakespeare's great ignorance of geography is not more confpicuous in any inftance than in this, where he fuppofes Tunis and Naples to have been at fuch an immeafurable distance from each other. He may however be countenanced by Apollonius Rhodius, who fays, that both the Rhon and Po meet in one, and difcharge themselves into the gulph of Venice; and by Ejbylus, who has placed the river Eridanus in Spain. STEEVENS. We 6 We were all fea-swallow'd, though fome cast again; Seb. What ftuff is this?-How fay you? 'Tis true, my brother's daughter's queen of Tunis; So is the heir of Naples; 'twixt which regions. There is fome fpace. Ant. A fpace, whose every cubit · Seems to cry out, How fhall that Claribel Meafure us back to Naples?— Keep in Tunis, Thefe lines ftand in the old edition thus: And, by that deftiny, to perform an act, The reading in the latter editions is without authority, The old text may very well ftand, except that in the last line in fhould be is, and perhaps we might better fay—and that by destiny. It being a common plea of wickedness to call temptation destiny. JOHNSON. It should be remembered, that caft is here ufed in the fame fenfe as in Macbeth, act II. fc. iii. “ though he took my 66 legs from me, I made a fhift to caft him," The modern editors published, Is yours and my difcharge. I think we may fafely retain the old reading in the last hemistich, what is yet to come, In yours and my difcharge. i. c. Depends on what you and I are to perform. STEEVENS. 7 8 deftiny.] I fhould prefer deftin'd. MUSGRAVE. Keep in Tunis.] There is in this paffage a propriety loft, which a flight alteration will restore: -Sleep in Tunis, And let Sebaftian wake! JOHNSON, The old reading is fufficiently explicable. Claribel, (fays he) keep where thou art, and allow Sebaftian time to awaken thofe fenfes, by the help of which he may perceive the advantage which now prefents itself. STEEVENS, As amply, and unneceffarily, As this Gonzalo; I myself could make A chough of as deep chat. O, that you bore Ant.. And how does your content Seb. I remember, You did fupplant your brother Profpero. And, look, how well my garments fit upon me; Ant. Ay, fir; where lies that? if it were a kybe, 'Twould put me to my flipper; But I feel not This deity in my bofom: twenty consciences, That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candy'd be they, 1 And melt, e'er they moleft. Here lies your brother, No better than the earth he lies upon, I If he were that which now he's like, that's dead'; 9 A chough is a bird of the jack-daw kind. STEEVENS. And melt e'er they moleft.] I had rather read, Would melt e'er they moleft. i. e. Twenty confciences, fuch as ftand between me and my hopes, though they were congealed, would melt before they could moleft one, or prevent the execution of my purpofes. JOHNSON. The old copy reads-And melt, which is as intelligible as or, which was fubftituted in its place.-Let twenty confciences be first congealed, and then diffolved, ere, &c. MALONE. In the later editions, thefe lines are thus arranged: Ay, fir, where lyes that? If 'twere a hybe, 'twould put me to my flipper: But I feel not this deity in my bofom. Ten confciences, that ftand 'twixt me and Milan, This modern reading was quite arbitrary, as appears by the ne ceffity of changing twenty to ten. 2 —that's dead;] i, e. that is, STEEVENS. id eft. STEEVENS. Whom Whom I with this obedient fteel, three inches of it, This ancient morfel, this fir Prudence, who Seb. Thy cafe, dear friend, Shall be my precedent; as thou got'ft Milan, Ant. Draw together: And when I rear my hand, do you the like To fall it on Gonzalo. Seb. O, but one word. [They converfe apart. Enter Ariel, with mufick and fong. Ari. My mafter through his art forefees the danger, That you, his friend, are in; and fends me forth (For elfe his project dies) to keep them living. 6 [Sings in Gonzalo's ear. 3 for aye]-i. e. for ever. So in K. Lear, I am come While "To bid my king and mafter aye good night." STEEVENS. This ancient morfel,-] For morfel Dr. Warburton reads ancient moral, very elegantly and judiciously, yet I know not whether the author might not write morfel, as we fay a piece of a man. JOHNSON. So in Hamlet, What, is Horatio there? A piece of him. Again in Meafure for Measure, "How doth my dear morfel; thy miftrefs?" In Coriolanus, Hence you fragments. So in Ant. and Cleopatra, 66 ·As a morfell cold STEEVENS. "Upon dead Cæfar's trencher." MALONE. 5 take fuggeftion,-] i. e. Receive any hint of villainy. 6 JOHNSON, to keep them living.] i. e. Alonfo and Anthonio; for it was on their lives that his project depended. Yet the Oxford E 3 Editor While you here do fnoring lie, His time doth take: If of life you keep a care, Shake off lumber, and beware: Ant. Then let us both be fudden. Gon. Now, good angels, preferve the king! [They wake. Alon. Why, how now, ho! awake? Why are you 7 drawn ?. Wherefore this ghaftly looking? Gon. What's the matter? Seb. Whiles we ftood here fecuring your repofe, Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing Like bulls, or rather lions; did it not wake you? It ftrook mine ear moft terribly. Alon. I heard nothing. Ant. O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear; To make an earthquake! fure, it was the roar Of a whole herd of lions. Alon. Heard you this, Gonzalo ? Gon. Upon my honour, fir, I heard a humming, Editor alters them to you, because in the verfe before, it is faid -you his friend; as if, because Ariel was fent forth to fave his friend, he could not have another purpose in fending him, viz. to fave his project too. WARBURTON. I think Dr. Warburton and the Oxford Editor both mistaken, The fenfe of the paffage, as it now ftands, is this: He fees your danger, and will therefore fave them. Dr. Warburton has mistaken Anthonio for Gonzalo. Ariel would certainly not tell Gonzalo, that his mafter faved him only for his project. He fpeaks to himfelf as he approaches, My mafter through his art forefees the danger That thefe his friends are in. Thefe written with a y, according to the old practice, did not much differ from you. JOHNSON. 7 -drawn?] Having your fwords drawn. So in Romeo end Juliet: "What art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?" JOHNSON. And |